War is hell. John Pavlovitz presents some thought provoking questions as the war in Gaza and Israel continues. From 3/21/24, The Beautiful Mess by Pavlovitz.

“For months now, I’ve been hearing the outrage from my friends on the Left to what they perceive as a lack of clarity and condemnation by President Biden to the horrors in Gaza; people threatening to opt-out or protest vote in November as an expression of solidarity and support.

And while I fully share their disgust at what has been happening to the Palestinian people and do agree that America’s response has not been nearly enough (at least outwardly), I’ve been left sitting with these questions for them:

• Which of the people you’re trying to help by not supporting Biden in November will be helped by a second Trump presidency?

• Specifically who gains human and civil rights in this scenario?

• How precisely is anyone made safer or healthier?

• What do you foresee happening after November 5th if Trump wins and how is that is better for anyone, anywhere and why do you believe that?

• Help me and others understand exactly what the end game here is, and what the upside of a MAGA theocracy would be for women, LGBTQ people, immigrants, people of color, refugees, the elderly, people needing healthcare, public schools, victims of gun violence.
  
  I’ve received thousands of replies in recent weeks but sadly most have been marked by war rhetoric, incendiary language, and cheap “Genocide Joe” slurs. The only consistent thread of replies, seems to be frustration and a “we need to burn it all down and remake the whole system” sentiment.
  
  This is where the impasse is for so many of us.

The “overhaul the whole thing” mindset makes sense philosophically and I understand why people hold that view but I simply do not see that as a possibility, practically speaking.

As I’ve tried to express so many times before, the far Left’s “burn it all down” theory only works if those in power allow this. It runs on a dangerous mythology set in the future where there is no tangible resistance and it is big on grand statements and almost non-existent on precise methodology. It assumes a third party’s ascendence will happen unabated.

Knowing what we know about the GOP: seeing their incessant legislative assaults on human and civil rights; hearing what Trump is already promising in his rallies and social media rants regarding immigrants, women’s rights, and the Constitution in general; and reading the truly terrifying theocratic primer Project 2025, I believe it’s patently irresponsible to hand these people power with the expectation that we’ll somehow all fix it later. It feels like the height of privilege to sacrifice hundreds of millions of people on the altar of my present anger.

Again, the two-party system is incredibly flawed and limited, but I and so many others sincerely believe if the Republicans win in November, practically speaking we will have a one-party system and a violent Government with unchecked power who will not relinquish it. We need to take the GOP at their word and not allow our passionate and valid objections to genocide to make us forget what we have seen here and what is a given with Trump in power again.

For that reason the, “it will get worse before it gets better” mindset not only feels unrealistic but is in fact concerning. So many of my friends on the Left seem to forget that this same strident purity stance is partially how we ended up with women losing the rights to body autonomy and why we now have a weaponized Supreme Court. I wish we could play the movie a a few scenes ahead and understand what is at stake here.

As grief-filled as I am about what has unfolded in Gaza and the barbarism and waste of life, I refuse to be cavalier about the rights of hundreds of millions of people simply because I am (and I am) disheartened by the Biden Administration’s lack of outward clarity (though I do believe much is happening diplomatically that we aren’t privy to).

A good friend replied to me that, “four more years of GOP-lite policies with the Dems isn’t going to cut it” and yet he and those like him seem to believe that four more years of Republican open brutality somehow will be helpful. That’s where I and so many push back and haven’t heard anything compelling in response.

I simply think this has become (understandably) for many on the Left an emotional issue and not an intellectual one. The talking points and the passionate platitudes are not connected to a tangible, attainable reality. No one has told us the “how” of this fix that will supposedly be possible with MAGA having carte blanche, and unless we hear that we’re going to see this all-or-nothing rhetoric as performative and harmful to the world.

We can and should apply pressure to politicians when we feel it’s necessary. We should speak and show up and protest. We should pull funding from organizations and businesses we see as complicit, because those acts penalize those companies directly. But an election result doesn’t penalize politicians it penalizes people, those who are already most oppressed and assailed.

Progressives like myself are horrified by what’s happening to the beautiful Palestinian people but we don’t see anything but a far more dire fate under Trump—not only for them but for hundreds of millions of people here and around the world.

We don’t see how, even on the issue of Gaza, that it’s anything but an act of violence to knowingly elevate MAGA to greater power.

There is no win for anyone there.”

John Pavlovitz

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