As an active member of the conservative movement, I am familiar with all its wares. There is no such thing as the Alternative Right.
After the Republican-led Civil Rights Act of 1964 overcame a fierce filibuster by Democrat Senators Robert Byrd (WV) and Strom Thurmond (SC), and was signed by Democrat President Lyndon Johnson, many racists in the Democrat Party abandoned the Democrats, taking themselves and many of their constituents over to the Republican Party and fundamentally reshaping the party politics of The South. These new Democrats, like Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer, were referred to as “Neo-Conservatives.” Despite Congressional Republicans overwhelming 80% support for civil rights legislation, these ex-Democrats (these Neo-Conservatives), invaded the Republican Party, causing systemic reversals away from the conservatism of Coolidge, Eisenhower, and Goldwater.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Democrat Party moved ideologically leftward, leaving an entire wing of the Democrat Party known as Reagan Democrats. Many of these so-called “Reagan Democrats” were anti-immigrant, nativist, and nationalist, cautioning and voting against the bi-partisan Simpson–Mazzoli Bill which Reagan eventually signed. The vast majority of these Reagan, or Blue Dog, Democrats lost primary elections to more liberal Democrats between the end of Reagan’s term and the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Their constituents were effectively left without representation until the McCain/Obama election of 2008.
McCain, a moderate Republican known for making deals with the left, was too unpopular with his base to win a general election. I predicted that Senator McCain would be forced to choose either South Carolina Congressman Mark Sanford or Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, two “conservative” Republicans puzzlingly popular with both Democrats and Republicans in their States at the time. McCain ended up choosing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who brought with her a strongly defensive, if not aggressive, antipathy toward illegal immigration in the United States. Over Senator McCain’s objections, Governor and Vice-Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin pursued the issue of illegal immigration throughout the 2008 campaign.
Blue Dog Democrats, having laid dormant for years, were swept up in the 2007/2008 TEA Party movement established in opposition to higher taxes, higher spending, and higher debt, as well as Palin’s antipathy toward a growing and unaddressed illegal immigrant population in the United States. Obama’s victory would only serve to further sever the ties between Blue Dog Democrats and the Democrat Party. Not only did then-Senator Obama defeat Senator John McCain, but the Democrats took over both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate. The result was a series of ridiculously expensive pieces of legislation, culminating in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.
Roped in to supporting the first African-American President’s signature legislation, Blue Dog Democrats, under pressure from Nancy Pelosi’s Blue Dog WHIP, Congressman Mike McIntyre (and my North Carolina Congressman at the time), fell on their swords before the American People. The vast majority of them were voted out of office in November of 2010. Congressman McIntyre survived the TEA Party groundswell election, after lying to his constituents about his role in securing the Affordable Care Act, defeating Conservative TEA Party candidate and combat veteran Ilario Pantano, whom my wife and I were proud to support.
With no conservative Blue Dog or Reagan Democrats left in Congress by 2012, conservative Democrats disappeared from politics. Note President Obama’s declining numbers in 2014. Democrats lost their largely white, elderly, male vote in 2014, a demographic which would lay dormant until a certain conservative, nationalist, Manhattan ex-Democrat ran for the Republican Party’s nomination for President in the early summer of 2015. Republicans were astonished by the overwhelming numbers they saw showing up at the polls for primaries previously considered irrelevant considering that the son of one President and the brother of another, one conservative Governor of the great State of Florida, Jeb Bush, had raised over 100 million dollars before the Republican Primary even began.
Ted Cruz, the true Conservative Junior Senator from the great State of Texas, was expected to be the conservative heir apparent to challenge Governor Jeb Bush for the Republican nomination. However, the rise of the old Blue Dog Democrats and their bizarre division with their then pro-interventionist brethren, upset the conservative v. establishment divide in the Republican Party. Unexpected numbers of previously unregistered Republicans began showing up at the polls to vote for Donald Trump and his anti-Mexican, anti-Chinese, and anti-free trade agenda.
While Democrats point the finger at “the extreme right-wing” of the Republican Party for the rise of Donald Trump and the “Alt-Right,” who they are really pointing the finger at are Democrat defectors denigrated and expelled from the Democrat Party since the late 70s and early 80s. Moderate Republicans, who, having pursued these “independents” for years, were horrified when a Republican candidate actually brought them into the fold. Donald Trump, while running off ideological conservatives of every stripe, secured for the Republican Party the Blue Dog and the old Strom Thurmond Democrats, as well as a plethora of angry conservative factions, long bereft of favor and exhausted by losing, along side his campaign.
