An Equivocating Thought on Sen. Chuck Hagel That Is Bound To Become Decidedly Less So As It Is Penned

Let me begin by stating that I do not adhere to the belief that Sen. Hagel is anti-Semitic. While he is undoubtably anti-Israel, I remain convinced that one can indeed be against Israeli policies (or even Israel herself), and be absent an unabashed hatred of Jews.

- long pause, puts kettle on the stovetop - 

With that being said, Hagel's comments concerning the dual loyalty of American Jews, open complaints about a "Jewish [not merely Israel] lobby" that possesses inordinate power in Washington, as well as a series of Senate votes in favour of Hizbullah are extremely disconcerting.

 I posit that these troubling comments perhaps do not reflect a hatred of Jews, but instead reflect an historically congruent view of Jews as seen through the eyes of the Midwestern farmer, which lends itself to awkward and sometimes malevolent prejudices.

What do I mean by this? To use a Chomskyism, it is common knowledge that the agricultural community, of which Sen. Hagel's home state is a part, holds long-standing dislikes for professions perceived to be predominately Jewish in composition. In the early 20th Century, the prairie populists railed against the power of banks and New York industry in language that accentuated the supposed Jewish nature of American capitalism. 

A half century later, the hardline paleoconservative and white nationalist break from the fusionist consensus was focused intensely on the plight of "Middle America" farmers. The paleoconservatives lamented the foreclosed and benighted farming community as a cultural nexus under attack from globalists, often depicted as " internationalists" consumed with Israel's security but loathe to lend a hand to the interior of the country.

Jeffersonian yeoman's democracy became a cudgel to be swatted at Washington bureaucrats who had sold out the American ideal (agriculture) and the American heartland (agricultural America) to the highest bidder. And who, if I may ask, is naturally assumed to be fraught with money and usurious enough to use it for power-hungry internationalism? This is seen in the heavily paleoconservative tones given by groups like the American Agricultural Movement, whose rank and file members accused Washington of abandonment for the pecuniary embrace of globalist power center, often in anti-Jewish-power terminology. 

The white nationalists took this to what could be argued as its logical conclusion, preying on bankrupt farmers by asserting that Jewish power sought to end their way of life, and that the Zionist Occupied Government saw them as little more than parasite Gentiles. One could look at the literature from the Aryan Nations and its splinter child in Robert Matthews' The Order for example after example of how outreach to the farming community was seen as a potential goldmine given their already-ingrained mistrust of outsiders, particuraly those of Jewish origin. 

While the nationalist and supremacist community ultimately failed in constructing a white power base (if one forgives the expression) among the farming community, it remains true that both paleoconservatism and its cousin in white nationalism see the Midwestern farming community as more potentially fruitful acolytes than the American South or the coasts.

What does mean for Sen. Hagel? In the most cautious of terms, I suggest that Hagel's anti-Israel leanings, and more importantly his apparent obsession with "Jewish power" (in re Aaron David Miller interview), are part and parcel of the underlying political sympathies of his geographical area. The cultural mindset of some in the agricultural community is one that takes localism and a mistrust of federal influence to a mistrust of those seen as perpetrating their current plight. Many times, the simple fact that Jews are seen as disprortionately powerful in the professions of banking and law create a specific mistrust of Jewish power.

 It is from these roots and preponderances that I believe cloud Sen. Hagel's judgement, especially when accusations of dual loyalty and power conglomeration are afoot. As a son of Nebraska and an archetypal prairie Republican, the less savory elements of what it means to be a classical populist Republican have taken root. Whie they have not created a bald-faced hatred (anti-Semitism)of Jews, they have been midwife to a series of comments and actions that lend credence to an historical mistrust of Jewish power and its purported monetary supremacy.