Republicans are using a narrative of chaos and ‘philosophical divisions on Israel’ among Democrats to sink Biden’s campaign

Republicans are using a narrative of chaos and ‘philosophical divisions on Israel’ among Democrats to sink Biden’s campaign

Republicans have identified recent college protests against Israel’s war in Gaza as the core of an election campaign narrative of chaos that they hope can be used to sink Joe Biden’s presidency.

The approach was bluntly crystallised by Tom Cotton, the Republican senator Arkansas, in a recent television interview when he mocked the encampments that have sprung up in recent weeks as “little Gazas” and lambasted the president for a perceived failure to unequivocally denounce instances of antisemitism.

  • rayyy@lemmy.world
    553·
    6 months ago

    So what’s new? The right inserted provocateurs into BLM demonstrations to create violence and bad press. This time their provocateurs prime aim is to alienate Biden voters. It is so easy to lead people.

    • FenrirIII@lemmy.world
      3617·
      6 months ago

      Just look at Lemmy. There’s tons of anti-Biden posters who twist everything with misinformation and deception

      • Tinidril@midwest.socialEnglish
        303·
        6 months ago

        That’s what happens when the establishment uses their stranglehold over mainstream media to strong arm a primary. The right wing is going to right wing, and misinformation is their whole game. Democrats can learn to be a party that can win in that environment, or they can let institutional inertia destroy the country. They seem to be leaning to the latter.

      • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
        299·
        6 months ago

        Yup. They’re using the same voter disengagement strategies that Republicans have used for decades. It’s never about how great Trump is. It’s always about how you should just stay home in November because Biden sucks too.

        Abstaining from voting will lead to Trump’s second term. Inaction is action.

        Edit: The downvotes without rebuttal are proof of this statement.

        • Passerby6497@lemmy.worldEnglish
          21·
          6 months ago

          Abstaining from voting will lead to Trump’s second term. Inaction is action

          And boy do they get butthurt when you point out that there are only two choices that are realistically possible, and not voting or voting third party inherently favors republicans.

          Let’s not forget that the left abandoning the democrats in the 70s and 80s didn’t make the party move left, they moved right and we got 3rd way dems.

          • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
            31·
            6 months ago

            That’s exactly what we should expect to happen. Inversely, if Democrats maintained control for extended periods of time, all candidates would be forced to adopt more progressive platforms in order to capture more of the vote. Every time liberals and progressives abstain and Republicans take office, the impact is twofold.

            • Passerby6497@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3·
              6 months ago

              Agreed. It’s really sad how many people are unwilling or unable to think about 2nd and 3rd order consequences to actions.

      • Oofnik@kbin.social
        2411·
        6 months ago

        “Everyone that disagrees with me is a shill”

        Listen, I’m going to hold my nose and vote for Biden in November because a Trump victory risks the end of democracy in the US, but I’m so tired of this idea that all criticism of him, and anyone who disagrees with us about whether to vote for him, is a victim of some kind of conspiracy.

        That isn’t to say that people don’t want to exploit those divisions and will try to spread misinformation to do so, but that isn’t an excuse to dismiss everyone you disagree with either.

        • JaymesRS@literature.cafeEnglish
          95·
          6 months ago

          In a normal media environment I’d agree with you completely, the problem is that we have a media apparatus that is set up as a propaganda arm of a political party and mainstream media thinks that balance is that any negative news story must be balanced by a negative news story in the other direction (“Trump incites riot and Biden mispronounced his granddaughters name, why both could mean the collapse of their campaigns” type coverage), instead of being balanced in standards of reporting.

          I don’t know what the solution is. My strategy though is to work down ballot to get better people in positions to push Biden and get him more flexibility to make better choices and changes.

      • MrVilliam@lemmy.worldEnglish
        101·
        6 months ago

        I think Biden is far from perfect. I straight up disagree with him on a few things. I’d say he actually kinda sucks in some ways. But at the end of the day, he’s gotten a lot more done in closer to the right direction than I ever would’ve expected, and the other viable option to vote for will undo that and steer things in the wrong direction if elected.

        We just can’t let good be the enemy of perfect. Biden is the only option for any hope of a positive future. A lot of the posters you’re talking about are bad faith actors, and their whole goal is convincing some people to stay home in November. 2020 went to Biden by only like 30k people across a handful of states, so it’s pretty clear that they want to dissuade people who are somewhat on the fence to chip away at that difference. They know that trump is polarizing af and even with the electoral college tilting in their favor, they need to pretend that Biden is polarizing too.

        • zerog_bandit@lemmy.world
          18·
          6 months ago

          I don’t think you understand that these Gazans would see America burn to the ground before they acknowledge that Biden might be the best option.

        • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
          4·
          6 months ago

          Are we at the point where Democrats start blaming progressives for Biden losing

          That would be every point since the party went all in on neoliberalism in 1992. The leadership and its lickspittles are still convinced that the policy stances, strategies and tactics that worked back then (including acting like the increasingly rare “independent centrist” is 100% of persuadable voters) are perfect, so everyone who disagrees in either direction must be wrong with malicious intent.

          • Wes4Humanity@lemm.ee
            4·
            6 months ago

            This is exactly right… They keep chasing an ever shrinking “center”, moving further and further to the right to try and scrape a few soft Rs over to their side, while ignoring basically the majority of the next 2 generations (progressives)… Or worse, spitting in our faces and telling us to shut up and take it. If they’d just embrace progressives they’d still get all those centrist liberal votes (those are the people telling us to vote blue no matter who after all) AND they’d get most of the next generations… The Republican party would be gone in 3 generations… But of course they’d have to give up their cushy retirement gigs giving speeches to their corporate sugar daddies

      • Neato@ttrpg.networkEnglish
        126·
        6 months ago

        Biden does anything good: “Oooh where was all this for the last 4 years?”

        Gets tiring to see.

    • zerog_bandit@lemmy.world
      211·
      6 months ago

      Just like January 6th was really Antifa right? This whole episode has shown me that the left is just as susceptible to wielding misinformation as the right.