Kevin McCarthy makes a devil's bargain

You may be under the impression that the most important high-society event in New York is the Met Gala, where celebrities from the world of entertainment, media, fashion and politics dress to the nines in avant-garde couture and come together to get their pictures taken and be seen mingling with their fellow famous people. It's quite a spectacle. But it has nothing on the demented carnival of the New York Young Republican Club's annual gala, which was held this past weekend. It didn't have the glamour of the Met's event, but it had its own luminaries in attendance — and while the fashion may not have been avant-garde the politics were certainly striking.

According to a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, it was a gathering of some of of the most divisive figures of the far right including Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr., the white nationalists Peter Brimelow and Lydia Brimelow of VDARE, provocateur Jack Posobiec of "Pizzagate" fame and Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe, among many others, including elected Republican officials:

Republican speakers repeatedly voiced an anti-democracy, authoritarian ideology, and extremists in the audience cheered wildly. White nationalists such as the Brimelows of VDARE and leaders from extreme far right European parties like Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD), whom German officials placed under surveillance for their ties to extremism, and Austrian Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ), ate and drank in the same room as newly elected Republican congresspeople, such as Long Island and Queens-based George Santos, Georgia-based Mike Collins and Florida-based Cory Mills.