August 2, 2024 - 8:00pm
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has reportedly vaulted to the very front of the line in the Harris campaign’s search for a compelling candidate to serve in the ticket’s number two spot. Shapiro is an attractive choice, for he does not just offer the Democrats an easier path to winning the Keystone State, without which almost no electoral college victory is possible, but he gives the party an opportunity to signal its distance from the noisy pro-Palestine protest movement.
This carries the broader benefit of deflecting Republican accusations that the Democrats are enthralled to far-Left activists, and reinforces the party’s narrative that in a polarised age, they are the standard-bearer for moderation and normalcy.
Shapiro has been a noted defender of Israel; he is also an observant Jew who’s taken strong stands in condemning antisemitism, including voicing his displeasure with a University of Pennsylvania president who resigned after accusations of leniency in the face of alleged antisemitism on campus. However, like many American liberals he has also denounced Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has long alienated Democrats since the Obama administration.
Shapiro is no friend of the pro-Palestine left — and the feeling is mutual. Its activists have, in recent days, put up a website called “No to Genocide Josh” as a means of pressuring the Harris campaign to drop consideration of Shapiro: the website makes a (somewhat dubious) linkage between “social and economic justice for workers” and “and an immediate ceasefire in Palestine.”
Ironically, it is this lack of support that could actually work in Shapiro’s favour. While support for a ceasefire has been borne out by polling, a majority of the American public (58%) still profess to sympathise with the Israeli side, believing that the Jewish state has valid reasons for fighting compared to Hamas (22%). This challenges the narrative of activists, who are more likely to blame Israel for the bloodshed.
Already, Democratic leaders like Representatives Jake Auchinchloss and Adam Schiff among others have condemned the “Genocide Josh” monicker as “antisemitic double standard”, with Auchincloss spelling out how it actually bolsters the Democrats, “The more the Twitter left piles on him, the more helpful he is to Harris.”
This friction between the establishment and hard Left of the Democratic coalition comes on the heels of Donald Trump’s wild accusations against Harris as someone “who doesn’t like Jewish people.” But having a pro-Israel Jewish vice presidential nominee and a Jewish husband should likely be more than enough to illustrate the baseless nature of such claims. Indeed, having both Trump and the progressive Left simultaneously voicing their opposition to a potential Harris-Shapiro ticket could very well reinforce the Democrats’ claims to representing the sane centre of American politics, situated between two unpalatable extremes.
However, a Shapiro pick would also come with its own risks, such as loss of support among Muslim and Arab-American voters in Michigan, another Midwestern battleground state; this demographic has already begun to drift from Joe Biden. Such dynamics highlight the risk calculus involved in VP selection, especially in a race as close and tightly contested as 2024.
It would be a very stark irony if the withdrawal of support from the same groups — the activist Left, Muslims, and Arab-Americans — ends up weakening the Democratic vote to such an extent that it allows Trump to squeak into victory. In light of this scenario, Shapiro may well ask these voters, “Where else do you have to go?”
1TrueCuencoism
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SubscribeDear Mr Cuenco, As a writer you really should be aware of the difference between ‘enthralled’ and ‘in thrall’. Must try harder.
Down voters probably don’t know either.
Michael- Is it the Democrats or Republicans holding meetings that segregate groups by race? Has either party held a “Whites Only Meeting” meeting in the past week?
The headline should be that 22% of Democrats support Hamas. That’s seriously troubling.
This would be a brilliant political move. Many Jewish voters have been moving away from the Democratic party, given its Squad in the House of Representatives and the anti-Israel campus unrest. I doubt that the Arab voters will flock to Trump.
The Democrats had Joe Liberman, also an observant Jewish candidate for Vice President in 2000 and won the popular vote, losing only because of a very close call in Florida.
i don’t see how picking an obviously token candidate negates the pro-terrorist support of the party. Skipping the speech of the prime minister of Israel, not condemning the ‘ River to the Sea’ mantra and the increasing vitriol of the pro-terrorists mob are better indications of where she will land once the sale is complete and the election is over.
By this point not picking Shapiro would be a statement of intent to vacate the centre to Trump by the Democrats, and a fateful decision for the West going forward.