Bi-coastal Ramp-up for 'Vote Ceasefire'
'Vote Ceasefire Washington,' a primary write-in campaign for angry Democrats and Independents, is picking up steam in the Evergreen State ahead of its March 12th primary.
OK, let me start by saying I broke off all diplomatic relations with the United States government decades ago. Lies after wars, after lies, after wars, will do that to you. Oh, I love my country - for now - but like antiwar activist and journalist Abby Martin said yesterday to George Galloway on the Mother of All Talk Shows, “I’m embarrassed to be an American…that this is the political representation we have five months into this genocide.” Galloway added, “So many politicians being unmoved by what you and I are watching…and politicians completely unmoved by massacres of infants.”
Unmoved - I would add morally bankrupt - for voting to fund the on-going slaughter, support Biden, and still staying on message, much like AOC.
It has taken an embarrassingly long time but polling indicates that a not so insignificant majority of likely voters support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, 50% to 35%, while 15% “Don’t Know” (Who are these people?!). And as the casualties mount, how many Palestinians in Gaza need to be slaughtered before someone in government is moved to do something about it. No one during cable news coverage of the Super Tuesday primaries even uttered the C-word, and I do not expect Biden will use “permanent” or “ceasefire” in the same sentence tomorrow as he lurches through his State of the Union speech.
Electoral solutions haven’t seemed to matter, because, you know, Trump. But the activist class within the Democratic Party, beginning with Michigan and Minnesota, are mobilizing coalitions and networks across the country to send the message that their voters will not tolerate Biden’s unequivocal support for Israel’s criminal siege of Gaza. Last week, over 101,000 Michigan Democrats cast “uncommitted” ballots - 13 percent of the vote. Minnesota saw nearly 19 percent of its primary votes go to the “uncommitted” category. As a result 2 and 11 uncommitted delegates, respectively, from these key states, will be heading to the Democratic Convention in August.
As the uncommitted tabulations wind up in states like Massachusetts and North Carolina, the Vote Uncommitted mobilization is going bi-coastal. The Vote Uncommitted WA campaign is asking Washington state voters to select “Uncommitted Delegates” for its primary on March 12th to “strongly reject the Biden Administration’s funding of war and genocide in Gaza” and demand “a dramatic change in policy.”
Primary voters in Michigan’s Uncommitted Campaign resulted in denying Joe Biden - or whoever the Dems run - a pair of the state’s 117 delegates. Not exactly a movement the morally corrupt Democrats will give a single crap about but it is getting their attention.
I don’t mean to throw shade on Michigan. Any protest vote against the Duopoly is a good thing, but for me, Ceasefire write-ins are therapeutic.
The Vote Ceasefire campaign kicked off in Washington on February 22 and is catching on. Peeved, independent voters don’t have to sit this joke of a primary season out for once. Will their write-in votes be tallied? Well, not exactly. Some states will count them as “Blank” - even that’s a quantifier to raise concern for Democratic bean-counters. Online pledge petitions are also being shared on social media.
Vote Cease-Fire organizer Joy Dworkin, who lives in Tacoma, Washington, said it was "difficult to believe President Biden is unaware that 63% of the national electorate and more than three-quarters of Democrats support a permanent cease-fire."
"Like many Washingtonians, for months I have been raising my voice, shouting 'Cease-fire Now!'" said Dworkin. "Our current policy of saying we care about civilian Palestinian life while funding ongoing indiscriminate bombing makes no sense. Because it is moral, because it is humane, because it is politically imperative, and because it is in the interests of U.S. standing in the world, we need a cease-fire! When we use the ballot box to say this, perhaps President Biden will finally listen!"
Admittedly Biden’s nomination is a foregone conclusion, but writing in “ceasefire” or voting “uncommitted” next week in Washington State, or anywhere else, provides an opportunity for voters like me to send a clear message to an administration with its nest of political careerists, that it’s time they gave a shit, and we are just not going to be ignored.
I plan to vote Ceasefire. Supporting Israel is just not an option!