It shouldn’t be too hard to condemn neo-Nazism, anti-Semitism, or calls for the genocide of the Jews. Yet presidents of some of our most elite universities can’t seem to do it. And within both the Democratic and the Republican Parties there are activists who don’t seem able to bring themselves to do so either.
Hamas’s homicidal and genocidal war against Israel has exposed a shameful fact about American political discourse. Whether in our elite universities or among Democratic and Republican Party activists, there is a reluctance to offer full-throated condemnation of neo-Nazism, anti-Semitism, or calls for the mass murder of the Jews in Israel and throughout the world, including here.
Consider the testimony before a congressional committee offered by the presidents of some of our most elite and prestigious universities. When asked if advocating the genocide of the Jews ever violated university speech codes, they said it depended on “context.”
But what sort of “context” could ever justify calls for genocide? The First Amendment should give equal protection to both supporters and critics of Israel’s war to destroy Hamas (and Hamas’s war to destroy Israel). But the First Amendment rights are not absolute. One cannot publish child pornography or shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater if, in fact, there is no fire. And demands for the mass murder of Jews (or any other people) must likewise be considered unprotected speech—especially at our elite universities, which impose their own restrictions on free speech–where, for example, “fat shaming” and using the “wrong” pronouns may be prohibited and punishable. If it’s wrong to ridicule someone for being overweight, or to refer to someone as “he” when he says he’s a she, then it should be wrong to say people should be killed because they’re Jews. At the very least, federal aid should be withheld from schools which promote or at least tolerate this sort of hate, and specific crimes against Jews and others must be vigorously prosecuted. University administrators should grow backbones and threaten student radicals with the withholding of financial aid, and expulsion from their schools.
But while the university presidents who testified before Congress and other like-minded folks in academe are as pathetic and timid a bunch of losers as can be found, fairness requires the assertion that they’re by no means alone. Consider, for example, the mealy-mouthed conduct of Democratic members of Congress. They’ve refused to condemn or censure Representative Omar Ilhan for questioning American Jews’ patriotism and charging Jews and their supporters with having an unhealthy preoccupation with money (“It’s all about the Benjamins, baby!”). And while the House of Representatives censured Representative Rashida Tlaib for her remarks at a pro-Hamas rally, almost all Democrats voted against censure, even after Tlaib accused Democratic President Joe Biden of supporting genocide. If they don’t sympathize with Tlaib’s views, they may still fear retaliation from her supporters.
And the Republicans, I’m embarrassed to admit, have their own whack jobs. Representative Marjorie Taylor Green has blamed forest fires on “Jewish space lasers.” Who knows what kookiness lurks in the hearts and what passes for “minds” in other right-wing nut bags? The need for a brigade of squirrels to come in and clean house is obvious.
Of greater concern should be the decision of the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Texas to refuse to pass a resolution condemning meetings between GOP officials and neo-Nazis and anti-Semites. As reported in the Texas Tribune, at a recent meeting the GOP Executive Committee commendably passed a resolution supporting Israel, but not before voting to remove from the resolution a clause saying, “BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Republican Party of Texas have no association whatsoever with any individual or organization that is known to espouse anti-Semitism, pro-Nazi sympathies, or Holocaust denial.”
Some supporters of the decision claim the clause was “too vague,” and with a powerful enough microscope one should be able to see that they kinda, sorta, maybe have a tenth of a point: A favorite tactic of brain-dead leftists–when they’re not accusing those who disagree with them of being racist, transphobic, blah, blah, blah–is to charge their opponents with fascism or Nazism. By making those terms all-purpose smears, they debase them and rob them of meaning. But there’s also been speculation that to pass the excluded resolution might have offended some potential right-wing GOP donors
But critics of the GOP’s actions have noted that one of America’s most rabid neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, and pro-genocide activists, Nick Fuentes, has been meeting with at least one, and possibly more, Texas GOP officials, for purposes not yet known. Even if Fuentes got nothing out of these mysterious meetings (and even if some heads of his alleged interlocutors have reportedly rolled), the Texas GOP should inoculate itself from any potential contamination from Fuentes by repassing the pro-Israeli resolution, INCLUDING the anti-Nazi clause—and severing all ties with any individual or group which violates it. No political party which needs neo-Nazi support to win elections deserves to win at all. And Donald Trump, who stupidly once dined with Nick Fuentes and Fuentes’ fellow neo-Nazi Kanye West should either upgrade his choice of dinner companions or get out of the 2024 presidential race.
Neo-Nazism, anti-Semitism, and calls for the genocide of the Jews are venomous sentiments which must be combatted by all constitutional means. One can start by saying what too many in academe and politics are not willing to say:
“Neo-Nazism is wrong.”
“Anti-Semitism is wrong.”
“Genocide, whether against the Jews, or the Palestinians, or anyone else is wrong.”
There—That wasn’t too hard, was it?
Malcolm L. Cross has lived in Stephenville and taught politics and government at Tarleton from 1987 until 2023. His political and civic activities include service on the Stephenville City Council (2000-2014) and on the Erath County Republican Executive Committee (1990 to the present). He was Mayor Pro Tem of Stephenville from 2008 to 2014. He is a member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and the Stephenville Rotary Club and does volunteer work for the Boy Scouts of America. Views expressed in this column are his and do not reflect those of The Flash as a whole.
If you watch Trump’s speeches and especially his rallies over the last few weeks, you will see that when he wins, he intends on saying that he has a mandate to be a dictator. If you don’t believe me watch him it is rallies.