Donald Trump's Nazi Party

Antisemitism and avarice in the GOP

Today, Kevin McCarthy finally issued a lame disavowal of Donald Trump’s repugnant dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, and unmedicated antisemite rapper Kanye West, while failing to criticize the former president himself. It was a brilliant bit of spinelessness by the future house speaker, a man who has shown he is nothing if not a hypocritical coward willing to loyally serve his master, and shut his mouth.

In other words, McCarthy is perfectly suited to leading congressional Republicans, as he pursues what is politically advantageous for himself, as opposed to upholding any kind of moral or ethical code. Still, he pretends to reject the virulent racism infecting his party, albeit entirely unconvincingly.

McCarthy said of Fuentes, “I condemn his ideology; it has no place in society at all.” Really? It certainly has a place in the Republican Party.

Of course, Fuentes’s hateful ideology has a very cozy home in McCarthy’s own caucus. 24 year old Nick Fuentes has carefully constructed alliances (friendships?) between himself and Marjorie Taylor Green, Paul Gosar, and other extremist politicians in the bowels of the GOP, based on shared values, like hating Jews, immigrants, Mexicans, Black people, LGBTQ, etc.

This isn’t exactly a secret.

Rather, they headlined his America First rallies quite openly, prompting McCarthy to gently chastise them like naughty schoolchildren, and immediately forget about it. In his bid to be speaker, he’s been careful not to alienate the right-wing of his party, nor the former president on whose support he depends.

In any case, they’re ideological soulmates, Nazis in expensive suits. Paul Gosar actually wrote a letter to the FBI on his official letterhead complaining about Fuentes being placed on the no fly list, and Green has a rich, if idiotic, history of antisemitic outrages (Jewish space lasers).

And the former president?

McCarthy said the “president can have meetings with who he wants; I don’t think anybody, though, should have a meeting with Nick Fuentes.” He went on, “And his views shouldn’t — are nowhere within the Republican Party or within this country itself.” That’s quite the tongue twister, and pure sophistry.

The lies just seem to flow naturally from Kevin McCarthy’s lips, as he navigates between the murderous racism that animates much of the modern Republican Party, Donald Trump’s political sensitivities, and his own craven lust for power. It’s nauseating to watch.

This is the same man who went and paid tribute at Mar-a-Lago a few weeks after Donald Trump orchestrated a lethal coup d’etat at the U.S. Capitol, unable to stomach the political implications of shunning him permanently, and losing his chance at the speakership. McCarthy singlehandedly resurrected Donald Trump from his political grave. He’s consumed with acquiring power, and utterly indifferent to the fate of American democracy.

Thus, he’s representative of the Republican Party’s most dangerous trait: it’s willingness to accommodate even the darkest parts of humanity with a straight face, and zero shame. He’s almost worse than the racists and gun-toting extremists, frankly.

Why? Because he believes in nothing at all, and tolerates everything.

Signals

In any case, it was a strangely discordant dinner, with a manic Black antisemite musician breaking bread with a professional white nationalist, and a former president desperate to recapture the attention of the nation. Afterward, Trump claimed that he didn’t know Fuentes, a ludicrous and unconvincing lie (he said the same thing about KKK grand dragon David Duke when he offered his support in 2016).

Of course, Trump is sending an unmistakable signal to the most important part of his political base with such a dinner, while also forcing Republicans into yet another tight corner. He’s an expert at racist dog whistles, though having dinner with two proud antisemites isn’t exactly subtle.

Still, antisemitism plays well in this Republican Party. It’s an old and reliable hatred, never gone for long, and always waiting in the wings for an opportunistic politician to make good use of.

It’s been interesting to watch Republicans squirm, and offer their milquetoast responses, or lack thereof. Most Republicans have simply stayed quiet, seemingly unbothered, per usual. Mitch McConnell said, “there is no room for antisemitism in the Republican Party,” without mentioning the former president by name, despite the bitter enmity between the two men.

A few Republicans with clear presidential aspirations, like Chris Christie and Mike Pompeo, have offered a bit of mild criticism. Retiring Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said the dinner was “very troubling.”

Mike Pence, on his book tour for So Help Me God, his heroic narrative about the fact that he didn’t break the law and overturn an election for his scheming boss, recently said that Trump should “apologize.” Those are harsh words coming from Pence, always careful not to overstep.

Still, Trump is unlikely to strike back too fiercely, as Pence is on the verge of talking to prosecutors for the DOJ’s January 6 criminal investigation, and perhaps sending his boss to the slammer, or at least to trial.

Nevertheless, Pence still can’t seem to do much beyond gently chiding Trump, despite the fact that he almost had him killed. He’s like many anxious Republicans, hoping that federal prosecutors will rid them of their Trump problem, sparing them all the headache of a real confrontation with the evil at the heart of their broken party.

After all, no one wants to end up like Liz Cheney, exiled, out of office, and allied with Democrats, a fate worse than death.

Seditious conspiracy

Meanwhile, a jury found Steward Rhodes and several of his Oath Keeper lieutenants guilty of seditious conspiracy, and obstruction of an official proceeding, as verdicts came down in a federal trial today. It’s a rare victory for the Department of Justice, the rule of law, and American democracy writ large.

It’s a bad day for Donald Trump. At the very least, it shows the DOJ has its act together enough to successfully prosecute and convict leaders behind the violence, a precarious notion for the former president.

These are the most serious convictions to have emerged from the federal investigation into January 6, and are perhaps a prelude to the legal ordeal that may or may not be in store for the former president. He’s being investigated for his role in the attack on the Capitol, as well his gross mishandling of classified documents, among other things, as a new special counsel weighs the pros and cons of indicting a former and perhaps future American president.

Still, amidst dinners with Nazis, lethal coups, and numerous criminal investigations, Republicans have yet to decisively break with Donald Trump, or reject his hateful brand of politics. Incredibly, Trump remains the GOP’s presidential frontrunner for 2024, and his bid is offering him invaluable political cover as prosecutors hone in on him.

Until Republicans take him on directly, and unsparingly, he will continue to survive, and threaten American democracy, and peace. He’s nothing if not a survivor, like a political cockroach, very hard to kill.

As massive protests erupt against dictatorships in China and Iran, and as Ukraine fights a brutal war against Russian authoritarianism, America’s own battle against extremism and autocracy is put into even sharper relief.

What’s freedom really worth? Quite a bit, actually. Ask a Ukrainian soldier, a protester in Shanghai, or a student in Tehran. They’ll tell you.

Sadly, Republicans are still too spineless to rid themselves and the country of the cancer that is Donald Trump, despite his legacy of destruction, hatred, and lies. Their complicity is a tragic stain on our history.

As Liz Cheney told Republicans during the January 6 Committee hearings, “One day Donald Trump will be gone, but your dishonor will remain.”

Indeed.