I don’t know that Paul Ryan will even serve out his term let alone run for reelection, but you’ll have to find something other than a primary defeat to hope for if you’re rooting for Ryan’s political career to end soon.
A Wisconsin businessman challenging House Speaker Paul D. Ryan in next year’s congressional primaries denounced “globalists from both parties” Wednesday, after his anti-Semitic tweets prompted Breitbart News to distance itself from his campaign.
Paul Nehlen, who is challenging Ryan for the second time, responded to the accusations of anti-Semitism by saying he was “pro-white” and opposed to double standards.
“Allow me to answer with this question: If pro-White is White supremacy, what is pro-Jewish?” Nehlen told The Washington Post in a text message. “I reject being called a White Supremacist, because clearly Pro-White isn’t White Supremacy unless Pro-Jewish is Jewish Supremacy.”
Some arguments are too stupid to merit rebuttal, and this is one of them. Anyone who thinks that you necessarily believe in the innate superiority of your race, religion, or favorite baseball team just because you take an interest in them is not someone you want to debate.
It’s kind of funny that this guy is suddenly too toxic for Breitbart, though.
The hands-off approach to Nehlen’s campaign was a major shift; in 2016, Breitbart had sent reporters to Ryan’s congressional district to cover Nehlen’s challenge, running as many as 30 stories a week. Julia Hahn, one of the Breitbart reporters on the ground for the Nehlen race, followed Bannon into the White House when he became President Trump’s chief strategist. After Nehlen was defeated, taking just 16 percent of the vote, he contributed some commentary to Breitbart. His archive on the site has been deleted.
I guess I wish these folks would decide where they stand on the whole white supremacy thing and stick with it. We’re getting whiplash trying to follow their positions. At this point, we’re not even certain about where they stand on molesting kids.
As my dad might answer, “it takes talent.”
Just in case – in this context, “talent” is not a positive quality.
This is the problem with giving someone their 15 minutes of fame. They always want another 15 minutes.
Booman, in all seriousness, I wonder whether some commenters here do in fact believe that being pro-Jewish is tantamount to promoting Jewish supremacy. I think there are plenty of Jewish progressives who support the idea of a Jewish homeland but don’t care for what the Israeli state has become.
Zionism is the term for the idea of supporting a Jewish homeland. Zionism is not a philosophy of Jewish supremacy. It really should not be necessary to point that out.
are you conflating being “pro-Jewish” with necessarily supporting Israel (not necessarily the current government thereof)? That’s absurd.
Justice in One Country
Judaism and Zionism should never be conflated.
Zionism in practice is inherently problematic from a liberal perspective, as is any ethno-state. Equal rights under the law is a core liberal value.
That doesn’t have anything to do with Judaism as a faith or an ethnicity.
The Republicans used to know the difference between bigots, racists with some political skill and bigots, racists without any political skill.
They seem to be re-learning that. They’ve been measuring their candidates on the bigotry and racism scales but have been ignoring the political skill requirements.
Anyone can be a bigot and a racist but not everyone can be a bigot and a racist while making yourself not seem like a bigot and a racist to people who aren’t bigots and racists.
I mean it doesn’t matter how black your heart is if you never get elected and can’t follow through on the bigoted and racist legislation the Republican base wants.
You write:
In fond memory of that monstrous creature George Wallace and any number of other national politicians, including quite a few who made it all the way to the White House:
There.
That’s better…
AG
P.S. You also write:
This is yet another racist meme that has been seamlessly spun into our language over centuries.
“Black is bad.”
Are you familiar with the following ’20/’30s phrase…one that was used as praise when someone did something nice for someone else?
“That’s very white of you.”
Here’s an old African-American saying…probably goes all the way back to slavery:
Like dat.
Language counts!!!
Nehlen ran an ad last cycle of himself riding a motorcycle in a sleeveless T-shirt, which then transitioned to him in shirt and tie on a factory floor. It was bizarre.
Ya know, I’d almost like to see that! Almost…
Sounds very bizarre.
Here’s how you get too toxic for Breitbart:
You lose. By a lot. You all seem to be unalterably wedded to the idea that Bannon is stupid. He’s not. He has a fundamentally wrong analysis of the political situation in the country and he got himself out-hustled in Alabama by some folks that aren’t on his — or your — radar, but at least give the man credit for being able to count votes and not make the same mistake twice. Nehlen delivered nothing for Bannon in 2016, why should he expect anything else in 2018?
Bannon’s problem in Wisconsin is that the kind of white nationalist, culturally reactionary politics that he hopes to ride to power does not have deep roots here. This is not the South, and it’s not the Mountain West, where that politics does have a following. White supremacy is strong here, that goes without saying, but it’s not all the same thing everywhere. In particular, the Wisconsin GOP is a wholly-owned operation of the Koch Bros., plus some local warlords; that’s the background that Ryan, Scott Walker, and the Republicans in the Legislature, the Supreme Court, and local government all come out of. They have what amounts to a monopoly on right-wing politics at the moment; the space that Bannon wants to play in is too thin here to support him. For Bannon, walking away from Nehlen is the smart move. It’s not that he’s “too toxic”: why should Bannon bother with a loser?
Thanks. Good insights on the local scene in WI.
I agree with you. I don’t see Nehlen as too toxic for Bannon/Breitbart in terms of his overt White Supremacy, racism, bigotry, etc. Nay, verily: he fills the bill very nicely for Bannon, who loves that sh*t.
Where Nehlen is too toxic for Bannon is that Nehlen is a Capital “L” Loser.
Bannon is too clever to keep backing Losers like Nehlen.
That’s all.
Bannon may not be stupid, but his support for Roy Moore shows that he’s not smart.
Eh? From Bannon’s perspective, Roy Moore had a good chance of winning. If the Intel about his teenage girl diddling hadn’t come out – especially in the numbers of women who lodged complaints – it’s highly likely that Moore would’ve won. As it was, it still was a pretty close race.
Nehlen, however, is clearly a sure-fire Loser.
High risk/high “reward” is the best case you can make for Bannon tossing all his chips in for the one candidate in the primary who had vastly underperformed all other Republicans in previous Statewide campaigns. And those comparatively poor performances by Moore predated the larger public knowledge of his child-diddling. Now Bannon’s known as the guy who helped the Democrats take a precious Senate seat for Alabama.
It’s unlikely that Bannon will maintain success with this Christian white nationalist strategy. He, like Rove and others before him, spun a razor-thin victory into an unearned legend. It’ll be up to each and every one of us to prevent him from gaining future success with this anti-American plot.
It was a low risk, high reward situation because it was Alabama. Bannon didn’t need to attach himself to Moore, but he did it because Moore was obviously going to win the primary and why not hitch along for the ride? It’s Alabama so the Republican has to win. And Moore had won before despite doing poorly.
White resentment whisperer has overestimated the actual appetite for this ideology.
I hope many socialists around the country take the risk: you’re going to win everywhere in a wave, might as well try to build the narrative to push your ideology. Rahm Emmanuel did the same thing.
Bannon is just a loser who got lucky electorally, but understands social media to shape media narratives. That’s it.
You write:
Oh.
Thank you for that wonderful insight.
“May not be stupid but not smart…”
I guess he’s just…average then. Right?
Great. Keep me informed on your progress.
AG
P.S. “May not be stupid but not smart…?”
Sounds like you identify with him, actually.