According to the Washington Post:
Self-proclaimed white nationalist Richard Spencer led a large group of demonstrators carrying torches and chanting “You will not replace us” Saturday in Charlottesville, protesting plans to remove a Confederate monument that has played an outsize role in this year’s race for Virginia governor.
“What brings us together is that we are white, we are a people, we will not be replaced,” Spencer said at an afternoon protest, the first of two rallies he led in the town where he once attended the University of Virginia.
We all use different names to describe these people: “Alt-Right”, populist, white nationalists, race pimps, bigots, racists, white supremacists, etc; but what are they really? The term Alt-Right is troubling, because it associates white nationalism or white populism with “the right”, which would imply that the Alt-Right has something in common with the Conservative Tradition or the Republican Party (not that those two are always in sync). Alternative Right? What is the Alternative to the Right? The Left? The Center? White Nationalism? Populism? And what’s the difference between White Nationalism and White Supremacy?
Once an obscure Internet figure promoting white identity, Spencer coined the term “alt-right” — referring to a small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state — and rose to prominence during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Although Trump denounced the alt-right, Spencer’s followers counted his victory as a win for the movement as Trump espoused hard-right stances on undocumented immigrants, Muslims and political correctness.
Here’s a problem. Republicans and those who subscribe to hundreds of years of Conservative Tradition believe in law and order. We believe that immigration is good, when it is legal. We believe in equality and liberty for all. We dislike Russians, and Germans, and Saudi’s overstaying their Visas as much as we dislike Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, or Mexicans crossing our Southern Border illegally. We don’t even like it when Canadians cross our Northern Border without proper documentation, eh? The Conservative Tradition rejects religious or theological politics. We do not seek to be ruled by religious laws. We often come into disagreements with folks advocating for fundamentalist government, be it Christian or Muslim fundamentalism.
So yes, there are aspects of the Republican Party that conflicts with illegal immigration and Islamist fundamentalism, but we are not anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican, or anti-Muslim. We seek to live according to the principles of liberty under governments that defend the rights given to us by God. We seek to live under a Republican government and a Federalist system, because Republicanism and Federalism have sustained economic liberty and expanded political liberty. We have traditions and centuries of history that instruct us and upon which we have developed our current political philosophies (under the guidance of the best wisdom of our time and out of respect for what history has taught us).
So how does the “Alt-Right”, these White Nationalists, have anything to do with Republicanism or Federalism or Constitutionalism or Conservatism? The fact is, that White Nationalists or the “Alt-Right” are antithetical to our traditions and orthodoxies. White Nationalism is a populist movement, divorced from any set of meaningful or historical principles and divorced from any identifiable political philosophy. These White Nationalists may attract some republican voters and some democrat voters. In fact, as the Democrat Party has embraced more and more multiculturalism, many of the white racists in their ranks have found themselves without a party (until 2016).
What is populism? Populism is a popular political movement. It’s not conservative or liberal or socialist. Most populist movements are quite dull, intellectually. I think of Andrew Jackson and Teddy Roosevelt and William Jennings Bryan. Lots of excitement. Lots of pomposity. Very little in the way of intellect. Populist movements can be republican or democrat. Donald Trump ran a populist campaign for the Republican Nomination. Bernie Sanders ran a populist campaign for the Democrat Nomination. Tom Perriello is running a populist campaign for the Democrat Nomination for Governor. They are rabble-rousers. They rouse rabble.
What should our response to Richard Spencer be? What should our response to the white nationalist populists in Virginia be?
First of all, to all those white people who have fallen in love with Richard Spencer, you are an embarrassment to your race. He’s a race pimp. We’ve seen other race pimps who’ve tried to use civil rights movements to enrich their own personal bank accounts. I’m thinking of Jesse Jackson and La Raza. Why white people fall for this crap is beyond me, but it’s depressing.
Second, white nationalism is 100% antithetical to the Conservative Tradition and to the history of the Republican Party. Like other left-wing groups, they practice identity politics and Alinksy tactics. They have no place in the Republican Party, no place in the TEA Party, and no place in American society.
We were all disappointed to hear that the liberal’s in Charlottesville wanted to hide their history by removing their own monuments, monuments reflecting Virginia’s history. It’s absurd how Democrats (a party that was responsible for the civil war, for segregation, for the KKK, and for decades of bigotry aimed at African-Americans) all of the sudden now want to pretend like none of that ever happened. However, this really isn’t up to us. It’s up to the People’s City of Charlottesville. Many of us spoke out against the removal of the statue and we did so with rational arguments. We did not have to bring up the Russians or Blood and Soil, and we didn’t have to talk about “whiteness”. Nothing about this situation has anything to do with whiteness. It has to do with liberalism and a Democrat Party trying to erase the memory of its past.
