Letter 16

Joe Biden (and Kamala Harris) did not act on the Palestinian genocide because in their incorrect analysis, there was no political advantage in doing so. They concluded, rightly, that any denunciation of Israel's criminal behavior would be spun as supporting terrorists and antisemitic, but they failed to realize that their moral fecklessness wouldn't play well with their own base.

They were counting, as they frequently do, on "triangulation," that is to say that those who were identified as "on the left" wouldn't vote for Republicans, or that they wouldn't stay home because of the vileness of Trump. As Bill Clinton put it, where are they going to go?

They miscalculated. For this, and other reasons, the Democratic base corroded significantly in almost every demographic, and they went up Salt River. In this, the Republicans are far more politically perceptive. They knew that their anti-abortion agenda would not play well outside of their base, but they knew that to a significant portion of their base it was the ONLY issue, so they rode that issue relentlessly.

They played to their base, and their voters showed up. We didn't and ours didn't.