Staff Reports
President Joe Biden, the self-proclaimed unifier-in-chief, seems to be facing a dilemma when it comes to his own identity. Is he the leader of the free world and a friend to our allies, or is he more concerned about appeasing the minority groups that make up a significant portion of his voting base? It’s clear that reaching across the aisle to Republicans is not a priority for Biden. Instead, he is struggling to keep the various factions within his own party from tearing each other apart.
Former Obama Adviser Has Bad News for Biden: The Nickname Young People Gave Joe Is a 'Big Problem'https://t.co/Fdrc5YRT6r#Trump2024
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) February 4, 2024
One group that Biden is at risk of losing is Arab-American and Muslim voters, who have been loyal supporters of his in the past. In Michigan, a critical battleground state, Biden won over 75 percent of the vote in Dearborn, which has a majority Arab population. However, his handling of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has sparked outrage within the Arab-American community in Michigan. Some have even launched an “abandon Biden” campaign to protest his alleged enabling of the bombardment of Palestinians.
During a segment on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront,” young Arab-American voters expressed regret for supporting Biden in the 2020 election due to his responses on the war in Gaza. One former Biden campaign field worker of Arab descent went so far as to say that they would not support the president again, even if it meant seeing former President Trump get re-elected. According to CNN political contributor Van Jones, the nickname “Genocide Joe” is becoming popular among younger Arab-American voters, and he believes it presents a “big problem” for Biden.
Jones suggests that Biden can turn the tide of disappointment in the Arab-American community, but it won’t be easy. A recent statewide poll in Michigan showed Biden trailing Trump by 8 percentage points if they were to face off in the 2024 presidential election. Only 17 percent of likely Michigan voters believe Biden deserves re-election, a historically low number for an incumbent president. This is a significant blow considering Biden carried Michigan by a narrow margin in 2020.
Arab-American activists and voters expressed profound disillusionment with Biden’s stance on the Gaza conflict. They feel that Biden has lost touch with the community that supported him and that he has little chance of winning them back. Nasser Beydoun, a business owner who voted for Biden in 2020, believes that Biden has lost the crucial support of Michigan and may never recover from it.
It appears that Arab-Americans are starting to realize that they placed their trust in a leader who doesn’t truly stand for anything. The Democratic Party has long courted Arab-American and Muslim votes, pretending to care about their concerns in order to secure their support. However, the party’s true commitment seems to lie in its own survival rather than advocating for the issues that matter to Arab-Americans. This wake-up call may lead to a shift in their voting patterns in the future.
