Congressman Ritchie Torres (D-NY) was the target of a piece about Democrats who have left the progressive movement. He wasn’t alone: Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was also mentioned following the pair’s eschewing the label over the Israel-Hamas war. Both men have been staunch supporters of Israel, placing blame rightfully on Hamas for starting this war and not backing down when confronted by pro-Hamas activists.
Progressivism has entered a nasty, antisemitic phase where they’ve targeted Jewish students, people, and business across the country. They’ve repeated the calls for genocide with the ‘intifada’ chants. I don’t blame either of these men for wanting to flee from the crazy people in their party.
Yet, New York Magazine opted to attack them for not wanting to remain with the anti-Israel, ‘kill all the Jews’ crowd, but the image they used for the article amused Rep. Torres for an obvious reason: it wasn’t him.
When you read the line, “The movement didn’t leave him [Torres]: He left it, if indeed he was ever fully part of it, by making a series of deliberate choices. One such choice is to support Israel despite the unbelievable brutality it has inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza,” you knew where this piece was heading. Damn those pro-Israel Democrats:
If New York Magazine is going to publish an Anti-Israel hit piece by Sarah Jones, then at least do enough due diligence to get the photo right. I am not Antonio Delgado.
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) June 14, 2024
Not all Black people look the same. pic.twitter.com/iBLCUlWksI
I am guessing New York Magazine meant to use a picture of Rep. Ritchie Torres here — but this is Antonio Delgado? — Yikes pic.twitter.com/wbvhweCLmx
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) June 14, 2024
They updated the art, but for some reason, changed Fetterman’s picture too but kept the one of Mondaire Joneshttps://t.co/yU9FsXJuLJ pic.twitter.com/wKx5ZEGit7
— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) June 14, 2024
Support for Israel isn’t the only reason Torres might find himself outside the progressive movement. During his time on the City Council, Torres angered progressive supporters by agreeing “to water down the Right to Know Act, which would have forced officers to provide a business card in every encounter with the public,” City & State reported. In 2017, ahead of the vote, he said, “I stand by what I have chosen to do, even if it means standing alone … even if it means I am no longer beloved in progressive circles.” He carried that attitude with him to Congress, where he discovered allies within the Democratic Party, such as Senator John Fetterman. The Pennsylvania senator also holds a stringent pro-Israel position and told comedian Bill Maher this month that progressivism “left” him after October 7. “I didn’t leave the label, it left me on that,” he said.
Mondaire Jones, who’s running to return to Congress, struck a similar note in an interview with Politico. After he endorsed the AIPAC-backed George Latimer over progressive incumbent Jamaal Bowman, he came under significant fire from the left. The political arm of the Congressional Progressive Caucus even rescinded its endorsement of him. “These people were never my actual friends,” he claimed, saying that he would do nothing differently if given the chance.
[…]
It’s convenient, though, for pro-Israel Democrats to shift blame onto the left. Doing so gives them a chance to present themselves as brave truth tellers: See Jones, speaking of his personal sense of morality. But the left is not as powerful as I want it to be, and no courage is necessary to attack it. Critics instead exaggerate its influence in order to score points. It’s a cheap way to look principled. Jones must invent straw men — “trust fund socialists in Williamsburg,” as he put it to Politico — in order to sound somewhat reasonable, let alone courageous.
Courage is not in the eye of the beholder. It means something. (So should the word progressive.) There’s nothing brave about rejecting the left in a moment of great moral consequence. Nor is there anything particularly courageous about standing with Israel, a longtime U.S. ally, as it pummels Gaza into dust.
Yeah, I will probably disagree with Torres and Fetterman on almost every issue, but we are aligned perfectly on this. Leaving a movement that’s openly antisemitic and pro-terrorist isn’t a tough choice, but for most leftists, it is. The reaction to Israel successfully rescuing its hostages last weekend is all you need to know. The Left was more upset about the dead captors than the captives who were lifted to safety by the IDF.
Last Note: the magazine did correct the image error:
A photo-illustration in a previous version of this story incorrectly included Antonio Delgado, not Ritchie Torres.
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