In July, U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, a Washington Democrat, voted to block $3.3 billion in military assistance to Israel.
That was a major shift for Smith, who previously had supported Israel and received an endorsement from the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC.
Speaking to KUOW’s “Soundside” Tuesday, Smith said, while he initially supported the military package for Israel, he had changed his mind.
“I was persuaded by a number of my constituents that, given what Israel is doing in Gaza, and the West Bank, and in Lebanon right now, anything that signals that we want to strengthen that relationship before Israel changes its behavior on that is the wrong thing to do.”
This was part of a larger conversation on “Soundside” with Smith that also addressed AI regulation, the war with Iran, and the midterms.
That’s better than nothing.
But a normal human being with normal levels of empathy would have come to that conclusion years ago, based on being a decent person who instinctively knows right from wrong and wants innocent people to stop hurting. If this guy needs to be convinced to do the obvious right thing, that says a lot about the kind of man he is.
But hey, at least he can listen and change his mind. That’s more than can be said of all the other GOP psychopaths.
I’m convinced that normal human beings with normal levels of empathy don’t seek high public offices.
The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
I voted for Zaphod
This is why we need a Lottery Democracy!
I agree 100%.
Those who rise above the rest - be it politicians or CEOs - usually do so at the detriment of those they rise above. This means they’re people who are okay to hurt others to reach their goals, and that’s psychopathic in nature.
My Dad used to say good people don’t become rich. He was right.
I think it’s more accurate to say that they’re less likely to succeed in getting public high office. “I want to fix things” is a very normal human being with normal levels of empathy reason to seek high public office.
I read his statement as “APAIC isn’t paying me enough to support them”
I didn’t think this was even possible. Been writing my reps basically every month for years now. They never respond even.
Good I’m not the only one. I’ve sent letters in on various issues and have never heard a single response, to the point I double checked their addresses. Not even a form letter in response.
I think Smith recognizes that he dodged a bullet in this primary. He would have had a challenging time battling it out with a more left-leaning candidate in the general election if the left got its shit together.
But it didn’t, and we ended up with a clown town slap fight between Melissa Chaudhry and Kshama Sawant, neither of which had the juice to win in WA-9 (which includes the ID and all parts southeast Seattle, the south half of Bellevue, and all of Renton, Kent, Auburn and Federal Way – not exactly lefty strongholds).
I know what I’m doing this weekend
