Antisemitism in America and across the world is taking on frightening strength as a movement alongside the mainstream. The stink and stupidity of its proponents are still prominent, but seem to have lost their deterrent power for American conservatives. Republican leaders seem to share Trump’s feeling that there are good people among Holocaust deniers and white supremacists. The message to the American public, specifically the white evangelical Christian public, that antisemitism is justified and honorable is as wide as the reach of FOX News.
There needs to be more than agonizing about how camera-ready verbal antisemitism leads to newsworthy antisemitic violence. We need to do more than promote diversity and teach the Holocaust. We need to make fundamental changes in American life. Here are my suggestions from a lifetime of dealing with and studying antisemitism.
Don’t vote for Republicans. I don’t just mean, don’t vote for vocally antisemitic Republicans. I mean, don’t vote for any Republicans.
What about those nice Republicans from New York, who grew up with Jews, who decry any form of antisemitism, who say that George Santos is not one of them, because he falsely claimed to be a descendant of a Holocaust survivor? He is one of them. Just like him, they voted for Kevin McCarthy as Speaker and put Marjorie Taylor Greene on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. They voted to kick Omar off the Foreign Affairs Committee for her remarks about Jews, but say nothing about the antisemitic rot taking over the Republican Party. Ron Desantis’ tweet about the “Soros-backed” DA Alvin Bragg’s indictment of Trump demonstrates that opposition to Trump does not yet mean rejection of his antisemitism.
The fastest way to move the Republican Party away from the promotion of antisemitism is to make them lose elections. If you don’t stand with Greene and Boebert and Gaetz, then don’t vote for their Party at all. Electoral defeat is the only thing that can move Republicans away from racism.
Don’t watch FOX. I don’t mean just Carlson and Hannity and the other liars. The antisemitism surrounding Carlson has been known for a long time. I mean, don’t tune into any FOX broadcast.
I watch a lot of sports on FOX. I’m giving that up. The embarrassing revelations about what FOX News personalities “really” thought about the Trump lies they were broadcasting every day were driven by their concern for audience. If they don’t worry at all about the truth, but only about whether people will turn them off, then turn them off. Demonstrate that Goebbels’ claim that repeating lies often enough ensures their success won’t work any more.
Don’t buy from FOX sponsors. Those companies can sponsor whomever they wish. We can buy from whomever we wish, using whatever criteria we cherish. Don’t buy cars from Chevrolet, cosmetics from Proctor & Gamble, batteries from Energizer, insurance from Farmers, or ketchup from Heinz. None of them offer anything you can’t get elsewhere. Get out of your shopping rut for one year, say it’s about fighting antisemitism at the roots, and see what happens.
None of that will get rid of antisemitism. In every Christian society, antisemitism has deep roots. The historical lies, fantastic accusations, and Biblical calumnies will endure forever. But we, the American public, can fight the casual opportunist antisemitism that conservatives use to drum up votes by not giving them votes, by not supporting their business models.
Antisemitism in Europe and America no longer depends on physical coercion. Antisemites wield words and slogans, ancient fears and contemporary grievances, websites, code words, and memes. They depend on toleration as they violate it. If certain broad American publics, the conservative-voting public, the fundamentalist Christian public, and the rural public did not close their noses to the stench of antisemitism emanating from the Republican Party, FOX, and many lesser promoters of hatred, the smell might dissipate.
If we don’t act, we don’t care enough.
Steve Hochstadt
Steve Hochstadt is Professor of History Emeritus at Illinois College, and author of many books on the Holocaust.
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