We Are Falling Apart
The Right is successfully exploiting fears over rising antisemitism for its reactionary crusade while the Israel-Hamas war is tearing the democratic popular front to pieces.
New Democracy Americana:
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thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/we-are-fal...
We have reached a truly bizarre place in our political discourse when supposedly serious people want us to believe that the party of Trump, QAnon, and “Great Replacement” is the bulwark against antisemitism in America. 2/
Antisemitism is a massive problem in American society – and it has gotten significantly worse since the terrorist Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7. The problem is also not confined to the Right, but pervasive across the political spectrum. And it is a problem on college campuses. 3/
But the political reaction to the urgent problem of rising antisemitism has been overwhelmingly occupied with what has been happening on the Left, and with the college campus, specifically – thereby obscuring the much more significant and more dangerous antisemitism on the Right. 4/
In the United States, Republicans are undoubtedly more supportive of the state of Israel than the Left, certainly than the Democratic base. Crucially, however, that does not necessarily entail affirmation and support for American Jews. In fact, it often means the opposite. 5/
A distinguishing feature of rightwing antisemitism is its centrality to the white Christian ethno-religious political project. On the Religious Right, Christian Zionism is fueling the support for Israel – and an end-times theology that desires a world in which Jews are eliminated. 6/
The reactionary political project is beholden to a white Christian nationalism that is fundamentally opposed to multireligious, multiracial pluralism. Rightwingers like the idea of a nation with a clearly defined ethno-religious identity, which they see in Israel. 7/
But here is the catch: In this worldview, Israel is necessarily where the Jews belong. In “real” (read: white Christian) America, on the other hand, Jews can only be conceptualized as outsiders. Their right to be here is always conditional. 8/
In both dominant ideological strands on the Right, Jews in Israel are good – but Jews elsewhere are dangerous, rootless “globalists” standing in the way of God’s plans or undermining the strength and unity of the white Christian ethnostate. 9/
That is why it is so bizarre to view today’s Republican Party as an ally to Jewish life and culture in America: It is now entirely “normal” for leading Republican elected officials to rail against “globalism” and indulge antisemitic conspiracies, rage against “Soros” and all that. 10/
The newly-elected Republican Speaker of the House is a Christian supremacist; Trump, the party’s standard bearer, is the leader of a fascistic movement who those marching in Charlottesville in 2017, yelling “Jews will not replace us,” ecstatically supported. 11/
Being able to withstand public scrutiny is literally part of the job.
This in no way detracts from your other arguments, but it’s important not to sweep legitimate concerns under the rug. 4/4
Anyone who believes that antisemitism is a “massive” problem in America should demand that our elite institutions be able to competently advocate for the fair treatment of all students - and be able to explain their thinking in plain language. 3/
Asked in bad faith or not, the questioning was easy to predict. That all three witnesses gave tone deaf, legalistic responses (for which they immediately apologized) represents their failure as representatives of their universities and of academia in this country. 2/
Beware of dismissing the widespread and genuine disappointment that these well-paid academic leaders - arguably the standard bearers of rational discourse in this country - did not come to a televised hearing equipped with simple answers to questions they had to know were coming. 1/
