Idk about idealism, it’s basic politics. There’s a reason Biden has tepidly supported abortion despite clearly not being a fan of it. Everyone else in the party got on board, but some people had to stand up for what was right first, and you don’t get that done by meekly going with whatever who is in charge is saying. Very few politicians lead from the front, they go with where the wind is blowing, and that requires some people to speak up.

Meanwhile, the comment above said all your complaints about Kamala should be gone because Trump tried to call Netanyahu to stifle a deal that wasn’t getting done anyway. Really? You don’t see the problem in that logic?

You guys, we don’t have to be in a cult like the Republicans. You’re allowed to criticize your leaders when they do wrong, I promise nothing bad will happen to you. I’m not even saying vote Trump or don’t vote Kamala, I was honestly just agreeing with the person saying I wish her Israel policy was better, but apparently we’re not allowed to bring that up or liberals go insane? If it worked that way, Biden wouldn’t have had to step down because denigrating Trump for 4 years would’ve crushed him in the polls long ago instead of making it so close. A random Lemmy user saying I wish Kamala said “the genocide is bad”, similarly isn’t going to doom her campaign.

Also it’s not just not opposing it vs someone who said they will support it. It’s someone’s who’s currently in the administration that is actively enabling it vs someone who isn’t, but said they would do the same but wag their finger less. Materially it’s not much of a difference. It’s like Trump’s complaints about Biden and the border. He already tried to pass a bill that would basically do what Trump would do, he’s just being less outwardly racist about it, so Trump is complaining about it when in reality he probably wouldn’t do that much different.

For those who oppose genocide, our only hope is that Kamala is being quiet about it because her boss is running the genocide, and she’ll be more outwardly opposed if she either wins or loses. I hope so, but the mood at the DNC has not been encouraging for people following Palestine, and her husband seems to be a pretty fervent Zionist; so just hoping without taking action, pressuring, or even just bringing it up in conversation, the literal least someone could do, seems naive if you want any change on the issue.

Or she could just not arm the Israelis. I think Kamala has a better chance of doing that then Biden who was to the right of Reagan and Kissinger on Israel, and with a enough public support and pressure, I think she would, so I’m not going to stop and I don’t think the protestors should, either. She’s been unnervingly quiet on the issue except for saying “ceasefire” a lot, which unfortunately doesn’t mean much without actual leverage on the Israelis to make them accept one without constantly changing their terms. But as awareness spreads, they are being forced to acknowledge it more and more even though they don’t want to. Sure they barely mentioned the protestors at the DNC, but they did do it once or twice (way less than the problem of antisemitism but it’s something). It’s progress and people have to continue to fight, not lay down, cover their eyes and ears, and pretend a genocide isn’t happening from your hypocritical elected leaders, who are on the podium talking about freedom and peace and how good they are at standing up to bullies and doing the right thing, while thousands of innocent civilians are dying from bombs or starving to death at our hand. I can’t people even believe that is an option, it blows my mind.

If this country prefers fascism over avoiding a genocide, then it’s basically already fascist via its policies, or it’s not a democracy. If it’s the former, then you are the bad guys, I’m sorry, and you deserve to be as comfortable as a Nazi supporting Hitler. But the good thing is that genocide doesn’t have to be guaranteed just because both candidates support it. LGBTQ issues weren’t on the ballot until people caused a huge fuss about it, same with women’s suffrage, and slavery, etc. People were pressured into doing the right things on this even when they felt kind of uncomfortable about it. If we just accepted things the way they were because both Democrats and Republicans supported it, then we still wouldn’t have gay marriage. But it eventually became uncomfortable and embarrassing to be a Democrat who doesn’t support it which is why Hillary Clinton eventually switched on the issue even though her husband signed DOMA. So no, just because both parties support a thing doesn’t mean we have to accept it, and if it’s wrong, we shouldn’t. And I can’t think of a chiefer wrong than genocide (yes, I would rank it even worse than work camps).

In fact, Democrats are the correct people to pressure on this because they are the ones who historically adapt to these changing times faster than Republicans. Look, I like Kamala. A lot. I upvote all the articles about her like this one. I was really afraid her VP pick would be Shapiro, but luckily she picked a really good one. In fact, this is the only issue I see is a problem in her platform, her silence on this. I’m praying she’s quietly taking AIPAC money and then going to do a switcheroo in office and suddenly be harsher on Israel. But I’m not going to rely on that pipe dream, and tell people with a good point to shut up because she might do that instead of the more likely thing every President has done for the last 50 years. I’m going to encourage them to keep up the pressure so she feels safer in the public to do that. Because this is a big issue. There’s no bigger issue. If this isn’t your red line, then you don’t have one. Which I guess is fine for some people, but others do because they really believed “never again” meant “never again”.

At the very least, you’re the kind of people who would’ve said to people in the Civil Rights era to stop causing so much trouble or “you would get the Republicans elected and then life would be really bad for you blacks” , even while they were having issues voting, getting lynched, etc. How about instead of that selfishness where you tell an oppressed group and their allies to shut up about their suffering or more people will suffer, you have some solidarity and tell your elected officials to do the right thing. Telling black people to sit at the back of the bus so poor whites can have a better life, telling trans people to shut up so gays and lesbians can have a better life, telling poor people to shut up so middle-class people can have decency and a nice 401k, etc. It doesn’t work. People don’t shut up when they, their friends, or their family is dying, or even strangers if they have non-performative empathy.

How about instead you tell the pro-IDF supporters to shut up and suck it up and vote for the Democrats, or a literal antisemite will control the White House, and unfortunately that means they can’t have the genocide they want, but no candidate is perfect and at least they wouldn’t be voting for the pro-Nazi candidate. Use that energy to shout them down. Make it embarrassing to be a Zionist, make it as out-of-touch to support sending weapons to Israel as it would be to send weapons to Russia, or support abortion as a Democrat. If the UK, fucking terf island who had been voting for conservatives for like the last 20 years, can do it, then the US of A can with a supposedly progressive Presidential candidate.

And I hope if Trump is elected, you’ll shout against him, too. Don’t just follow orders, follow your conscience, that’s what I’ve been saying the whole time! On the other hand, maybe the people in camps with me will finally learn to empathize with the Palestinian armed resistance when they’re also in a concentration camp lol, so at least there’s that glower silver lining.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text. I’m sure this will get lots of downvotes but whatever. Don’t be afraid to criticize your candidates. If you picked the right one (and hopefully Kamala is that), then they can and will improve to keep their job. Just because one is worse doesn’t mean you can’t criticize the other, or that they can’t do better in some aspects. They’re human, not idols to be worshipped.

As a presidential candidate, she’s been perfectly clear that she does not intend to change that policy if elected.