I’ve made a lot of fun of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s accusation that California’s fires aren’t the result of climate change, but instead were started by Jewish Space Lasers financed by George Soros. Greene and her loony-tunes ilk are perfect representations of an anti-Semitism that continues to attribute super-powers to an invented Jewish “cabal.” (Elders of Zion, anyone?)
If only we Jews were really that powerful…
There’s a robust academic literature attempting to explain some people’s need to pin the world’s woes on an identifiable, deliberate and malevolent group–and as Hitler figured out, it helps if the group chosen to be the bad guys is numerically small and unable to effectively protect itself.
Whatever has made Jews the “chosen” people to blame, it seems the contemporary GOP has become the preferred home for today’s anti-Semites, whose versions are marginally less whack-a-doodle than Greene’s, and for that reason, pose more of a threat.
A recent article in the Intercept recounted the then-Republican rejection of Pat Buchanan’s version of anti-Semitism, then contrasted it with what is occurring today.
Trump resurrected Buchanan’s strain of populist nationalism. He’s always nurtured business relations and personal ties with Jewish people, but his revival of “America First” — both the slogan and the ideas surrounding it — inevitably excited antisemites. In 2016, he tweeted out an image using a Star of David to symbolize Hillary Clinton’s “corruption.” The Trump campaign tweeted an altered version after an outcry but then ran an ad in the campaign’s closing days decrying “a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities” coupled with images of Janet Yellen, George Soros, and Lloyd Blankfein — all of whom are financial figures who happen to be Jewish.
Trump attacked his critics as a cabal of “globalists” and fixated on the secret powers exerted by Soros, who has displaced (or in some cases joined) the Rothschilds in the imagined role of secret Jewish financier orchestrating a series of catastrophes for profit. The explosion of militant paranoia that followed Trump’s rise — from the Oath Keepers to QAnon — has appeared both online and in the real world with occasionally deadly consequences in places like Charlottesville and Pittsburgh. Although much of this activity has taken place outside the party system, the energies on the right have crept into the Republican Party.
The article went on to report anti-Semitic statements by high-level Republicans (including a spokesperson for Ron DeSantis) and the close relationship of Doug Mastriano, Pennsylvania’s GOP nominee for governor, with the ultra-right-wing social-media site Gab. (The site promotes Christian Nationalist themes, and its chief executive is an “out and proud” antisemite “who has promoted Mastriano as a fellow enemy of the Jews.”)
Is it fair to criticize the Republican Party for the views of its most distasteful members? The Intercept article is lengthy, with a number of other examples, but I found the closing paragraphs pretty persuasive.
There is a simple test to measure their influence. If antisemites were too marginal to pose any danger, it would be easy enough for the party to cut them off. (If you want to know what it looks like when Republicans decide to really throw somebody out of their party, look at their treatment of Liz Cheney.) Instead, they vacillate. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy declined to comment on Gosar’s attendance at white nationalist Nick Fuentes’s conference. McCarthy has likewise promised to restore Greene’s committee privileges if Republicans regain the majority.
Prosecutors have found that Trump’s January 6 rally attracted a significant number of people who share Hitler quotes, hold membership in neo-Nazi organizations, have a fixation with “white genocide,” and the like, making the party leadership’s desire to sweep the whole thing under the rug all the more dangerous. Whatever misgivings the remaining old-line Republicans may have toward the militant cadres Trump inspired, Republicans fear their political and even terroristic power. They no longer imagine they have the gatekeeping force to exclude the antisemites, less still to steer the party away from the kind of paranoid rhetoric that invites their participation.
The GOP’s overriding goal is to win, and it has decided this means accepting the support of anybody who will provide it. For three-quarters of a century, antisemites were locked out of major American politics or at least had to keep their bigotry quiet. Now the door is open.
