“There was an outsized focus on issues on issues connected to the Middle East,” said Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, explaining how the socialists, communists, and enemies of “Western civilization” routed the DNC’s normies (such as they are) this week.
Here’s the clip:
Hakeem Jeffries downplays significance of the New York elections, saying they were "higher income" districts that had "outsized focus on issues connected to the Middle East." pic.twitter.com/WIo0LrNke2
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) June 25, 2026
Jeffries was lying: There wasn’t an “outsized focus” on the Middle East, because the Middle East is a region with many nations. This “outsized focus” was limited to one specific country: Israel. (And — spoiler alert — they weren’t focusing on Israel because they’re boosters.)
But the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) isn’t the only political movement with an “outsized focus” on Israel. There’s a mirror movement on the woke right that’s also embraced a fanatical, all-encompassing hatred of the Jewish state, accusing it of killing Charlie Kirk, tricking America into war, destroying Christianity, and enslaving Donald Trump.
Right now, the DSA is more politically powerful than the woke right: In conservative, pro-Trump districts, woke right candidates — such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — lose primaries to MAGA traditionalists. (Often by lopsided numbers.) Yet in far-left districts all over the country — Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York, and more — the DSA candidates are winning. (Often by lopsided numbers.)
In other words, the crazies on the left are WAY more influential than the crazies on the right.
But then again, they had a big head start. The Democratic Party has been incubating anti-Zionism and Jew-hatred for a lot longer than the GOP. For us, it’s a new phenomenon; for them, it’s old hat keffiyeh.
Ten years ago, someone like Zohran Mamdani being elected mayor of New York City was unthinkable. Five years ago, someone like Darializa Avila Chevalier winning the Democratic nomination for Congress was an utter impossibility.
Just take a look at Avila Chevalier’s digital paper trail, courtesy of CNN:
In August 2020, Avila Chevalier reposted a tweet responding to a social media prompt that asked, “Israel suddenly disappears, your third emoji is your reaction.” The reposted tweet replied, “Trick question – Israel doesn’t exist!”
“A world without borders—just like a world without prisons or police—is possible, necessary, and the only moral way forward,” read one deleted repost from September 2021.
During a three-day period in September 2021, Avila Chevalier also reposted now-deleted messages declaring, “Yes, literally, abolish the border” and that “all deportation is wrong.”
Her Twitter profile biography also at one point included the phrase “how communist of you,” the hashtags “#BlackLivesMatter” and “#FreePalestine,” and described her location as “Occupied Lenape Land” and later “Lenapehoking (NYC)” — an acknowledgment to Indigenous claims to New York City.
Her current campaign account lists “Manhattan, NY.”
During the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic, Avila Chevalier reposted a message calling for a sweeping government takeover of large parts of the economy. The repost advocated nationalizing utilities, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies; suspending rent and mortgage payments; dissolving private health insurance companies; and “seiz[ing] all properties from landlords.”
(Oddly enough, her father is a landlord in Florida. Then again, she wouldn’t be the first she-donkey with unresolved daddy issues.)
It’s a chilling omen for the GOP: If these two movements are mirror images of each other, where will the Republican Party be in ten years?
Is this our fate, too?
Well, it nearly was our fate. For a while, the Republican Party was infested with John Birch Society weirdos. They viewed Israel as 50-75% under communist control, accused President Dwight Eisenhower of being a secret commie, promoted the “conspiracy of the Jews,” and claimed:
[B]oth the U.S. and Soviet governments are controlled by the same furtive conspiratorial cabal of internationalists, greedy bankers, and corrupt politicians. If left unexposed, the traitors inside the U.S. government would betray the country's sovereignty to the United Nations for a collectivist New World Order, managed by a 'one-world socialist government'.
Many Birchers were patriotic, God-fearing, loyal Americans. They weren’t motivated by hate — but by love of country.
But your motivation doesn’t matter in political PR. What matters is the real-world impact. And whereas the votes of Birchers would’ve been helpful in close elections, sometimes a movement must take a step backwards before moving forward.
Enter William F. Buckley, who wielded the power of his mighty pen to marginalize the Birchers — clear out the dead wood — and then, atop their graves, he sowed the seeds of modern conservatism.
Buckley was trying to inspire the generation that fought World War II to build a political movement. They wanted to join a band of liberators, not a ward for cranks. There was a fine line here. Policing it would require of Buckley a Florentine combination of delicacy and ruthlessness. Robert Welch, the Kentucky-born anti-communist who had started the John Birch Society, had admired Buckley for years. He was a man of considerable brilliance who had never shown Buckley anything but kindness. But he saw conspiracies behind almost every event in public life.
