The Democrats Are Running Scared From the Most Important Fights

Talk is cheap, though. The U.S. is continuing to regularly furnish Israel with billions of dollars in weapons that is has been using to bomb schools, hospitals, and refugee camps, defying our country’s own laws on weapons transfers. Just today, HuffPost’s Akbar Shahid Ahmed reported that the Biden-Harris administration has appointed an official who oversees and advocates for those shipments to a new, senior post in the State Department where he’ll shape policy on Israeli-Palestinian affairs. At the DNC, Democrats refused to make even mild concessions to those calling for a ceasefire and arms embargo. Uncommitted delegates had been pushing event organizers for weeks to secure a speaking slot. They’d presented dozens of possible names, including Palestinian American Georgia State Representative Ruwa Romman. Those requests were all refused.

And while the U.S. is indeed investing historic amounts of money to build renewable energy and electric vehicles, Harris and her surrogates have continued to boast about the fact that her administration has overseen record levels of oil and gas production. “Today,” Harris said at a rally last month at a rally in North Carolina, “America has record energy production and we are energy independent.” The party’s platform touts the same language, and promises to “boost supply” of gasoline. As I wrote earlier this week, that can virtually only happen by offering the industry additional subsidies.

There is no route to addressing the climate crisis—or even meeting the White House’s own climate goals—without directly challenging the core business model of the fossil fuel industry. There is no way to end the suffering in Gaza without provoking the anger of the Israeli government and lobbying groups like AIPAC. Avoiding those conflicts carries some obvious short-term benefits for Democrats, like keeping wealthy donors and some swing-state voters happy. Continuing to avoid them promises not just to prolong suffering, but invite calamities that there’ll be no turning back from.