Hear Ye, Hear Ye. Kayne West Has A Right To Be An Idiot
No doubt you are aware of the kerfuffle going on about Kanye West, or the rapper known as Ye, bringing an antisemitic friend, one Nick Fuentes, to dinner at Mara-a- Lago. Even more dramatic, was Ye’s own antisemitic outbursts in the media subsequent to the controversial dinner.
The more important item at work here is the freedom to utter unpopular beliefs and the freedom to reject them.
We would first note that Mr. Trump can have dinner with whomever he wants. However, since he has just announced his candidacy for President, he can expect to be under a hostile microscope. That is a given. Thus, having dinner with these two characters appears to be the wrong thing to have done, not solely because of the optics.
The Wall Street Journal, long hostile to Trump, has piled on, as well as Mitch McConnell. That is another reason Trump should not have done this. He knows or should have known, that he has political enemies and they will use such occasions to bash him to pieces.
Not only are the optics bad, but so are the politics.
Going deeper, what was to be gained from the conversation to balance out the obvious negatives? And in this sense, we don’t mean political or financial gain, we mean what intellectual or spiritual experience was Trump expecting to have?
Ye, or Kayne, or whatever, seems to be a very unstable man. We can’t think much could have been gained by his ramblings. The same can be said for Fuentes. What kernel of truth, what flash of insight, what gem of wisdom, was Mr. Trump expecting?
This is not like having Jordan Peterson over for dinner, we are talking about a rap “artist” as a dinner guest.
Maybe Trump was dazzled that an influential black pop star could be a conduit for him to speak to an audience that normally is not Republican. If so, it is unfortunate that this conduit is clogged with some pretty nasty stuff.
However, Trump did have two minorities over for dinner, so should he not get extra points for diversity?
No, we don’t think so.
Now, we are aware of Obama’s association with Jeremiah Wright and the Nation of Islam. And we know about the instigator of the Crown Height’s riots, the very Reverend Al Sharpton of MSNBC fame to whom all Democrats seem to grovel.
We are also aware the Democrat running in the run-off election in Georgia, Raphael Warnock has associated with antisemites.
The same is true of the Democrats in the squad, and a few personalities on the TV show “The View.”
We would appreciate it if the press was more even-handed about their expressions of outrage, as they seem to have ignored much of the current Jew hatred exhibited by the Democrat Party and especially on liberal-dominated university campuses. But you know what? Expecting even-handedness from the press is like expecting Andy Devine to sing opera.
Having said that, Trump is our guy and we do our movement no favors when we don’t speak up when he makes a mistake. Just because Democrats refuse to condemn their antisemitism is no excuse for conservatives not to condemn our leaders when they associate with bigots.
Conservatives don’t view people as groups or by skin tone but judge people as individuals. Therefore, it is even more vital to push back when these principles are violated. Trump broke bread with collectivist thinkers who don’t follow conservative principles. This not just insults directed at Jews, it insults conservatism. And, as a Jew and a conservative, I am perplexed.
In fairness though, the opinions of dinner guests are not necessarily the views of the dinner host.
But associating with an anti-semite is not good for the conservative label. And, it can unfortunately play into the movement to stifle free speech in this country.
Trump needs to admit hosting this dinner was an error and make a strong statement correcting this situation and reiterate conservative principles. It is not just that Ye brought an antisemitic friend unannounced to dinner. Ye the antisemite, came to dinner.
The reason it looks so bad is that it is so bad.
Trump, true to form, can’t take responsibility for his error. Even if the staff did not vet his appointments, he is the man in charge of his staff. And having once learned of his error, he would be better served to come clean and say this was a mistake.
The Republican Jewish Coalition has fought for years to bring Jews into the Republican Party. They are not happy. In a press release today, they state:
“We strongly condemn the virulent antisemitism of Kanye West and Nick Fuentes and call on all political leaders to reject their messages of hate and refuse to meet with them.
Today’s InfoWars show featuring Alex Jones, Nick Fuentes, and Kanye West – a disgusting triumvirate of conspiracy theorists, Holocaust deniers, and antisemites – was a horrific cesspool of dangerous, bigoted Jew-hatred.
We vehemently condemn those comments and call on all political leaders to reject these messengers of hate and relegate them to the dustbin of history where they belong.
Given his praise of Hitler, it can’t be overstated that Kanye West is a vile, repellent bigot who has targeted the Jewish community with threats and Nazi-style defamation.
Conservatives who have mistakenly indulged Kanye West must make it clear that he is a pariah. Enough is enough.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Trump has been a good friend of Israel. Trump has been a friend of Israel and this error diminishes his achievements as President.
Trump has Jewish in-laws and we doubt that he has an antisemitic bone in his body. He loves his grandkids.
But this personality trait, believing that admitting error is a sign of weakness, is not serving him well.
To be fair, we don’t know precisely what was discussed at dinner. Purportedly, Ye was asking career questions. However, Ye’s media appearances afterward, earned Trump the duty to dump on him like a ton of bricks. During his interview with Alex Jones, Ye seems to be quite a Hitler supporter.
Just say having him come to dinner was a mistake, that you are now sorry, and then reiterate conservative principles not to view people as groups.
While the Left is having a time of it suggesting Trump and his allies dally with antisemitism, we offer this reminder. Who was it that said this?
“It is from its own entrails that civil society ceaselessly engenders the Jew”.
“Money is the zealous one God of Israel, besides which no other God may stand.”
“What is the object of the Jew’s worship in this world? Usury. What is his worldly God? Money.”
“Jewry reaches its peak with the perfection of bourgeois society.”
Why it is from Karl Marx, the Father of Socialism and the author of “A World Without Jews.”
He also liked to refer to his rival Ferdinand Lassalle as “that Jewish Nigger.”
We are waiting in vain for progressive students to throw red paint or tear down a statue of Karl Marx. Do you suppose Marxian tracts will soon be yanked out of the libraries? When will the Anti-Defamation League rebuke Marx? Will Marxists be banned from Facebook? Will Marxist professors be required to denounce the antisemitism of Marx?
Born of Jewish lineage, (his grandfather was a Rabbi but his father Hershel converted to Christianity), the modern founder of socialism was a raving antisemite and so are many of socialism’s followers today whether of the Communist brand (Black Lives Matter, The Black Israelites, Lewis Farrakhan) or the National Socialist brand that Ye seems to prefer.
And the biggest modern intellectual enemies of socialism: Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Ayn Rand, and Milton Friedman were Jews.
History is a curious thing, isn’t it?
Mr. Trump needs to set himself straight with history, distance himself from Kanye West, and reiterate that conservatism cannot embrace racial or religious collectivism.
He doesn’t need others to do it. He needs to do it.
As for Kanye West, we should all support the right of free speech and the right each of us has to make complete fools of ourselves, which is something Ye seems to be doing with gusto. Trump would be wise to stay outside the perimeter of Ye’s self-destruction.
Perhaps this event will alert not just Mr. Trump, but the public at large, to the growing antisemitism in today’s “black community” and on the university campus.
