On October 12, The Gateway Pundit ran a guest post by Banafsheh Zand headlined “The Islamic Republic of Michigan”, tying Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed to Michigan clerics, a day after he denied Muslim Brotherhood ties on NBC. Four words, and two of them are the official name of a foreign state. “Islamic Republic” is the title Iran’s government took after its March 30 and 31, 1979 referendum. Set on Michigan, it turns a Senate race into a takeover. The post’s own body uses the phrase only for Iran, names two people, and gives no count of anyone; its 19th paragraph is the first to treat Michigan’s Muslims as a population. Pew counts them at 1% of the state’s adults. The tell is a faith’s name where a person acted: the headline has no person in it, only a religion fused to a state. It rides the habit of us and them, where the other group’s one member stands for all of them and our side’s is the exception. The device is the hard word, a regime’s title for a plain fact: a Muslim Democrat is the Senate nominee and would be the country’s first Muslim senator. The post’s voter claim opens with “A strong case can be made”. The family headlines make the same move one ring closer. The Free Beacon and PJ Media lead with a half-sister’s posts; Legal Insurrection notes no evidence El-Sayed belonged to the Brotherhood, and Bridge Michigan’s fact check found none for Rogers’ claim that he pledged support to it. Jewish Insider’s headline puts his denial first. Bridge Michigan’s AP headline names who holds the spotlight: Republicans, who as of October 10 had outspent Democrats $78 million to $63 million.
