He’s been coached that he’s neck and neck with Trump in the polls.
Centrist democratic old people are NOT following the human suffering in Gaza, their media sources have all taken a VERY pro Israel bent. He can’t lose them by seeming to go “too woke.” So his strategists have told him to be very conservative on the Gaza situation. He needs the centerist old people to win the swing states, no the leftists.
The progressives who REALLY HATE his stance on this are going to vote for him next year no matter WHAT he does with this situation, because the alternative is four more years of Trump.
He might lose a few far leftists who WOULD have voted for him, but this pissed them off too much. But he doesn’t think he needs them as much as he needs the centrist old people in the swing states (he’s sadly probably right, FUCK First Past The Post and FUCK the Electoral Collage).
And he WILL lose some of those centrist old people to Trump (or more likely to staying home) if he doesn’t come across as a Pro Israel Hawk on this issue. Many of them are waffling back and forth…
They’re like “Trump was bad, but this Biden guy also sucks…(for the opposite reasons YOU think he sucks, those are the things we LIKE about him).”
You’re like “Compared to Trump? Really?? Do you remember how shitty Trump was?”
And they’re like, “Yeah, Trump is terrible, but according to my old people news, Biden is really terrible too and I support Israel because I remember the fucking 70s and I’m Islamophobic as fuck and Nancy from my church says it’s all Biblical prophesy anyway and you remember the Eccelstines, right? THEY’RE Jewish and I was talking with Linda at yoga about how bad the terrorism problem is…”
Source:
I’m surrounded by this divide. My liberal ass white bread suburb is a sign warzone right now. People have signs that are a mix of the Israeli flag and the American flag weeping blood (no really, that’s a block away from me on someone’s fence). Other people have “Shame on Israel signs.” We just elected a 100% Democrat city council. The big local political conflict is between the NIMBYs and the “Let’s do something that actually might WORK to address the homeless problem.” The NIMBYs dominated, just like they did last year. I’m going to let you guess where the generational, income and racial gaps are on that issue… and the Israel debate is (mostly) along EXACTLY the same demographic lines.
