VICTOR JOECKS: What Democrats now find intolerable

In a post-election column, Review-Journal columnist Victor Joecks writes that opposing antisemitism can now lead to expulsion from the Democratic political coalition. He points to the treatment of Michigan state Rep. Haley Stevens, who lost a Democratic primary for a state Senate seat to Abdul El-Sayed by less than one percentage point in August.

Joecks notes that El-Sayed has ties to the Democratic Socialists of America and the Muslim Brotherhood, which the columnist describes as a terrorist organization, and has campaigned with internet personality Hasan Piker. Following an attack on a synagogue preschool in Michigan, El-Sayed reportedly downplayed the incident by saying "hurt people hurt people," while Piker has dismissed the significance of reported rapes on October 7.

Citing the antisemitic rhetoric surrounding El-Sayed's campaign and his refusal to clearly reject it, Stevens endorsed Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers on Sunday. "Loyalty to a party should never require abandoning your values or judgment," she wrote on X.

Democratic leaders responded harshly. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the endorsement a "despicable betrayal," and consultant James Carville used a vulgar insult to describe Stevens. In response, Stevens wrote, "We cannot preach inclusion while punishing dissent."

Joecks concludes that the left has long used "inclusion" as a tool to enforce intolerance, arguing that opposing antisemitism should not be a partisan position but that Democrats are making it one.

Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal