Antisemitism in the US reached its apex between 1920-1940. It has shrunk steadily to about 14% of the population, and only has institutional support amongst right wing fringe groups, e.g., Christian Identity churches, Aryan-White Resistance, Klu Klux Klan, Holocaust Deniers, Liberty Lobby, and American Neo-Nazi organizations.
You will recall prominent right wing figures such Henry Ford and Father Coughlin suggesting that the New Deal was a Jewish financial conspiracy. This sentiment exists today on the far right, where we are told that a cabal of Jewish bankers secretly controls world finance. Of course we cannot forget Nixon's famous "liberal Jewish media".
My question: why did the main stream right abandoned antisemitic rhetoric, pushing it to the margins, where it thrives in a network of lesser groups, who are disowned when they bring bad press.
My answer is this: I think this shift away from antisemisitm can partly be explained by the importance of Israel during the Cold War. As Britain was shedding it's colonies (and thereby leaving the middle east), America began to compete for middle east geopolitical assets. Bringing the world's largest energy region under one's sphere of influence was vital to both SuperPowers. Suffice it to say, the money & weapons that started flowing from the US to Israel during the Cold was staggering. During this time, the corporate money that flowed into antisemitic groups dried up. Antisemitic elements within right wing punditry was reigned in.
After the Cold War ended, isolationist components on the Right urged the party to reduce funding for Israel (and Saudi Arabia), claiming that there was no longer a need to protect the region from Soviet domination. Enter the Neocons (many of them Jewish), who believed that the region's oil wealth was too important to ignore. They convinced the party to increase it's support of Israel, who became a chief asset in the War on Terrorism. For this reason antisemitism was again marginalized. It would remain on the fringes, where it would be used electorally, to mobilize uneducated people who wanted to take their country back from invisible demons and shadowy jewish conspiracies.
Why do you thing antisemitism was purged from the main stream right?
They were not "purged". They were marginalized. A certain number of Christians believe the Jews killed Jesus. They probably do not know many if any Jews. They dislike Jews on religious grounds and believe they are evil. There are another set of republicans including myself that just don't like Jews in general. This has nothing to do with thier religion. There are exceptions of course but I find most Jews to be rude, pushy, arrogant, pro Israel over the interests of the USA, stupidly convinced they are Gods chosen people, whiners, believe the holocost gives them special consideration, IMO weak ass punks that loaded thier own women and children onto cattle cars rather than fight to the death on thier own doorways, too stupid or cowardly to kill Hitler, selfish in that they had a lot of personal wealth in Germany but rather than spend it to buy arms or put together and finance a plan they individually horded thier assets and even tried to take jewels and gold with them thinking they could individually bribe thier way to freedom. To many these may seem like trivial complaints. To Jews these are stupid complaints. That is because I am Irish and those things matter to me. If my people are opressed we take the fight to the enemy any way we can..even if we are dirt poor. Many think what the IRA did was outrageous bombing the English...I was down with it 100%. If the Jews had done the same in Germany they would have lost a few thousand but saved millions. They just didn't have the heart. I want to say I don't hate Jews..I just do not respect them. They are not worth dying for. If they were not willing to sacrifice some of their own lives and wealth to take a stand in Europe Sooo...I have to agree them and with the truth of what they were willing to do or not to survive.
OK I spelled it out. I am not looking for debate on these points... I don't want to hear excuses why a man will put his child on a cattle car headed for an extermination camp. I don't want to hear "They didn't know". **** that bullshit. When a man with a gun or several men with guns come to your house to throw you out in the street and take your property you are supposed take out the guns you have purchased and kill as many as possible before you get killed..you hand out the weapons to all of your relatives including the children and tell them to be brave and kill as many of the bastards as they can.. you already have your house booby trapped to kill the germans trespassing on your property after you are dead. If your neighbors are worth shit they will also get out thier guns and kill as many German soldiers as THEY can. Then you take the Germans vehicles and thier uniforms and you drive them right back to headquarters loaded with explosives and blow up as many as you can. And you keep killing German soldiers until they are dead or you are. Any other action is not tolorable. Any other action is cowardice. If you load your family on a cattle car..PISS ON YOU!!!
I know ..the Jews will not understand why I am so unwilling to cut them slack on these issues. AND that is the difference between them and me. I expect more from them than they are willing or capable of doing for themselves. Let the British or anyone try and round up the Irish and load them onto cattle cars.. It would be a cold day in hell before that would ever happen. We Irish would do to the British or whoever a 9/11 every ******* day.. What do you think a 747 cargo plane full of explosives would do? Rig it for remote control. Buckingham? Rubble.. Every institution they care about ..Rubble..
If I were a Jew I would be embarrassed to live in Israel. I would to this day be avenging what the Germans and the Austrians and the Poles did to my people. It would NEVER be over. I would be in Europe with my fellow Jews that had any balls and have Bombed every former Nazi or Nazi sympathiser that was responsible. AND we wouldn't stop until they all got blown to smitherines and the Government gave back all confiscated property to my fellow Jews. Then those of us that were left would live proudly in our own homes with our heads held high and damn to hell any "good German" that didn't like it! Then if we wanted to do something like Israel..OK but not they way it is... as a refugee camp.. ya its nicer than most..but that is truly what it is. It is not a testament to the strength of the Jews but to thier weakness. Again..the Jews that read this will not get it. I am OK with that. I don't expect you to. You are much better suited to being victims.
Israel.. Would the conditions surrounding Israel be tolorated anywhere else on the planet? No of course not. Yet for some reason we must make excuses for these people. Oh ya it's the Arabs... It's all thier fault! The Arabs are damn near cave men. They are a hundred years from donkeys and camels as thier main form of transportation. Israel could clean that area up and everyone could be living peaceably and prosperously if the Jews wanted it so. They have the strength to make it so but not the courage or the wisdom.
Maybe the track I folllowed is better left unsaid.. off topic because by Christ we have to tippy toe around the god damned Jews.
Anti semetic? Maybe.. I prefer to think of it as anti asshole. There are a hell of a lot of people that see it my way but don't want the grief of saying so.. I don't blame them. The weak fuckers aren't worth arguing about.