The president of identity politics, President Joe Biden, may be having a bit of an identity crisis himself.
Is he the president of the United States of America and a friend to its allies or the appeaser of minorities that make up much of his voting base?
Forget about reaching out to Republicans, the president who ran on being a “unifier” is now having problems keeping the factions in his own party together.
Biden is facing growing unrest and a possible mass exodus from a previously loyal segment of his base — Arab-American and Muslim voters.
Biden has long enjoyed strong support from Arab-American voters in Michigan, a critical battleground state.
In 2020, he won over 75 percent of the vote in Dearborn, which has a majority Arab population.
However, Biden now faces growing outrage within the Michigan Arab-American community over his administration’s stance regarding Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Some Arab-Americans have launched an “abandon Biden” campaign to protest his handling of the crisis, which they see as enabling the bombardment of Palestinians, according to Fox News.
Anti-Biden chants at protest in Dearborn the night before Biden’s expected visit to Michigan. Organized by local Arab-American groups. pic.twitter.com/RcKoRzPAcV
— Niraj Warikoo (@nwarikoo) February 1, 2024
A segment on “Erin Burnett OutFront” on CNN Thursday focused on Biden’s efforts to mitigate the political fallout of this backlash in a state he narrowly won. The report featured interviews with young Arab-American voters who say they regret backing Biden in 2020, given his responses on the war on Gaza, according to Fox News.
Will younger Democrats abandon Biden in 2024?
A former Biden campaign field worker of Arab descent vowed not to support the president again, even if it means that former President Trump gets re-elected as a result.
“We have seen four years of Trump and we have seen four years of Biden and people don’t really see a difference between the presidents,” the former staffer said.
During the segment, CNN political contributor Van Jones told Burnett that the Arab-American issue is a “big problem” for Biden.
“There are four syllables that are aimed at him. ‘Genocide Joe.’ That is becoming something you’re hearing from the younger people, the younger voters in the Arab-American community,” Jones said.
Van Jones: ‘Big Problem’ for Biden Is Young Voters Calling Him ‘Genocide Joe’ https://t.co/TT0RWbjULK
— SilverThread IsStrongerThanYouThink (@leslie_hileslie) February 2, 2024
“I think that he can turn it around, but you’ve got to be honest right now, you’ve got disappointment in the base with how he’s handling the war in Gaza,” Jones continued.
“Now, the reality is Joe Biden has deep ties and long friendships in the Muslim community, Arab community. He can go back there, he can get back there but he’s got his work cut out for him right now,” Jones said.
But that may be easier said than done.
The results of a statewide poll published in January by the Glengariff Group and commissioned by The Detroit News and WDIV-TV show President Joe Biden trailing former President Donald Trump by 8 percentage points in Michigan if the two were to face off in the 2024 presidential election, according to the Detroit News.
The poll of 600 likely Michigan voters found that only 17 percent think Biden deserves re-election, a historically low number for an incumbent president.
Meanwhile, 47 percent said they would vote for Trump compared to just 39 percent for Biden if the election were held today.
Biden carried Michigan in 2020 by about 3 points.
Interviews with Arab-American activists and voters highlighted profound disillusionment with Biden’s stance.
Business owner Nasser Beydoun, who voted for Biden in 2020, said about Biden, “He lost a constituency that voted overwhelmingly for him in Michigan. And if he wants to see re-election, he needs Michigan. And right now he doesn’t have it, NPR reported.
“And I don’t think he’ll ever come back from it,” he added.
Arab-Americans are starting to realize that they put their trust in a leader who doesn’t really stand for anything.
The Democratic Party has paid lip service to Arab-Americans, pretending to care about their concerns to harvest their votes.
Although Arab-Americans and Muslims tend to be less liberal on issues like abortion, gay marriage and other social issues, they have consistently backed Democratic candidates.
Their votes stemmed from a faith that Democrats shared an unspoken commitment to advocating for Arab-American concerns, no matter the cause.
That dream has now abruptly ended.
Arab-Americans are now waking up to the reality that the only thing the Democratic Party stands for is its own survival.
