Lately The New York Post, Fox News, and other conventional conservative outlets have been inundating readers and viewers with a local electoral contest presented as a struggle between good and evil. It involves a Democratic primary in New York between the progressive Democrat, Representative Jamaal Bowman, and his challenger Westchester County Executive George Latimer, another left-wing Democrat.

Lest we miss the moral implications of this Manichean battle in the Bronx, the New York Post devoted three whole pages, including a graphically illustrated front page to this confrontation. The black incumbent, Bowman, is shown leading a “progressive cringe-fest” on his home turf, to which he has invited his “goon squad,” including AOC and Bernie Sanders. These are the radical villains against whom the heroic Mr. Latimer is supposedly waging a just war.

Presumably we should all be cheering for the doughty Latimer, a “moderate” who has been enraged by Bowman’s alliance with pro-Hamas anti-Semites. Although, like Sanders, Bowman has spoken out against the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, he has also been vocal in attacking the Israeli response. Since much of Bowman’s black constituency in the Bronx seems to hold this position, one can’t be surprised that their representative in Congress has moved toward the Israel-critical direction with which he’s now identified.

One also can’t be perplexed that Israel’s lobby, AIPAC, has been true to its promise of backing pro-Israel Democrats against those in the party who lean in a different direction. AIPAC has thrown lots of money into the campaign to unseat Bowman, and the charge made by Sanders and AOC about what’s been going on here is entirely true. Forty-two percent of the $14 million that has flowed into Latimer’s campaign chest has come from AIPAC. This doesn’t even take into account the free advertising Conservative, Inc. has been providing the Democratic operative nonstop for at least the last week.

 The battle between Bowman and Latimer is about who is more agreeable to a particular lobby and its supporters and who has been more pro-Israeli on the campaign trail. It is not a battle about which candidate is more aligned with American conservatives. Both sound like leftist nutjobs; and Latimer manages to sound even more hysterical than Bowman when he sounds off on opposing any restrictions on abortion and tells us how pro-life advocates represent a danger to American democracy.

 Latimer has gone beyond calling for the codification of Roe v Wade at the state level. He has tried to keep those who oppose his radical leftist position from protesting in the vicinity of “reproductive health” centers. He has also kept the NRA from showing guns at the Westchester County Center and worked to limit the availability of firearms to law-abiding Americans. When it comes to the promotion of gay rights, there is no distance between Latimer and the Squad.   

I also didn’t notice AIPAC objecting to Bowman’s earlier antics, like tripping a fire alarm in the Capitol to prevent a congressional vote that he didn’t want to take place. I doubt AIPAC’s mostly Democratic members are in serious disagreement with the Biden administration, save for its failure to support Netanyahu’s military policies with greater consistency. I believe AIPAC has a right to take the positions that it does; and I also don’t question its decision to pick the more pro-Israeli candidate in Bowman’s district. Incidentally, I’m not a fan of Bowman’s, and if asked to choose between the incumbent and the challenger, I would be viscerally unable to vote for either.

My interest in addressing this matter is not to choose between two very bad candidates but to ask why this noisy face-off is being treated as important to the “conservative media.” Latimer’s boosters, it seems to me, have utterly misrepresented what is occurring in the congressional contest, which they’ve depicted as a battle between leftist “goons” and a putative “moderate.” That battle is no such thing. It is a confrontation between two woke leftists. Mind you I’m not complaining if the donor class and their employees are rooting for the Israeli side; in fact, I lean in the same direction. But depicting Latimer as a “moderate” because he’s awash in AIPAC money and is denouncing Bowman for criticizing the Israeli bombing of Gaza is profoundly dishonest.

Needless to say, I’d be delighted to see the conservative establishment defending conservative causes. In fact, I can think of many such causes that I’d like to see conservative media stars defending, starting with traditional gender roles. We can then go on to opposing antiwhite racism, protecting pro-life protesters, abolishing (if we can’t rein in) the FBI and CIA, and taking on the LGBT lobby. What I would not rate as a specifically conservative cause is carrying water for AIPAC. But I can understand why those who may see this as a sine qua non for their financial survival might argue differently.   

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story reported that Latimer’s campaign had a total of $1.4 million. The correct number is $14 million. We regret the erroneous insertion of the decimal point.