Friday on the RCP Podcast, Reagan Institute fellow Tevi Troy commented on a Manhattan Institute survey which found an interesting split in the Republican Party. It says 65% are “core Republicans,” 29% are “new entrants,” and 17% are what they call “anti-Jewish Republicans.” Troy acknowledged the concern raised by the 17% figure, but cautioned against losing perspective. “Antisemitism has always been there. Norman Podhoretz once said you don’t need to take out a search party to find it. But the important thing is the American government opposes antisemitism,” he said. “In the aftermath of World War II, we recognized that the Nazis were our big enemy. So America collectively said we don’t like that thing that defines the Nazis – antisemitism,” Troy said. “And that was 80 years ago, and people really aren’t thinking about that right now.” “But that doesn’t mean that 17% is going to grow to 50% or 60% in the years ahead. And again, 65% of the Republican Party, the conservative movement, is in a very different place and willing to push back,” he said. “Here in the United States, the government is opposed to antisemitism and has taken steps to push back against it,” Troy said. “You may not like Biden or Trump, but both Trump and Biden put out plans against antisemitism.” “The important thing is that these administrations – Democrat and Republican, different perspectives – they both had plans to combat antisemitism, not to foster it, not to facilitate it.” “The next Republican Party, post-Trump, is not going to be the George W. Bush Republican Party. That’s gone. But it’s also not going to be the Donald Trump party. It’s going to be something new and different, and not something that we can necessarily predict,” Troy said. “But I take heart in the fact that 65% of self-identified conservatives and Republicans are in that normal camp. I think that will move it away from being potentially a Tucker Carlson party, which is what I most fear.”
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