Dana Nessel, Michigan's Democratic Attorney General, Doesn't Feel Safe Among Fellow Democrats Due to Anti-Semitism

During a roundtable discussion yesterday with Jewish leaders and community members Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel disclosed she will not attend next month's state Democratic Party Convention on account of fearing for her safety due to anti-Semitism within the party:

I feel like my presence isn’t going to be welcome. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying. And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen because it’s been happening to me.

I will speak as a member of the Democratic Party here in Michigan, that some things have changed. This cannot continue, and the fact of the matter is, we have to be able to be a society where we can have intelligent discourse and debate about ideas without people being threatened, and certainly without people carrying out those threats.

This statement is remarkable for several reasons.

For starters, Nessel has served two terms as Michigan's top-ranking law enforcement official. When a state Attorney General says it is unsafe for her to be somewhere on the basis of her religious faith then something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

It is also worth noting that Nessel is openly gay. That she faces more danger as a Jew than as someone who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ community tells you how serious anti-Semitism has become in Michigan and across the country particularly in supposedly liberal enclaves of tolerance. 

While I understand Nessel's desire to be free from harassment and hatred, this also emboldens anti-Semitism within the Democratic Party. If they can intimidate the sitting Attorney General from attending her own party's convention, then it is only a matter of time before they go after the Governor be it Gretchen Whitmer (for endorsing Haley Stevens over Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Democratic Senate primary) or her possible successor Jocelyn Benson, Michigan's current Secretary of State.

At some point, some Democrat is going to have to go to a party convention and will have to stand up to their delegates and tell them to stop their nonsense and to stop helping Trump and MAGA. The first person who comes to mind is Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, but he is on the verge of switching parties due to its anti-Israel posturing and acceptance of anti-Semitism. Perhaps NY Congressman Ritchie Torres. Perhaps he could challenge Mamdani come 2029 but he would likely need to do so as an independent. 

Nevertheless, if it is too dangerous for Jews to participate in Democratic Party politics how long will it be before it is too dangerous for Jews to participate in American civil society altogether?