Towards the end of last year during one of the debates between Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo, the former governor attacked Mamdani by saying “the Assemblyman will not denounce Hasan Piker.”
During the still ongoing Democratic primary race in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed came under significant fire for having Piker speak at one of his campaigning events.
These are important, high-profile elections, and Piker is a Twitch streamer who talks about politics online, so why is his involvement so important? Why is most of the criticism coming from Democrats? Why is everyone suddenly deeming Hassan Piker important?
I’ve never really cared for Piker, not because of his political beliefs, I just think he’s mind-numbingly boring and doesn’t provide any interesting political analysis. However, he has become one of the largest political figures online, gaining his fair share of controversies along the way. But why have Democratic politicians and pundits begun to attack him specifically? Its Israel. The answer is Israel.
Over the next few years, the Democratic party is going to have to decide if it wants to continue losing and just let the Republicans do whatever they want, or if they want to condemn the genocide that Israel is perpetrating and attempt to make labor part of their coalition again.
Right now, the Democrats are holding onto their most unpopular policy positions for dear life and attacking Piker because he is the loudest voice advocating for social programs and criticizing Israel.
Currently, 60% of Americans have an unfavorable view of Israel according to a study from Pew Research Center. This number jumps to 80% when only looking at Democrat and Democrat-leaning independents.
Also, according to a different study from Pew Research Center, 66% of Americans believe it is the government’s responsibility to make sure everyone has healthcare.
Decentering Israel and expanding social programs are overwhelmingly popular positions, yet the Democrats have run the last three campaigns on “at least we aren’t the other guy.”
Over the last few decades, the Democratic Party at large has completely given up on economics and has begun instead campaigning almost exclusively on social issues. That’s great if you are trying to attract members of the professional-managerial class with progressive ideals, but the average working-class person only cares about being able to afford to live.
Nine percent of New Yorkers who voted for Zohran Mamdani also voted for Trump. The only thing people care about right now is the cost of living and yet the democrats continue to ignore that.
Additionally, refusing to level any criticism towards Israel risks pushing the average person toward political extremes, because those are the only people willing to talk about the genocide. It’s one of the main reasons Nick Fuentes has been able to make a comeback in the last few years.
Fuentes hosts America First, a program that spreads alt-right political views including homophobia and antisemitism.
Democrats are completely ceding the anti-Israel ground to the Nazis. Israel is so unpopular in the United States that I would bet a lot of money the first presidential candidate to condemn them is all but guaranteed to win.
Ultimately, it’s not about Piker, it’s about what he represents: a growing section of the Democratic party that is tired of them just being “Republican Lite,” but the DNC cares more about their AIPAC funding than they do winning any elections.
