The resolution passed Thursday, nominally against all forms of hate, is a sham that no Republican should have supported. It did the opposite of condemn anti-Semitism—it offered cover for it, exonerated the guilty, drowned it in a sea of PC platitudes, and let Democrats off the hook.
The resolution is the embodiment of the sinister cop-out offered by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) for why she refused to condemn Omar: "When you don't address [bigotry] as a system and attempt to pick them apart as though they are distinct and separable issues, eventually the thing that gets advanced is white supremacy + classism."
Got that? Criticizing anti-Semitism promotes white supremacy. Confronting Jew-haters is a form of hate. War is peace. And now we have a House resolution that basically endorses this Orwellianism.
The 23 Republicans who refused to go along, led by Conference Chair Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and New York's Lee Zeldin, saw the scam for what it was. And for standing on principle they are predictably being accused by the media, which is desperate to change the subject, of refusing to condemn hate.
And apparently Republican House leaders are fueling this criticism, annoyed with the dissenters for spoiling the facile image of a unified Republican caucus. Playbook reports that some in leadership are "quite peeved" at Cheney and believe "When you're part of a leadership team, you stick together. Period."
But chasing favorable New York Times coverage never works out well for Republicans. And in this case, opposing the resolution would have been politically savvy by helping expose the resolution for what it actually is—a ploy by Democrats to avoid confronting the anti-Semitism problem festering in their progressive ranks.
Cheney and Zeldin did the right thing, morally and politically. Republican support was a loser, and we know because Omar, AOC, and the rest of the BDS wing of the Democrats have been taking victory laps since the resolution passed. They beat the rap, and Republicans helped them.