Who knew? MAGA's Antisemitism Crisis
If only they had been warned.
As Stephen King might have observed, the MAGA Right sowed dragon’s teeth for years, and is now horrified to discover they have grown an actual dragon.1
We’ll get to the Right’s utterly predictable antisemitism crisis in a moment, but let’s catch up first.
Surprise: CBS Cuts Donald Trump’s Crypto Corruption Tantrum From ’60 Minutes’ Edit
Slouching toward war with (checks notes) Nigeria? “Trump tells military to plan for ‘action’ over his claim that Nigeria allows killing of Christians” - BBC
Free speech update: President suggests being anti-Trump is ‘probably illegal’ in bizarre rant about Seth Meyers | The Independent
Amazingly. Poll: Most Americans doubt Trump’s commitment to free speech, fair justice - The Washington Post
Happy Monday. A note to readers:
A quick reminder, you are not the crazy ones. But this is the fight of our lifetimes, and the challenge of our generation.
Right now, fewer than 10 percent of our readers are paid subscribers. That’s okay, because this newsletter — and the podcasts — are free. But if you find what I do is worth something to you, I hope you will consider a subscription.
That comes to about 27 cents a day, less if you subscribe annually, for a daily dose of sanity. And both the dogs and I are immensely grateful for your generous support.
Surprised by bigotry?
There’s some loose talk out there about a MAGA “civil war” over resurgent right-wing antisemitism among some of the most prominent figures on the Trumpian Right. When Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation announced that the group was standing by Tucker Carlson after he platformed neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, journalist Yasher Ali called it a “watershed moment.”
This isn’t Kevin bending his knee to Trump…this is something new.
In his statement, Kevin condemns what he calls a “venomous coalition” that is “sowing division” by attacking Tucker.
That “venomous coalition,” includes MAGA Republicans as well as Jewish conservative commentators, activists, and donors. Kevin also frames Nick Fuentes’s rhetoric as worthy of debate, rather than something to be condemned outright.
A shift like this would’ve been unthinkable for Heritage just three years ago.
True. But, still, it seems an overstatement that Heritage’s green light for vile antisemitism is a watershed, since that point was passed long ago. As some of us warned a decade ago, the problem of Donald Trump was not merely Trump himself, but the mouth-breathers he was bringing with him — the winking permissions he granted to the movement we once called the Alt-Right. For ten years, he’s brought them into the mainstream; applauded them, encouraged them, dined with and defended them. He shattered the guardrails; dismissed the gatekeepers; and opened the sluices of bigotry.
What did we think would happen? And why are his supporters, enablers, and rationalizers so surprised now?
As Jon Passantino noted: “Years of tolerance and even embrace of conspiracy theories, election lies, and bigotry have reshaped the MAGA base and its media ecosystem, giving credence to radical voices that have pushed the party further from its traditional conservatism and deeper into grievance and hate.
“Now, even as traditional conservatives attempt to reclaim their moral compass, they’re discovering that the forces they unleashed have grown too powerful to contain.”
If only they had been warned.
Let’s review the kerfuffle, starting with Ted Cruz who was shocked, shocked by Heritage’s defense.
At an event hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition on Thursday night, Cruz pushed back against Roberts’ statement, declaring: “Now is a time for choosing. If you sit there with someone who says Adolf Hitler was very cool and that their mission is to defeat ‘global Jewry,’ and you say nothing, then you are a coward, and you are complicit in that evil.”
Trump fluffer Lindsey Graham called the episode “a wake-up call” for the GOP. “How many times does he have to play footsie with this antisemitic view of the Jewish people and Israel until you figure out that’s what he believes?” Mitch McConnell reposted Roberts’ video on social media, remarking: “Last I checked, ‘conservatives should feel no obligation’ to carry water for antisemites and apologists for America-hating autocrats.”
Even the deeply deplorable Dinesh D’Souza, felt the need to pile on, posting screenshots of messages he’d gotten from the martyred Charlie Kirk, criticizing him for debating Fuentes. “That was a massive mistake,” Kirk wrote. “He’s vermin and you just gave him one of the biggest boosts of his career… You have no idea the damage you did.”
