Democratic Staffers Told To Let Constant Calls For Cease-Fire ‘Go To Voicemail’

Let's see how the strategy of ignoring calls from your base a year before a contested election that your opponent polls higher in key states works out for them. It feels like the DNC is trying to lose in 2024 right now.

Congressional staff say the mood inside the Capitol is tense, stifling and bewildering as members brush off their constituents’ outrage.

Why would this be any different than every other issue about which they're ignoring their constituents?

On the one hand, congressmen know that if they don't back Israel unconditionally, they will be accused of being antisemitic, in league with Nazis.

On the other hand, Israel routinely violates human rights, it conducts an apartheid regime in the West Bank, it sponsors settlers whose actions clearly violate international law, and its conduct in Gaza looks more like genocide than it doesn't. And it does all of that with US backing, despite US law forbidding the US from giving military aid to countries that ...violate human rights.

So, if you recognize any of that, you're a Nazi?

It's so frustrating to know that our elected leaders are made to not recognize actual human rights violations, for fear of being accused of antisemitism even though Israel's government is not the same thing as the Jewish people.

My social media is full of Jews pointing out that Israel's actions goes against their faith, that they experience pain and shame knowing that Israel claims to do them in the name of Judaism.

Just once I wish American congresspeople had it in them to exhibit anything like moral courage.

Oh no, they're inconvenienced by people telling the U.S. not to support the bombing of civilians in Gaza. How terrible...

You know how many people actually complained about Janet Jackson's boob reveal at the Superbowl?

25

It's just that they each called 1,000 times.

Does anyone actually believe contacting representatives matters?

If it did, why would they take bribes?

I'm pretty sure Israel is calling in all the favors for supporting our gallavant through the Middle East in the name of revenge.

Just one more little reminder that American democracy is an illusion and the choice that most of us get is as meaningful as "coke vs Pepsi".

Who are you supposed to vote for if you are against sponsoring genocide?

The Democrats think that supporting genocide will still leave them with enough daylight between them and the actual fascists of the GOP, but it isn't going to make people run to the polls on election night and Americans deserve an actual choice.

I'm not sure how my idea will come across but here goes.

This Gaza conflict is complicated as F. I think most people agree with that.

Pretty much everyone that's touched it has blood on their hands by this point. And everyone in the fallout has been hurt in some immeasurably painful way.

The US involvement multiples the complexity because there is evidently a proxy between Hamas and Iran, and the US is already in opposition to Iran in other ways.

The US is also in the position of throwing its weight around in many other conflicts at the moment.

Diplomatically, this US is walking a thin line all over the place between needing to show strength vs compassion. Using negotiating finesse vs being strong fisted.

Inside the US, our representatives ideally can think for themselves, but as a party they hopefully work as a team to represent the American best interests, vis a vis "the people." Specifically, I mean the people don't always know what they want or how to get there, nor do they educate themselves as a whole about every issue at play. Not to mention that international diplomacy issues are very often not shared with the public.

So, yes, the average human with a functioning soul wants to see a ceasefire yesterday. But what if there is something else at play that we don't know about, which justifies not pressuring Israel to stop?

Why should they be expected to have the manpower to answer every single one? A voicemail gets the message across perfectly fine.

Is it because the Biden admin already got Israel to agree to daily humanitarian pauses?

Why don't they just let the average uninformed and outraged voter set international policy, or answer the phone and calmly explain to them why they're wrong and go over the realpolitik intricacies of this conflict?

If discussing this matter on Lemmy has taught me anything. It's that some people are outraged, partisan, and cannot be reasoned with. It's no wonder they're letting it go to voicemail.