When 83% Say No, But Slaughter and Starvation Continue in Gaza.
This isn’t just about Gaza. It’s about the machinery of empire.
According to the latest Gallup poll, Americans now oppose Israel’s war on Gaza by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. Among Democratic voters, opposition has reached a staggering 83%. That’s not a statistical blip. That’s a moral blast.
And yet, the bombs keep falling, and the mass starvation continues.
Israel’s war—rightfully named a genocide by the International Court of Justice and by most human rights experts—continues unabated, fully funded by tens of billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars and an uninterrupted flow of American weapons. Guns, bombs, bullets: all stamped “Made in America,” all delivered with bipartisan approval.
“This isn’t just negligence; it is a calculated policy of deprivation… nothing short of the crime against humanity of extermination, and an act of genocide.” — Tirana Hassan, Executive Director, HRW,
This is what democratic dissonance looks like. Those of my generation saw it with the war in Vietnam. Like the war on Gaza, it was supported by the Democratic Party leaders, even though much of the party’s younger base was out in the streets opposing it. In 1968, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago became a flashpoint for us.
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When public opinion becomes irrelevant to policy, when a substantial majority of the people, including 83% of a party’s base, oppose a war and its leadership doubles down, we’re not just witnessing a foreign policy failure; we’re watching the death of democracy.
The good news is that Congress may finally be beginning to fracture. Sen Bernie Sanders forced votes to block arms sales. Twenty-four joined him in voting to stop further weapons shipments to Israel. And yet, the White House remains unmoved. The weapons flow. The children starve.
This isn’t just about Gaza. It’s about the machinery of empire—how it grinds on until there’s a critical mass of resisters ready to stop it. The question now isn’t whether Americans oppose the war. They do. The question is: What happens when the people say no, and party leaders turn a deaf ear?
In the words of Frederick Douglass:
Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.
