A racist Young Republican chat has triggered a fight on the US right: Should they pursue unity at any cost, or learn from the left’s collapse and reject radicals within their own camp
October 24, 2025 09:36
Sometimes a fight about something isn’t really about that thing. Exhibit A is the political right’s infighting following Poltico’s exposé about a Young Republican Telegram chat last week. The arguments playing out on X and in conservative media aren’t about the chat but about the future of the political right.
That private chat included racist, antisemitic, and violent language, and Politico’s revealing it split the right. The national Young Republicans immediately condemned the chat, New York’s Republican party voted to disband their (implicated) Young Republicans chapter, and Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears tweeted those involved “absolutely must step down” before telling her opponent, “Now it’s your turn.”
In contrast, The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh tweeted an appeal for right-wing unity, with an eye on winning elections. Widely interpreted as a call to include the far-right, that message sparked a larger fight about whether the right’s coalition needs boundaries, and whether the political left offers a model worth replicating or a cautionary tale.
His colleague and Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro offered an opposing view, supporting “social lines,” as “there are social consequences to saying and believing truly terrible things.” Shapiro noted Republicans’ recent electoral wins, arguing, “The left is not winning because of their unity.” Rather, “they are being destroyed . . . because they decided that the nut jobs and the radicals in their own party could not be condemned under any circumstances.” Democrats have consequently shed “non-crazy” voters. But over on the political right, Georgia Congresswoman “Marjorie Taylor Greene is dividing the Republican Party, not the people criticising Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
Now, it’s true Democrats often circles the waggons to protect their controversial officials. Ralph Northam remained Virginia’s governor after a 2019 blackface scandal to prevent ceding the governorship to Republicans, and Democrats still haven’t dropped Jay Jones.
However, Shapiro is correct; Democrats have been self-destructing by mainstreaming, rather than marginalising, leftist extremism. For example, after Squad member Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar accused Jews of dual loyalty in March 2019, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi oversaw efforts to condemn Jew-hatred; Democrats’ final, watered down resolution addressed all “hateful expressions of intolerance.”
Six years on, Democrats have protected Jew-haters during Congressional campus antisemitism hearings, and 27 Senators – 57 per cent of the Democratic caucus – voted to withhold weapons to Israel in July, mid-war. Israel now polarises Democrats, poisoning the party and making many Jewish Zionists feel stigmatised.
At bottom, Congress faced, and failed, the same test universities and the media have. Leftists completing their long march through the institutions felt energised and convinced of their righteousness, while the liberal establishment was neither resilient nor capable of confidently defending its values. That same establishment missed every possible off-ramp, and here we are.
The right has now started its own dangerous descent. Seeing popular podcasters like Tucker Carlson evolve, the far-right feels empowered. Jews and Israel are being used to divide President Trump’s coalition. And while some voices have previously highlighted these trends, last week’s attention fuelled many more comments. On X, Trump allies recast pan-Right “unity” as a recipe for both electoral defeat and moral compromise, backing guardrails for the coalition and rejecting the left’s caricature of the right.
The Daily Wire’s Andrew Klavan tweeted, “Unity against the left's inherently anti-Western, violent and oppressive ideology is, of course, urgent – but not to the point of endorsing evil simply because it comes dressed in [Republican] red. . . . disgusting and obsessive Jew-hatred – which is the disguised hatred of God – and racism, which is the hatred of God's image, has nothing to do with the mission of restoring faith, family and the flag to our great country.”
Republican officials’ reactions have largely been good, and this fight isn’t over. How Republicans handle extremism longer-term will shape the party’s future.
Democrats provide a cautionary tale. Republicans should internalise lessons from that experience, starting with “Standards are a must.”
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