What should JD Vance do about antisemitism in his coalition? OK, look —— In the next — not tomorrow, but over the next two years? I deliver my advice to JD and to other people in Washington, not over the airwaves, and they might not appreciate it. A hypothetical leader of a hypothetical right of center party, is it, put it this way: Are you trying to —— Is it more about of vocal condemnation. You need people to draw a bright line or is it more about institutional gatekeeping by making sure you are making decisions about who is occupying leadership positions, who you’re hiring, and so on? We’re hoping to see in JD or whoever is going to be the next Republican or conservative leader, we’re hoping to see a similar skill. What exactly is that skill? That skill is the skill of determining what the boundaries of the coalition are. Nick Fuentes does not have to sit at the table when you’re making decisions. Part of that job of deciding who’s in and who’s out is giving honor, but part of it also is laying down the law. The person who’s heading the coalition, the person who’s building it, maintaining it every day, has to be able to say: Look, I need your help. I need you to knock it off. Here are the things I want you to stop doing. Or here are some things that I want you to do in order to make it possible for this coalition to survive. Do you think it’s hard for Republican leaders to do that right now? Do you think people, again, generic Republican leaders, do think that they’re. Do you think that they’re afraid of the forces? Yes, but part of what we’re seeing, and this is a crucial point: They didn’t understand until very, very recently that this dynamic exists at all. Most of the people in the administration and other significant figures — the Heritage Foundation, Turning Point USA, all these other big pieces of the nationalist right — many, many of them, almost all, in fact, almost all of the leaders have been silent, so far, in trying to, to navigate this summer’s explosion of anti-Jewish messaging. I mean, it is a hurricane. And I already said what their job is, but I didn’t say anything about timetable. Kevin Roberts from Heritage is a close friend. He stepped forward to try to make order in this and destabilized his institution because the hurricane forces are too strong and he didn’t completely understand what it was that he was stepping into. Now, Kevin, virtually everyone else that I know in Washington, is fundamentally ecumenical in his worldview. He wants to see a coalition that’s Protestants, Catholics and Jews working together to make America great, and he’s got all these people attacking him and saying that he’s an antisemite. It’s extremely unnerving and it’s unnerving for everybody. I think it’s going to take some time.
