Did It Again

In yesterday's post I wrote about the tendency to equate criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Sadly I'll now have to write a short follow-up, because it's not just criticizing Israel that puts one in danger of being smeared as a bigot.

Nina Turner is a progressive former member of the Ohio Senate who supported Bernie Sanders in his 2020 presidential run. She recently ran for the Democratic nomination there, but lost to Councilwoman Shontel Brown. Nina did very well in the early parts of race, but was overtaken by her adversary in the last stretch. In her concession speech she said that the election wasn't lost, but rather manipulated by "evil" and "dark" money:

"I am going to work hard to ensure that something like this never happens to a progressive candidate again. See, we didn't lose this race — evil money manipulated and maligned this election"

The first thing to notice here, as far as I'm concerned, is that Shontel Brown was supported by the Democratic Party's establishment as well as several Republicans, Hillary Clinton and Jewish Democrats who favored her outspoken support for Israel. And Brown eventually won the race with significant support from Cleveland's Jewish community. I'll just quote the Jewish Insider:

In a remarkable upset, Shontel Brown prevailed on Tuesday night in the hotly contested special primary election for an open House seat in Cleveland, notching a symbolic win for the establishment wing of the Democratic Party while stymying its left-wing flank.

Brown’s come-from-behind victory over Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator and prominent progressive, represents an extraordinary turnaround for the Cuyahoga County councilwoman and party chair. Brown, 46, had struggled to gain traction until the final weeks of the race, which played out on the national stage as a tense and high-profile proxy battle between warring Democratic factions.
_{source: Jewish Insider}

A "remarkable upset" and a "come-from-behind victory"... Yes, that's right. And the path to victory for Brown started after several financial powerhouses invested in a slew of political ads. And let me emphasize the word "several" in the previous sentence. When Nina Turner said "evil money", she was not singling out money from Jews. Now, I don't think it was a smart thing to say, but Turner didn't lie; she was way ahead until big donors poured millions of dollars in local ad-campaigns.

And guess what; Nina Turner is now smeared as having made anti-Semitic comments. Here's what Fox News had to say:

Liberal and conservative critics on social media called Turner’s "evil money" comments anti-Semitic. They also pointed out that Turner outraised Brown by roughly $2.4 million, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Others compared Turner to former President Trump, who still claims he was the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election.
_{source: Fox News}

One of the big donors in support of Shontel Brown was the Congressional Black Caucus; does that mean Nina is racist against African Americans as well? Give me a break. All this does is feed in to the age old anti-Semitic trope of evil rich Jews trying to rule the world, which is what they blame Turner for. It's so stupid.

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