Long before Joe Biden confirmed his cognitive decline and unfitness for the Presidency, his center-right politics, his sale of cluster munitions to the Ukraine, his foreign policy, his coddling of Israel, his turnabout on immigration, inaction on abortion and disinterest in Supreme Court enlargement — all made him an unacceptable choice for a second term. After Gaza, the “uncommitted” movement to punish him in the primaries evolved into a concerted effort to push the Democratic Party to choose another candidate. Thus was born the Abandon Biden campaign.
Ironically, Biden himself has done the most to make the case that Democrats need a different challenger to what, after yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, may well be an Imperial Presidency.
AbandonBiden24 is a campaign that Muslim and Arab Americans launched in December 2023 in Dearborn, Michigan, to send a strong message to Joe Biden about his complicity in the Gaza genocide.
With AIPAC and a galaxy of Israel lobby and propaganda organizations applying pressure to American politicians, it has been both refreshing and somewhat of a novelty to see American Muslims flexing their political muscles, particularly in a broad community process. I have seen both AbandonBiden24’s Town Hall with alternative presidential candidates and its followup Great Conversation with activists around the country and offer a few observations.
AbandonBiden24 wants to show both parties that Muslim Americans can’t be taken for granted. Republicans lost significant Muslim support after 9/11 and by 2020 a substantial majority of Muslims supported Biden. However, Biden’s blanket (“ironclad”) support for Israel and his blank checks and reckless munitions shipments — all to maintain Israel’s brutal Apartheid system — have soured Muslim voters who resent being put in the position of having to choose between a war criminal or a fascist. They want to punish Biden and want America to know that if the President loses in November it will be precisely because of angry, ignored Muslim voters:
The Abandon Biden strategy is for people of conscience to punish Biden at the ballot box and then take the “blame”–or claim the credit–for his electoral defeat. Punishing a president for his genocide would send a clear signal to the political landscape that genocide is not politically viable. It would create a political earthquake, soliciting a reckoning in the political parties.
Muslims face exactly the same dilemma as white liberals but, seen from the perspective of people who have lost relatives to American bombs, to many Trump is clearly the lesser evil. We saw this view reflected in the Great Conversation. What seemed to be a majority of the Detroit focus group not only regarded Trump as the lesser evil, but advocated voting for him instead of a third-party candidate to ensure the greatest likelihood of defeating the genocidaire-in-chief.
While there is some Muslim support for Trump in Texas and elsewhere, we’ll have to leave it to the pollsters to determine how great it is. It’s clear the GOP is recruiting. One member of the Detroit focus group was obviously in the bag for Trump, and acknowledged being approached by the Trump campaign. And he sounded exactly like he’d ingested every ounce of Kool-Aid they’d poured for him.
For the most part, however, most AbandonBiden24 campaign members appeared to be as distrustful of Republicans as they are of Republicans. When asked about the campaign’s direction, Jaylani Hussain, director of Minnesota’s CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) chapter, replied, “We don’t have two options. We have many options,” but added for clarification, “We’re not supporting Trump.”
What’s not clear is if the Town Hall invitations to third-party candidates indicated real interest in permanently breaking with both parties, or if it was simply a shorter-term strategy to court some of those “many options.”
Toward the end of the Great Conversation, three members of AbandonBiden24 discussed where the campaign might be heading.
Mohammad Ziny is a progressive, leans toward progressive politics, but fears burning bridges with “good” Democrats like Jamal Bowman. He believes the movement should call for a vote for explicitly pro-ceasefire candidates like Cornel West or the Green Party’s Jill Stein. Personally, he would endorse Stein. However, the greatest attraction to the Greens is its “infrastructure” – the fact that it has ballot access in 26 states (compared to Cornel West’s 13). Whether American Muslims would find a permanent home in a predominantly white eco-centric party is a question only they and the Greens can answer.
Kareem Rosshandler from Georgia advocates a “courting all, committing to none” strategy. He advocates keeping options open with both parties, but recognizes that the movement’s complicated relationship to the GOP could frighten liberals. He believes that America has never had the chance to talk about a “Muslim vote” before, and this is a first opportunity. But, as such, how America sees the Muslim vote will be reflected in whether Biden wins or loses. If Biden loses, the movement will have made its point that the Muslim vote counts. If Biden wins, Muslims will be reviled like third parties as election “spoilers.”
Moderator Sadia Tarranum from Minnesota agreed with Ziny on the strategic usefulness of working with the Green Party. But she also agreed with Rosshandler on the need to keep all options open.
The AbandonBiden24 campaign was born of a single goal – to punish Joe Biden for his complicity in slaughtering Palestinians. It first flexed its political muscles in the Democratic primaries, and that muscle has managed to deny between 8% and 20% of the Democratic vote to Biden in over a dozen states. The campaign has become a hostage to its own success and clearly has a mandate to continue – but as what?
* * *
For AbandonBiden24 to succeed as a movement to put Muslims on the electoral chess board, it surely needs a win, as Kareem Rosshandler rightly points out. But more importantly, it needs to know where it is ultimately headed. And with whom.
Comments are closed.