Standards, Where Art Thou?

Political violence ticks up a notch, Mark Robinson revealed, and a Jewish James Bond plot.

Last week, I included some brief remarks about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. In the week since, we’ve had a variety of takes, from left-wingers saying he had it coming, to Trumpists who blamed the Democrats for it, to normal people who said they were glad no one was hurt and they hoped there wouldn’t be any more violence this political season. Trump himself said the attempt was the fault of Democrats saying he is a threat to democracy. 

Where to begin? I don’t recall Paul Pelosi giving interviews blaming Republicans for the attack which sent him to the hospital. I don’t recall Nancy Pelosi saying that maybe all that talk about her destroying the country was responsible for the attack that almost killed her husband. I suppose Donald Trump thinks “threat to democracy” is incitement but, “hang Mike Pence” and, “if you don’t fight like hell, you won’t have a country left,” are just innocuous remarks which couldn’t possibly be construed to cause anyone to do anything untoward. 

Meanwhile, J.D. Vance told Democrats to “cut this crap out… because somebody is going to get hurt.” This is rich coming from a man who admitted to publicly slandering a group of vulnerable, hardworking immigrants from Haiti for political purposes. Even if it’s true that the bomb threats in Springfield all came from a certain country which rhymes with Prussia, these immigrants are not public figures like Vance or Trump. They do not have the benefit of Secret Service protection. I suppose Vance believes that “extreme rhetoric” is a terrible thing when it encourages nutcases to threaten Donald Trump, but just a good political strategy when it causes nutcases to threaten legal immigrants who want to raise their kids to be good Americans. 

And, since we’re on the subject, let me just say for the record that if the “they’re eating dogs and cats” story is Vance’s idea of drawing attention to the troubles of integrating immigrants into the country, he must not have very many good ideas for how to talk about immigration. I agree with those who say that adding an extra 30% to a town’s population overnight can cause real problems. I agree with those who worry about assimilating large groups of immigrants from distinct cultures. 

But Springfield, Illinois is not Cologne, Germany, and these Haitian immigrants are not trying to establish enclaves of sharia law. These are Christians coming from a Christian country. Do some of these Haitians have some strange, superstitious beliefs about voodoo? Yes. But take a drive around this country. You’ll find plenty of “real Americans” who have strange, superstitious beliefs of their own. 

Moreover, as has been reported, these immigrants generally don’t bother people (except with bad driving) and, more importantly, they work. The business community in Springfield – which used to be a natural constituency for Republicans – generally praises the Haitians for their industry and responsibility. One business owner said that he had trouble keeping them as employees because he couldn’t afford to pay them all of the overtime they wanted to work. Many leave to work for somebody who can. 

And what happens when people work hard? They earn money and they use it to rent nicer apartments and buy homes. Which drives up housing costs. Which, in turn, makes people upset. To be sure, the massive overnight population increase drove housing costs up by itself (but as Milton Friedman and George Stigler famously pointed out, if the market is allowed to operate freely, it is perfectly capable of rationing housing in a way that will accommodate even an overnight increase like this). 

Are the migrants taking jobs away? Not from people who want to work. The Springfield business community can attest to that. Before the migrants, there were more jobs than people looking for work. If anything, the economy of Springfield is being revitalized by the influx of new consumers.

But the real issue was never about economics, or else Vance and Trump wouldn’t have bothered talking about dogs and cats. 

The Republican Party Deserves to Lose

News came out last week that the North Carolina GOP gubernatorial candidate, Mark Robinson, wants to bring back slavery. He also praised Nazism and declared his love for “tranny” porn. There’s more, but even if this is the first you’re hearing about Mark Robinson, you already know more than you ever wanted to know. 

Republicans should be ashamed of this man. The GOP has fielded terrible candidates in the past, but Robinson is embarrassing. And, yes, the Democrats have fielded their share of terrible candidates. But Democrats primaried Jamaal “The Zionists Did 9/11” Bowman. If Republicans have any self-respect, they will refuse to vote for Mark Robinson. 

I want the Republican Party to hold the House and win the Senate. I want the Republican Party to win strong positions in statehouses across the country. But, at a certain point, that can’t make up for the flaws of individual candidates. If treating people as individuals, not as members of some group or category, is to mean anything it has to mean this: individual candidates can win or lose your vote on their own merit or lack thereof. 

I’ve had it with the candidates like Roy Moore, Mark Robinson, Matt Gaetz, George Santos, and Madison Cawthorne. People argue the Republicans need to be in a strong position in the states and in Congress to oppose radical progressivism. But ten years ago, the Republican Party won their strongest position in Congress in a century. Now, they’re on the verge of potentially losing the most winnable Senate map for the GOP in decades. 

What happened in that time? We all know what happened. Republicans did this to themselves. The Republican Party deserves to lose this election. The fact that the Democratic Party also deserves to lose doesn’t change that fact. 

