The outrage at the post (image above) by the now-deleted Republican Party of Wabasha County MN Facebook page is well-documented. KSTP reports UPDATE: Board member resigns after image comparing mask mandate to Holocaust posted on Wabasha County GOP Facebook page.
At WCCO, there was Second Time This Week Anti-Semitic Symbol Used In Reference To Statewide Mask Mandate, followed by MNGOP Says Offensive Facebook Image Was Posted By A Wabasha Board Member Who Has Since Resigned.
That other time was first reported by the Minnesota Reformer's Max Nesterak in Couple wears Nazi flags inside Walmart to protest face mask mandate, the viral swastika-mask-wearers-in-Walmart story.
But that's not an exhaustive list. On July 21, Lonny Goldsmith noted in the TCJewfolk post, St. Cloud Councilman Uses Holocaust Reference In Mask Debate:
St. Cloud City Councilmember Paul Brandmire said that COVID-positive individuals should be marked with a yellow star on their lapel at that city’s meeting on Monday.
“If we can mandate masks, then certainly we can mandate that COVID positive people wear some sort of identification badge, maybe like a bright yellow star or something pinned to their lapel,” he said.
The comment came during a lengthy discussion of a proposed mask ordinance, which the council passed 5-2. Brandmire was one of the two no votes.
Brandmire said that he was not making a reference to the Holocaust.
“You’re blowing this way out of proportion. It’s absurd; there was no reference to Jews,” Brandmire told TC Jewfolk Tuesday afternoon. The point he said he was making was about “governmental overreach, mandates, and forcing citizens to comply with governmental directives that they disagree with.
“I’m not anti-Semitic,” he continued. “I’ve been to Israel. I’ve been to Jerusalem. I’ve prayed at the Wailing Wall.” . . .
Before hanging up the phone, Brandmire dismissed complaints and couldn’t understand why people would be angry with him.
“People are overly friggin’ sensitive,” he said. “You can’t even say good morning without people getting upset.”
Brandmire is running for the Minnesota House of Representatives in November against DFL incumbent Dan Wolgamott in District 14B.
Goldsmith notes an earlier use of the Holocaust imagery with relationship to COVID-19 policy:
This isn’t the first time since the COVID-19 Pandemic that Holocaust references have been made in Minnesota. At the April 17 protest outside the Governor’s Mansion, a sign that compared Gov. Tim Walz to Adolph Hitler was on display, and there have been many social media posts that compared executive orders from Walz to the Gestapo. The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas condemned that imagery at the time.
“Contemporary comparisons to Nazis, coming from anywhere on the political spectrum, are almost always historically inaccurate, insult the memory of the Holocaust’s victims and survivors, and are deeply hurtful to mos
t Jews and others whose communities were victimized,” JCRC Executive Director Steve Hunegs said at the time.
Brandmire's explanation to the St. Cloud Times doesn't seem to get that point. St. Cloud Times' Eric Newland reported in Brandmire: 'Yellow star' statement meant as cautionary example:
While speaking in opposition to a citywide mask law during a Monday City Council meeting, council member Paul Brandmire cited a symbol of Nazi oppression of Jews in a comparison some found offensive.
During a presentation opposing the measure before it passed, Brandmire said "I mean if we can mandate masks we can certainly mandate that any COVID-positive people wear some sort of identification badge, maybe like a bright yellow star or something on their lapel."
Yellow stars were used in Nazi Germany to forcibly mark Jewish people in the early years of the Holocaust.
Brandmire later said he was aware of the symbol's meaning, and its use was meant as an example of extreme government overreach.
He said he was making an argument that blanket mandates on a populace may be the beginning of a slippery slope toward more extreme measures of control.
Daniel Wildeson, director of the St. Cloud State University Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education, describedBrandmire's use of the symbol as"... a false analogy, and it’s not responsible thinking.” . . .
Not the first time Brandmire's words provoked controversy, as the St. Cloud Times reported in Community members call for Brandmire, Conway to resign following NYT story:
The New York Times story characterized Brandmire as "Republican member of the St. Cloud City Council who is skeptical about the resettlement program (who) said some white residents had come to see themselves in a fight for survival." . . .
