After Donald Trump stole a march on Dearborn from Kamala Harris, one might have predicted that Democrats would rush to rally around the nominee. If so, well, one might have lost that bet in Detroit last night. 

Democrats did rally in Motor City late yesterday, urging members of the United Auto Workers to get out and vote. Progressive House members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) showed up to boost Harris. But Dearborn's Democrat congressional representative Rashida Tlaib refused to concur on an endorsement, instead urgings UAW members to focus on down-ballot races:

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Detroit declined to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris' bid for the presidency Friday at a United Auto Workers union rally as Democrats made a late appeal to get union voters to the polls.

Tlaib, one of few high-ranking Democrats who have not endorsed Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, was among the speakers for the UAW's rally on the lawn of Solidarity House in Detroit. Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, has been critical of the Biden administration's stance on Israel's war on the militant group Hamas in Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed mostly civilians.

Tlaib's abstention is worse than it looks. Earlier in the day, Tlaib accused Trump of being "a proud Islamophobe + a serial liar who doesn't stand for peace." But then she also accused the "Biden admin" of giving "unconditional support for genocide" in the same tweet. "This election didn't have to be close," she concluded, as though abandoning Israel for Hamas would have made Biden and Harris more popular in an electorate that supports Israel 80/20 in the war.

But if Tlaib was really concerned about Trump being a "proud Islamophobe," wouldn't she have taken the lesser of two evils in supporting Harris? Especially as Michigan media have started sounding warnings about the amplified spoiler effect of alternative candidates?

With six third-party candidates on the ballot for president, Michigan is matched only by Wisconsin for having the most options among swing states for protest voters unhappy with the choices the two major parties have given them. Is it possible any of these third-party candidates will be spoilers that affect the race in Michigan, helping Harris or Trump win?

"A lot of the threats for spoiler effects are overblown," said Valdosta State University political science professor Bernard Tamas. But this year, he said he sees potential for Michigan's election to see third-party votes to have an impact. "If there is a state where the spoiler effect will happen, it's most likely in Michigan. I think it's actually probably pretty low in most states unless the votes are extremely close. But Michigan is a little bit of an outlier."

Tlaib's lack of endorsement speaks volumes, not just about Harris but about Trump as well. If Democrats really believed that Trump is a Nazifasciststinkybottom, you wouldn't see this quibbling over foreign policy. The same is true for interns at The Nation, who unendorsed Harris over the same issue. It's also true of the newspapers that decided not to endorse in this cycle, even as their papers hype up the "threat to democracy" that Trump supposedly represents. The hysteria is a sham, a fugazi, intended to panic the masses into stampeding toward a candidate who never got a single vote for this nomination and who refuses to answer questions about her record except to say that she was "raised in a middle class household."

Speaking of mixed messages, though, perhaps the rest of Dearborn has decided to take a pass on Kamala after seeing this segment on CNN. Andrew Kaczynski did a little digging into her campaign messaging to Michigan as compared to Pennsylvania and its Jewish voters, and discovered that Harris' favorite color is plaid:

NEW: Our report tonight on @OutFrontCNN — The Harris campaign is targeting Jews in PA and Arabs in Michigan with entirely different messages on Gaza. PA ads highlight her support for Israel's "ability to defend itself," while Michigan ads say "she will not be silent" on Gaza. pic.twitter.com/tLg8gJ0mLE

— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) November 2, 2024

ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDTIOR: Yeah. That's right. And look, this really illustrates the sort of fine line that the Harris campaign is trying to walk here in the closing weeks closing days of this campaign on the issue of Israel here. You have two entirely different constituencies and they are getting two entirely different messages that are often at times these constituencies have very opposing views on this.

If you are a Jewish person in Pennsylvania, you saw that ad that you're getting, you are getting that ad that talks about how strong, strong she is in Israel. If you're a Muslim voter in Michigan you are getting that ad on Facebook that's talking about -- talking about how she wont be silent on the issue of Gaza.

Now, what's really interesting here is that ad that we that we just played, the one that's going to Jewish voters in Pennsylvania. Now, it sort of sounds like those two clips of her talking about Israel are together, but they actually cut part of it out. Take a listen to what they cut.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: What has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security freedom and self-determination

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KACZYNSKI: And you've seen through that, she -- well, they obviously they cut out that portion of the ad where they talked about Gaza from her DNC speech those two ports were together. They sliced them. They cut that part out.

This probably didn't go over well with Pennsylvania voters either, once they saw the two-faced strategy employed by Harris on Israel. This reinforces the perception that Harris is the Oakland of politicians -- "there's no there there," as Gertrude Stein famously observed. Harris will literally say anything to tell people what they want to hear without having any compunction about it. All she wants is power, without an honest explanation of what she plans to do with it.

Perhaps one can't blame Tlaib for refusing to endorse that. One has to wonder why anyone would.

Update: It looks as though Elon Musk's super-PAC tried to do something similar a few weeks ago, or at least the Daily Beast claimed it did:

@EdMorrissey In the interest of being intellectually honest: Supposedly, Elon Musk did the same thing (simultaneous mixed messages to Jewish and Muslim voters). Supposedly because I don't trust the source, but you can check it out:https://t.co/5Zz9wIOEra

— Jerry Daniels (@ButterfieldT77) November 2, 2024

Even if this is on the level -- and it might be -- this isn't quite the same thing. First off, it's not coming from Trump's campaign. Second, it's more or less highlighting the same issue that Kaczynski does here, which is the double-speak Harris has offered over the last year on Israel and Gaza.