The “Alt-Right” is not an extreme right-wing manifestation as the media would have you believe, but rather an orgy of old Democrat caucuses and frustrated conservative factions, looking to break down an alliance of Democrats and Republicans who have manufactured a government that, while working well for them, has hardly cared for the interests of average Americans. The “Alt-Right” is merely a joint effort between Democrats and Republicans against Corporatism.
Unfortunately, this conglomeration of Democrat and Republican factions forming the Alternative Right, is not the least bit conservative. Worse, having awoken their passions, Republican Nominee Donald Trump is now associated with the Alt-Right and all of their flaws and quibbles.
The “Alt-Right” is a concoction of nativist, racist, and statist motivations seeking to use Donald Trump for their own liberal agendas. These foibles are not the only group of people looking to Donald Trump for representation. Republicans, the nation over, are looking to Trump to secure free trade, fair policies by the Federal Reserve, fair decisions by the Supreme Court, and the thoughtful administration of the executive branch of the federal government.
Conservative, moderate, and ideological Republicans ought to be pressuring Donald Trump for equitable representation. If this election is left up to Democrats, i.e. the Alt-Right or Independents or Blue Dog Democrats, then we’re finished. Conservatives will never show up in November to vote for a candidate representing those interests over ours. The “Alt-Right” does not exist. Democrats without a candidate do.
39 comments
“…nativist, racist….”because we don’t not want 400,000 plus unknowns walking into our country including terrorists. The only thing that doesn’t exist is the common sense and integrity of the author to smear millions of voters with derogatory labels. The author is far from the majority. We will succeed in saving our country despite this constant stream of nonsense.
Stefan Molyneux – YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/stefbot
Check out Stefan Molyneux’s YouTube interview with Vox Day on the Alt Right-
Stefan Molyneux’s 1.4 million views proves there is an Alt Right, Mr. Tucker.
and they aren’t who you think they are…..
OOPS- this is the correct link to Vox Day’s interview with Stefan Molyneux…… There is an Alt Right.
The alt-right is a group whose primary ideology is disagreement with the civil rights movement and equality under the law for all races, although very few of them were around back in the 1960s. They are also isolationist and while professing Christianity, are in practice non-religious and often pro-choice. They are a loud, but small group, who are anti-immigration and so generally support Trump. I come to this description by reading self-described alt-right writers. They are not Reagan conservatives, or neo-cons, or blue dog Democrats, all of whom support equality under the law for all races.
Trump did not court this group, but Trump has not pushed them away. Over the long term, this will do great damage to conservatism because Trump is (incorrectly) seen as conservative.
NOT TRUE….
https://voxday.blogspot.com
Neither my spouse nor I ever heard the term “Alt-Right” until about 3 weeks ago, when the media trotted it out as the newest threat.
Apparently there is a person that invented it?
http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/263988/some-observations-man-who-created-alt-right-paul-gottfried
Interesting article. Several months ago, I couldn’t understand what this alt-right group was all about until I read this from Milo Yiannopoulos, one of the heroes of the alt-right. It helped me understand where they came from and what they believe.
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/03/29/an-establishment-conservatives-guide-to-the-alt-right/
I sure don’t agree with all this but they do have an intellectually coherent point of view; not just a liberal agenda.
It took me a while to catch on to Milo, I thought he was just another guy that had found a way to cash in on the fame train. Milo rocks, and he puts up w/an credible amount of B.S. and is willing to put his life on the line for what he believes. Interesting article, thanks. I didn’t catch it first time around.
Alt Right is most definitely NOT LIBERAL AGENDA: READ before commenting
https://voxday.blogspot.com
I think we agree on that point. I said the alt-right was not just a liberal agenda, as a counterpoint to the author’s characterization of the alt-right as a movement with a liberal agenda. It isn’t a liberal agenda.
I think Kristol and Krauthammer would be surprised to find out they are former Southern Democrats who fled their party over civil rights. In fact, I think Bill Kristol would be surprised to find out he used to be a Democrat at all. It was his father, Irving Kristol–a Jewish intellectual from New York–who had been a “liberal mugged by reality” to essentially discover the neo-conservative persuasion. Don’t think that fits in this analysis.
I absolutely agree. The author may be too young to have lived through the creation of neo-con movement because his version of history just repeats the left’s denigration of neo-conservatives. I see that is still embedded in Wikipedia too. But anybody that lived through that period knows ex Democrat racism has nothing to do with neo conservatism. The best description of neo-cons is a devotion to national security, while embracing social liberal issues. They never had anything to do with racism or nativism. They loved Ronald Reagan’s military strength and nationalism, but they hated his social policies. That is why the neo cons flourished under the Bushes. They are almost the exact opposite of the left’s caricature of neocons with regard to racism and other social issues. Most neo cons were never Democrats in the first place. They were Republicans trying to move the party left with regard to social issues.
