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What once was an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory peddled by neo-Nazi
and white supremacist groups has not just been elevated, in recent
weeks, but adopted as campaign strategy by multiple Republican groups
and office holders. The theory is that moneyed Jewish "puppet masters"
are behind recent efforts to bring asylum-seekers and immigrants to
America, part of a plan to destabilize white rule. It is a decades-old
anti-Semitic trope by the far-right, but one that leapt to prominence in
recent weeks with claims that a "caravan" of Central American refugees
is the product of a devious plot by Holocaust survivor George Soros.
Rep. Matt Gaetz was overt in this. On October 17th he tweeted:
The theory that George Soros is secretly responsible for nearly all political events in America–to an extent that far exceeds any other named American–continues to be both one of the most commonly expressed current anti-Semitic tropes and the one that regularly, and incessantly, finds its way to Fox News, to Republican lawmakers, to Republican election campaigns and PACs, and in statements by the Republican president. But it is not Trump that has been doing the heavy lifting on advertising, promoting and mainstreaming those notions: That role has been embraced by Republican Party leadership.
And like Matt Gaetz, they have spent the last few weeks aggressively promoting anti-Semitic theories. The National Republican Congressional Committee crafted not just one, but two ads attacking Soros. One features a photoshopped George Soros sitting behind stacks of money, calling him the "connoisseur of chaos." (That wealthy Jews are bankrolling the "caravan" and other groups in order to foment "chaos" in America is, very precisely, the premise of the white supremacist conspiracy theory.)
NRCC Chairman Steve Stivers once again defended those clear anti-Semitic dog-whistles this Sunday, even as the nation was roiled by far-right violence, sniffing on Meet The Press that "That ad is a factual ad."
Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy himself repeated the refrain, only one day after a pipe bomb was discovered at Soros' home.
Rep. Matt Gaetz was overt in this. On October 17th he tweeted:
BREAKING: Footage in Honduras giving cash 2 women & children 2 join the caravan & storm the US border @ election time. Soros? US-backed NGOs? Time to investigate the source!The tweet has remained undeleted, even after Soros was the target of an attempted bombing and after an anti-Semitic white supremacist murdered eleven Jewish Americans in their synagogue, wounding several others. The accusation was entirely false, and remains entirely false, but that did not stop Donald Trump himself from obliquely promoting it in a televised rally the next evening.
The theory that George Soros is secretly responsible for nearly all political events in America–to an extent that far exceeds any other named American–continues to be both one of the most commonly expressed current anti-Semitic tropes and the one that regularly, and incessantly, finds its way to Fox News, to Republican lawmakers, to Republican election campaigns and PACs, and in statements by the Republican president. But it is not Trump that has been doing the heavy lifting on advertising, promoting and mainstreaming those notions: That role has been embraced by Republican Party leadership.
And like Matt Gaetz, they have spent the last few weeks aggressively promoting anti-Semitic theories. The National Republican Congressional Committee crafted not just one, but two ads attacking Soros. One features a photoshopped George Soros sitting behind stacks of money, calling him the "connoisseur of chaos." (That wealthy Jews are bankrolling the "caravan" and other groups in order to foment "chaos" in America is, very precisely, the premise of the white supremacist conspiracy theory.)
NRCC Chairman Steve Stivers once again defended those clear anti-Semitic dog-whistles this Sunday, even as the nation was roiled by far-right violence, sniffing on Meet The Press that "That ad is a factual ad."
Republican House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy himself repeated the refrain, only one day after a pipe bomb was discovered at Soros' home.
"We cannot allow Soros, Steyer, and Bloomberg to BUY this election! Get out and vote Republican November 6th. #MAGA," McCarthy wrote in the tweet posted Tuesday and deleted a day later, a reference to top donors to Democratic causes George Soros and Tom Steyer and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.It is of course impossible to know whether the hate-inspired mass murder of eleven Jewish Americans at their synagogue would still have happened if the current environment was different, but it should be uncontroversial to point out that the elevation of anti-Semitic hate speech by top Republican Party members is seen as explicit support for those views by those that would contemplate or commit violence as a result of those theories. By endorsing the theories of white supremacist groups, the Republican Party is explicitly signaling to those groups that their conspiracy theories are valid–or are at least worthy of discussion at the highest levels of party discourse.