These White Nationalists are disgusting, awful, pathetic, embarrassing people. Years of watching the liberal media promote race pimps and race-baiters has overwhelmed them with jealousy! They seem to believe that “if anyone is going to make race an issue, it should be white people damnit!”
Morons.
I believe that these White Nationalists are trying to insert themselves into President Trump’s populist movement – and the only reason they are having any success at all is because populism has no intellectual foundation. Populist movements, whether Trump’s or Bernie Sanders’ or Tom Perriello’s are anti-intellectual and therefore susceptible to all kinds of madness. I’m just waiting for Mr. Perriello to embrace Black Lives Matter or Antifa. He will. Just give him time. So when he lectures the right about the “Alt-Right”, it’s just a little bit funny.
Before the Democrats could open their mouths to try to blame these White Nationalist protests on the Republicans, Republicans across the State had already denounced it in the harshest terms. These people aren’t right wing (unless you consider Adolf Hitler’s National Socialists “right-wing”, as they do in Europe). We typically think of big-government, identity-politics, nationalist politicians as Authoritarians or Left-Wing. So maybe that’s what the Alt-Right is, since the alternative to the Right is the Left. But who the hell knows who these people are? They are people without a political or cultural compass, which is why they are so easily led by despicable characters like Richard Spenser.
49 comments
This article is the most thoughtful, cohesive information about the Charlottesville protesting/riots and the “White Nationalists” that I have read. You articulate how I feel to be a Republican. Thank you.
It is so strange that Whites are the only classification of Man that are not permitted to speak out on their own behalf. If any other group cares to hold a demonstration and speaks in their own behalf, there only a simper of indignation. But the minute Whites gather and open their mouths, articles fall out of the sky in a frenzy of virtue signaling.
Le Pen, La Farage, and maybe Trump, in some form or fashion, are the future. As long as Republicans keep putting up Cuckservative do-nothing candidates, the Republicans consign themselves to irrelevancy. In fact, the rising tide of the very young give little credence to either of the politically and morally bankrupt parties, R or D. This may come as a big surprise to many people, but this is what I am seeing in the rising tide of the alternative media.
[…] Classified Intel to Russians… Corey Stewart’s White Nationalist Problem–UPDATED White Nationalism in Charlottesville: What Does it Mean? Capitol Police investigating threats against Congressman Tom […]
Point of order: immigration is not good when it’s legal, immigration is good when it’s in the national interest. As an example, H1-B visas are perfectly legal but absolutely terrible for the country (excepting those who profit from cheap labor).
When you assert that populism is anti-intellectual, you are being intellectually lazy yourself. You cite examples in the mode of George Wallace, but you ignore intellectuals like Patrick Buchanan. Both were famous populists, but one is nothing like the other.
When you dismiss populists as know nothings, you are really admitting you don’t understand the roots of the latest populist uprising. It sounds like you already know populists aren’t racists, which is a good start. But neither are they fools being led around by devious politicians that exploit their ignorance, as you seem to imply with the anti-intellectual label. Populists have political concerns that transcend that simple-minded characterization. I’d recommend you read a few of Patrick Buchanan’s books before you dismiss those concerns as anti-intellectual.
Mr Tucker
Forty years ago, the Supreme Court ruled in National
Socialist Paty v. Village of Skokie that the National Socialists
could show the Swastika , wear uniforms and march
In the Village of Skokie , a Village with a large number of
Concentration camp survivors .
The Nazis ultimately chose not to march there ,and marched in Chicago .
Our nation was a bit stronger than that group and all their constitutionally
Protected rights then.
I would hope our Commonwealth and nation is as strong today.
Thanks for the post.
Hold on. Clearly, the biggest race-baiter of the last decade was one Barack Hussein Obama who completely flailed as a president in his first term and then (effectively) stoked racial fires for a reelection bid. The problem with racism is that you can’t just provoke one side. If you agitate one group of racists, then you stir up another group. It’s a loss-loss scenario that malcontents have been using to their personal advantage since time immemorial.
That’s true.
Gee Thanks Corey
So far Corey is out only candidate for Governor, on either side, who has not disavowed these jerks. More on this to come.
Mr. Tucker I think you have this backwards. White Nationalists aren’t the ones trying to insert themselves into President Trump’s populist movement. Trump’s populist movement is an equal opportunity movement that embraces all, as long as all support President Trump.
Instead, it’s conservatives who are trying to insert themselves to Trump’s populist movement. The single plank of conservatism has been reduced to opposing liberal politicians and their legislation. The Civil War? It happened so long ago even your chosen president doesn’t know what year it started or ended. He believes Andrew Jackson had something to do with it..
