1/I am writing to encourage any who are unfamiliar with @joshtpm to read this piece from October 2016 on Trump's role in facilitating the rise of anti-Semitism:
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/storm-a…
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/storm-a…
2/This article is insightful and unfortunately prescient. It's also a must-read in light of Trump's planned visit to Pittsburgh this week.
3/The sections that I have been reflecting on center on the apparent contradiction between Trump's white nationalist rhetoric (both explicit and implicit) and the fact that he has a Jewish son-in-law and daughter.
4/Yet, such facts are not incompatible. In @joshtpm's words:
"Many note that Trump has a Jewish son-in-law to whom he appears to be quite close. His daughter Ivanka is actually a convert. But to put much stock in that is to show an ignorance of the history of anti-Semitism."
"Many note that Trump has a Jewish son-in-law to whom he appears to be quite close. His daughter Ivanka is actually a convert. But to put much stock in that is to show an ignorance of the history of anti-Semitism."
5/@joshtpm continues:
Trump has "embraced the normalization of anti-Semitism in American politics. That’s all that really matters. What he feels in his heart is unknowable and largely irrelevant."
Trump has "embraced the normalization of anti-Semitism in American politics. That’s all that really matters. What he feels in his heart is unknowable and largely irrelevant."
6/This is all from October 2016. Yet the lessons runs further back in time.
7/@joshtpm discusses the prototype of Karl Leuger, Mayor of Vienna from 1897-1910.
8/Despite the fact the Leuger's own speeches and policies were often virulently anti-Semitic, "Leuger had many Jewish friends. He dined with them...
9/... When asked about this seeming contradiction, Leuger said famously: 'I decide who is a Jew.'"
10/Yet, this is not just about President Trump. It is also about the majority of @GOP leaders at all levels who are "standing with the man and the movement that is doing these things."