The editors of National Review worried that the friendly Carlson-Fuentes interview made the “Right’s Antisemitism Problem Impossible to Ignore.”
The issue isn’t merely that Carlson “platformed” a white-nationalist influencer.
This framing allows Carlson and his defenders to portray the interview and others like it as an effort at open debate, as a good-faith attempt at engagement with alternative views.
The deeper problem is that Carlson didn’t actually challenge any of Fuentes’s noxious views that he has spelled out quite clearly over the years. Fuentes has engaged in Holocaust denial, called Adolf Hitler “really f***ing cool,” and said that if his movement gained power, it would execute “perfidious Jews.”
But the editors — who have clung somewhat tenaciously to their anti-anti-Trump line — go out of their way to distance Trump himself from the development, noting that the president has ignored Carlson on the issue on of Israel.
But then, how did we get here? It is not as though there were not warnings:
Donald Trump’s Anti-Semitism Problem—And Ours — by Charlie Sykes
And it is not as though the Carlson-Fuentes lovefest took place in a vacuum. Via Politico:
In recent weeks, prominent conservatives have been publicly debating how to respond to a string of antisemitic incidents, most notably a POLITICO report of private group chats in which leaders of the Young Republicans organization praised Hitler and mused about “gassing” their political opponents.
Remember who leapt to their defense.
The leaked chats drew swift rebukes from some prominent Republicans, but other GOP leaders — including Vice President JD Vance — argued against sanctioning other conservatives for telling “edgy, offensive jokes.” On social media, some conservatives have revived the slogan “NETTR” — short for “no enemies to the right” — to argue against policing far-right voices like Fuentes if it means undermining the right’s unity against the left.
And then there was this. Isaac Schorr notes Vance’s dance with the anti-Jewish right:
Carlson and Fuentes’s influence on the right today can be measured in much more than charts and views. The former played a key role in getting Vice President JD Vance his job.
And when an apparent acolyte of the latter suggested, over the course of a question directed at Vance during Turning Point USA’s Wednesday night event at Ole Miss, that Israel’s “religion… openly supports the prosecution (sic) of ours,” Vance left that incendiary claim uncorrected while pouring the gasoline on the fire.
“When people say that Israel is somehow manipulating or controlling the President of the United States, they’re not controlling this President of the United States, which is one of the reasons why we’ve been able to have some of the success that we’ve had in the Middle East,” boasted Vance….
It was a baffling answer; one that can only be explained by a determination that he will need to lean as heavily on Carlson and his audience to secure his next promotion as he did to get his last.
Exit take: We have seen the MAGA future. And it is every bit as ugly as its present.
Nota bene
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board weighs in: “The New Right’s New Antisemites”- WSJ
Amid criticism on Friday, Mr. Roberts scrambled to list Mr. Fuentes’s odiousness, but his initial contribution was to join in the Jew-baiting. His video framed the issue not as antisemitism, but as Christian freedom of conscience in the face of a hostile attempt to impose loyalty to Israel on Americans….
The danger here goes beyond the podcast cabal and a misguided think-tank leader. Mr. Roberts, always eager to say he knows “what time it is,” apparently thought this was the way to “reach young men,” as his chief of staff and key influence Ryan Neuhaus put it shortly after the Fuentes interview. On Friday Heritage reassigned Mr. Neuhaus to another role.
If conservatives—and Republicans—don’t call out this poison in their own ranks before it corrupts more young minds, the right and America are entering dangerous territory.
Monday dogs
A year ago today with our French dog Zok.
Actually, this is an update of what Stephen King did say back in 2016: “Conservatives who for 8 years sowed the dragon’s teeth of partisan politics are horrified to discover they have grown an actual dragon.”
I don't think this new strain of antisemitism is a civil war among MAGA bigotry...it's more like a hateful, racist, bigoted couple bickering over what number to set their Rush Limbaugh sleep number bed to. They will continue sleeping together, no matter what.
Cannot tell you how shocked I was to hear that there are MAGA Republicans who are NOT anti-Semitic racists! Who knew?!?