If you believe that an American president has the blood of children who look like yours on his hands, how could you vote for him?
Organized by Arab American political activists, the group Listen to Michigan is asking voters who object to President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war – who view Biden as culpable in the deaths of nearly 30,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry – to choose “uncommitted” on Tuesday's Democratic presidential primary ballot.
Among Arab American voters I’ve talked to, there’s pain and betrayal, white-hot rage and a powerful aversion to casting a ballot for Biden, even if that hastens a second Trump presidency, even though no one I talked to believes that would be better for Arab Americans, or for Gaza.
And that’s the problem with the vote uncommitted strategy. If it works, it’s a demonstration of electoral power. But what happens next?
Biden, do the right thing.Push Israel and Netanyahu hard now for a cease-fire in Gaza.
If you didn’t know voting uncommitted was an option, that’s OK. I’ve covered politics for 20 years and voted in every presidential election since 1996, and I didn’t realize uncommitted was a thing until this month.
And yet about 20,000 voters in each party have chosen “uncommitted” in most recent Michigan presidential primaries, in which voters are casting ballots not to elect a candidate, but to apportion delegates.
Abbas Alawieh, spokesman for Listen to Michigan, is hoping at least 11,000 additional voters will check........