L. Michael Hager FacebookTwitterReddit

When a political party loses its legitimacy, its traditional priorities and moral compass, its candidates lose elections. Opting not to hold an open convention, which would have tested political viability, the DNC (acting on the President’s recommendation) invited Kamala Harris to replace Biden on the ticket.  For many Democrats, the lack of a competitive primary undermined the legitimacy of process.

In a misguided effort to attract anti-Trump Republicans, Harris  enlisted conservative Republican Liz Cheney  to join her on the campaign trail. This  strategy  failed.  The Republicans stuck with Trump or voted third party.  In the effort, Harris alienated many core supporters who saw her cave on such  issues as  fracking, immigration and health care.  Her policy backtracking was another blow to party legitimacy.

An even more delegitimizing strategy was to take for granted the support of working-class voters and labor unions. Both UAW President Shawn Fain and  Senator Bernie Sanders were noticeably absent from Harris’ campaign events, which included instead entertainment celebrities and Cheney.  Commenting on the election outcome, Bernie said it should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”

The possibly heaviest, blow to party legitimacy was the large defection of progressives and other Democrats who were horrified by the ongoing genocide in Gaza and by the continued transfer of U.S. weaponry to Israel for its wars in both Gaza and Lebanon. Harris lost the popular count by five million votes.  At the same time, she finished 12 million votes below the 81.2 million votes Biden received in 2020.  Where did those missing Democratic voters go?

The November 10 New York Times featured an op-ed entitled Democrats Ignored Gaza, and It Brought Down Their Party.” Its author. Peter Beinart, a contributing Opinion writer for the Times and an editor at large of Jewish Currents offered an answer to the missing voter question.  He observed that,

Over the past year, Israel’s slaughter and starvation of Palestinians–funded by U.S. taxpayers and live-streamed on social media–has triggered one of the greatest surges in progressive activation in a generation.”

He went on to say, Many Americans roused to action by their government’s complicity in Gaza’s destruction have no personal connection to Palestine or Israel.  Like many Americans who protested South African apartheid or the Vietnam War, their motive is not ethnic or religious.  It is moral.”

I could identify with Beinart’s remarks. When Biden began enabling Israel’s genocide last October, I left the Democratic Party after 68 years of loyal membership.  My vote on November 5 was a write-in for Bernie Sanders.

Since then, I have come to realize that Biden has not been alone in starting or expanding U.S. wars of choice.  Of the seven Democratic presidents in office from 1945, only Jimmy Carter managed to avoid war (though it was the Iranian hostage crisis and his failure to rescue U.S. hostages that denied him a second term).

How can the Democratic Party recover its moral compass, with proxy wars raging in both Gaza and Ukraine?  Why should the U.S. continue to give Israel an exception from international law and United Nations condemnation? According to Beinart,  Democrats must begin to align their policies on Israel and Palestine” with the broader principles of human equality and respect for international law. The Palestinian exception,” says Beinart, is not just immoral. It is politically disastrous.”

Unless the Democratic Party abandons its current war policies in favor of international diplomacy, it won’t be able to win back the support of its important progressive wing. It will continue to lose elections.

L. Michael Hager is cofounder and former Director General, International Development Law Organization, Rome.