REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
- A march for Medicare for All last month turned into a platform for far-right operators who have used the push for universal healthcare to spread conspiracy theories.
- Anti-vax charlatans are popping up all over, and the left needs to distance itself from the lethal ideology.
- The Biden era has left the progressive movement rudderless, and right-wing commentators are hurting its credibility.
- Eoin Higgins is a journalist in New England and a contributing opinion writer for Insider.
- This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
On July 24, people in 56 cities around the country gathered for what was billed as the largest ever march for Medicare for All. But instead of a huge push for the healthcare law the march flopped with low turnout in every city, including New York, Los Angeles, and Washington.
Part of the failure to turn people out was due to the event's lack of coherent organization which also had an unintended consequence: right-wing conspiracy theorists were able to infiltrate marches in some cities.
An early controversy involved avowed neo-Nazi Matt Heimbach being billed as a keynote speaker at the Muncie, Indiana affiliate march. Former and future Kentucky senatorial candidate Charles Booker withdrew from an event in Louisville shortly after I emailed and asked him to comment on his involvement with the march in light of Heimbach's prior involvement and comments made on social media by other speakers.
Though the marches were billed as events to push for universal healthcare, proponents of anti-vax conspiracy theories were included in the speaker list in cities like Columbus, Ohio and Los Angeles – a sign of how advocates for the fringe, anti-science belief system are working to infiltrate the progressive movement.
Left spaces are increasingly becoming overrun by such far-right conspiracy theorists who cite their adherence to certain, narrow left-wing principles, like Medicare for All, as an avenue to reach progressive audiences.
By offering disillusioned left-leaning voters a narrative that reinforces a feeling of betrayal by the progressive Democrats - who made Medicare for All a rallying cry in the 2020 election and then abandoned it once in power - these right-wing personalities have discovered a way into the left that will take serious work to undo.
"Conspiracies have been adopted to reinforce people's decisions, and they then seek out justifications for the anxieties they feel," Eric Ward, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told me in a recent interview.
"What's new in this moment is that it's being organized by people who are tapping into it in order to give political organization, particularly the seeds of political violence, to this anti-vax movement."
Spreading anti-vax ideologies
Anti-vaxxers aren't interested in facts. The conspiracy theory rests on baseless claims of vaccine danger that have been repeatedly disproven. But that hasn't stopped dishonest actors, from naturopath grifters like Joseph Mercola to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, indulging the conspiracies and urging their audiences to reject science.
"We learned that virtually everything they told us about the COVID vaccine was wrong," Carlson said last week, referring to the return of mask mandates due to a surge in the coronavirus delta variant. "Looks like we were right to keep asking questions."
Feeding the flames of vaccine hesitancy is good business. In Los Angeles, unemployed actors attend anti-vax rallies five days a week with, as activist Chad Loder noted, "no visible means of income."
One of Carlson's frequent guests on Fox, notorious anti-vax conspiracy theorist Alex Berneson, has repeatedly spread lies about the vaccines and about Covid itself, garnering a significant following that pays off in subscriptions to his newsletter.
Some media personalities are now pushing the lie to left audiences and using that platform to gain credibility.
"We're watching the targeting of a cultural space," Ward said.
Conspiracy theorist streaming hosts Craig Jardula and Fiorella Isabel, who frequently assert their leftist bona fides while spreading right-wing talking points, often indulge in anti-vaccine rhetoric. The two have also, at various times, endorsed conspiracy theories that Donald Trump won the 2020 election and endorsed the use of unproven experimental drugs like anti-ringworm medication ivermectin to treat COVID, as well as advocating against vaccines.
"Forcing experimental vaccines on people is fascistic," Isabel tweeted just days before last month's Medicare for All marches.
Running interference
Isabel and Jardula were booked for the Los Angeles march despite their right-wing ties and relentless anti-vax rhetoric. That the pair were chosen to speak at an event ostensibly about healthcare didn't escape criticism, and after event organizers told Jardula he'd have to wear a mask and present proof he wasn't infected, he quit in a huff.
"The local organizers, after asking me if I was vaccinated, demanded I wear a mask & take a Covid test," Jardula announced on Twitter. "I refused. I will not be told when & what to do with my body. I support M4A. Not Medical Tyranny for All."
While Isabel said she supported Jardula's choice, she still spoke, delivering a rant pointing to members of the Squad for perceived inaction on universal healthcare. It's been a tactic of Isabel, Jardula, and others in their corner of the progressive media sphere to amp up anger at the popular Democratic members of the House over Medicare for All while not presenting workable alternatives - a tactical decision that, intentional or not, results in running interference for the right-wing of the Democratic Party and the GOP.
This isn't to say that they're even doing a passable job at disguising that running of interference as based in left principles. Jimmy Dore, the comedian turned podcast gadfly presenting himself as the ür-authority on progressive politics, and who many of the new left-adjacent media types model themselves after, has had a number friendly interviews with Carlson on Fox and endorsed conspiracy theories around the death of former DNC worker Seth Rich.
Dore takes in thousands of dollars from supporters - which his wife then donates to politicians like one-time Democratic presidential nominee Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard notably backed off from supporting Medicare for All during 2020, a move that Dore defended, curiously enough.
Niko House, another former booster of Gabbard, celebrates his friendship with far-right white nationalists like Jack Posobiec. He's an anti-vaxxer, too, claiming, "We actually don't need a vaccine for this particular virus. It's pretty common sense at this point."
As for Isabel and Jardula, they hardly make a secret of their affiliation to the far right, hosting members of the far right militia the Boogaloo Boys on their show and supporting Stop the Steal conspiracies.
Rudderless and enraged
Without a clear leader and purpose since Bernie Sanders lost the Democratic nomination to now-President Joe Biden, the left is more open than ever to attempts by right-wing grifters looking to boost their brands by spreading conspiracies.
For the US left, which is adrift and largely powerless with a conservative Democrat in office, there's a need to find someone to blame. Supposed capitulation to the Biden agenda by progressive Democrats has come in for harsh criticism, with some commentators suggesting - if not outright declaring - that members of the lefty "Squad" were double agents covertly working for the party establishment.
This storyline found purchase in December 2020, when an ill-conceived plan to "force the vote" on Medicare for All by making Nancy Pelosi's speakership contingent on the performative, and certain to fail, vote on the policy. Though the tactic wasn't ever seriously considered by anyone in actual power, anger over the fallout from the failed attempt has driven efforts by actors like the above conspiracy theorists to divide the left ever since, as they use Medicare for All as a wedge issue to further their own brands and amplify the anger of their base.
To their credit, last month's march organizers tried to find a way to put pressure on politicians to deliver long overdue universal healthcare to Americans. They took an approach that had actual substance rather than empty gestures meant to further enrage social media followers and supporters. But the infiltration of the left by bad actors and right-wing conspiracy theorists hurt that effort and damaged its credibility.
"We should be concerned about movements that are not grounded in rational thinking or turn their back on scientific evidence," Ward told me. "But the bigger concern in this moment is that the anti-vax movement is being politicized and, at least in the current time, it has led to increased deaths, it has led to increased restrictions in society as we're unable to to get out of the pandemic phase, and it's also led to significant violence."
Political rage is not necessarily a bad thing. The public has a right to demand everything from elected representatives, from the president to Congress all the way down to local officials. But when that anger is misplaced and misdirected by scam artists looking to manipulate people's fears and uncertainty, it can end up in the bowels of the far-right.
It's increasingly unclear if a substantial part of the left can see these opportunists for who they are and shake off their attempts to seize on progressive disarray - and if they even want to.