Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib defeated her Republican opponent in Michigan's 12th congressional district election on Tuesday, securing a fourth term as the only Palestinian-American woman in the US Congress.
The Associated Press called the race with just 18 percent of the votes counted.
Tlaib secured 77 percent of the vote, defeating the Republican Party's James Hooper who received just 19 percent of the vote.
Her victory comes amid the backdrop of Israel's war on Gaza, which has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians so far and has been diplomatically and militarily supported by the Biden-Harris administration for more than a year.
Tlaib has been a vocal critic of the war, calling for the US to withhold weapons from Israel. Her opposition to the war on Gaza and support for pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses have drawn harsh criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.
This makes me glad. I obviously wasn't hoping for much from this election to begin with, but I've been finding a lot of silver-linings since the news started coming in. Shout out to Nebraska ~~and Florida~~ for their cannabis legalization ballot measures.
Florida's cannabis legalization ballot measure failed...
And thanks in part to Michigan voters, we have a president who will fuck over Gaza even more. Great success.
Trump was declared a winner before Michigan had a called winner for president.
Yes? I'm not saying Michigan handed him the election, I'm saying protest votes and no-votes played a big role. We're fucked due in part to people who say "ooh that will show the DNC"
The DNC knew it already. They'd rather sink the ship than cede party positions to the people.
The only hope Gaza ever had was the Axis of Resistance, no matter who won they were facing annihilation and forced displacement. North Gaza is the blueprint for the rest of the Strip. Only if Israel is defeated can Palestine be free.
Why not blame Democrats for not meeting voters where they are?
I mean, I do? Trump massively outperformed Harris in swing states, so clearly Harris's campaign wasn't able to meet swing state voters where they are. Literally, these were the only people who matter in the US election under the current rules (sadly). Of course Harris swung right, and of course it didn't work well enough, but not doing it would have been worse...
I hate politics as much as the next person, but god damn. Recognize the game is what it is, play it as necessary, and then move the needle where you can. Sheesh.
Maybe the ossue was Democrats trying to appeal to Republican voters, who would rather vote for Republicans and get everything they want instead of only some of what they want.
In many elections, that would make sense. But in this election, there was a sizeable group of Nikki Haley Republicans up for grabs, who clearly didn't want to vote Trump if they could get an alternative. Is there a group of leftists who may have turned out in larger numbers if Harris had swung left? Yeah, maybe. But is that group anywhere near as large as the Haley Republicans, and are they present in swing states? No and no.
Clearly that failed, and will continue to fail. There is no sich thing as a never Trump Republican because he gives conservatives everything they want. Democrats will continue to lose until they vreak away from Regan style neoliberalism. They need to start offering actual solutions that benefit workers like universal healthcare, returns to pension plans, and housing reforms.
But how will they get that superPAC money then?
And so the voter blaming begins.
The voters are absolutely responsible for putting Trump into power. Anyone who facilitated that is fully responsible for whatever happens over the next four years.
Democrats are responsible for winning over voters.
The voters they kicked out at the DNC to make room in their big tent for the Bush administration, AIPAC all their corporate donors.
Ask those donors why they did not vote for Harris hard enough. Or the Republicans she was wooing over with Liz Cheney.
One Cheney convert in a swing state is worth a dozen liberals like me in California lol. Swinging right is the rational political move for the leftmost candidate. Swinging left is the rational political move for the rightmost candidate, which is why we saw Trump clumsily try to soften his stance on abortion.
How many times do you have to be confronted with the absolute, abject failure of that strategy before you start to question it?
Which is why the Democrats massively won every swing state.
A few people in Michigan were not swayed by Liz Cheney. And the Democrats did not want them on stage at the DNC. Alas. Democrats clearly did not need those votes to achieve victory.
Look, it's such an exhausting night, and I really do believe that you want to see a better world. I do too.
I'm just so shattered that we're looking at four years of chipping away at the rights of women, LGBT, and transgender people. Four years of degrading all the checks and balances against the president. Four years of political retaliations going unchecked. Four years of aggressive anti-climate policy, inhumane border policy, and pandering to a Russia (and now North Korea!) that is also slaughtering innocents in Ukraine. Four years of middle east policy that is at least as bad as Biden/Harris's, but likely far worse. And four years of slamming our economy with tariffs to "own the Chinese" I guess.
A vote for Harris was a vote to make things better. Not everything. Good lord she wasn't the answer to so many major issues facing the US and the world. But it was an objectively better vote, by every metric, than a vote for Trump, or a no-vote. I just can't argue any more on that.
