This site has documented several recent and vivid demonstrations of rank anti-Semitism among Trump’s base of support. Stories about this ugly phenomenon can be found here, here, and most recently here. The major media, however, have mostly ignored this resurgence of anti-Jewish bias for the simple reason that it is not “originating” from the candidate himself. By and large, and except for a few isolated incidents, it is Trump himself who dominates the news in this country—not the actions or belief systems of his supporters.
Even the widespread media coverage of his anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric focused on Trump’s statements rather than the approval of such statements that he teases and courts from his voting base. The reason for this is no big mystery—pointing out that a major component of the candidate’s support are among the most vile specimens in the country raises thorny problems for a media that continues to profit enormously from Trump coverage. It raises uncomfortable questions about journalistic ethics. Campaigns in this country are less about issues than they are personalities, and by focusing too much on the bigotry that fuels and sustains his support the news media also risk losing access to the candidate himself. Trump himself has made that abundantly clear. When criticized, he immediately attacks the source.
But regardless of whether the larger corporate media acknowledge it, anti-Semitism is making a big comeback under Trump. This resurgence of Anti-Jewish bias is being documented most prominently by people who are in a position to document it— by Jewish journalists who have been subjected to it simply for being critical or questioning of Trump, Trump’s wife, or Trump’s “policy pronouncements.”
Last week Mark Sumner wrote about the nasty, vicious attacks by Trump low-lifes that Jonathan Weisman, editor at The New York Times, had to endure simply for linking, via Twitter, to an editorial in another newspaper. That editorial compared the rise of Trump in this country to fascism. The response from his supporters did nothing to dispel that notion, as evidenced by the barrage of anti-Semitic tweets Weisman received.
A week has passed and Weisman reports that the hate hasn’t stopped. In fact, it’s gotten worse, and he cites specific (anonymous) Trump supporters who continue the harassment, including one who calls himself “Trump God Emperor:”
The anti-Semitic hate, much of it from self-identified Donald J. Trump supporters, hasn’t stopped since. Trump God Emperor sent me the Nazi iconography of the shiftless, hooknosed Jew. I was served an image of the gates of Auschwitz, the famous words “Arbeit Macht Frei” replaced without irony with “Machen Amerika Great.” Holocaust taunts, like a path of dollar bills leading into an oven, were followed by Holocaust denial. The Jew as leftist puppet master from @DonaldTrumpLA was joined by the Jew as conservative fifth columnist, orchestrating war for Israel. That one came from someone who tagged himself a proud future member of the Trump Deportation Squad.
Given the incessant barrage of hate (and the complete lack of any attempt to rein it in or even acknowledge it by the candidate himself) Weisman is finding himself re-acquainted against his will with something he probably felt had been banished from our country—but instead, he acknowledges, he has now joined Hispanics, Muslims, women, and every other group Trump’s supporters have targeted. The discomfort of seeing the same ugly slurs rear their head yet again by white supremacist, anti-Semitic Trump followers is as painful and disappointing to Weisman as it is alarming:
I retweeted the choicest attacks for all to see, and with each retweet, more attacks followed, their authors gleefully seeking the exposure. Some people criticized me for offering it, but I argued, perhaps wrongly, that such hate needed airing, that Americans needed to see the darkest currents in the politics of exclusion animating the presidential election.
Weisman recognizes he is not the first to experience this. He cites the attacks on Julia Ioffe and Bethany Mandel, Jewish writers who, like Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, made the mistake of offending Trump’s followers. Advised by Twitter to simply delete and report the Tweets he received, Weisman declined, feeling it was his responsibility to document this sad, ugly period of American history when the Internet apparently gives license for anyone to unleash their inner scumbag:
An official at Twitter encouraged me to block the anti-Semites and report them to Twitter, but I have chosen to preserve my Twitter timeline as a research tool of sorts, a database of hate, and a shrine to 2016. The only response I blocked and forwarded to Twitter was a photo of my disembodied head held aloft, long Orthodox hair locks called payot photoshopped on my sideburns and a skullcap placed as a crown. I let stand the image of a smiling Mr. Trump in Nazi uniform flicking the switch on a gas chamber containing my Photoshopped face.
And still nothing from the Republican candidate, who simply waves off or deliberately trivializes whatever his supporters do as having nothing whatsover to do with himself. Even Trump’s Republican Jewish supporters are twisting themselves into knots, desperately ignoring the hatred they can’t help but see in front of them:
And still, we have heard nothing from Mr. Trump, no denunciation, no broad renouncing of racist, anti-Semitic support, no expressions of sympathy for its victims. The Republican Jewish Coalition on Tuesday released what can only be described as equivocation as an art form: “We abhor any abuse of journalists, commentators and writers, whether it be from Sanders, Clinton or Trump supporters. There is no room for any of this in any campaign.”
But the “campaign” is ultimately about the people who lend it support, and clearly there is and will continue to be a welcome, safe space for Anti-Semites in Donald Trump’s vision of America.
Weisman concludes with a quote from a must-read piece by Adam Gopnik of The New Yorker that attempts to place the world of Trump’s supporters into sharp relief against everything Americans have done to fight discrimination racism and hate for the past fifty years.
We in the news business are taught to find and write up both sides of a story, with respect and equal time to all opinions. But that line is difficult to walk when one side is shoving you in the back. In The New Yorker this week, Adam Gopnik, quoting Alexander Pope, asks, “Is there no black or white?”
His answer: “The pain of not seeing that black is black soon enough will be ours, and the time to recognize this is now.”
There is no “other side” of any story that can be reconciled with the racial and anti-Semitic hatred that Trump is bringing out in Americans. These things are simply evil, they need to be eradicated, and anyone who tolerates, encourages, or channels them needs to be shut down. Period.
For additional perspective see teacherken’s post here.
