Republicans Are Using Antisemitism to Achieve a Fascist Takeover

From Critical Race Theory to trans rights to COVID, the Republican culture wars directed at education have always been about destroying democracy. Now they're doing the same with antisemitism.

While a war rages in Gaza, another war rages in America inspired by the violence. Most recently, it took the form of a Congressional hearing in which three university presidents were grilled by antisemites about antisemitism. Most widely known and spread is Elise Stefanik, a Republican who spread the antisemitic Great Replacement conspiracy theory two days after a mass shooting inspired by the conspiracy theory. This shouldn’t be surprising, however, since she supports Donald Trump, who spread the same conspiracy theory a few days after the Tree of Life synagogue mass shooting. This, of course, is the same former president and presidential candidate who spent his entire term spreading the conspiracy theory, who had dinner with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, and who has now attacked “liberal Jews” by name multiple times. 50% of American Jews identify as liberal and 70% are Democrats.

This is a woman who is part of the same party that only 26% of Jews in America trust to fight antisemitism after October 7th. The same person who supports Trump despite 59% of American Jews blamed Donald Trump for contributing to attacks while he was president.

This is who is waging the war against presidents of universities. An antisemite who is part of an antisemitic party led by an antisemitic presidential candidate which are both blamed by the majority of Jews for contributing to mass shootings of Jews in America.

What is going on? How on earth could this be and why isn’t every media outlet and Democratic politician framing it this way repeatedly?

First, it is important to understand that whatever validity or lack thereof there is in the critiques of the handling of antisemitism on college campuses, the hearings were part of a much longer and ongoing war against academic institutions, and by extension our democracy, by the now-proudly fascist Republican Party. Antisemitism accusations are just the latest cudgel in this war. Previous cudgels included Critical Race Theory, gender affirming care and trans rights, and COVID. In each one of these cases, the culture wars that surrounded colleges were a cover for the deeper attacks on academic freedom, education, and free speech in America.

All of these freedoms and institutions are obstacles to a political party that has organized itself around transforming America into a white nationalist, fascistic country. In such a country, freedom of thought and expression are dangerous: they give power and independence to minorities, women, and the working class, empowering them with knowledge and organizational abilities to stand up to the favored class of rich, white, Christian straight men.

In that vein, it also allows them to extend their decades-long attacks on Muslims and Muslim immigrants. By repeatedly grilling the university presidents about whether words like intifada are calls for genocide (the word has multiple meanings, and has been used to describe nonviolent uprisings), Stefanik showed how the literal policing of Muslim self-expression is part of their ongoing attempts to oppress Muslims.

None of this is new: it is a tried and true method of establishing fascist control over a country. Mussolini did it. Hitler did it. 

The same is true of countries that underwent the theocratic revolutions that many Republicans also envision. Iran did it. Afghanistan did it.

And Republicans want to do it.

The problem, as always, is that our media and leaders are too often focused on the culture war side of these attacks and not on the broader and deeper wars Republicans are waging. 

Article after article frames these debates as purely about antisemitism. Democrats, in turn, largely voted in favor of a Republican resolution which claimed to condemn antisemitism but which, by equating all anti-Zionism with antisemitism, empowered them to target Muslims and Palestinians.

On top of that, most mainstream Jewish institutions, despite their responsibilities to address antisemitism in a non-partisan way and to represent the Jewish interests that are largely against Republicans leading the charge on antisemitism, are compromised by their support of the war in Gaza and the far right government in Israel waging it.

Ultimately, as Netanyahu has proven in his own spreading of antisemitic tropes, nationalists tend to align when they have a common enemy and can gain short term results by working together. Netanyahu has been glad to work with antisemites like Elon Musk and Donald Trump to achieve his authoritarian goals, and Republicans in turn have been glad to exploit Israel as a shield against accusations of antisemitism domestically.

Now, Netanyahu is depending on Republicans to equate dissent against the war with antisemitism. Thanks to Jewish institutions doing the same, with leaders like Jonathan Greenblatt calling groups like IfNotNow “hate groups,”  and Democratic Party complicity, Republicans are allowed to run rampant in their culture war.

The ultimate result of this won’t just mean a further advance in the Republican war on democracy, Muslims, and all vulnerable groups. It will also mean the further empowerment of violent white nationalists, and thus violent antisemitism.

If successful, it will be the ultimate bitter irony of all that one of the watershed moments in the success of America’s antisemitism will be Republicans exploiting Jewish fears about antisemitism to achieve their goal.