GOP Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is conveniently back in the news again, just as Democrats were once again forced to reckon with their party’s antisemitism problem. Whereas Greene was immediately condemned by GOP leadership, we continue to wait for Democrats to deal with their own bad actors.
Greene is an attention-seeker who cares little that she is an anchor dragging down the Republican Party with her antics. Comparing Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her mask mandate for House members to Nazi Germany predictably got her the headlines she craves. She was immediately condemned by the top three House Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as well as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
This comes at the same time that antisemitic crimes have spiked in the wake of Hamas terrorists launching rockets at Israeli civilians. When Israel responded with targeted strikes, the usual suspects came to the defense of the terrorist organization, peddling lies about Israel that are amplified by their previous antisemitic comments.
Minnesota’s Rep. Ilhan Omar, Michigan’s Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and New York’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have called Israel an apartheid state, perpetuating a lie in the service of covering for Hamas terrorists. They regularly parrot terrorist talking points and push antisemitic tropes. Omar, in particular, displays galling hypocrisy in how she treats Israel compared to any other country, which is itself a form of antisemitism.
Democrats have allowed this problem to fester. Only one instance of this behavior has earned condemnation from Democratic leadership: Omar’s comments on how support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins.” She then “unequivocally” apologized, promising to keep her antisemitism less blatant. Democrats then watered down a resolution that would condemn antisemitism specifically by making it a condemnation of hate generally. There was no incentive for Omar or any other progressive to change their behavior, and, predictably, nothing has changed.
Nothing, that is, except that “the Squad” has added more players. Missouri Rep. Cori Bush supports the antisemitic Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement against Israel, applying the same double standard on Israel as Omar and Tlaib. New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman still accuses Israel of occupying Gaza, which hasn’t been the case for 15 years.
Only a handful of House Democrats are willing to push back on this nonsense, but none of them are party leaders. Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are too scared to follow suit. Better to focus entirely on Greene, who has been relegated by GOP leadership to being a sideshow.
Greene is happy to play her part. She doesn’t care about conservative victories or defeating Democrats. She’s just happy to be in the news and portray herself as the target of progressive anger. But Democrats are indulging her only to distract from their own repeated failures to denounce antisemitism, and their deflections must be called out.