In Other Punditry News

Normally, a dumb Twitter controversy which won’t affect the presidential race wouldn’t merit a mention, but I wanted to bring it up as illustrative of a wider phenomenon. Rich Lowry, the man handpicked by William F. Buckley Jr. to guide National Review into the 21^st Century, who hasn’t uttered a racially insensitive comment once in thirty years in public life, mispronounced the word “migrant” in a way that sounded like a racial slur. Immediately, large portions of the fever-swamp left erupted in triumph. At long last, they concluded, the mask slipped and Lowry proved that the entire project of National Review and movement conservatism has been to perpetuate racism. Or something like that. 

For the most part, right and left and center, people have flocked to Lowry’s defense. But he was uninvited by both Indiana State University and the Badger Institute. Even though he obviously didn’t say the word, the suggestion that he might have was enough to cause people to distance themselves. 

The Democratic Party – for one hundred and fifty years the party of slavery, segregation, eugenics, progressive race science, and the KKK – loves to pounce on Republicans on the question of race. This has created an unfortunate double standard. If you’re on the right, you can stutter in a way that sounds like a slur and people will tar you as “probably a closet racist” for the rest of your life. Meanwhile, some lefty, pro-Palestinian activist can say, “I want to put all Zionists in gas chambers and finish what Hitler started,” and the smart set will go around saying that he’s just a twenty-nine-year-old kid who wants attention and he doesn’t really mean it and besides you need to understand the context and the real problem is that…

Speaking of pro-Palestinian activism, in a grand demonstration of their military and intelligence capabilities, the Israelis detonated explosive devices hidden in thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah fighters last week, killing hundreds and injuring countless more. This is about as targeted as it gets, and given that the only people who had pagers were in Hezbollah, it minimized (but did not eliminate) civilian casualties. 

Immediately, large segments of the anti-Israel left were up in arms. This was an “act of war” they said, which is like saying that the Battle of Midway was an act of war. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez denounced the attack. Notably, she made no such denunciation when Hezbollah killed a number of Druze children with a rocket. 

Many of these same activists also complained when Israel assassinated various Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh – murderers responsible for thousands of innocent deaths. These activists claim to be in favor of peace, and they talk a big game about Israel’s provocations. But when they make no such accusations in the other direction, we can conclude that they have a different motive. If ceasefire only means that Israel ceases fighting, never that Hamas and Hezbollah cease firing rockets, we can conclude that the goal of ceasefire isn’t peace. 

True, some people believe that only Westerners are responsible for their actions – the underdogs fighting us are just responding to the systemic factors which oppress them. 

But most aren’t that foolish. When they consistently mourn the deaths of terrorists, it’s because they are rooting for the terrorists. Many of them have been mainlining Iranian propaganda. Others come by their anti-Westernism naturally. In a previous column, I mentioned that one of the problems with paleoconservatism is its weird strain of anti-Americanism which seems to run all the way back to before the movement coalesced. This anti-Americanism can be deeply corrupting and lead to a dark place. It has the same effect on both right and left: the fig leaf of wanting peace covers the true desire for American defeat. 

Luckily, the Democrats have been running away from the anti-Israel crowd. We will see whether the anniversary of October 7^th brings fresh rounds of, “Gas the Jews” and “Hey, Netanyahu, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” But the DNC was remarkably clear of the pro-Palestinian activism. And Harris seems to be trying every day to demonstrate her pro-West, pro-Israel, pro-America bona fides. 

Harris may have been trying a little too hard in that interview with Oprah. But at least she makes it sound like she really likes America. Donald Trump spends most of his time talking about all the parts of America he hates. And his followers spend a lot of energy talking about all the things they hate about America.  

Coda: The Republican Party Used to Mean Something

The Republican Party used to stand for something. Decency and character. Patriotism. Confidence in the rightness of the American cause. The Republican Party freed the slaves and saved the Union. Now, it’s running a black man for governor who claims he wants to bring slavery back. A man championed by some as an Evangelical Christian who watches pornography and participates in a dating forum for extramarital affairs. 

This saddens me, because I care more about the Republican Party than I do about the Democratic Party, and I care about the message being sent about Christian witness by such a figure as Mark Robinson. Already, some figures are circling the wagons, claiming that the real battle is against the Democrats, and that those of us who care about these scandals are “soft” or are only hurting the Republican cause. 

No. The Republican cause has already been hurt. It is being hurt every day by men like Mark Robinson and Donald Trump. Those of us who are honest and who care about the Republican cause are the ones willing to point that out. I’m not going to tell you that Kamala Harris will be good for the country, or that she will be more conservative than Donald Trump, or that the Democrats are right on important policies. But I am going to tell you not to vote for Donald Trump or Mark Robinson. They don’t deserve it. They take Republican voters for granted. They betray their constituents’ trust. And neither will meaningfully advance conservative policies. Voting for them is a waste.

Ben Connelly is a writer, long-distance runner, former engineer, and author of “Grit: A Practical Guide to Developing Physical and Mental Toughness.” He publishes short stories and essays at Hardihood Books. @benconnelly6712