It’s Gaza, stupid

The midterms sent a warning to both parties: Voters outraged by Gaza are turning against politicians who back Israel’s wars. To take as a sample the nation’s most hotly contested and watched election, what we saw in Michigan was the defeat of a candidate who disregarded that public outrage by a candidate who sympathised with and substantially addressed it. Democrat Abdul El-Sayed beat out Republican Mike Rogers there.

And this was a victory that really showed just how committed voters now are to ridding themselves of the influence of apologists for the tragedy of Gaza. And Vance is hardly going out on a limb with that analysis. Donald Trump Jr, the president’s own son, publicly endorsed Vance’s admission of the GOP’s failures.

Hours later, President Trump himself called Vance’s analysis “good” although he stood by the disastrous war nonetheless. That’s because it is impossible to obscure or erase the impression the whole drama of this year’s elections leaves us with.