WHY IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY SUCH A CESSPIT OF RACISM? Sanders’s deputy press secretary apologizes for questioning American Jews’ ‘dual allegiance’ to Israel.
While Jews have rightly been worrying about antisemitism from “white nationalists,” who are a small group but are prone to deadly violence, they shouldn’t be entirely preoccupied with them. It’s worth keeping in mind that the two most antisemitic demographic groups in the U.S. are Muslims (I can’t find data separating U.S.-born and immigrant Muslims, but antisemitism is almost certainly much higher among immigrants) and Hispanic immigrants. Ilhan Omar is the former, Sanders’ deputy press secretary the latter.
That’s not to impugn either of these groups, as I know many lovely people from both of them, a majority aren’t antisemitic, and assimilation will reduce the rates significantly, as a vast gap in rates of antisemitism between U.S. and foreign-born Hispanics shows. But meanwhile, we shouldn’t be shocked if views that are at least unremarkable in certain strong Democratic constituencies are repeated unashamedly in public. And the least the Democratic Party could do is make clear they are unacceptable, as opposed to hedging as the Democrats did with Omar.
UPDATE: As several people have noted to me, the purported apology wasn’t actually an apology: “In a conversation on Facebook, I used some language that I see now was insensitive. Issues of allegiance and loyalty to one’s country come with painful history.” And what white nationalist violence? Have you already forgotten Pittsburgh?