A band playing before dinner at a major Republican conference in Pennsylvania tonight reportedly played a song with anti-Semitic lyrics, prompting the conference to apologize…. Before a speech by GOP messaging guru Frank Luntz, a band called The Angry Mob Band played for the crowd. Pennsylvania political reporter Sy Snyder, reporting from the event, tweeted that a band at the conference sang the lyrics, “We’re fighting the corruption of the Jewish banks but when the Jews come to feed us, we always say thanks.” Snyder added that the band was satirizing the Occupy movement, but that hardly seems to justify the lyrics. Indeed, about 15 minutes later, the official Twitter account of the conference tweeted an apology (screen grab) to Democratic operatives who had retweeed Snyder….
I suppose you could call me naive, but I’d have thought that racism and anti-Semitism would have gone the way of gone the way of the buffalo- extant but exceedinly rare. And I certainly wouldn’t have thought that a GOP-affiliated group would hire as entertainment a band that sings such offensive lyrics. If you’re going to hire a band, a little due-diligence might be in order, don’tchathink??
I’m not going to accuse the conference’s organizers of anti-Semitism, but they’re certainly guilty of some seriousness sloppiness in booking The Angry Mob Band. A quick Google search would have revealed the lyrics to their songs and enough information about the band to give conference organizers pause. Instead, due to their laziness and inattention, those who organized the PA Leadership Conference end up looking as if they’re endorsing anti-Semitism. Yes, the apology was certainly appreciated…but you’d think someone would have had enough on the ball to do their homework. This PR circle jerk was eminently avoidable. What should have been a roundly ignored gathering of Conservatives ends up confirming the increasingly popular view that the GOP is the party of bigots and haters.
Then again, is it just me…or does gratuitous racism and anti-Semitism seem to be de riguer among today’s Teapublicans?
