Josh Marshall TPM - "Canaries in the Coal Mine" - re the Phila grave damage

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/canaries-in-the-coal-mine

By JOSH MARSHALL Published FEBRUARY 27, 2017, 2:14 PM EDT

Recent desecrations of cemeteries in St. Louis and Philadelphia and the low-fi terror campaign of bomb threats against Jewish community centers across the country reminds us why in the post-Emancipation era, European Jews and subsequently American Jews, have gravitated heavily toward progressive political orientations. This is not always the case. In various times and regions, Jews have belonged to conservative parties like the UK tories or French Gaullist parties, for instance. But they are virtually absent from rightist politics. The reason is clear enough. Anti-semitism is almost inevitably and almost always part of rightist political movements. It is a natural feature. This is not always explicitly so. It is not always that way at first, but eventually it is always there.

That is the case with Trumpism.

There are various theoretical reasons why this might be so. The most obvious is that rightist politics usually base themselves on cultural, racial or religious purity and unity. This makes Jews outsiders by definition. These rightist movements are also generally looking for outsiders to define themselves against and to pivot against. But these theories matter less than history. Why this is so is much less important than a lengthy historical record which demonstrates that it is so.

As a Jew and a Zionist, I would like to think that this aversion to reactionary politics is rooted in the Jewish cultural tradition or religion. I do believe this to a degree. But the presence of Jewish rightist, nationalist movements in Israel points to a different conclusion: that it is not something intrinsic to Jewish culture but rather that it is part of their defining status as outsiders, Jews' status as a minority, always set apart in key if sometimes limited respects from the majority culture. When outsiders are targeted it may start with Muslims or South Asians or Hispanics. But it comes around to Jews, almost as predictably as night follows day.

snip...more. An ominous editorial.

[Turbineguy]

1. These asswipes

think they run the country now. For them cemeteries are great because there's less chance they'll run into somebody able to defend themselves.