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Tuesday was a rough day for Jew haters on both ends of the spectrum in Florida, but a neo-Nazi’s gains spell trouble down the road for the Sunshine State. So… let’s dive in.
Good News, Bad News
First, let’s start with a bit of good news. Nearly two dozen pro-Israel candidates – Republican and Democrat - won their primaries in Florida this week. This includes Sen. Ashley Moody and Reps. Aaron Bean, Gus Bilirakis, Brian Mast, Jared Moskowitz and Maria Elvira Salazar among a host of others.
Now, it wasn’t all good news this week. Anti-Israel California State Senator Aisha Wahab is, as of this writing, holding onto a slim 51%-49% lead over the more moderate Melissa Hernandez in the special election runoff election held this week for California’s open 14th District House seat.
Regardless of how the California race pans out, we did learn this week that, at least in Florida, being a Jew-hater does not win elections.
Yet.
Herr. Fishback
Meet James Fishback. He ran a campaign to be the GOP nominee for Governor in Florida and lost. And he lost big. In a multi-candidate race he came in third with just 10.5% of the vote.
But… that means that 177,000 voting age American citizens in Florida decided a neo-Nazi was their guy.
And it’s not as if we see folks coming out in droves in such “off-year” primary races. To put things in perspective, the winner, Byron Donalds, received just over 800,000 votes.
Moreover, Fishback’s efforts, backed by Tucker Carlson, were not necessarily intended to produce a “Gov. Fishback” (G-d forbid). Rather, Fishback’s campaign taught the core of the neo-right (the Carlson-Vance-Bannon Axis) a great deal about fine tuning their hateful message.
Analysis indicates that many of their voters were younger and are highly tolerant of intolerance provided certain key populist chords are struck.
Proof of Concept
Fishback’s loss is proof that despite falling short of pre-election polling, one can get a neo-Nazi to ten percent of the GOP primary electorate without a great deal of investment. What comes next is investment.
Fishback doesn’t just disappear after his loss. There are numerous sitting elected officials who know as much defeat as victory.
Bottom line, you don’t have to win to prove that you or someone like you could win in some other time or place. Steve Bannon has been playing this game since he helped (now) Amb. Dave Brat unseat Rep. Eric Cantor. Now, Brat’s an ally to Israel, that’s not the point, the point is this:
Bannon likes to upend governance as sport, Carlson wants America to be a White Supremacist Utopia, and Vice President Vance will kiss any ring he thinks will make him President. That trio learned a great deal about running politically adjacent to the Jew-haters as a direct result of James Fishback’s efforts in a state with sway on the Presidential contest.
From a political perspective, in the coming weeks America’s attention – including ours – will shift from the primary races to the general elections. There will be several places where bigots - of the Wahab or Fishback flavor - will be one election from our nation’s capital. With a little education and action, we can minimize the Amalekite presence in Washington next year. But we will not lose sight of the bigger picture: 2028.
Sincerely,
The CUFI Action Fund Team |
