I find articles helpful that describe both sides of the controversy in light of each other. In his article in The Forward, Peter Beinart describes 1) how Omar’s comments were anti-semitic AS WELL AS 2) the outrageous hypocrisy of those calling her out. While “leaders should understand that their words carry historical baggage” it is also true “her critics [should be held] to the same standard.”
Politicians use charges of anti-semitism as a tool for reinforcing intolerance.
Time to face facts: Many politicians use charges of anti-semitism as a tool for reinforcing intolerance. Take a second to let that sink in.
Beinart offers up a buffet of instances in which Republicans engaged in much more obviously virulent anti-semitic rhetoric sans censure. Read it and weep.
I know that I do. I weep for those who can’t or won’t detect anything remotely problematic about Omar’s tweets. I weep equally for those officials who use the traumas suffered by Jews to further their wack agenda. When the leader of your party states “globalists” Bloomberg and Soros perpetuate an insidious socialist cabal and re-tweets anti-semitic images created by white supremacists, it seems a tad disingenuous to rage about Omar’s comparatively minor missteps.
Republicans constantly pivot discussions that attempt to address the hideous tweets in the form of a warning that such language is a mere distraction. Watch Scott Walker interviewed on Firing Line. His rhetoric is Huckabee-Sanders/ Conway level infuriating. In the midst of that mealy-mouthed, sidestepping, integrity-free rationalization such players have the chutzpah to call out Omar.
I pray for the possibility of our elected representatives moving beyond petty partisan manipulations, beyond zero sum strategies, to enact sensible measures supported by 75% of the population. For now, performative anti-semitism generates yet another instance of the seemingly endless politics of divide, conquer and paralyze as the country strangles opportunity and strengthens its ever-widening wealth gap.