For most of the summer, the alt-right, a cabal of anti-Semitic Internet trolls and thugs, have been wreaking havoc in Donald Trump’s name. They’ve gone as far as to trash anyone whose name even sounds Jewish, especially if they dare to speak out against the Donald. Not only has Trump refused to do anything about it, but he may have even pandered to them by tweeting a blatantly anti-Semitic meme attacking Hillary Clinton that came from an alt-right message board.
Well, it took long enough, but someone finally dropped the hammer on these knuckle-draggers. For most of the first day of the Republican National Convention, it was possible to chat live while watching the convention stream live on YouTube. However, after a gaggle of anti-Semitic clowns turned the feed into a steaming pile of hate, the RNC was forced to shut down chatting altogether.
What triggered this hate fest? Well, when former Hawaii governor Linda Lingle took the podium to extol the GOP’s outreach to Jewish voters, the alt-right reacted like a pack of enraged bulls. Raw Story got screenshots of some of the worst moments.
While this anti-Semitic bile was flowing on YouTube, Lingle was trying to convince Jewish voters that the GOP is their real home. Her only mention of Trump was to urge Jews to join him in helping “make America great again.” If I were a Jew and I were watching this bilge unfold online, I’d be scratching my head. Here Lingle is trying to sell me on whether to vote for Trump, and some of his backers are throwing this nonsense around?
By the end of the night, the RNC had closed down chatting altogether. Sadly, this may have been the only appropriate response. The chat was flowing so fast that the RNC’s social media team couldn’t ban these trolls fast enough.
But should it have even come to this? If Trump had just shown some leadership and disavowed these anti-Semitic clowns a long time ago, maybe they wouldn’t have gotten the bright idea to hijack the chat feed. On too many occasions to count, Trump had a chance to look presidential and blew it eight ways to Sunday. But his numerous failures to rein in the anti-Semitic thugs nominally acting in his name have to stand as some of the worst.
Unless I’m very wrong, once Trump is officially coronated as the GOP nominee, the RNC will finally have some leverage over him. If Trump doesn’t have the guts to call off these thugs, then Reince Priebus and the RNC need to grow a pair and do it for him.
