What struck me as I watched the attack ad over and over was just how blatant the rigging of our democracy is. The ad’s contents are absolute horseshit. They are in complete bad faith (how can you note that he called Obama’s program “ineffectual” without noting that the full phrase is “commendable, if ineffectual”?) They are designed to make voters think the advertiser cares about misogyny, when their actual issue is Israel. They are pushed out to every Michigan television through millions of dollars in spending. Their sole purpose is to destroy El-Sayed’s reputation and make people falsely think he’s a misogynist.

This is how AIPAC works, though. Instead of waging a fair fight, and trying to make the case for Israel and persuade voters that supporting Israel is worth their tax money, the organization wages a dirty campaign and hides its hand. (“United Democracy Project.”) It’s completely antithetical to how an authentic democracy would function, where candidates would have roughly equal funding and would make their case on the issues. But AIPAC has no qualms about flooding races with money to try to warp the outcome. Stevens actually got elected in 2022 with the help of $4.2 million in AIPAC money. In that race, she defeated Andy Levin, who is Jewish. Stevens isn’t Jewish, but because she’s pledged to faithfully serve Israel’s interests in Congress (sending more weapons, voting to sanction the ICC for going after Netanyahu, etc.), AIPAC would rather have her in Congress than Levin, who is a critic of Israel.