antisemitism and populism

[Katha Pollitt]

"Did Jefferson dream that in 100 years or less >his< party would be
prostituted to the vilest purposes of monopoly; that red-eyed Jewish
millionaires would be chiefs of that Party, and that the liberty and
prosperity of the country would be..constantly and corruptly sacrificed
to Plutocratic greed in the name of Jeffersonian Democracy?"
--Tom Watson, l892, from the People's Party Campaign Book,quoted in
Kazin, The Populist Persuasion, p.10.

Kazin notes that Watson only became a major Antisemite after the
People's Party failed. Before that, I guess he was a minor antisemite.

  I wonder about "red-eyed." Is this an illusion to syphilis, with which
Jews were  associated in the popular imagination, as they were with
"white slavery," abortion, birth control and everything licentious and
evil? Or are the Jews  supposed to be just tired from counting  their
money?

Katha