In the American President, a 1971 film to which I often refer, President Andrew Shepard defends himself from his political opponent, Senator Bob Rumson, who has castigated him for being a member of the ACLU.
Shepard explains in a press briefing that the American Civil Liberties Union “…is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question: Why would a senator, his party’s most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the Constitution?”
Why, indeed?
Antifa is an ideology more than an organization. There is no antifa website, although if you type it into your browser, you will be redirected to the White House’s official .gov website.
Don’t read too much into that, though. While Right wing trolls are making hay about it, the truth is that anyone who owns a website can redirect it to any other website without getting permission to do so.
The owner of antifa.com is listed as WhoisGuard, a company run by the U.S.-based domain registrar, Namecheap. It’s like keeping money in a numbered, Swiss bank account.
The purpose of WhoisGuard is to keep secret the identity of website owners. While it remains unclear who actually owns antifa.com, all available evidence points to a sophisticated troll farm, one generally associated with Russian hacking and disinformation.
There’s no place to sign up for antifa, no membership cards or secret handshakes. There is no official logo or tee shirt, although you can find a plethora of tee shirt companies selling a wide variety of antifa-based merchandise.
The acronym antifa is simply short for anti-Fascism or anti-Fascist. As a bonus, affiliated groups also oppose racism in all its forms.
So, Ron Johnson, we have not one, but four questions for you, the same number of questions young Jews will asking around their seder tables on Saturday night.
We know where you stand on Black folks, Ron, not sure where you stand on Jews. I’d guess you’d like to stand on them, too.
Question number one: Why would any loyal American, much less a United States senator not support the idea of standing up to Fascism?
Number two: Don’t you respect the sacrifice of a half million Americans who died in Europe fighting the scourge of Fascism during World War II?
Question number three is more puzzling, the answer maybe more disturbing: Why would any loyal American support those who violently oppose Americans standing up to Fascism and racism?
Many people are asking question number four and the answer may be terrifyingly revealing.
The answer to question number four may even explain why watching Ron Johnson speak brings to mind an old joke about a talking rectum. The question is:
Does the Central Bank of Russia do direct deposit to the Cayman Islands?
To learn more, read Who are antifa or Seven things you need to know about antifa.
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