By all measures, picking Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to serve as Kamala Harris’ running mate in the upcoming presidential election would have been a tactically sound move for the Democrats.
In a country where every issue is fractured and split down the middle, Shapiro ranks among the most liked governors in the country and across party lines, a particularly noteworthy fact considering he governs one of five states that will decide the presidency in four months’ time. Highly regarded as a popular and effective consensus-builder who gets things done for his constituents, Shapiro won plaudits from all sides of the political spectrum for his handling of the Interstate 95 collapse just a year ago.
A popular Democrat governor in a swing state who is perceived as a moderate liberal, who has a history of bridging divides and even appealing to some Republicans? In a typical election cycle, you couldn’t create a more ideal candidate in a lab, and Shapiro would be the no-brainer pick in veepstakes prognostications. And for the past month, he was.
But after a torrent of pressure from the left wing of the Democrat Party that dumped truckloads of opposition research aimed at demonizing Shapiro, Harris announced on Tuesday that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would be her running mate.
Shapiro and Walz share almost identical policy positions, particularly on Israel, where both are generally sympathetic to the world’s only Jewish state’s position in the Middle East. Shapiro has been far more outspoken against the government of Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (calling the premier “a dangerous and destructive force”). Shapiro is a valuable asset in a far more important state than Minnesota in the upcoming election. So why did the left target Shapiro specifically and make him unpalatable to Harris’s team?
To many Jewish people, the answer appears obvious: Shapiro was snubbed because he is Jewish, and since the horrific attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the “progressive” caucus of the Democrat Party has been increasingly bold in airing out its antisemitic bigotry.
The Left’s Antisemitism
The left’s “Jewish problem” didn’t begin with Israel’s recent actions in Gaza.
Many liberal Jews, embracing the Jewish value of “Tikkun Olam,” or repairing the world, join various causes to affect practical change in their surroundings. However, despite their support, they have been shunned by the left, as in the case of the Women’s March, the Pride March, LGBTQ issues, and civil rights in America. These causes don’t embrace them in return, and in many cases are downright hostile towards Jews.
The leadership of the Women’s March fell apart amid severe financial mismanagement and deeply entrenched antisemitism. In 2017 and 2019, the Chicago Dyke March and DC Dyke March banned pride flags with the Star of David, calling it “nationalist” without considering its historical connection and meaning to Jewish people. In 2020, the Black Lives Matter protests, which ostensibly promoted civil rights, were hijacked by anti-Israel protests.
So why do many on the left hold such ill will toward Jewish people?
There’s a number of reasons.
The first, and most obvious, is simple antisemitism. Jewish people have been persecuted and hated for generations and have always been a convenient scapegoat for all the world’s ills for centuries, and in recent years, segments of historically marginalized communities and conspiracy theorists have decided to rewrite their history to frame Jews as their antagonists. Palestinians, now the far left’s cause célèbre, have for decades been the victims of destructive and incompetent leaders who drag them into wars they cannot win and use them for propaganda purposes and as disposable cannon fodder, instead of pursuing peace with Israel. Yet the left portrays the world’s only Jewish state as the evil aggressors, ignoring Israelis’ historical connection to Israel and their very valid security needs.
Walz and Shapiro both advocate for an end to the current war and a negotiated two-state solution, but Shapiro has been the only vice presidential contender tagged with the “Genocide Josh” label. He also was the only Jew being considered as a VP pick, making this antisemitic double standard obvious for all to see: Two people can share the same opinion on Israel, but the Jewish person is somehow more problematic.
But many on the left fundamentally misunderstand and therefore can’t tolerate Jewish people because the existence and survival of the Jewish people challenges their whole ideology.
Oppressed People
The left claims to believe that oppressed peoples and the victims of historical injustices are inherently more virtuous than those in power, and they must do everything in their power to lift them up because they cannot help themselves. To that end, the left calls for an end to colonization and a return for all people to their homelands.
If they truly believed that, the left should be the Jewish people’s biggest champions.
For centuries, the Jewish people were exiled, oppressed, dispersed, and massacred, yet survived and rebuilt countless times to rise to levels of incredible success. With tenacity, and a strong sense of Jewish pride and identity, the Jewish people rebounded from the most horrific genocide in modern history and returned to their ancient homeland.
But the left can’t tolerate Jewish people in their spaces, because for all their bluster about wanting to make people’s lives better and elevate them, they don’t understand how the Jewish people continue to raise themselves up, no matter what persecution is thrown their way. They resent the unmatched success of the Jewish people in making it in the United States of America and rebuilding a barren Israel into a thriving, innovative, and respected modern state. And so they target their ire on Israel and all those who support it, despite support for Israel being an overwhelmingly popular position in the United States.
The left coopts the oppression Jewish people face and apply it to those who seek to exterminate them, stripping terms like genocide and Holocaust of their meaning, in a desperate bid to tar and malign the only Jewish state in the world.
Unfortunately, this fringe movement is being wooed by Democrats, who view them as a key voter bloc. The left is not content with hearing how the administration is severely pressuring Israel as it fights multiple terror states on its borders and how vital aid is being slow-walked to its closest ally in its time of need. They are hammering Vice President Kamala Harris to move closer to positions that will further shackle Israel and keep it from eliminating those that wish to harm it, creating conditions that would allow the events of Oct. 7 to happen again.
Harris is perceived as a left-leaning liberal by much of the electorate, and choosing a popular moderate like Shapiro was expected to boost her appeal among persuadable voters, independents, disillusioned-with-Trump Republicans, and pro-Israel Democrats. But with her capitulation to the antisemitic mob, it’s clear that Democrats of 2024 can’t abide seeing a Jewish person on the ticket.
And whether you are a Democrat or Republican, that says a lot about the sad state of affairs in the United States of America.
Tzali Reicher is a writer and the director of Notice Our Biz. He can be reached at tzali@noticeourbiz.com.
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