Sunday Morning Tabs
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, April 21, 2024
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9 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Senator Graham’s take is very interesting to me. Did I sleep in late and miss an election?
On the subject of MTG, I wanted to take the time to recommend a book I just read: Jewish Space Lasers (2023) by Mike Rothschild.
It’s a deep dive into the history of the Rothschild conspiracy theory from its roots in the 18th century when the banking family first rose to prominence, to the present day. The conspiracy theory apparently has its roots in a false but widespread account of Nathan Rothschild’s alleged involvement in Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo.
This is a topic I already had some knowledge about, but the book really fleshes out the details. It’s part of the broader history of how Jews came to be associated with banking during the Middle Ages (itself a result of prior discrimination) and how this was used to fuel later anti-Semitic beliefs. References to the Rothschilds as a nefarious force behind world events show up in numerous places over the past few centuries, from the Nazis to the Japanese death cult behind the 1995 sarin attack on a Tokyo subway.
One incident I was not aware of before was that in 2007, a member of the Rothschild family went on Alex Jones’ show, and the two argued for hours. Members of the family rarely comment publicly.
The book also discusses how the Jewish community has felt about the Rothschilds, and how they were often a source of inspiration for impoverished Jews in Europe. While I knew this already, the book brings up the fact that the original Tevye, in short stories by Sholem Aleichem, says “If I Were a Rothschild.” The musical later used the more generic “If I Were a Rich Man,” though it’s changed back to the original phrase in Hebrew and Yiddish versions of the play.
The book also discusses QAnon, and the modern right’s obsession with George Soros, whom the author believes has practically replaced the Rothschilds as the nefarious Jewish force constantly invoked without evidence to explain world events.
I wish the book had delved a little more into how Soros-bashing has become so totally normalized in mainstream conservative circles that it’s been adapted to suit a narrative the modern right has constructed of itself as white-knight protectors of the Jews, by casting Soros as a traitor to his people (the book does examine the false allegation that he was a Nazi collaborator) and an enemy of the State of Israel. Indeed, Soros-bashing is widespread among right-wing Jews, who will either stare at you blankly or laugh if you tell them they’re engaging in an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. One anecdote the book does not mention was when Benjamin Netanyahu’s 26-year-old son Yair posted a blatantly anti-Semitic graphic of Soros.
Conservatives usually (though not always) draw the line when people start talking about the Rothschilds. Invoking Soros enables them to avoid the baggage the Rothschild name carries that even many on the right recognize as problematic, which makes the modern alliance between conservative evangelicals and right-wing Jews possible. Still, in recent years I’ve noticed more and more overt Rothschild-baiting being accepted and normalized on the right–MTG’s space lasers being one notable example.
The author says he’s not from the famous family. But the fact that he’s gone through life with that name makes it easy to understand why he’d take an interest in the subject. In his career as a journalist, I can only imagine the comments he’s had sent his way, on social media and elsewhere.
@Kylopod:
It has seemed to me that the American Right has used the fallout from Gaza to have way too much fun pretending antisemitism hasn’t been mostly a Right Wing thing.
@gVOR10: The Gaza situation has been a great gift to the right, and not just in terms of the “Genocide Joe” business threatening Biden’s reelection. It’s used as a “get-out-of-anti-Semitism-free” card by the likes of RFK Jr., Elon Musk, and Mark Robinson (among others). You can talk all you want about Jewish bankers or the great replacement or Covid being designed to protect Ashkenazim or even outright Holocaust denial, as long as you add that you support Israel. When parts of the left are pretty boneheaded about the conflict and the role of anti-Semitism in some in their movement, they fall right into the right’s hands.
Newt Gingrich is one of a long, long list of Republicans who have spent their careers making the Republican Party what it is, but now want to distance themselves from the fruit of their labors. It ain’t just Trump.
@gVOR10: Whenever discussing modern politics, Newt never appears to have learned a thing from his own mistakes as Speaker.
@Kylopod:
I think “mistakes” is the wrong word. Gingrich damaged the country for sake of his own ego, for the attention and aggrandizement. He was a traitor to the US in much the same way as MTG is today, but will get the worse seat in hell because he had the intellectual capacity to understand what he was doing, unlike the current Georgian.
@MarkedMan: There are many politicians who I think did great damage to the country without suffering the consequences to their own career (Reagan is a prime example). Newt, however, ended his political career in shambles. You’d think he’d have some ability to reflect on why that happened. Instead, his approach to politics seems utterly unchanged from when he was Speaker. You get the sense if he got to do it over again, he would behave exactly the same.
@Kylopod:
Ah. Good perspective.