Syndicated columnist Susan Estrich: Kanye and the peddling of hate

Kanye West is wrong for so many reasons, but none more basic than this: If Jews really had half as much power over the media and everything else, as he says we do, we wouldn't be worried about a loathsome loudmouth like him.

The reason we worry about the likes of a Kanye West is because we know very well that antisemitism has deep roots and deep connections in the white supremacy movement, among ideological extremists and related haters, and that an ignorant demagogue can rally support for hate.

As Kanye West did just the weekend before last in Los Angeles, where there was actually a freeway rally to show support for the poor embattled rapper. There were also flyers distributed in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods blaming Jews for gun control and for civil rights for gays and lesbians. Such power they think so few people have. And people believe them. Words have power.

Having gone off the deep end publicly, West is finally paying a price, his Instagram and Twitter accounts shut down, his talent agency (full of those powerful Jews he despises) parted ways with him, and his endorsements are sure to fall off. But so what.

It's not as if he had a sudden character transformation. This is clearly who the man has always been, what he has always thought, the only difference being that we didn't know that about him. But who did? Certainly, he didn't hide his views from everyone on his way to the top of the social media sandbox. This is not the first time he's said or thought these things, and it surely won't be the last. He's probably even more convinced now than ever that he has been done in by Jews.

Can those who have celebrated Kanye for so long now claim that they barely knew him?

Or, more likely, did the hangers-on and the wannabes, his family and friends and entourage, just excuse his hatred so long as it wasn't spewed in full public view?

Of course Kanye is not the only one, and antisemitism not the only form of hatred that gets tolerated when the mics are off. In fact, there was a tape machine on when the Hispanic leaders of the Los Angeles City Council got together to talk power politics, indulging in racist talk at the expense of the Black community they also serve. A scandal has ensued, but maybe not a big enough one. The jury is still out on whether they will all be forced to resign, although there seems to be no reason they are still there. Explicit racism should not be excused.

But it is. That's the point.

Across the country, in Pennsylvania, the Republican candidate for governor, in a race rife with charges of antisemitism, has attacked his Jewish opponent for sending his kids to a Jewish day school, claiming that it showed his "disdain for people like us." One of his advisers took to Twitter to accuse the Democrat of being "at best a secular Jew in the same way Joe Biden is a secular Catholic," prompting the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League to call out "the Mastriano campaign that repeatedly has employed anti-Jewish stereotypes and engaged with anti-Semites."

Since when do mainstream Republicans play such games?

Hate is the last bastion of empty souls and has no place in our discourse. The tip of the iceberg may be all that we can see, but this year, the view is too clear. Why is there any debate about whether Kanye can continue his profitable endorsements? What is there to debate? Why did it take a bipartisan uproar for the Republican in Pennsylvania to issue a statement condemning antisemitism? This is not about being "uncomfortable."

It is about peddling hate, pure and simple.

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