I guess a Republican Party that has been deserted by people who are pro-choice, pro- LGBTQ, pro-public school, pro-gun safety regulation and pro-environment needs to replace those groups with whoever is handy…
However, watching them scrape the bottom of the barrel is making me feel distinctly unsafe.
no matter how its spelled,its all flack to keep,the others thinking about what the republicans are doing to everyone. liking it to be used like a cheap,w,,,,. looking at the attepts to defraud the mind of the ignorant,and keeping them stired up about anything but,whats going on behind any curtian in congress. the commites still needs sign ons for getting things done. both parties. seems only when the right isle of death dislikes something,its only to denounce good intentions turns into tax and kill everyone by the liberals. but hell behold ya denounce the rights sides claims,then ya get threats of violence by some 2nd amendment looneis,spurred on by agent orange. fact is, the rebublican party stands on no platform to support the working class. except when wall street sees a slump in thier numbers. now bring om a civil disruption,and we,ll see how fast the gun owners,(since privacy isnt a vertue anymore,)how marshall law gets them shut down and and thier guns removed. anytime wall street see a threat,congress will react in haste..
Jack is correct in saying it is all performative, and the more outrageous they are, the more media cameras follow them. The Democrats looking down on them is also performative. Speeches about “losing our democracy” stoke fears of “good educated Americans.”
It’s all a ruse.
The 60 Minutes dialogue with Joe Biden was pathetic. Unfortunately, they played it down so soft it was one step above bootlicking.
An independent journalist like Abby Martin would have destroyed Biden with three questions.
The idea that we are heading for another faceoff of Biden vs. Trump while real leaders gather for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization tells you what you need to know about the current stage of decline in the USA. So if you live in the West, better fasten your seat belts.
Ken Burns latest film is now airing on PBS. Timely work. Please watch and let others know.
The hate and stupidity of the 30’s is rising again. It never really goes away
https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/us-and-the-holocaust/
Everyone should be watching the PBS documentary “the U.S. and the Holocaust “. In the vein of history repeats itself, we all must understand what this country is doing to itself. Even the creators of this documentary, stated, it may not be an exact repeat, but it rhymes with it.
People truly need to wake up, we are on the edge of losing our democracy. The Republicans scream fascism and socialism against the Democrats. But the actions recently by the Republican governors is not one lick humane. It was strictly a stunt, rather than putting heads together to work out solutions.
The Supreme Court’s actions , thanks to the appointees by the former guy, have pushed this country back 50 years. All pretty disgusting to me.
We are acting like some degenerant beings, that the last time we did this, God sent plagues, floods, etc. Hmmm, does history repeat itself, or not?
The second-last paragraph could be written in reverse. For at least 30 years, the GOP has been actively courting single-issue voting groups: fanatics of the 2nd amendment, anti-abortion, etc.
Well, considering the Christians in the Middle ages refusing to handle their own money, “Usury” (banned from lending money at interest) used the Jews that had been relegated to ghettos, a phrase which was coined in Vienna, to to keep the books of the wealthy. The Jews of the time brought to the table of commerce, their knowledge of finance including bills of exchange. They were the money changers/money lenders, the ones that we heard about in the Bible book of Matthew.
The Jews had designed methods of saving and exchange that stimulated commerce moving towards the age of enlightenment. (See the character Shylock in Merchant of Venice.)
This brought great wealth to cities like Vienna and Antwerp, which turned them into commercial hubs!
But, the ghettos that the Jews were relegated to, were former parts of the cities where Jews had congregated and immigrated/migrated to, had curfews and actual guards to prevent aforementioned Jews to mingle freely with the general population 24/7.
Of course, this created a mystique, it also gave rise to specific family names, such as goldsmith, or coppersmith, or silversmith, or goldstein, or silverstein, or diamond, or Ruby or Green, even the term Jewelry identified those Jewish families and lineages as to what their trade actually was.
The term “Jouel”(beautiful or treasure) was used because it’s similarity to the word Jew, and evolved into the word Jewelry because Jews controlled much of the ancient gemstone trade starting around 15th century Antwerp.
Without a doubt, this led to many conspirators or conspiracy theorists of the day to cast aspersions on the Jewish community.
Unfortunately the Jewish community and communities of the day were not given credit for their intellect and skillful business senses, as the Jews jumped into the burgeoning void and locking up those jobs and trade which created such immense wealth.
Also, the migration Westward of Catholics and Jews from Orthodox Russia, show the foresight of the Jewish people gaining the upper hand and being quicker on the draw than their Christian contemporaries.
