A Democratic National Committee member is proposing a symbolic resolution for consideration at a DNC meeting next month to reject the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s massive spending on Congressional races.

The measure, sponsored by a young DNC member from Florida, could put party leaders on the spot about the pro-Israel lobbying group’s outsized role in Democratic primaries.

A lobbying behemoth that for decades courted lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, AIPAC has become an increasingly toxic brand in the Democratic Party.

In recent years, Israeli leaders and their backers in Washington have become more closely aligned with Republican politicians. At the same time, however, AIPAC’s super PAC has focused tens of millions in spending on Democratic primary races.

  • TwilitSky@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Let’s strip away all the context here. No Israel. No U.S. no Democrats/Republicans.

    Imagine I told you a fictional country, the United Grapes of Dumberica was formed.

    Now imagine I told you that the government of this country had people from foreign governments both friendly and hostile giving them money.

    In what logical universe would would that be legal?

  • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Why Kat Abughazaleh lost her race due to APIC spending in that primary. The person who got the nom took a ton of their money.

    And it isn’t going away. This is how our elected officials funnel our taxpayers money int their pockets. Why do you think they vote to give Israeli billions of dollars each year.

    • The Stoned Hacker@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Daniel Biss says he didn’t take any AIPAC money but was also not willing to denounce aid to Israel on the same level as Kat did. I haven’t looked enough into whether or not he accepted shadow money from AIPAC, but its very telling that AIPAC celebrated his win over Kat even though their opebly funded candidate Laura Fine lost.

      • WhoIsTheDrizzle@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Laura Fine took a ton of AIPAC money to split the vote from Kat. They were also paying influencers $1500 a post to disparage Kat. She’s Palestinian, so they threw millions against her in the final days of the race to ensure democracy didn’t function.

  • neuracnu@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 months ago

    This is a giant waste of time.

    A) Restricting AIPAC just means capital and influence will flow from other, more obscure sources. It’s squeezing a closed tube of toothpaste.

    B) PACs should be illegal, full stop. So long as PACs exist, capital will continue to flow into our politics. And as the cost burden of jumping through regulatory hoops and sidestepping ridiculous half-measures like this one is trivial for large donors, PACs disproportionally benefit highly-funded causes as opposed to those powered by small donations.

    No half measures. Make PACs illegal.

    • Optional@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      But the gEnOsiiiiiiiDE!!1! /s

      Just saying, screaming lefties won’t scream if it doesn’t say Zionism on the tin. So - sure, use the undemocratic tools provided by the fascist courts. Dog forbid anyone dig further than one layer into an issue.

      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Maybe if democrats credibly supported anything else, you wouldn’t have to be so dismissive of the anti-genocide left.

  • GaMEChld@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I feel like politicians are completely unaware of the fact they can take money from everyone and still ignore them and vote the way they were elected to.

    Like, lobbying is basically a targeted advertisement to politicians.

    They act like advertisement is some kind of law they have to follow.

    So they’re either morons or they’re deliberately corrupt. Either way, it ain’t being good at their job. Any other job they’d be fired.