The world, we’re informed, is on the eve of witnessing probably the most consequential US presidential election since witnessing the final most consequential US presidential election.
The hyperbole has a well-known ring as a result of the so-called “stakes” have a well-known ring.
Anybody with even a passing understanding of American historical past is aware of that presidential elections have at all times been solid as a binary alternative between the previous and future, prosperity and decay, peace and struggle, and, these days, democracy and authoritarianism.
The parable that girds these “decisions” is that American voters have a alternative in any respect; that the 2 dominant political events are, save the glib edges, ideological adversaries when, on, say, pressing issues of struggle and peace, they continue to be steadfast soulmates to the core.
The billionaire oligarchs who run the entire decrepit present in America know that “democracy” is a candy phantasm meant to persuade the gullible that social gathering 1 is completely different from social gathering 1a.
That’s the cussed conundrum confronting Arab and Muslim American voters: The leaders of social gathering 1 and social gathering 1a have, on the defining challenge of those terrible instances, promoted and defended a blatant genocide in Gaza and the occupied West Financial institution.
So, who to decide on or whether or not to decide on in any respect?
Bear in mind, there is no such thing as a “daylight” on this cowardly, abominable rating between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Each have performed keen and enthusiastic handmaidens to their indicted darling within the Center East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Each have backed each sickening measure of the state-engineered atrocities which have killed greater than 43,000 (and counting) largely Palestinian kids and ladies – the carpet bombing, the deliberate hunger, the denial of medical care, the unfold of illness, the pressured marches, and on and on and on.
Each refuse, in fact, to make use of the quick, sharp phrase “genocide” to explain – not as a rhetorical cudgel, however as a matter of worldwide legislation – the crimes being dedicated by an apartheid state in Gaza and the West Financial institution.
Each consider unquestionably that Israel has absolutely the “proper to defend itself” regardless of the continued “extermination” of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Financial institution.
And when their fellow residents took to the streets and college campuses to demand a cease to the wholesale killing and apocalyptic destruction, Democrats and Republicans dismissed these enlightened People as “terrorist” sympathisers and applauded the draconian efforts by highly effective, entrenched pursuits to silence the “protesters” by way of power, threats, and intimidation.
However, as election day approaches, fretting Democrats and their compliant allies – among the many “progressive” cognoscenti within the mainstream media ecosystem – have grown ever extra nervous.
Their palpable nervousness has been on puffing show on forgettable cable TV programmes and in forgettable on-line columns meant to reassure each other that every little thing will end up all proper.
Alas, for the forlorn, a spate of nationwide and state polls – if they’re correct – reveal a deadlocked race for the White Home. In some “swing” states with could-possibly-tip-the-scales-sized Arab and Muslim populations, Trump seems to be edging forward.
The prospect that America might quickly elect a fascist as commander-in-chief is registering with Kamala Harris and obedient firm within the Democratic Social gathering institution and past.
Oh heavens, what we could do?
“Outreach.” Sure, “outreach”.
“Outreach” is a euphemism for pretending to “hearken to” Arab and Muslim voters when, all alongside, Harris et al have ignored a grieving neighborhood that the Democratic nominee for president all of a sudden thinks she will be able to mollify with meaningless bromides.
“We’re working night time and day to rearrange a ceasefire in Gaza,” Harris retains repeating like a wind-up metronome.
Positive, you might be. The obscene “information on the bottom” affirm that your peace-making pleas are a hole, cynical pantomime.
When “outreach” doesn’t work, Harris and the “progressive” wailing heads have resorted, in impact, to blackmail.
Arab and Muslim People can be accountable, they are saying, for electing a Muslim-banning autocrat in the event that they solid a “protest vote” in opposition to the highest of the Democratic ticket.
Aside from being an outrageous affront, blackmail isn’t a convincing technique.
That is my recommendation to the Arab and Muslim American voters in essential bellwether states like Michigan: Don’t hearken to craven politicians and journalists who, in lockstep with the leaders of social gathering 1 and social gathering 1a, have granted Israel the uncontested licence to kill as many Palestinians because it desires to, for as lengthy it desires to, for no matter motive it desires to.
To the uncommitted motion, I urge you to stay uncommitted in guise and spirit.
Don’t be dissuaded from remaining trustworthy to your conscience by the appeals of charlatans who consider that Palestinian lives are low cost and disposable.
Don’t reward the charlatans who consider that Palestinian lives are low cost and disposable by heeding their specious recommendation and selecting between disingenuous chief 1 and disingenuous chief 1a.
Don’t be swayed by the predictable secure of apologists who declare that electing Trump would solely make issues “worse” for Arab and Muslim People.
Muslim and Arab People have, for generations, been seen as fifth columnists who pose an existential risk to America. You can’t be trusted. You stay “outsiders”.
Accordingly, you might have been handled with disdain. You’ve been jailed or blacklisted for talking out. Your loyalty has been questioned. You’ve been routinely taken without any consideration.
You might be anticipated to behave. You might be supposed to stay invisible and mute.
Don’t oblige the charlatans. I implore you, as an alternative, to train your company by depriving chief 1 and chief 1a of what they worth most – place and energy.
Once more, to the uncommitted motion, I urge you to stay uncommitted. Decency and historical past demand that, collectively, you shout: “Sufficient.”
It’s the proper and simply factor to do. Choosing chief 1 or chief 1a is a vote – whether or not you’re ready to confess it or not – for the co-architects of the genocide that has turned Gaza into mud and reminiscence.
You’ll not be accountable if Trump prevails.
That would be the unique fault of tens of millions of illiberal People who, within the lengthy, sordid American custom, contemplate cruelty and ignorance to be guiding governing ideas.
Nevertheless arduous, you survived 4 years of Donald Trump earlier than. If want be, you’ll survive him as soon as extra.
If this odious election marketing campaign has confirmed something, it’s this: America isn’t a shining “metropolis upon a hill”. It’s a decomposing fiction within the gutter.
Take the lengthy view. If Arab and Muslim People are lastly to be seen and heard by leaders 1 and 1a, you need to make an honourable stand now as a tangible expression of self-respect and constancy to the horrendous plight of your Palestinian brothers and sisters.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