Well yes and no. The NO part they both had absouethly nothing to do with fleeing the Democratic party over southern civil rights issues (another example of the author trying to fit a narrative to some mistaken facts) but yes they did indeed leave the Democratic fold of their younger days over issues of national defense.
The heart of political sthrenth regarding national defense pre Reagan was not the Republican party but a group of Cold War liberals, like Henry (Scoop) Jackson, Hubert Humphrey, and Pat Moynihan to name a few. With the rise of the 60’s and with it George McGovern’s Democratic Party this cold war, anti-communist wing of the Democratic Party fell into disfavor and it lost almost all of it’s Democratic platform influence.
So by 1981 with the election of Republican Ronald Reagan (whose early background is not to different then both of these guys) and his ardent national defense policies and anti communist rehertoic they all found a new home on the right as so called neoconservatives. Which is about as useless a descriptive political label as alt-right that is being branded about today for Trump supporters. The one thing the neoconservatives never really did leave behind
Yes, I doubt most Trump supporters have ever heard of the alt-right, and they couldn’t begin to describe what the alt-right is about.
We are Trump Supporters out here and we are Alt Right and know each other.
READ THIS…. all of you. You know not what you speak of here in your echo chambers. Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah…….
The 16 principles of the Alt Right by Vox Day:
https://voxday.blogspot.com/2016/08/what-alt-right-is.html
With all due respect, Mr. Underwood. The Trump voters most definitely know that they are Nationalists fighting the New World Order Globalists.
Trump voters know there is no longer a Democratic or Republican Party in Washington DC. Every vote is FOR SALE. The “Conservative grassroots voters” gave the Republican Party the majority in the Senate and the House on the promise to repeal Obama Care and NOTHING happened.
Mr. Tucker- you are wrong. There is most Definitely an “Alt Right” in America- It defeated 16 GOP candidates and nominated Donald J.Trump for President. Your Globalist RejecTED was among them.
I’m not sure where we disagree. Yes Trump voters certainly do understand what they are fighting about, and yes, you have identified the issues that they care deeply about. I agree with all of what you have said about that. I just don’t believe the average Trump supporter goes the extra step to self identify as Alt-Right. This isn’t because they disagree with the alt-right. It is simply because they have never even heard of the alt-right, and even if they have, they aren’t sure what alt-right means. I know plenty of Trump supporters and I can’t remember a single one of them using that label to describe themselves, though I certainly can believe that many do.
I am a Trump supporter myself and I have gone out of my way several months ago to try to understand what the alt-right is all about. And as I said earlier, I’m not even sure yet that I agree with everything I’ve heard about the alt-right, partly because the movement has no authoritative leaders. However I appreciate the video you have posted. It does indeed have the intellectual depth similar to the article I posted earlier. Very good food for thought.
The “Alt-Right” is a Democrat straw man to metaphorically “burn in effigy.” It is the imagined beast in “Lord of the Flies.” It is a political tool to unite a party in chaos against the threat of losing its relevancy. It is the “thesis” of a Hegelian Dialectic countered by the Antifa (the “antithesis”), [a justification for violence and disruption] to bring about a “synthesis,” which is the recapture of Democrat party power starting with the removal of Trump. Political Hegelian dialectics typically begin with a pre-arranged solution to a problem that is either nonexistent or grossly blown out of proportion. The thesis and antitheses are created to generate controversy over the nonexistent problem to in order to fill the ignorant public with fear and hate so that they will demand their government act swiftly to “solve” the nonexistent problem. The goal of the DNC is to seize absolute power over the government. They’re current objective is to either remove or diminish Trump. To justify the Antifa and BLM fascists tactics, they need a straw man enemy of the public and the Alt-Right is it.
Good points Irish lass..
Mr. Wood, You are the only intellectual who ever comments on this blog. God Bless you. You are the best part of Bull Elephant. Everyone says so.
No one on Bull Elephant gets it- who the real Alt Right is….
Molyneux has 1.4 million viewers.
You will love Stefan Molyneux…..
Well yes and no. The NO part they both had absolutely nothing to do with fleeing the Democratic party over southern civil rights issues (another example of the author trying to fit a narrative to some mistaken facts) but yes they did indeed leave the Democratic fold of their younger days over issues of national defense.
The base of political strength regarding national defense pre Reagan was not the Republican party but a group of Cold War liberals, like Henry (Scoop) Jackson, Hubert Humphrey, and Pat Moynihan to name a few. With the rise of the 60’s and with it George McGovern’s Democratic Party this cold war, anti-communist wing of the Democratic Party fell into disfavor and it lost almost all of it’s party platform influence. So in 1981 with the election of Republican Ronald Reagan (whose early background is not to different then both of these guys) and his ardent national defense policies and anti communist rhetoric most found a new home on the right as so called neoconservatives. Which is about as useless a descriptive political label as alt-right that is being branded about today for Trump supporters.