[…]
Buckley couldn’t attack the Birchers wholesale. Republicans depended on their votes. He singled out and personally denounced Welch for sins that were, in the final analysis, neither intellectual nor moral but social. “Our movement has got to grow,” Buckley explained to a friend. “It has got to expand by bringing into our ranks the moderate, wishy-washy conservatives: the Nixonites.” And to these swing voters, Welch would make the party look like what Buckley called “Crackpot Alley.” Ronald Reagan, the Great Communicator just emerging into national politics, gratefully took Buckley’s side. Buckley had assumed his own role as the movement’s Great Excommunicator.
It’s not that today’s Democratic Party lacks leadership. They have plenty of highly influential voices — most notably ex-president Barack Obama. Unfortunately, none of the liberal thought-leaders seem to have a problem with placing an “outsized focus” on Israel, Senate candidates with Nazi tattoos, or House candidates who endorse who wacky anti-Israel conspiracy theories. Nowadays, Crackpot Alley is a vital part of the Democratic coalition.
Just as Avila Chevalier doesn’t believe in national borders, today’s Democrats don’t believe in ideological borders. They just want votes!
It’s also why the Democratic Socialists are cannibalizing the Democratic Party: They invited them in, rolled out the “red” carpet, anointed them as leaders — and now the Dems can’t win elections without their help.
Which is why today, anti-Zionism, socialism, and hatred of capitalism are all mainstream Democratic beliefs.
But if you’re a Republican, don’t be smug. Yes, the Democratic Party lacked a William F. Buckley to enforce its ideological borders… but today’s Republican Party doesn’t have a William F. Buckley, either.
That’s why the groyper/woke right has flourished: There’s minimal credible pushback.
For a while, Rush Limbaugh was Buckley’s ideological heir apparent, but El Rushbo is gone now, too. Ben Shapiro tried to fill the void, but alas, he lacks the gravitas to serve as gatekeeper.
Does this mean the Republican Party is destined to be an anti-Zionist party, too?
Not at all. Republicans still sympathize with the Israelis more than the Palestinians by a 50+ point landslide — 70% to 13%. Those numbers are unlikely to flip, especially over the next decade. For better or worse, the GOP will still be a pro-Israel party.
Only… not as much.
Because, as the Democratic Party gets more extreme, the GOP can still attract pro-Israel votes by moving more to the middle. It’s amoral Machiavellian politics: In a two-party system, pro-Israel voters don’t have anywhere else to go. Even if the GOP reverts to a Nixonian or Reaganesque position on Israel, it’ll still be vastly superior to the alternative.
Hey, the next Republican president might not embrace Israel as one of America’s closest allies anymore, but at least he won’t be cheerleading for Hamas!
But the horseshoe left and horseshoe right still have another card to play: What if they combined forces and became political kingmakers in 2028?
After all, in a close national election, an alliance between the DSA and woke right could push their preferred candidate over the top. We’re already hearing people such as Tucker Carlson defend left-wing Democrats — and you’ll never guess which issue brought them together:
#MaineSenate
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) June 20, 2026
Tucker Carlson defends Graham Platner
“Rather than respond to what his positions are, they've called him a Nazi because he had a tattoo that was not a swastika but was allegedly connected to the German military.”
“They've attacked the guy and his personal life.… pic.twitter.com/Sa6qeWua6E
But despite their shared hatred for Israel, the DSA and the woke right cannot be kingmakers (plural), because that implies both parties are in play. They’re not: The DSA will never support a Republican candidate.
Not now, not ever.
They can be a kingmaker (singular) for the Democratic Party. The woke right can quit the GOP and support a Democratic candidate, but the inverse is a nonstarter. There’s an open path for Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Thomas Massie, and Marjorie Taylor Greene to become surrogates for the DSA, but there’s no path in the other direction.
Besides, alliances between conspiratorial crackpots don’t last very long.
Assuming the GOP nominates a pro-Israel candidate in 2028, there’s a high probability that the woke right will switch sides. That’s what single-issue voters do.
Which is why the Republican Party would be wise to steal a page from Buckley’s playbook: Attack and discredit the leaders of the woke right BEFORE the 2028 election. Expose them as crackpots. Expel them from the conservative movement.
And then make a play for the woke right followers.
Some members of the woke right are simply Jew-haters who mask their bigotry behind anti-Zionist slogans. They’re destined to follow the most aggressively anti-Israel voices; they’re future Democratic voters. But an awful lot of ‘em loathe foreign wars, believe in America First, and legitimately don’t see how the U.S.-Israel alliance benefits their families. They have a conservative heart — and a muddled brain. (Lots of misinformation coming out of Podcastistan, I’m afraid.)
It’ll take work, but they’re reachable. We just have to meet them where they are… and then hold them by the hand and take them where we want them to be.
That’s the irony. The same Iran war strategy that pushed the woke right over the edge is the one we should follow today: Decapitate their leadership, brand them as losers, divide their movement — and then negotiate with whoever’s left.
Only this time, without an MOU.
One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First. It began with Mayor Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.
Never before have the political battle lines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.
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