It is understandable that an unedited and unendorsed draft would include numerical and grammatical errors, as well as notes saying things like “No sourcing provided for this claim” and “Methodology appears internally inconsistent.”
The DNC didn't like it, its critics didn't like it, and even Rivera was lukewarm toward it. It is a mess. That doesn't matter because the report didn't matter. In early 2013, following the Republican Party's second straight loss to Barack Obama, the Republican National Committee commissioned an autopsy. It recommended increased sensitivity toward immigrants and minority groups generally. Then along came Donald J. Trump, and the rest is history.
Sophie Hurwitz of Mother Jones, though, was focused on a more sustantive ommission, in which
Amont the more than 50,000 words in the DNC's 192-page autopsy of why it lost the 2024 presidential election, here are a few that do not appear even once: Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Jewish, Muslim, foreign policy, protest, genocide.
Here are a few other words that do not appear even once: Hamas, Islamofascism, and October 7 slaughter, each of which, unlike "genocide," actually exists in the conflict. Nonetheless, Hurwitz continued
During the 2024 election cycle, tens of thousands of
Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military, often using US-supplied
bombs. At every turn, when confronted by protesters asking her to do more to
stop the slaughter, the party’s nominee, Kamala Harris, demurred. When
Democrats outraged by the war asked that a single Palestinian speaker be
allowed to speak onstage at the DNC—and endorse Harris in doing so—they were
snubbed.
Yet, at that time, it was not insignificant that
The second night of the Democratic National Convention was intensely Jewish: Along with Emhoff and Schumer directly discussing their Jewish identities, two other prominent Jewish elected officials — Bernie Sanders and J.B. Pritzker — took the stage, while the night opened with an invocation by Rabbi Sharon Brous. Jewish heritage, inclusion in America and the fight against antisemitism all got prime-time attention.
But just one of the politicians alluded to Israel, in an anguished reference to the war it is waging against Hamas in Gaza. Absent altogether were references to the unshakeable U.S.-Israel alliance, once a staple of Democratic political conventions, and an orthodoxy that permeated last month’s Republican convention in Milwaukee.
Even Schumer, the New York Democratic senator who has long played on the Hebrew origins of his name, “shomer,” to say he sees himself as a guardian of Israel, left the country entirely out of his speech....
The sole mention of the hostages during prime time came from Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Jewish Vermonter who is the unofficial leader of the progressives and among Israel’s harshest critics.
“We must end this horrific war in Gaza, bring home the hostages and demand an immediate ceasefire,” Sanders said, pausing after the first clause to allow for cheers that were some of the loudest of the evening.
No one at the convention spoke against a ceasefire, which would have been (and ultimately was) needed to "bring home the hostages". Sanders understood that, and so did the bloc of "Uncommitted" delegates eager to bring on a Palestinian speaker to speak of the suffering of Gazans while ignoring the events of 10/7/23.
It became more obvious two nights later when the parents of a young Jewish Israeli man spoke from the podium. There
Both of the couple called for a deal to release the hostages and agree to a ceasefire in Gaza, drawing the loudest applause of their speeches. Their appearance came at a time when negotiations between Israel and Hamas over a deal are again faltering, as they have in successive rounds of talks over the past several months. They said both Republicans and Democrats have sought to help them, and thanked President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s nominee, for working “tirelessly” for a deal.
“In a competition of pain, there are no winners,” Jon Polin said. “In an inflamed Middle East, we know the one thing that can most immediately release pressure and bring calm to the entire region: a deal that brings this diverse group of 109 hostages home and ends the suffering of the innocent civilians in Gaza. The time is now.”
The crowd fell into silence as the couple strode onto the stage. Delegates stood up, including those scattered throughout wearing keffiyehs in solidarity with the Palestinians. A man sporting a Hebrew Harris-Walz button started a “Bring them home” chant, and soon the whole room picked it up.
It wasn't "win the war" or "get them back". It was "bring them home," which anyone paying any attention whatsoever knew meant "Israel, make a deal, now"! Yet, Hurwitz assumes that all one-issue Gaza voters were ones opposed to Israel's actions defending itself. She wrote
According to polling by the IMEU, 29 percent of former Biden voters who did not choose Harris—equivalent to roughly 122,380 votes across six swing states—were influenced by Gaza. There were of course other factors: broad economic dissatisfaction, as well as a late-game candidate switch, among them—but to omit mention of Gaza is avoidant at best and dishonest at worst.
How many voters would have shunned Harris-Walz at the polls or switched to Donald Trump had the Vice President succumbed to anti-Israel/pro-Palestine sentiment is, unsurprisingly, ignored. It's impossible to determine, though it's extraordinarily unlike that Harris would have scraped together 270 electoral votes whatever position she had taken. The Democrat lost not only Michigan, with a tremendous number of Muslim voters, but also Pennsylvania, in which Muslim voters are outnumbered by Jewish voters.
There are many reasons, some of them noted by Rivera and others not, that the Democratic Party lost the last presidential election. With such a multitude, I would be unable to argue with any certainty that the major factor was the candidate herself, whose selection as V.P. nominee in 2020 I abhorred. Neither can the anti-Israel crowd legitimately argue that Kamala Harris' failure to break with President Biden's policy and condemn Israel in 2024 was the primary factor in her defeat.
The "autopsy" brings us no closer to understanding why Donald Trump was (re-) elected. However, it's always instructive to be reminded of the hostility born of narrowmindness of the All Hail Palestine! gang members. Perhaps they also can enlighten us as to how Iranians and other Muslims of the Middle East have benefitted as a result of Trump's victory over the candidate they believe was so unfair to Palestinians during the Democratic National Convention.
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