Unfortunately for the Jews of the time, they unwittingly became pawns for Christian hatred and conspiracies. And absolutely led to the first so-called Ghettos mentioned earlier in this comment.
The tightness or one could say closeness of the Jewish community also created more conspiracies. Because many of the Christians did not understand the Bond ofJewish religion. There absolutely was a large element of jealousy because of the willingness of Jews to help their brethren be successful. Evolving down to what you hear today about Jewish subversive Cabals and such.
I wrote about this on this very blog about 5 years ago. A time when Marv was making quite a few comments and of course enemies. And which allowed Marv and myself to become friends, not just with me but also with members of my family. I really miss that guy, I checked years ago, and he really was/is everything he said he was/is! And, he’s still doing his thing, lol! Love it!
He is an example of how an individual expressing appropriate opinion can be ostracized, not unlike the Jews as a whole in the historical sense. So, when we discuss Cabals and such, we should use caution, not to lean to the side of hypocrisy becoming Cabal’s ourselves!
I believe King David called it double-heartedness, one heart for public consumption and the other for private. The term “Two Faced” actually is derived from this. (Psalm 12:2) or one that makes their voice gracious and knowledgeable but in reality they are knowingly spreading falsehoods, Proverbs 23: 7 and 26:25.
Scripture and or history is indelibly linked. It has actually explained very well what is happening today. But political hypnosis and willful delusion along with Alternate Realities of all spots, stripes and flavors, allow narratives that compete and divide, depending on personal viewpoints and opinions, hello hypocrisy, reality be damned!
And yes, if you love scripture and you love history? History has repeated itself over and over again for many millennia! Take a hint from the prophet Daniel, the Hebrew scripture prophet and the handwriting on the wall. I’ll leave it at that, but you should research it!
“Is it fair to criticize the Republican Party for the views of its most distasteful members?” Yes. Absolutely. What did the GOP leadership think they were going to get when they embraced the Southern Strategy and exploited even the most hateful, delusional fringes of what came with it for votes? What’s shocking and terrifying is not that it worked, but that it worked so well and with such broad scope and continues to do so. It is no longer possible to call oneself a Republican and distance oneself from the bigotry, hate, and anti-democratic authoritarianism which the Party now lives and breathes and simply is. The GOP cannot be salvaged; the days of rational, responsible, even sometimes admirable Republicans are dead and gone. So dead and gone that it may no longer be possible to defeat the extremism at the voting booth.
They are not pretending or hiding this. Quoth their prophet: “There are good people on both sides”. November will tell us much – deniers winning or losing secretary of state races, more nut cases becoming senators and/or governors…less than 50 days, folks.
If any Republican thinks we’re being unfair to Republicans when we criticize the party for its bizarre rhetoric, that Republican needs to stand up and speak out against that rhetoric. The leadership of the party has failed to stand for anything, much less anything noble. They must be soundly defeated. In fact they must lose by a big enough margin to make it plain, even to them that they have lost. I don’t think that will happen, but I’m praying to all the gods in all the pantheons that it does.
John:
add the Mormon religion to the same pact..
(realizing that this post is actually about antisemitism)
If there really were Space Lasers, Mar a Lago would be a smoldering ruin.
The GOP has LONG been quietly, and not so quietly, anti-semitic; quietly, almost gentlemanly so, but
so, nonetheless. They had to have known of Trump, and his father’s anti-semitism, racism, but allowed
him to loudmouth them into accepting this sick clown as their chosen candidate, in ’16.
Now, he’s trying to bully the DOJ, and anyone else, with threats of “PROBLEMS” should they indict him.
And the Q crazies already think he’s their god-thing’s chosen one.
Attorney General Garland, spoke at Ellis Island, on Saturday, one can read at Heather Cox Richardson’s
latest posting, emphasizing that whatever else the country is based upon, it is based upon “the rule of law.”
