OPINION:
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (and other prominent Democrats’) endorsement of the antisemitic, anti-Zionist Abdul El-Sayed to be their party’s senator from Michigan is puzzling, but not without precedent.
It is likely that Mr. Schumer’s endorsement is only intended only to increase the prospects of the Democrats’ control of the Senate, not to support Mr. El-Sayed’s Jew hatred. But it’s a Faustian bargain that would only temporarily favor Democrats.
What Mr. El-Sayed and his kindred candidates are selling is anathema to the great majority of this country. But even if Mr. El-Sayed doesn’t win the Senate seat this time around, those endorsements will raise his political strength and that of others who think like him.
It will certainly toughen Mr. El-Sayed’s intention to fundamentally change this country. And that portends a troubled future.
History is replete with stories of those who, misled by the confusion of the times like Mr. Schumer, have sacrificed integrity for political party advantage. During the Nazi era in Germany, the Nazis gave those few Jews whose support was useful to their party the temporary status and privileges of “honorary Aryan.”
But, just as scorpions must be scorpions, Nazis will be Nazis and thee Jews who cooperated went to the ovens anyway.
Sen. Schumer’s endorsement of an appalling candidate solely for expediency’s sake is not quite the same thing, but the prospects of its consequences and a troubled future are similar.
NORTON RUBENSTEIN
Richmond, Virginia
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