United by their hostility to Israel, the liberal establishment, leftists and right-wing antisemites are hoping to capitalize on a disaster. But it could also backfire on them.
Whether they admit it or not, a lot of people are rooting for disaster for the United States and Israel in the conflict that began on Feb. 28, with the two allies attacking the Islamic Republic’s leadership and military targets. And it’s not overstating the matter to acknowledge that the diverse coalition of opponents of President Donald Trump and the Jewish state has a lot riding on whether their Cassandra-like predictions of doom for the administration turn out to be right.
If they are, then the extreme right wing of the Republican Party, led by antisemitic podcasters like former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, has an opening that they would hope to use to take over the GOP. A disaster in Iran will also put even more wind in the sails of the intersectional left-wing base of the Democratic Party. If that happens, its leading figures, like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, will hope it means that their faction will be in a position to name their party’s 2028 presidential nominee.
Meanwhile, the somewhat less ideological veterans of the Obama and Biden presidencies, of whom the most prominent figure today remains former Vice President Kamala Harris, and their liberal press corps rooting section will also assert that their belief in appeasement of Tehran has been vindicated.