Yes, Stephen Miller Should Be Fired

Stephen Miller, Senior Policy Advisor to President Trump, needs to be fired.

After emails were leaked in late November between Miller and a former Breitbart editor which shows Miller sharing and recommending articles from notoriously racist websites such as American Renaissance, an increasingly large crowd has been calling for his firing.

Most of those calling for his removal have been Democrats; in fact, late last week, twenty-five Democratic Jewish members of Congress called for Miller to be fired. But I, as a Jewish Republican, stand with those Democrats in their desire for Miller to be ousted.

For those doubting the severity of the allegations against Miller, all one must do is look at the founder of American Renaissance, one of the websites Miller pushed. In 2005 American Renaissance founder, Jared Taylor, said, “Blacks and whites are different. When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization — any kind of civilization — disappears.” He also, according to NPR, “talks about black people having higher levels of testosterone and therefore being predisposed to commit more violent crimes” despite the fact there is zero evidence to suggest this to be the case.

For anybody, much less a Senior Advisor to the President, to promote that sort of content, is wholly unacceptable.

Beyond the general reasons Miller should be removed, however, is why it is particularly important for the Republican Party and conservatives to take a stand against Miller.

Although right-wing populism has become increasingly popular on the right, neither traditional conservatism nor the new-era conservatism we see cropping up is consistent with the sentiments expressed by Miller. Being accepting of all people and judging people as individuals is what small government and free-market principles are supposed to be about—not looking at people in terms of color or country of origin.  If we, as conservatives, truly want the conservatism we believe in represented in the White House, we surely aren’t getting it with Stephen Miller.

The all-out warfare between real conservatives and so-called “America First Nationalists” (really just alt-right racists) has been ongoing for a number of months now. These “America First Nationalists” also share content from American Renaissance, also spread racist ideas and also—despite what some may tell you—do not line up with what real conservatives believe. Racists like Nick Fuentes—a person who wants to go back to the era of Jim Crow and called Matt Walsh, an employee of Ben Shapiro, a “shabbos goy race traitor.”—are not whose values I want to be represented in any capacity in the White House.

If the right wants true conservatism to win in the end, there is no way to do it other than advocate for the removal of Stephen Miller. Moreover, if Republicans want any credibility at all when calling out bigotry on the left we must first drive out the hate on our own side.

The only way we can call out Ilhan Omar is to first call out Steve King and the only way we can call out Rashida Tlaib, Al Sharpton or Linda Sarsour is to first call out Stephen Miller.

When we only focus on calling out the bigotry originating from our political opponents, it is rightly seen as partisan hackery, but when we try and take a stand against all bigotry—whether it be coming from a leading Democrat or a senior advisor in the Trump Administration—that is what will allow America to move in a positive direction.