The one thing the neoconservatives never really did was leave behind their belief in many of the Democratic parties domestic policies initiatives and philosophies like Johnson’s War on Poverty, that many believe (myself included) was the significant jump start to growing and constantly expanding the Democratic welfare state we see coming to maturity in decay and violence across the nation’s urban cities today. In many ways this band of commentators and policy intellectuals consumed the conservative movement of the day and the past with this hybrid of strong national defense coupled with stroking the growth of the ever expanding welfare benefit state and it’s resulting debt crisis. Many conservatives complained and pointed out the inconsistencies but few were listened to and most were largely drowned out in the proliferation of neocon commentary publications.
So where we are again back to a somewhat similar point in political evolution but this time around the neocons are under duress from a coalescing new conservative movement under the emergence of a so called “non conservative” (so they claim recalling they have some conservative policy issues in that area themselves) with the one significant difference being this group has an expanding Republican voter base attached which the neocons never really achieved as a self proclaimed intellectual policy directing elite to leadership.
DO they actually teach political history at the university level anymore today?
Don’t need to teach it because I watched it happen.
The party of Lin Holton, Andy Guest and Bill Truban became the party of Whitbeck, Trump, and Cooch.
No thanks.
Yeah, the history here is suspect, to say the least.
If a nativist is one who thinks that immigration laws should be enforced, and that immigration policy should be consistent with our existing culture, then I plead guilty.
I’m 100% pro-immigration and 100% pro-enforcement.
I assume you mean legal immigration. If not, then I completely disagree with you. I believe in the rule of law for without it there is only the rule of tyrants.
Is a nativist someone who thinks that the government should control immigration and limit it such that he, that is the nativist, doesn’t have to support the poverty of the world that is foisted upon him by liberals, libertarians, socialists and yes the GOP Chamber of Commerce Republicans? And as those numbers grow from third world countries the Democrats then get a voting block to impose any wealth distributing program of their dreams and write the laws to impose a state that grows ever more larger and restrictive and expensive?
Ah the ability for I assume you are a libertarian to stick their head up their fundament on this issue as state after state gains massive immigration and turns Democrat. You want to go back in history? Until 1986 California voted Republican and then came good old Simpson Mazzoli and now? Democrats get to start out with that states massive electoral college vote and dont’ even have to ever spend money there as a Republican has zero chance of election. And now… Virginia… a magnet state for immigration, much of it illegal and? It is now turning bluer by the day.
And the use of entitlements is growing exponentially with our new open border residents at all levels of government. Virginia is home to Obama’s million child surge as illegal baby mommies call for the kids they left back in Central America in order to avoid deportation themselves under Obama’s new immigration enforcement policies. Fairfax county public schools are now ESL centers and are constantly in the red as taxpayers get to fund illegal immigration education.
And the Democrats are moving towards calling immigration a civil right… There won’t be any more enforcement soon which will in fact just put into policy what is happening de facto. And the GOPe and you libertarians will join them… yes drive out those nativists!!!
So adios conservatism and get ready to fork over your wealth.
All of this destruction and devastation gets dumped on subsequent generations. Wealth is not unlimited but human demands are.
Actually, wealth IS unlimited — it’s just not in the best interest of the controllers to have freedom-giving wealth in the hands of those to-be-controlled.
Untrue. Wealth is limited by physics and the dimensions of the earth. Human desires and demands know no limits.
Human desires and demand create the wealth.
Human desires and demand creates the market and the conditions favorable for the creation of wealth.
Pfft, that’s silly.
Toddlers have desires and demands, they don’t create wealth.
{{{Imagine this yard sign Hillary for prison 2016 24 x 18 {{{ buy from Amazon $12
There’s your wealth creation right there!
I have a couple of Hillary for prison t-shirts. hilliary supporters seem to hate them.
The Republican HQ is located at 10842 Warwick Blvd, Newport News; 2 doors down from Danny’s Deli… When we get a few more supplies in and it cools down just a bit., someone will take the above sign and stand on Warwick Blvd waving the sign at cars. That should prove interesting !!
..
You obviously have never been in a toy store on Black Friday. I believe Toys R Us would disagree with you.
This blog is an example of wealth creation, same with social media and virtual worlds, we have invented different worlds using different physics and dimensions. And when those become less than cost-effective, we will move out beyond the constraints of this particular planet, we have lots of wealth to fritter through before we begin to approach our outer limits. (and then we’ll surpass those)