No. It wasn't.
A vote for Harris was to continue the slide towards fascism and bringing genocide home.
Trump was that, but faster.
Harris' far right campaign is clearly not what people want.
Doesn't change what I said, though. Trump won because the average voter wants fascism.
Unless you are willing to criticize the Democrats they will not change this losing strategy. Admit they ran an awful campaign and push them to run on good policies next time.
I am willing to criticize the Democrats. There's a lot I would have done differently.
But Jesus himself could descend from heaven preaching love for mankind and the American people would still vote for Trump instead.
The average American voter wants fascism, it's as simple as that.
Comparing Kamala Harris to Jesus while she is facilitating a genocide... Really shows how much of a cult the Democratic party has become.
That's a misreading of analogy.
Let me put it this way. I am a leftist. I believe strongly in fielding more left-leaning candidates. However, I accept I am the political minority. A leftist administration could be the exact thing needed to fix everything that is wrong with the United States, but they would never win an election because the support just isn't there.
Americans don't want leftists, fascism is an easier sell.
Bernie was winning in 2016.... Until the Democratic party turned against him in the primaries.
The American people want a progressive. The DNC would rather have Trump.
He was winning in 2020 too and everybody panicked and GAVE their fucking delegates to Biden lmao. All that for the most milquetoast social democrat, imagine if it was a real socialist.
Bernie lost the primary. I am in a solidly blue state and Clinton won it by a large margin. If he couldn't even get enough progressive votes to win the primary, he'd never have won in the general.
This isn't correct political reasoning. Primary voters ARE NOT general voters. As an aside, the primary is just a fiction the major parties use to give their candidates legitmacy. The outcome of a primary doesn't matter what-so-ever and the candidate could get zero votes from people like me or you and still legally be on the ballot. For example, Harris.
Bernie lost the primary because the DNC conspired against him https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/23/487179496/leaked-democratic-party-emails-show-members-tried-to-undercut-sanders
The leaked emails are not the smoking gun you think it is. Plenty of people in the GOP "conspired" against Trump too, but now he's on his way to the White House. Twice.
The voters in 2016 knew what Bernie was about. That's why I and many others voted for him. But it doesn't change the fact that he didn't win.
One could argue that, with the electoral college as rigged as it is, the states that would be written off in the general election shouldn't be considered, but he lost to Clinton in most swing states, too.
No wonder the US is so fucked if half the voters are deluded like this and the other half might as well be living in a third reich film
motherfucker you voted for fascism as well
Anybody who failed to vote Harris shares the blame, it's fairly obvious lol
For them to accept this they would have to value their principled fantasies less than the fascist reality they have enabled.
Vote for me or everything is your fault!
Okay, make yourself more appealing to vote for.
NO.
Watch an episode of DS9 maybe? Sisko is the literal embodiment of a person who is willing to make the tough choice that he personally finds unethical, but knows will be better for the world as a whole.
Like supporting genocide for a hegemonic empire? Again, that's Weyoun, even his rhetorics about "tough choice for greater good" is neraly the same as yours, Weyoun.
Enjoy your fascist dictator then
Short of putting boots on the ground or dropping a nuke there is no way to "fuck over Gaza even more."
Things can always get worse.
Correct, even under Biden and Harris.
The one thing I've learned from experience w/ Donald Trump is that he finds a way to make things worse.
That's a very broad statement that I can't argue with because I have no intention to defend Donald Trump. Wiith that in mind I imagine anything he does to Gaza is just in line with what Biden or Harris would have also done but probably dumber. They had over a year to make us believe otherwise.
So then the logic here is "vote for a candidate who is at least as bad for Gaza, but will also fuck up the rest of the world". Or "don't vote for the candidate who will be obviously less damaging for the rest of the world, even though my action won't help Gaza at all".
Even if you assume Harris would have been just as bad for Gaza... I mean it's patently clear that the only choice is to vote for the lesser of two evils and then raise hell that you need better policies from them.
Voting for a lesser evil is still being complicit in some degree of evil.
The collapse of America would be less damaging for the rest of the world than its continued existence.
The only potential silver lining is the end of the American Empire. They already pushed BRICS into dedollarisation, and another 4 years of Trump will hopefully cause the EU to finally go their own way too.
Then again, this was already going to happen anyway and I would've rather seen someone sane manage this decline instead of Trump.
Trump will accelerate so many collapsing elements of the empire. NATO is fucked lol