Brandmire is quoted as saying, "They’re becoming American citizens. And they have every right to, but this is killing us."
Lovely.
Past use of anti-semitic tropes by Republicans in Minnesota
City Pages Hannah Jones reminds readers in UPDATE: Yeah, no, Wabasha County Republicans were not hacked, that was their Holocaust meme:
This is hardly the first time the party has had to handle this kind of problem. Last year, the Clay County Republican Party Facebook page shared a post comparing Bernie Sanders – a Jewish man who’s spoken publicly about his father’s family having been “wiped out” by the Holocaust – to Hitler.
Check out Clay County Republican Party shares Facebook post comparing Bernie Sanders to Hitler.
In 2015, Bluestem reported in #MN07 GOP Party Facebook page deletes post calling George Soros a "Nazi National Socialist":
On Wednesday, the Minnesota 7th Congressional District Republican Facebook page administrator(s) or editor(s) posted a link to a Free Beacon article about the Public Interest Legal Foundation's efforts to defend voter ID laws in three state.
The MN07 GOP CD Facebook page admin or editor went where no Free Beacon author ever went: calling financier George Soros a "Nazi National Socialist who funds the takeover of the Democrat Party by Socialists."
Bluestem first looked at the Facebook page on Tuesday in Minnesota 7th Congressional District Republican Party Facebook page warns fans about cilantro. It's hard to know whether this page--apparently the official Facebook page for the district's Republicans--is satire, extremism, or simple ignorance.
As we noted in A feature not a bug: what's up with MN Seventh Congressional District GOP social media?:
The page [has] also offended Minnesota's Jewish community, as Bluestem reported in #MN07 GOP Party Facebook page deletes post calling George Soros a "Nazi National Socialist"; as former state representative Jeremy Kalin noted, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas stepped in after learning of the post via twitter.
That didn't stop the use of Soros as a vicious antisemitic stereotype In 2018, there were some NRCC anti-Soros ads in Minnesota's First Congressional campaign, which we reported on in Hagedorn campaign embraces NRCC's anti-semitic anti-Soros ad condemned by Jewish Community Relations Council and Hagedorn campaign changes tune on control of NRCC anti-Semitic ad, but still a-ok with content.
Sixth district congressman Tom Emmer has also had his moments, as the Times of Israel reported about a 2019 fundraising letter in Legislator says three Jewish billionaires bought control of Congress.
Other episodes targeting other groups
Back in 2014, Bluestem reported Big Stone County GOP chair's post in In Facebook status, Big Stone Co GOP chair calls Muslims "parasites," writes "frag em" at Mecca.
Raw Story's 2017 headline about a 2017 Seventh District GOP Facebook page captures the uncivil nature of the page, ‘Minnesota’s head Muslim goat humper’: GOP caught posting racist rant against Rep. Keith Ellison.
There's Minnesota GOPers Get Heat For Posting About Democrats’ ‘Negro Problem’ by Sara Jerde at Talking Points Memo, another greatest hit from the Seventh District Republican Party.
Though we haven't conducted a detailed content analysis, we suspect these tropes float up to the GOP party surface because they reflect the commonplaces on the conservative networks we monitor. Can the Republican Party conduct some workshops about the use of analogies? Dogwhistles? Critical thinking? We think people are born with brains, not stereotypes, in their heads and can learn to talk about their fellow human beings about their values without poisoning the discourse.
We certainly hope that these tropes aren't windows into their world.
As Jewish Community Action tweeted:
Given that Minnesota rabbis recently spoke out in favor of a mask mandate, comparing that mandate to the Holocaust feels especially disgusting. We ask the @MNGOP to tell Wabasha Republicans to stop using imagery like this. It betrays a total lack of both empathy and education. pic.twitter.com/xGMT3cUvvo
— Jewish Community Action (@JCA_MN) July 27, 2020
Screengrab: The offensive post, via Jewish Community Action.
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