The GOP candidate for Ohio treasurer, outgoing Ohio House Rep. Josh Mandel (17th District – sadly, my district), has been called out nationwide for his and his campaign’s widespread use of anti-Muslim imagery, rhetoric and, according to Politifact, falsehoods. Late last week, the Ohio Elections Commission, composed of a Democrat, a Republican and an Independent, unanimously found probable cause to investigate complaints about him lying about the religion of his Democrat opponent (who is a Christian, not a Muslim as Mandel’s campaign insinuates).
As a voter in Mandel’s district, as someone who has run for office and been elected to office, and as a Jew who serves on the board of the American Jewish Committee – whose mission includes eradicating discrimination against all people – I decided to speak out (for myself, not my City or the AJC obviously) and urge Ohioans, and all voters, to reject the fearmongering political tactics of personal destruction that Mandel (and other candidates) has now trotted out for his second election in a row, and both times based on religion.
You can read my entire post here, but let me just say that I was finally moved to write about this and ask others to please reject these sickening politics as usual— remembering a crystal clear statement (made by Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of the Nazi’s chosen targets, group after group) that pretty much every Jew I know knows:
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
If we say we hate politics as usual, if we say we hate fearmongering, we must be willing to reject it, expose it and urge others to do the same. Complaining about it is inadequate.
By all means, do your own research, but if and when you too recognize this hideous ends justifying the means way of seeking political office, please – don’t just turn away from it because it is in fact so hideous.
Call it out, use your voice and help stop politics as usual. It does not have to be this way – and only our refusing to condemn it keeps it going.