When I wrote nearly 500 columns for Alpha News over two-and-a-half years, my editor once asked me to debate Pedro Gonzalez, a contributor to the American Greatness website. Reading his writing, I could see he wasn’t interested in intra-conservative debating but in ad hominem attacks and defending populist propaganda.
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A huge Donald Trump supporter, Gonzalez recently left the Trump train to support Ron DeSantis’ presidential aspirations. So in a childish effort to link Gonzalez to the Florida governor, the pro-Trump website Breitbart retaliated by publishing a bevy of racist and anti-Semitic messages Gonzalez sent in 2019 and 2020.
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Within some articles, Gonzalez endorsed the views of Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, shared anti-Semitic cartoons, and declared things like “the only tactical consideration of Jews is screening them for movements” and “I am at the point where I can respect Jews as individuals and like them as individuals, but as a group, I see them as problematic.”
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Populist social media goons quickly decried the released messages as “right-wing cancel culture,” and Gonzalez offered a meaningless defense/excuse on Twitter. His words were pathetic, although they’re valuable as a window into the world of the so-called New Right.
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Of course, forcing bigots to apologize is foolhardy. They apologize not due to contrition but because it’s crucial to rehabbing their public image. If racists and Jew-haters genuinely change their ways, their long-term actions will reveal that. Their vacuous confessions are damage control, not opportunities for good people to open their hearts to hate-spewing fanatics. Conservatives don’t want to cancel idiots; we prefer to ignore them because that hurts these attention-seeking blowhards even more.
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And to accept an apology goes hand in hand with another silly tendency — mainly from the media and left — regarding anti-Semites: treating them as misinformed children who need to be educated out of their ignorance. Please. That’s not the point.
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Gonzalez’s AntiSemitism is detailed and has historical and political references. He’s schooled in prejudice. He’s not much different from Fuentes and other Jew-hating traffickers, left and right.
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But what’s interesting is his take on plunging into the paleoconservative swamp.
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“I got into politics largely because of Trump. Before that, I had spent most of my life enmeshed in generic liberalism,” Gonzalez explained. “I do not know what exactly triggered the descent that happened next. Part of it, I think, stems from a desire to transgress the boundaries of politically acceptable discourse. There is a human impulse to stalk break taboos, and anger with the status quo leads some of us to seek answers outside the mainstream when trust in traditional sources of information has collapsed.”
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Like many ardent Trump supporters, Gonzalez was never conservative and remains clueless about the ideology. Tellingly, this is preferable for those seeking membership in the cult. Conservatism has depth, is measured, sane and restrained. Trumpism is conspiratorial, policy-free, thrilling, and schizophrenic. As a former leftist, Gonzalez already enjoyed the emotional drug of populist grievance. But as a pessimistic radical, he needed a new political home.
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Gonzalez is a useful example of a particular type that we consistent conservative folks deal with every day: a former progressive turned right winger, who once deemed us fascists, and, since Lord Donald descended the escalator eight years ago, now invokes the preposterous slur RINO. They’re exhilarated by their newfound license to be hypocritical and offend.
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Gonzalez says that his hateful messages emanated from a “dumb season in my life.” It’s now July, meaning it’s the silly season of politics; for the MAGA right, however, that season is perpetual.
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Ari Kaufman is a correspondent for several U.S. newspapers and magazines from Minnesota and Ohio to Tennessee and Virginia. He taught school and served as a military historian before beginning his journalism career. He is the author of three books and a frequent guest on radio programs and contributes to Israel National News and here at The Lid.
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