I have to say right at the outset: I just don’t get it.
Why do American Jews continue to focus their attention on the presumed antisemitism of the progressive Left, when the key players in the Trump regime are manifest white supremacists and Christian nationalists ready to sell out Jews at a moment’s notice? Do we think that the presence of Jews like Jared Kushner, Steven Miller, Howard Lutnick, and the motley assortment of Jewish broligarchs like Mark Zuckerberg represent some kind of safeguard against the rising antisemitism of the Right?
Granted, there have been numerous expressions of antisemitism on the Left, and I don’t mean to excuse a single one. The grief over the slaughter in Gaza has led some pro-Palestinian activists to cross over the line with hateful chants. One of our local rabbis here in the Quad Cities was horrified to hear isolated chants of “Fuck the Jews!” at the No Kings rally he attended in Minneapolis. And granted, too, a couple of the highest profile violent antisemitic incidents in recent months seemed motivated by anti-Israel sentiment on the Left.
Still, they don’t compare to the anger and arms wielded by the Right. Charlie Kirk’s murder notwithstanding, the vast majority of mass shooting incidents in the U.S. are committed by people embracing right-wing ideologies. The occasional rogue pro-Palestinian protestors don’t keep me up at night; it’s the systematic violence and erasure promised by the Right that does.
Jews in this country have historically recognized their common cause with people of color and other marginalized groups. Sure, we could always pass as white, but we’ve known that there’s a deep strain of antisemitism going all the way back to the colonies, renewed periodically, from Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh’s America First Committee to the Kanye Wests and Proud Boys of today. Our greatest leaders often have acted on this knowledge. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel walked hand in hand, literally and figuratively, with Martin Luther King, Jr. and saw our struggle as part of the greater civil rights movement.
But now we see again the trauma-driven angst (if not hysteria) of American Jewry, this time obsessed with Mamdani’s historic win in New York. Judging from the rising chorus of dire warnings, Mamdani’s victory seems to have distracted American Jews from the real antisemitic threat to Jewish life in this country: the emboldened and explicitly antisemitic Right, as well as the opportunistic Right always ready to resort to antisemitic ploys like accusing George Soros of funding the No Kings rallies.
I must say, it’s getting hard to know if American Jews are more concerned about criticism of today’s unleashed Zionism and the murderous Israeli regime in power, or about the supposed threat to Jewish wealth accumulation from Mamdani’s social welfare agenda. It is true that Mamdani has had the audacity to raise questions about Jewish exceptionalism; he asks why we accept a theocratic Jewish state with two-tier citizenship rights that we would never accept of any other nation-state. He does not advocate for the abolition of Israel, much less the Jewish people. He is bold enough to question the viability of the conventional ‘two-state solution’ when the ultra-Orthodox Israeli right, buoyed by demographic gains, will hold power for the foreseeable future; after all, they will continue to call for expanding the boundaries of Israel to “Greater Judea,” and anyway, the territory of Israel runs right down the middle of any possible contiguous Palestinian state.
Instead, Mamdani tries to boldly raise the possibility of a truly multicultural democracy, with robust guarantees for Jewish security, well-being, and religious freedom. It may seem hopelessly naïve and idealistic in the current political environment, but it is a position that has more ethical integrity than most (and some 15% of Israelis support it as well, not to mention 25% of Palestinians).
And regardless of what we may think of Mandani’s position on the politics of the Middle East, or even about the “threat” of pro-Palestinian protests on our college campuses, most perplexing of all is the huge blind spot in American Jewry about the growing threat from the Right.
Perhaps what has prepared the way for this misdirection is the current government’s utterly cynical pandering to concerns about antisemitism in higher education. One might be excused for mistaking Trump’s draconian measures against universities with supposedly inexcusable levels of antisemitic behavior, for a sincere concern with Jewish safety and well-being. But antisemitism in higher education has merely become the most convenient pretext for the MAGA presidency to muzzle free speech on campuses and bring universities in line with their reactionary ideology against all forms of justice and diversity.
And what better proof do we need of this government’s cynical modus operandi than its embrace of the antisemitic Right? We now have a significant segment of the MAGA movement extolling the virtues of Adolf Hitler, espousing a theocratic state (Christian nationalism), and openly calling for the abolition of Jews. We have Tucker Carlson coddling Nick Fuentes, the avowed Nazi-lover; Carlson, in turn, is a darling of the Trump regime.
And we have Kash Patel’s FBI turning a blind eye to right-wing extremism and the open growth of right-wing militias, with their naked white supremacy and hatred of Jews. Indeed, such militias are now being mined for prospective ICE agents. Does anyone doubt that once they move on from rounding up the immigrants, American Jews could be next?
Finally, we have VP J.D. Vance pushing against our system of birthright citizenship, insisting that the only true Americans are those who can trace their family history to the Civil War or before. That violent extremism is justified by a more legitimate claim to Anglo-Saxon heritage. And that the American creed of democratic aspiration, articulated in the Declaration, is a poor measure of our rightful citizenship. Can there be any question that Jews remain outside this conception of national membership?
And still AIPAC and other prevalent voices against antisemitism focus on the mostly manufactured threat of mass antisemitism on the Left.
Meanwhile, nobody on the right (or the ‘center,’ like Andrew Cuomo) even tries to honestly explore what it actually means to be a “democratic socialist.” All they can do, like Trump himself, is to call Mandani a “communist” and claim it’s been a bad idea for “a thousand years” (NB: The first important exposition on communism, The Communist Manifesto, was published in 1848). In other words, they unleash “bogeyman politics”: discredit, obfuscate, and lie.
But when you look closely at what “democratic socialism” means and intends, one finds that it is about listening to what a clear majority of people want (“democracy”) and using the power of government to make life fair and affordable (“socialism”). If you look at the Mamdani agenda, it’s mainly about making rent, childcare, transportation, food, and healthcare more affordable for working New Yorkers. That’s democratic socialism, folks. Nothing more and nothing less.
And yes, this also means using the power of government to tax the rich. To redistribute wealth. Mamdani had the temerity to say out loud what tens of millions of Americans think: “I don’t think we should have billionaires.” And immediately the knives came out, as well as the “communist” bogeyman.
But honestly, can somebody please tell me, when and why did it become anathema to subject the super-wealthy to a fair tax on their riches? What are the arguments about why those who make more than several million dollars per year, or whose net worth exceeds, say, 50 or 100 million dollars, should not pay much, much higher taxes—unless their wealth is manifestly directed to public investment or philanthropy? Why do we accept the expansion of poverty and hunger in this country while the rich get richer—and enjoy unprecedented access to government grift and power? Why are more Americans not outraged at current levels of wealth inequality, and our absurdly historically low individual and corporate tax rates?
We have to be speak the truth: This level of greed and inequality is outrageous. It’s simply obscene. No civilized, freedom-loving people can endure it.
It’s been said many times before: During the conservative Republican government of Dwight Eisenhower, the super-wealthy were taxed at a 90% rate. Now THAT was getting pretty close to the egalitarian ideals of communism! Today, the wealthy find ways to wiggle out of taxes altogether or pay an absurdly low rate. Meanwhile, CEOs regularly make a salary of more than one thousand times the median income of their typical employee. One thousand times (and more)! I know most Americans believe that if a person makes, say, 100 million dollars a year, they could afford to pay at least 50% in taxes and still take home their 50 million. And if they don’t like it, well boo-fucking-hoo!
Americans are so tired of being fleeced by the super-rich. It’s long been happening under Democratic and Republican governments alike; Trump has just elevated the grift to a new, more nakedly corrupt level for all to see. Mamdani’s election is a wake-up call for the entire political class*. He is an authentic, humble man who will govern for all New Yorkers, but especially for New York’s long-neglected multiracial and muticultural working class.
I think he’s great. Call me a communist, I guess!
*Indeed, as I was writing this, news hit that political newcomer Katie Wilson, also a socialist, won her race for mayor of Seattle based largely on a platform of taxing the rich to build affordable housing.
Source: Substack
Author: Sebas Lee
About the author: Sebas Lee is a Latin Americanist and spokesperson for Indivisible QC. He conducted research in Mexico for more than 30 years and led Indiana University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies for 4 years. He writes about democracy and civil liberties, antisemitism and the far right, and U.S. power in the Americas.
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