On Nov. 27, members of the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group known for violence, marched without a permit down Sunrise Highway and into Rockville Centre where they stormed stores shouting slogans and passing out flyers detailing the group’s fringe philosophies.
The Proud Boys’ march elicited outrage from some elected officials in Nassau County.
U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice, a Democrat representing Rockville Centre, said she was “disgusted” by the group and pledged to fight “racism, hatred, and white nationalism.”
State Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D-Long Beach) called the Proud Boys neo-fascists and said “their hatred has no place here – this is not the Nassau I know.”
State Assemblywoman Judy Griffin (D-Rockville Centre) tweeted that groups which “espouse violence and hate should not be welcome in our communities.”
Nassau County Legislator Debra Mulé (D–Freeport) said “now is the time to condemn vile bigotry wherever it emerges and come together to declare loudly and clearly that hate has no place in Rockville Centre or anywhere else in our county.”
Jay Jacobs, the Nassau County and state Democratic chairman, said the “Proud Boys have nothing to be proud of. Not unless ignorance, bigotry, hate and standing on the losing side of history has become something that elicits pride.”
These were all legitimate, necessary responses to a hate group that has been at the center of violence across the country, reminiscent to many in Nassau of political movements during the 1930s and 1940s.
But those expressing outrage in the face of hate were missing one important group – Nassau Republicans.
We could not find a single Republican official to condemn the Proud Boys march in Rockville Centre. Not one.
Why?
Do Republicans believe that if they ignore the Proud Boys they will go away? If so, that would seem to be a first in the history of hate groups.
No, ignoring the Proud Boys will only encourage them to conduct more and larger protests in Nassau.
Silence in the face of hate only encourages more hate.
Nassau County Executive-elect Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, would be a natural candidate to speak out against the Proud Boys for two reasons.
He will soon take over the leadership of Nassau County. This role includes maintaining public safety, which he campaigned on during his recent election campaign.
The second reason is that Blakeman served as the Nassau County Republican Party’s liaison to the Trump presidential campaign.
The Proud Boys rose to prominence in September 2020 when President Trump was asked about his regularly encouraging white supremacist groups.
He answered: “Proud Boys Stand back and stand by. Somebody has to do something about Antifa and the left.”
This prompted Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director for Trump and a resident of Manhasset, to call the then-president a white supremacist in an interview with CNN’s Don Lemon.
Until Trump’s comments, the Proud Boys were best known as one of the main participants in the “Unite the Right” protests in Charlottesville intended to defend a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who led a war against the United States to preserve slavery.
The effort included a march in which tiki-torch carrying protesters chanted “Jews will not replace us” – shorthand for a conspiracy theory that Jews were behind the entry of brown people into this country in an effort to replace white workers.
Blakeman’s condemnation of the Proud Boys would demonstrate that his very vocal support of Trump during the presidential campaign had nothing to do with the former president’s backing of hate groups like the Proud Boys.
On the other hand, his silence would seem to say that if he doesn’t outright support groups like the Proud Boys, he is at least willing to tolerate them.
Other Nassau Republicans have a similar obligation to speak out against the Proud Boys.
Richard Nicolello, the presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature, state Assemblyman Ed Ra and Town of Hempstead Supervisor Don Clavin were among many local Republicans who actively supported rallies to back police officers in the wake of criticism of police tactics following the murder of George Floyd.
Why haven’t we heard from them now in the face of the Proud Boys spreading hate in Nassau? Is opposition to right-wing extremist groups now a partisan issue? It appears that way.
Sadly, the Proud Boys have been embraced by Republicans in New York and across the country.
The co-founder of the Proud Boys was a speaker at the Metropolitan Republican Club in Manhattan in October 2018 that was followed by a brawl. Two Proud Boys were convicted and sentenced to substantial prison terms after the melee and seven others pleaded guilty to lesser crimes.
Republican Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Devin Nunes have posed for pictures with Proud Boys on the campaign trail. Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson posed in a Fox green room with two Proud Boys and Republican operative Roger Stone earlier this year.
Both U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, have been photographed alongside Proud Boy leaders.
So the Nassau Republicans are certainly not alone in their silence if not outright support of the Proud Boys.
Perhaps those who have remained silent stand behind the Proud Boys. Or perhaps they are afraid of angering Trump and his loyal supporters in the Republican party.
Only Reps. Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and a handful of other Republicans nationwide have broken with Trump on wanting to get to the bottom of what happened on Jan. 6 when the U.S. Capitol was attacked by rioters falsely claiming the presidential election was stolen.
And they have faced a firestorm of opposition that has driven many of them from public office.
Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose extremist views include blaming California’s wildfires on lasers from space controlled by Jews, said this week she now represented the Republican Party. Perhaps she does.
But this does not lessen the obligation of Blakeman and other Nassau Republicans to speak out. In fact, it only increases it.
If they don’t, the hatred generated and the bloodshed fomented by the Proud Boys in the future will be on them.
