See Ya, Alan. I’m Still a Dem.

Alan Dershowitz needs attention.

That’s why the Harvard law school professor and one-time liberal icon announced last week on the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal that he had forsaken the Democratic Party to become a registered Republican.

Let’s leave aside the central question of why anybody cares anymore and pretend that we do.

I found Dershowitz’ essay interesting mostly because I sometimes ask myself the same question: why do I go on being a Democrat when I disagree so strongly with the party’s hard-left, which has such a stranglehold over my party?

Dershowitz is breaking with the party over one issue: Israel. He’s a strong supporter while he perceives the party as having been won over by Hamas, for all intents and purposes. For starters, that’s just wrong. If anything the Middle East has Democrats tied in knots. Dershowitz is right that, on the hard-left, there are adamant supporters of the Palestinian cause and some of them cross the line into anti-Semitism. But there are others who are almost as strongly in support of Israel as he is.

And then there are plenty of us in the middle. We support Israel and condemn Hamas while also being repulsed by Benjamin Netanyahu and believing that his response to the October 7th attacks went way too far.

Also, for many Democrats, the Middle East just isn’t top of mind. It doesn’t generate the strong reaction, one way or another, that it does for Dershowitz or for the pro-Palestinian hard-left. In fact, no recent poll finds that voters offer the Middle East as an issue that is anywhere near their top concerns. This stuff is something that only a small sliver of Americans feel passionately about.

What struck me about Dershowitz’ argument is how a renowned Harvard lawyer could make such a weak case. To give his cry for attention added pop, he doesn’t hold back. He writes:

I believe that the Democratic Party’s hostility to Israel represents a deeper and more dangerous shift away from the center and toward a radical approach that is bad for America and the free world. So I intend to work hard to prevent the Democrats from gaining control of the House and Senate, and I urge those who share my concerns about the increasing influence of radicalism in the Democratic Party to vote, campaign and contribute for continued Republican control of Congress. 

To which I can only respond, seriously, man?

On the one hand, it’s a measure of the man’s ego that he actually thinks he can make the slightest bit of difference in November. The Democrats are riding a Trump-fueled speeding freight train and only they themselves can derail it. Don’t put it past them, but don’t credit Alan Dershowitz for any failure to deliver in the fall.

Even while I may agree to some extent that too much of the party has drifted over to the pro-Palestinian side, that hardly makes up for everything that’s wrong with the Republicans right now. Does Dershowitz really want to keep Donald Trump in unchecked power for another two years? He really wants more spur-of-the-moment wars? He really wants more masked ICE agents terrifying innocent families, only some of which might even be in the country illegally, and as if that justified it the first place? He really wants the Justice Department and the FBI converted to tools of political intimidation? He really wants more of the pure exhaustion of one outrageous, stupid, crude and ugly remark after another? One senseless and fact-free policy about-face after another? Really, man?

As I noted last week, I want my party to win in November and then focus on just one thing; winning again in 2028. As I said then, I think it’s doubtful that it will have the discipline to pull that off. I think it’s far more likely that the hard-left will squander the chance to put MAGA out of power for the long-run. It can’t help itself.

Nonetheless, I’m not going to miss the chance to at least put a speed bump in Trump’s way when I get the chance.

The Democratic Party is a leaky boat in the midst of stormy seas. If this thing were tied up in port on a calm, sunny day I wouldn’t go anywhere near it. But, with the sharks circling, it’s all we’ve got. So, I’m staying on board. Good luck out there, Alan.