Abdul el Sayed’s Senate campaign in Michigan, unlike his primary campaign, incorporates a little-noticed, but crucial, messaging shift. He presents as a mainstream Democrat, a capitalist, and an FDR-style economic populist with an “America First-style” framing. His “Medicare for All” does not seek to tax billionaires. Instead, he proposes cutting $3.8 billion in yearly foreign aid to “genocidal” Israel, even though “Medicare for All” is projected to cost $3 trillion or more annually.
It does not seem to matter that the math does not add up. The politics does. El Sayed has turned boilerplate Democratic Socialists of America anti-Zionism and socialism into a much more attractive message. Don’t send money abroad. Spend it at home. Aid to Israel is now framed as a pocketbook issue.
