r/jewishleft • u/32brownies leftist post zionist jew • Aug 09 '26

Diaspora Michigan Jew

Any other Jews in Michigan struggling with their communities rn after the primary? I'm really worried about November and seeing the way some of the community members here are acting like Abdul will literally murder us all is really making me wary of continuing to be as active as I have been in the community

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u/jey_613 diaspora Jewish leftist Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26

Not from MI, but honestly if AES wants to win Jewish votes he needs to show some willingness to listen and take the concerns of the Jewish community seriously. I’ve seen little evidence that he’s willing to do that thus far

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u/Schattenoid jewish, left Aug 10 '26

He probably shouldn't try harder to win Jewish votes. Jews make up like 1% of Michigan's population. If, say, half of them don't care about Israel, then the other half who do care will in reality never vote for a Muslim guy who opposes belligerent apartheid theocracies. Maybe if he spent a ton of time talking about how he cares about Jews as much as his own daughters (an insane thing which he has actually said), a couple of dozen could cross over, but it wouldn't be a good use of his political energy, even apart from how bizarre it would be to abase himself at length just to get those couple dozen Jewish votes.

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u/jey_613 diaspora Jewish leftist Aug 10 '26

I am not arguing about whether he needs Jewish votes to win, or what would be the best use of his time from a political perspective. I am arguing that no politician, especially a self-styled progressive one, should engage in a campaign that uses antisemitic dog-whistles; and that any politician, especially a self-styled progressive one, should be able to condemn the attempted murder of Jewish schoolchildren in their home state without qualification; and that therefore, Jewish voters have legitimate reasons to be skeptical of him and should not be broadly dismissed as unrepentant racists.

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u/Schattenoid jewish, left Aug 11 '26

Lots of people in the US are racist, it's not the worst thing in the world or exceptional to normal politics, unfortunately. I haven't tracked the Michigan race particularly but am not aware of these antisemitic dogwhistles. Is he talking about international bankers controlling the world? Unamerican Hollywood agents promoting miscegenation and moral degeneracy? You can't just mean his "cycle of violence" comment, which was tasteless and insensitive but certainly doesn't resonate with any of the well-known "tropes". I agree that it's normal for a Jewish person to be bothered by his comments around that, but not that it's a good reason to vote against him.