I’m an independent, (there, I said it).
American politics can often be seen as a chess game, with two distinct sides and no crossover between them. In chess, pieces can move forward and backward. Politics is the same.
However, in the chaos of chess, sometimes a few pawns fall off the table; I am one of those pieces. Both sides have tried to claim me as their own, yet both lost in the end. I’m moving in ways that pawns shouldn’t, a “forbidden move” in chess.
The middlegame has always been there, but I never truly understood it until recently. Both Democrats and Republicans maneuver to try and win over Jewish voters, but there is one fatal flaw in both of their plans: hypocrisy. Both parties are guilty of antisemitism, failing to properly condemn it, and tokenizing Jewish voters.
This problem is not exclusive to Jewish people. However, as a Jew, I witness antisemitism from both Democrats and Republicans. It is not “free[ing] Palestine” when anti-Israel protesters attack Jewish businesses or perpetuate theories that the Holocaust was over-exaggerated without being condemned by their party’s leaders. It’s not acceptable that a Nazi march can happen on college campuses such as UW-Madison. Demonstrations of open hatred of Jewish people should never be tolerated. No exceptions.
Just because one side isn’t right for me does not mean that the other side is where I stand. When the Republican Party runs a presidential candidate who claims a month before the election that if he loses, blame can be placed at the hands of American Jews, it leaves me stuck in the middle. This is not a one-off incident as some might lead you to believe. The previous statement comes from the man who said after Charlottesville “There are very fine people on both sides.”
Other Republicans, such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, have also recently claimed that Jews killed Jesus, also known as blood libel. This claim is both dangerous and wrong, as even the Pope believes that there is no validity to this claim. People perpetuating this claim in 2024 is part of the reason that antisemitism continues to be a major issue.
In chess, flaws can be hidden if the strategy is executed well enough. However, neither Democrats nor Republicans are executing their strategy properly. Rather than acknowledging the antisemitism in their own ranks, both sides blame the other — and use the pitch of “at least we’re better than them” as the pitch to win the votes of Jewish voters. This pitch can be simplified into “our antisemitism is not as bad as the other side,” but without acknowledging the first part. As a human, I cannot fathom the fact that antisemitism (or any form of hate) has become so normalized that both sides are fighting over who has the LEAST amount of antisemitism.
Trump has called out the Biden administration in the past for failing to combat antisemitism. While I am glad that he acknowledges antisemitism, he ruins his image and shows hypocrisy not even a second later by claiming there is no antisemitism in the Republican Party. Mark Robinson, the candidate that he endorsed to run for governor of North Carolina, as pointed out by the article, has made several statements that are antisemitic, including referring to himself as a “Black Nazi.” Trump is perpetuating antisemitism in this situation by normalizing it, meaning I am less likely to vote for him.
Just as chess is a game of similar moves on both sides, so is politics. Prominent Democrats such as Kamala Harris have played into the hand of antisemitic voices on the far left by not picking Governor Josh Shapiro, a Jew, as her Vice President. When the St. Paul City Council President is concerned about her picking a “Zionist” as a VP candidate, this is not valid political criticism. Similar to Shapiro, Walz has been a proud supporter of Israel, speaking at the Israel Solidarity Event at Beth El Synagogue last year and receiving the endorsement of several Jewish leaders in Minnesota. When prominent Democrats are bullying the nominee into not picking a Jewish candidate merely because he’s Jewish is in violation of American values. I am not complaining about her picking Walz, who was a great candidate, but rather her denial of the antisemitism on the left that led to this decision. Instead, her campaign immediately accused Trump of antisemitism. However valid those accusations are, they ignore that a candidate for Vice President of the United States was not chosen because citizens were upset about his cultural identity.
By letting accusations of Zionism run rampant, the Democratic Party is just as at fault as the Republican Party in the horrifying rise in antisemitism that’s taken place across the country and the world. Some people may believe that I could make more change by speaking up about antisemitism from inside the party, but I have to be realistic. I know that I am one person, and I cannot change an organization as massive as a political party, especially one dedicated to politics. Partisan pollsters may say that by not joining a party, I don’t care about politics at all. However, I believe that being an independent means that I care more. I’m making an informed decision about my personal politics based on what I think will be the best decision for me.
I do not want to be part of any party that preemptively blames Jews for their losses, nor do I want to be in one that attacks Jewish-owned businesses because they’re run by Jews. Sorry party traditionalists, I’m breaking the chessboard.
This story was originally published on Spectrum on December 9, 2024.