AIPAC is looking to screw progressives in Democratic primaries. And it’s sometimes working.
AIPAC is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. It does all that it can on behalf of the hard-right wing in Israel, here in the U.S. And this is really, really annoying, to say the very least.
“Until leaders in the Democratic Party stand up and say this is unacceptable to take this money or any money like this, or until election laws are changed, the opportunity is there for a group like AIPAC to do this,” said Logan Bayroff, vice president of communications at J Street, the pro-Israel nonprofit group that advocates for diplomacy-based solutions. “We don’t know where it ends. I wouldn’t be surprised to find other Republican-aligned groups deciding to play in Democratic primaries going forward.”
AIPAC’s role in Democratic elections has changed drastically in just a handful of months. For many years, the group claimed to be a bipartisan entity, and didn’t officially endorse candidates. Until this election cycle, the group didn’t even have a super PAC; now, it’s on pace to spend nearly $20 million in the 2022 Democratic primary cycle alone, making it by far the most influential individual political group in Democratic electoral politics.
(The American Prospect)
Annoying, infuriating, and so forth, but not at all surprising. Assuming that the combination of an extremist Supreme Court, extremist gerrymandered legislatures, greedheads, and ineffectual ”opposition” from the Democratic Party establishment doesn’t lead to the end of legitimate democracy in this country in any case, the longer term struggle for political control is bound to become more and more between corporate “centrists” and the progressive left. The conservative base is “exiting the electorate,” with increasing speed. And the large majority of young voters know 40+ years of incompetence, corruption, and most of all incessant, relentless stupidity on the part of right-wing electeds, when they see it. So it’s pretty much inevitable that we’ll see more and more conservative-to-”moderate” moneybags going after progressive candidates in primaries, and in any other way that they can.
I haven’t seen anything about AIPAC throwing riches at Don Samuels, for his primary run vs. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). Perhaps they consider that to be too much of a long shot, though you never know for sure until Election Night. I will note that I’ve seen less in the way of thinly disguised support for Samuels, in the state’s corporate media, than I thought I would, at least to this point.
Addendum: A fellow progressive blogger has gone into this, more thoroughly.
Dan is hesitant to name names of any inner party Dems as outright hostile to progress, saying “ineffectual ‘opposition’ ” instead.
Crabgrass has no hesitation.
(Developers are Crabgrass)
No hesitation, indeed.
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