If you’re on the left, despite any disappointments and misgivings you may have with the Democratic Party, you may conclude that they are the lesser evil and vote for them in most elections. This is not normally a difficult case for Democrats to make. Indeed, “not as evil as Republicans” has almost become the party’s tagline. It’s their primary selling point.

In 2024, however, President Joe Biden is struggling to make that case. He’s done a lot wrong during his years in office and a few things right. But his present support for Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza is so monstrous and criminal that no moral nation could allow him to remain president.

First things first: Despite much arguing over the term, Israel’s war against civilians in Gaza is almost certainly genocidal. The evidence is plain:

• At least 34,000 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting escalated after October 7, the large majority of whom are women and children. The number of dead is surely much higher, but the region is so totally devastated that they can no longer keep count.
• The Israeli blockade has triggered widespread famine, with Oxfam reporting that “the entire population of Gaza is currently facing high levels of acute food insecurity.” That’s 2.3 million starving people.
• More than 50% of the buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, including universities, hospitals, and critical infrastructure.
• Israeli leaders routinely pledge total destruction of Gaza and dehumanize Palestinians, setting up a narrative where the victims deserve whatever Israel decides to dole out to them.

By punishing the entire civilian population of Gaza, the Israeli military has exceeded in scale and criminality the terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7. And they have done so with unconditional funding, arms, and diplomatic support from the United States and President Biden. Biden is not just culpable in this genocide; he may bear more responsibility for it than anyone else on Earth. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu simply couldn’t carry it out without Biden’s blessing.

Reelecting a man who’s perpetuating a genocide is unthinkable. There are no good alternatives. Donald Trump will likely be just as bad, if not worse, on the question of Gaza. And simply put, if Biden loses, Trump wins. That’s a horrifying prospect for Palestinians and the planet. But if our system is so corrupt and amoral that it can’t present even one candidate who refuses to aid and abet genocide, then it deserves to crumble and begin anew.

American presidents do terrible things routinely. Warmongering comes with the territory of managing a global capitalist empire. But there are some crimes for which there can be no forgiveness or grace. Deeds which, once done, put you in league with the worst monsters of history. Genocide is chief among these. We can’t keep allowing politicians to get away with this sort of thing by rewarding them with more power.

Now, protests and occupations demanding an end to U.S. support for the genocide have emerged on university campuses across the country. Police have cracked the skulls of college students and professors, staging mass arrests and conducting heavily militarized raids in places like Columbia. Biden responded to the unrest not by condemning police brutality or offering any sympathy to the protesters’ legitimate concerns. Instead, he painted protesters broadly as lawless and antisemitic, claims for which there is scant evidence if any.

It’s a curious strategy that Biden and the Democrats are running: Carry out a genocide, then use state stormtroopers to beat and silence the young people who oppose it and whose vote they desperately need to win. Somehow, unleashing state violence on a core constituency and telling them to “get over yourself” seems like an irresponsible way for the defenders of democracy to campaign during a must-win election against the most dangerous fascist in American history.

On climate change, the social safety net, labor, ballot access, and rights important to women, immigrants and minorities, Democrats are generally at least marginally better than Republicans. That holds true in the Biden vs. Trump rematch. These are hugely important issues and many progressives will make that calculation and vote for Biden on that basis.

Yes, Donald Trump is a serially corrupt, pathologically lying, habitually felonious, fundamentally indecent, and totally amoral crook. He will do damage that will last generations. He must be kept out of the White House. More than that, if he showed up at your house you’d be ill-advised to let him in.

But Biden is sanctioning, funding, and arming the worst humanitarian crisis on earth. Whatever damage Trump will do in four years might be worth suffering if it shifts the country’s political calculus such that an alternative to the Democratic and Republican super-hawks has a chance to emerge. We might teach the Democratic Party that its lust for war, violence, and profit will not be tolerated and pave the way for a new party.

Our lesser of two evils system was always destined to be a race to the bottom, and now we’re there, voting between two genocidal geriatrics. If these are the kinds of decisions we’re having to make, then we’ve gone way too far over the edge. We might be better off abstaining from the election altogether and finding new ways to oppose the two nihilistic death cults we call political parties.