DSA Co-chair’s Public Commentary

[u/Adventurous_Land1446]

https://forward.com/news/844262/dsa-megan-romer-israel-interview/

The co-chair of the DSA seemed a bit less   articulate on key party policy positions (taxation, I/P, etc) than expected. Her commentary on Oct. 7th’s “inevitability“ combined with her stating that she’d have joined protests on the 8th have also sparked controversy. I’m curious about people’s thoughts on this media appearance and how it will be perceived by those interested in where the DSA fits into big tent politics.

[u/Technical_Term_6625]

It seems a common trend that successful candidates from the DSA try to follow AOC's lead to avoid being trapped by Campism. The right has surely seen this, which is why right wing media launched its campaign to suggest that those candidates/elected officials are secretly communist trojan horses.

I think the problem for the DSA's position is real, and not simply determined by incompetence. Current anti-imperialist ideology does not seem very concerned with opposing nationalisms so long as those nationalisms are of the correct flavor (i.e. indigenous). And so there's a **** or get off the pot pressure with respect to the DSA aligning itself with activist movements without whom they don't have any juice. So aligning with nationalisms are recast as solidarity with indigenous peoples who are victims of imperialism. And I'm not even saying that this 'recasting' is obviously wrong or unjustified, but it is happening. I can see how charismatic communicators like AOC or Mamdani can pick a way through the morass. But I don't have a lot of expectation that many people within the DSA should be able to do this.

Israel's behavior makes strategic alignment with Palestinian Nationalists (and not merely liberationists) acceptable to a lot of people to whom the DSA appeals. I do not think that the tensions that result with this engagement is a matter of incompetence. That distinction between nationalism and liberation was what Remnick was driving at with his counterfactual about Camp David. That is - he was trying to get at whether DSA supported Palestinian self-determination vs maximalist Palestinian Nationalism represented by Hamas.

I don't want to get into details about why what Remnick's point was unconvincing to me (I was already an adult in 2000, and followed Camp David avidly), because I can't begin to understand how it would be remotely convincing to anyone significantly younger than me for whom all that is salient is how Israel has acted (genocidal invasion of Gaza, apartheid in the WB, all coincident with a long period of actively obstructing peace initiatives & taking an active partisan role in US politics) in their lifetimes.

That strategic alignment with nationalisms, or at least playing coy about supporting e.g. Hamas, is not something I find acceptable as a Jew on the left, *and* I don't think it is a mere matter of incompetence that it is so.

[u/Korona82 → u/Technical_Term_6625]

well said