Right wing tries again to divide black and Jewish Democrats by hyping Farrakhan and anti-Semitism
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If there’s one charge Republicans are desperate to make stick, it’s that Democrats—and black Democrats in particular—have an anti-Semitism problem. Doing so is central to their efforts to peel off Jewish support for the Democratic Party (which typicalRight wing tries again to divide black and Jewish Democrats by hyping Farrakhan and anti-Semitism
If there’s one charge Republicans are desperate to make stick, it’s that Democrats—and black Democrats in particular—have an anti-Semitism problem. Doing so is central to their efforts to peel off Jewish support for the Democratic Party (which typically comes in at about 75 percent in elections for federal office, including that of president). It’s also crucial to muddying the waters more broadly on the matter of the Republican Party—in particular under Donald Trump—being the party of racism and/or white nationalism. Charging Democrats with being at least too comfortable with anti-Semitism aids GOP efforts to claim that both parties supposedly have a problem with bigotry. One other thing the Trump-led Republican Party is doing is cozying up to the right-wing government of Israel. This past Monday, the U.S. officially opened its embassy in Jerusalem, fulfilling a long-held desire of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s no coincidence that just a couple of days beforehand, the conservative “news” website Daily Wire ran an article about Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Rep. Keith Ellison, Louis Farrakhan, and anti-Semitism, despite the fact that there had been no new news on this issue over the previous few weeks. This push was all about combining the two stories in order to multiply their impact on public opinion, to spread their message more effectively: Democrats are against Jews, Republicans are for Jews. Therefore, Jews should be Republican. The Daily Wire article was in large part a reaction to remarks Ellison made about Louis Farrakhan and anti-Semitism at a Harvard Law Forum on April 2, during which he stated: “It is frustrating to be pulled out and … it’s like it’s your daily moment to denounce anti-Semitism. We denounce it. We absolutely denounce it. We think it is reprehensible, murderous, and genocidal. And it offends me that anyone would insist that I do it one more time.” Articles about Ellison’s remarks ran that week in various outlets. Nothing either mentioned or linked to in the May 11 Daily Wire article (which got over 25,000 views) is from later than the first week in April. This was a rehash job through and through. Despite that, the article tries to pretend that something new had happened: Now [Ellison]’s acting offended by charges over his ties with Farrakhan, complaining that the accusations of anti-Semitism are a “smear.” Now? Now? I guess if by “now” the author, Hank Berrien, meant “39 days ago,” then, well, sure. In an age when the head of the Republican Party says, to paraphrase Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics, “something that wasn’t true” 6.5 times a day, then what the hell, right? Read more