Andrew Torba (photo, left), an alt-right social media figure, argues Jews must be excluded from the conservative movement.
“We don’t want people who are Jewish,” he said. “This is an explicitly Christian movement because this is an explicitly Christian country.”
Actually, America isn’t an “explicitly” Christian country. The only thing the Constitution says about religion is that it’s none of the government’s business.
Torba does allow as how “we’re not saying we’re going to deport all these people or whatever. You’re free to stay here.” Mighty Christian of him, I’d say.
Practical for their own self-preservation, too, because that’s kidnapping, and many of “these people” are armed to the teeth.
As further evidence of his generosity, he offers an additional olive branch: “You’re not going to be forced to convert or anything like this, because that’s not biblical whatsoever.” Note his thought process: He’s against forcible conversion because the Bible doesn’t authorize it, not because there’s something wrong with it.
This is a free country, and Torba and his ilk have a constitutional right to proselytize for a theocratic government; they just don’t have a right to impose one on the rest of us, that’s all.
The “ilk” Torba runs with includes Doug Mastriano, the Christian nationalist who won the GOP nomination for Pennsylvania governor. Torba works for him as a campaign consultant. Mastriano’s views may not align completely with Torba’s — he doesn’t openly talk about barring Jews from the GOP — but they can’t be very far apart or Torba wouldn’t be on his campaign payroll. And Mastriano also freely uses Torba’s soapbox, Gab, to spread his own Christian nationalist views.
This being a free country, they can be crazy extremists. Even run for public office. Although if they’re elected, they have to follow the laws of our country, not their personal impulses, in carrying out their public duties as a rogue Colorado county clerk named Tina Peters is finding out in her serial court appearances.
You can’t trust them to do that, though, any more than you can trust Peters to do that; and I predict if Mastriano is elected governor of Pennsylvania that state will be papered with civil rights lawsuits and governed by court orders.
The main point here is Mastriano is the GOP nominee for Pennsylvania governor. He’s who Pennsylvania’s Republican voters chose to run their state government. At least in Pennsylvania, his views are their views. That makes the Pennsylvania GOP a party of crazy extremists who have no tolerance diverse views.
Which makes the hat Torba is sporting rather ironic, doesn’t it?