If party leaders claim that Jewish agents are intentionally fomenting "chaos" in America, it stands to reason that would-be patriots would see the "stopping" of those agents, by force if necessary, as necessary for national survival. If top American politicians promote an invented theory that Jewish groups are behind a "caravan" that, by virtue of its mere existence, threatens American sovereignty, then it should not be at all surprising when a murder-inclined white supremacist thug uses the threat of those immigrants and those Jewish groups as justification for action.
George Soros and other Americans would not have received pipe bombs in the mail had Donald Trump not engaged in a relentless campaign of demonizing his enemies as "enemies of the people". Mass murderer Robert Bowers would not have felt the same urgency to kill Jewish Americans immediately had his personal conspiracy theories not been mainstreamed, by Fox News and other groups, into supposedly "legitimate" fears.
Those that advocate for conspiracy theories do so with the intent of panicking their marks and goading them into action. Those that peddle anti-Semitic theories cannot possibly claim, by any stretch, that they did not know that broadcasting those theories could goad violent individuals to take action to "prevent" the peddled conspiracies from being successful. Each of these top Republicans knows full well the implications of photoshopping a picture of George Soros to include stacks of cash; there is no doubt what sort of person campaign strategists are targeting when they use a Star of David on a background of money to attack non-Jewish opponents like Hillary Clinton.
The Republican calculation has been that appealing to anti-Semitic elements of the base is, as campaign tool, valuable enough to risk such violence. The Republican calculation has been to eagerly promote absolutely false conspiracy theories, such as that peddled by Rep. Matt Gaetz, as path to inflaming racist voters enough to stoke the required fervor, even if those that believe such theories are disproportionately likely to believe a violent response is required.
We can absolutely make the assertion that anti-Semitic rhetoric broadcast over the airwaves results in a likelihood of anti-Semitic violence. We can especially do so in an environment that has seen such violence escalate uncontrollably since the 2016 elections.
The Trump supporter who attempted to assassinate over a dozen of Donald Trump's most railed-against critics believed he was acting as patriot by murdering Trump's enemies. The mass murderer who targeted a Pittsburgh synagogue explicitly did so because he genuinely believed Jewish groups were behind a new supposed wave of violent immigration–the very subject of recent (and viciously false) Fox and Republican rhetoric.
There is not even the slightest question over whether or not the increasingly conspiratorial rhetoric of the party has made acts of violence–that is, domestic terrorism–against their opponents more likely: It is measurable. It is obvious. We cannot say with assurance whether this or that specific domestic terrorist would not have still acted out had their own personal conspiracy theories not been mainstreamed and promoted as supposed truth by Republican Party lawmakers and officials, but was can absolutely say that the embrace of those conspiracy theories by figures of authority lent them an air of truth, and of absolute urgency, that they would not have otherwise had.
Rep. Matt Gaetz asserted without evidence that a named Jewish American was somehow a mastermind of a "caravan" of immigrants, even as the rest of his party emphasized the supposed existential danger of allowing such refugees to approach the border; a pipe bomb was delivered to that man's house. The sitting president and Republican media figures gave voice to an explicitly anti-Semitic theory that it was the Jews who were behind this new supposed effort to infiltrate America with a violent other; one of the anti-Semites who believed in that theory suddenly deemed it absolutely urgent that he take action to punish those Jewish Americans right now.
We cannot possibly sniff that we did not see it coming. It was a calculation; those that elevated the conspiracies believed that the utility of rallying those that would believe anti-Semitic theories would outweigh whatever violence such theories might provoke. It was a dice roll, one that turned out badly for Americans who are not them.
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