We live in the era of ideological politics where everything is nationalized and viewed through a left-right lens. But, hard as it is to believe, local politics still very much exists. And the ugliness in Rockland County is very much about local politics. It’s about the stuff local politics is made of, development, property rights, property taxes, groups of voters struggling to assert control over small tracts of land and blowing those struggles up as if they were the struggle to protect all of civilization. And, yes, there’s anti-Semitism in the mix.

All of this went national with a video campaign accusing Jews of trying to take over the place. And the media is doing its usual thing.

Uproar Over Anti-Semitic Video Produced by Republicans in N.Y. County – New York Times

New York attorney general condemns county GOP video as anti-Semitic – CNN

This particular video was produced by local Republicans. But similar language, from a different angle, has also been used by local Democrats.

Statewide Republicans have condemned the material.

But, for once this isn’t about Republicans vs. Democrats. Nor is it about Right and Left. It’s local politics. And that’s still alive and well.

The media’s efforts to link this stuff to the GOP is as predictable as it is ridiculous. There’s nothing national or ideological about it. It’s a local pissing contest which, depending on the players, spills over into anti-Semitism with some homeowners attacking Chassidic Jews for lowering property values and others attacking them for being skeptical about having to fund a minority public school system that they don’t use.

The former are more often active in the local GOP and the latter active in the local Dems.

The media, tellingly, hasn’t condemned anti-Semitic language by the NAACP and their other political allies. And it’s trying to tie this outburst of ugliness to the GOP. And yet, there’s almost something reassuring in the reality that amid the larger turbulent politics, local politics endures.