Reluctant Progressives Continue To Be A Thorn In Biden's Side

Progressives are a very difficult bunch to satisfy under the best of circumstances. They are proving even more so for the Biden reelection effort in light of the administration's support for Israel in its war against Hamas.

While few outside the Democratic tent will weep for Mr. Biden's travails, the resistance (if we can call it that) to Biden's Middle East policy hopes to build on what it achieved in the Michigan primary: more than 100,000 votes cast for “uncommitted.”

As the Hill reports:

…activists are pushing for similar protest votes in states including Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Washington as they seek to dial up pressure on Biden to heed their calls or risk losing their votes.

“What is clear is that our president has a choice before him,” Dearborn, Mich., Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said Wednesday in a press conference for the “uncommitted” push. “He has the choice to continue supporting and aligning himself with a war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the most tyrannical government in Israel's history. Or he has the choice to heed the concerns of residents … not only in the state of Michigan, but across this country, from coast to coast.”

There is little public indication Team Biden is worried about such a demonstration. And given history, there's probably no reason for him to. As the University of Virginia's Kyle Kondik writes:

A couple of political scientists we respect, Michigan State's Matt Grossmann and Boston College's David Hopkins, had good observations last night in posts on X/Twitter…Grossmann wrote that “People who vote in Democratic primaries are very likely to vote Democratic in November. There are plenty of Arab American swing voters in Michigan, but uncommitted votes are not a great signal. Other uncommitted voters are also unlikely to be great swing voter signals.” Hopkins, meanwhile, argued that “Any interpretation of the MI results so far that isn't ‘big wins for both Trump and Biden' is straining too hard to make drama out of these numbers.” (Donald Trump easily beat Nikki Haley in the Michigan Republican primary, 68%-27%.)

We've said before that this might, collectively, be the least-competitive presidential nominating season in modern history.

Biden, then, appears not to have much to worry about from the progressive resisters. Their grievances may be deeply felt. But they probably don't extend beyond their relatively small sphere of angst and anger.

But like the questions that surround the Trump campaign, the Biden effort must contend with a faction that is restless, angry and entertaining the possibility (for now) of going fishing on Election Day.

No campaign can afford that – particularly one with a candidate who is already confronting serious questions about his mental and physical fitness for office.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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