NO. NEXT QUESTION?

Today's demonstration that there's no common sense at Common Dreams comes from Stephen Zunes.  "Can Biden Learn From 1968 Before It’s Too Late?"  For purposes of this post let us understand that it is not Biden learning, rather it is his puppet masters.  The premise of Mr Zunes's column, though, is amusing.  "In order to get the necessary turnout among young people, minorities, and progressives to prevent a Republican victory in November, the Biden administration needs to change its policies, and soon."  I don't know that the parallel works: in 1968 Hubert Humphrey, Richard Nixon, and George Wallace all were pretty clear on where they stood on things, and nobody tried the conjuring trick of running Dementia Joe as some sort of not-quite-crazy Democrat until you looked at the platform, but who ever pays attention to party platforms?  Perhaps we should have.  "Dementia Joe is trapped.  His Justice Department is still holding people who trespassed in and disrupted day-to-day political activities in the Federal Capitol: should he shout out a Right on! to people occupying landmark buildings at Columbia or UCLA, the Trump ads would write themselves."

Count Mr Zunes, though, among those who would like that Right on!

Biden’s policies are particularly damaging with core constituencies, such as Arab Americans, who compose a large enough percentage of the voting population to affect the outcomes in swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Virginia. Close to 60% of Arab Americans supported Biden in 2020 while only around one-third supported Donald Trump. This year, a recent poll of Arab American voters in those swing states shows that, as a result of the war in Gaza, Biden’s support has dropped to only 20%.

Other minorities in the Democratic coalition are becoming alienated as well, with growing evidence that support for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza by Biden and congressional Democrats could negatively impact electoral support among Black and Latinx supporters.

Perhaps the most dramatic shift is among the country’s diverse base of 2.5 million Muslim voters, 86% of whom supported Biden in 2020. That support has now dropped to 36%.

On the other hand, if those swing voters who thought Dementia Joe was a safe choice in 2020 are prepared to be fooled again, wouldn't now be the right time to recognize the voters who aren't fans of the eternal protests?  Nixonian, says Mr Zunes.  No, seriously.

Using Nixon’s playbook, Biden has tried to depict the anti-war movement by its most extreme elements. In his nationwide address on May 2, Biden reiterated the right to peaceful protest, but implied that the majority of protesters were engaged in such practices as “threatening people, intimidating people, [and] instilling fear in people” as well as “vandalism, trespassing, [and] breaking windows”—in spite of the fact that such incidents have been extremely rare among the more than 130 encampments that sprung up in colleges and universities across the country. Biden even blamed demonstrators for “forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations” even though these were decisions made by school administrators and were not being advocated for by the protesters.

"Such incidents have been extremely rare" must be this campaign season's version of "fiery but mostly peaceful."  But the groundlings rage, and their pied pipers must lead them.

As a result, for many young Americans, this election has gone well beyond Israel and Palestine. They see it as a question of democracy—showing that Democrats are not only willing to ignore the vast majority of their constituents in pursuing what they see as a fundamentally immoral policy of aiding and abetting a far-right government engaging in war crimes on a massive scale, but also attacking international legal institutions and human rights organizations seeking accountability, supporting corporate interests profiting from an illegal war and occupation, and actively suppressing dissent.

In order to get the necessary turnout among young people, minorities, and progressives to prevent a Republican victory in November, pointing out how Trump would pursue even worse policies in regard to Israel and Palestine—and how his election would threaten American democracy itself—is not enough. The Biden administration needs to change its policies, and soon.

That's what happens when an unprincipled politician has presidential power.  Sooner or later his lack of principles will bite him in the butt.  If the so-called international legal institutions and the self-styled progressives are collateral damage, that might not be all bad, either.