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Young conservatives have a bigotry problem — and everyone on the right has a responsibility to reckon with it.Nicholas Rafael, the now-suspended treasurer of the New York Young Republican Club, has been linked to an X account — @basedredford — from which he allegedly sent out all sorts of bigoted and antisemitic messages.His is just one of dozens of scandals rocking the young conservative world, which has been taken over by “edgelords” who say the most offensive things possible for sport.
They are a danger to the Republican party and to America’s social fabric — and conservatives of all ages have a responsibility to condemn their behavior.Rafael isn’t the only bad apple to come out of the NYYRC.In November, its former vice president Vish Burra was fired as a producer at One America News for posting an AI-generated video depicting Jews as “scheming” cockroaches counting money in a dark room.According to reporting from New York Magazine, Rafael operated an anonymous X account which called Texas Senator Ted Cruz a “Israel first goy slave” and declared, “It’s literally a historic FACT that your society will thrive when you kick the Jews out of town.” The magazine reported that the account was followed by members of the New York Young Republican Club (NYYRC) and published an image it claims is Rafael giving a sieg heil salute in Nazi paraphernalia.Rafael was put on leave by the club.
He did not respond to The Post’s request for comment via a NYYRC spokesperson, though he told New York Magazine that the photo was not real and the account was not his.An attorney for the NYYRC told The Post that an internal investigation is still pending.NYYRC president Stefano Forte told The Post that the group has thousands of members and that its “purpose is to allow these people to express their ideas in an honest and respectful manner.
We obviously take swift corrective action when it appears that one of our members has not done so,” he said.It’...