There are benefits to being outraged, but what I’ve noticed is that if you just tell people how bad things are, they give up, they disengage, they don’t want it anymore. TO DO. But if you tell them it’s bad, and here’s what we can do about it, that changes the dynamic. It gives them hope. This gives them a way out.

How have your conversations with Arab and Muslim voters gone, and what do you think about the strategy of voting for a third party to send a message to the Democratic Party?

What I remind people is that I wish we had the privilege to say to hell with the consequences. I wish I could say that we survived four years of Trump, that we will survive another four years, but I can’t do that because the Supreme Court has completely changed the landscape of what is and is not legal for a president to do. So I try to explain these things to them, but first of all I listen. I listen a lot and sometimes I argue, because I’m very stubborn.

I am not one of those who believe that a vote for a third party is a vote for Trump. The way I explain it to people is that it’s one less vote to stop Trump. It’s one less thing that strengthens the obstacle to a Trump presidency.

I want to be very clear, because the Palestinians in particular and the Lebanese in particular are ashamed of anyone who blames us for any decision we make during this cycle. I sincerely think so. Leave us alone. Because the question before us is: “we know we are doing these terrible things to your family members, including displacing them and killing them, by the way, but can you please save me ?” And to me, this audacity is simply astonishing.

Talking to my community is really like talking about politics at a funeral, it’s so inappropriate and it’s so horrible, and it’s just a shame that the only way this issue can continue to attract attention is attention either through the prism of electoral politics. That’s why we see people using their vote the way they do, because they think it’s the only microphone they have. People who have lost loved ones should spend time grieving, should spend time with family, should spend time not grieving.

And I really need politics to reach a much more empathetic level. I really need us to understand because the fact is that if we apply this perspective of empathy, it also makes right-wing fascism much easier to destroy, because you set that limit, you set that baseline. And fair or not, no matter what we choose to do this election cycle, we still have a responsibility.

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