This is antithetical to Trump’s world, wherein he is the rule of whatever serves his toxic purposes! And, if
blatant anti-semitism is among those seamy tools, he will not hesitate to pull it out and wave it! Oh, was
there a sexual innuendo there, sure, Mr. God-chosen will grab anything he can.
seems being led by someone is for lazy people,ones who follow,repeat and mimick who they follow. this country has a collapseble feature,its education. somehow along the way,it has left the common good out of education. it is a required course? (todays needed civics)maybe it should be. if the CRT question irritates some,then call em what they are,bigots. if little whoever cant stand and watch the world as it is,then whos in charge next time around? im sure as educators here,you have watched the degrading of education via some cheap rhetoric to do so. if the republicans even spare a word of good, it obvious they are lieing about something. time to call the republicans out ,,what is the end game,you want?
maybe Biden will next round, during a debate,unless, media mogals decide its to controversal.
recent Robert Reich about being on dr phil (of what) says it all.
im setting up for the Ken Burns run,,the holocaust is a deep subject i studied before i was 12. the neighborhood i was raised in was as diverse as any could be,and still full of WW2 vets that came home and spread the word about facism. the books in that refrence library,i still vividly remember,the text and photos,of what can be,and whats still,possible.
There are predictable, measurable cultural personality traits that reveal a person’s tendencies towards right-wing extremism. I believe that one of them is the propensity toward treating groups as more or less homogeneous. That’s something that we all do but often out of conversation convenience, while those in the right-wing brand more or less see the world that way.
Thus they see a world in which, as Donald Trump famously said, all immigrants are rapists, drug smugglers, and lazy parasites living off of “us”. Hitler used the same trick to gather like supporters when he blamed the Jews for all of Germany’s considerable ills of those times.
It makes for great politics and, as the Murdochs have revealed to us, entertaining them with words and images and people that reinforce how they see the world is a great business.
Mark Twain once said that “History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.”
Read “American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy” by David Corn David Corn
and
https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/us-and-the-holocaust/
a film by Ken Burns
Was flying home on Sunday and the lady sitting next to me had Fox News live on her screen. Her face was glazed over and every minute or so she would smile and gently nod in approval. This upset me so much that I put my screen on MSNBC!
Be sure to watch Ken Burns’ latest documentary
“The US and the Holocaust”. A reminder of how this has happened and…can happen again.
First they came for the Democrats….
It is this:
White.
Christian.
Nationalism.
This time the American bishops and the Evangelical pastors are in it together, so yes, it’s a big club, but non-whites, non-Christians, and non-patriots need not apply.
Needless to say, once they take over the Jews will not be safe.
As Yoda said, “If you are not afraid, you will be. You will be.”
Big Jack!
You are so right my brother! Why do you think Mormons baptized dead people? Because when the individuals themselves become god’s, all of those that they got baptized even if they’re dead, lol, they will be their angels of their own world and do the bidding of their new god!
An “independent journalist like Abby Martin”…? Really? You mean the Abby Martin who was a 9/11 Truther, believed water fluoridation was an program to poison Americans, appeared as a presenter on Russian propaganda TV, defended Hugo Chavez, accepted funding from Venezuela for her “independent” journalism (when Russia was lo longer funding her), and has rarely met a left-wing conspiracy idea that she didn’t subscribe to (while at the same time defending people like Tulsi Gabbard). Yeah, I don’t see any major politicians wanting to be interviewed by someone with that sort of “independence”.
Ukraine is shelling INSIDE Russia.
Doom marches on.
I know Sheila – it is sad that while simultaneously being part of the International Jewish Communist Conspiracy and the International Jewish Capitalist Bankers Cabal I don’t have a penny to show for it. 8(
Actually, it is scary. I thought this country was past this. I remember “Jewish” hospitals, country clubs, and law firms because Jews weren’t allowed elsewhere. My mother told me of being refused employment because she put “Jewish” under religion on the forms (although her fantasy was to rewind time and write “Atheist”) — I thought that kind of open bigotry was history — foolish me.
As I see large numbers of other non-WASP people move into positions in academia, medicine, and corporate America, I wonder how many others will be targeted. Arab (and non-Arab) Muslims, South Asian Hindus (and Muslims), East Asians — and let’s not forget get our home grown Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ members –
It must be hard for the bigots — too many targets, but it is always safe to pick on the Jews 8)>
You’ve got it exactly right, Sheila. Keep preaching.