Earlier this morning, I expressed my frustration with undecided voters in a race where the contrast between candidates is so stark. So, I was rather bemused to see the eminent legal scholar turned crackpot Alan Dershowitz take to the op-ed pages of the WSJ to ask, “Will I Have to Vote for Donald Trump?“
I’ve been a loyal Democrat since before I was old enough to vote—until last month, when the party’s convention in Chicago convinced me it had become too radical, particularly when it comes to Israel. I’m not a Republican, and I don’t want to vote for Donald Trump given his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, his personal attacks on patriots such as John McCain, and his threats to retaliate in kind for being prosecuted. The vice president will have to earn my vote. Here’s how she can:
• Publicly repudiate the claim by some fellow Democrats that Israel is engaged in genocide in Gaza. In the debate Tuesday, Ms. Harris gave her standard response to the question about the conflict: Israel has a right to defend itself but has killed too many civilians. She didn’t blame Hamas for using civilians as human shields. She affirmed that “I will always give Israel the ability to defend itself,” but she needs to state unequivocally that she won’t cut off or condition the military aid Israel needs in its legitimate efforts to counter the threats posed by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran.
• State unambiguously that she will never allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. That entails a willingness to take all steps, including military, to prevent such a threat to Israel and the U.S. All previous administrations, including Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s, have made that promise.
• Stop pandering to anti-Israel extremists. Ms. Harris should offer a plan for protecting the civil rights of Jewish and pro-Israel students at universities that receive federal funding. She should show that she rejects the views of protesters who chant slogans like “From the river to the sea”—something Tim Walz failed to do when he said in a radio interview: “I think those folks who are speaking out loudly in Michigan are speaking out for all the right reasons.”
A lot of prominent older (he’s 86) liberals have moved away from the Democratic Party in recent years on the ostensible grounds it has become too extreme on social issues, notably trans rights and policing. But Derschowitz seems to be fixated almost entirely on our policies toward Israel.
I don’t have a strong sense of where Harris stands on these issues. That’s not a criticism. She’s in the awkward position of simultaneously running to be the Commander-in-Chief and serving as Joe Biden’s loyal understudy. She can’t easily separate herself from his policies.
She is trying to walk a tightrope: simultaneously condemning Hamas’s horrific attack of October 7, proclaiming Israel’s right to defend itself, and expressing concern for innocent Palestinians being slaughtered in the war. That happens to be exactly where my sentiments are. But turning those sentiments into practical public policy is a challenge, indeed.
But Derschowitz then pivots to more generic whinging about ideology.
More generally, Ms. Harris should push her party back toward its traditional liberal center and away from the illiberal left represented by such figures as Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. She said recently that she would put a Republican in her cabinet. It’s more important that she favor centrist members of her own party over the extreme wing.
Ms. Harris has an opportunity to help her party, our country and her electoral prospects by moving away from the extremist views she espoused when she ran for the 2020 nomination. She must persuade voters she is sincere.
As I noted in the above-linked post, I, too, am unsure where Harris is now compared to 2019. That’s clearly by design and, so long as she can get away with it, likely a shrewd choice on her part. Right now, moderates can tell themselves that she represents a second Biden term and progressives can tell themselves she’s really one of them.
Here, though, Derschowitz loses me:
American voters tend to be centrist, moderate and balanced. They reject extremes on all sides, including the strains that have recently influenced both parties. The party that makes clear to voters its determination to move back to the center will have an excellent chance of gaining the support of undecided and independent voters like me.
So far, Mr. Trump seems to understand this better than Ms. Harris does. He has moved his party toward the center on abortion, gay rights and foreign policy (though her views on abortion are closer to my own). He better reflects the views of American voters like me on Israel. I still don’t want to vote for him. I hope Ms. Harris doesn’t leave me without a choice.
For fuck’s sake, man. There has never been a more extremist major party nominee for President than Donald Trump. He repeatedly spouts eliminationist rhetoric. But, hey, he moved the embassy to Jerusalem so I guess that makes up for it?