Wake up and smell the kerosene, Steven. Those torches in Charlottesville were made possible because of the choices Republicans made and the company they kept.
Fair enough.
Sounds like an excellent blog post. Hint, hint.
Saturday nights protest was a vigorous but peaceful pushback against the left’s decades-long & growing white-inferiority, or hate-whites agenda. Just that.
So many lies and insults in this article notwithstanding it has nothing to do with populism. I can’t decide which is the more ludicrous, either – “Populism is intellectually dull” or populism being linked with white supremacy. Ahh, the race card again.
There are a whole lot of us populists in the Republican Party, and populism is NOT racism.
For decades there has been a growing “hate whites” or white-inferiority among liberals. Witness white-priveledge. Nobody is more reviled in our colleges and Hollywood than WASP males. In MSM there have been serious suggestions that whites lose their voting rights for some years, and some calls for whites to die (or be killed) of. Some feminists theorize that humans are evolving “beyond” the need for males at all. Pretty soon, us gals will be able to clone ourselves. And for decades now whites have been discriminated against in college admissions and job hires, via racial (& sexual) quotas.
And the reaction from most of America, including the Republican Party? Yawn. Pretty much ignore the whole thing. Guess liberals are always saying and doing stupid things and so we’ve largely become so used to white-inferiority we mostly just accept it now.
But let somebody/group – however loosely(!) – associated with our side, give the liberals a faint taste of their own medicine, and sudsenly all us Republicans are supposed to jump on command and vigorously denounce what the P.C. police deem offensive.
Those liberal white-inferiority agenda and wishes to disenfranchise and kill us whites are far worse than anything said at the ‘keep the statues’ protest Saturday night.
So where’s the outrage over the left’s decades of abuse of whites?
The protest Saturday night was a well-deserved push back against the loony left. It’s an attempt to right society’s ship which has gone way off kilter with the libs at the helm.
I wasn’t there Saturday night so I don’t have to denounce them or even feel any responsibility at all.
I got more important worries, like #NeverTrump/globalist elements within the GOP continually stymie-ing our President’s agenda.
Please read carefully. While its true that I dislike the populist elements in the Republican Party, I’m not calling them racist. I’m pointing out that racists are trying to coopt Trump’s populist movement.
President Trump is the one stymie-ing his agenda. About 90% of his problems go right back to his running his mouth.
Exactly! If he’d just shut up, he might actually get what he wants.
What do you do about people like Richard Spencer?
Simple, you ignore them. These people represent a statistically insignificant portion of the “right”. They get undue attention from the media in order to smear Republicans/conservatives.
Don’t play their game.
Well said Steven. Your best piece yet.
I don’t know if I would characterize President Trump and these people in the same class of “populism.” While you may think of the current president as “anti-intellectual,” it does appear his “madness” could be working for the nation. I sure wish people would give him a few more months to see if our GDP can attain the projected 2-3% growth this year instead of lumping him in with every lunatic that shows up to play.
BTW, having our GDP hit 3% would be very popular with me, as would building the wall, less Big Government regulations and lower taxes. You know what the best thing President Trump has done so far? He kept the Hildebeast out of the Oval office! So, you go ahead and lump him in with Tiny Tom and Crazy Bernie all you want, I just don’t know what you will accomplish by doing so. It sure sounds like a weak argument for someone throwing them big words like “intellectual” around, in any case.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/05/winning-us-unemployment-claims-lowest-level-since-1988/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-government-posts-182-billion-surplus-april-180943488–business.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/may/9/illegal-immigration-southwest-border-down-70-pct/
Wait wait wait. Trump’s campaign was “populist”, many of his supporters are populist. That does not mean that Trump’s years of experience in business won’t help him help us turn the economy around, or prevent good foreign policy, or any of that. Trump isn’t stupid. His campaign and movement simply lack an intellectual, historical, or philosophical foundation.
Populist is just a term used by losers to rationalize defeat, shared by both Hillary and Jeb bush supporters.
Let me guess, your political philosophy was entirely derived from eating pizza and watching Team America.
It certainly wasn’t derived by pieces of garbage like Enron Ed and the idiots in our party who think a free republic consists of denying gay people equal rights and corporate lobbyists. There is a reason why Mitt lost and Trump won.
I’m a conservative. I reject the politics of Romney and Trump.
If you were a true conservative, you wouldn’t attack a movement that stopped Hillary Clinton and 8 more years of Obama. Sure as hell, most Trump voters who came out and voted for the first time or switched parties………weren’t a bunch of waste-of-life Nazis.
As a true conservative, I don’t support populist movements; however, I was relieved Hillary lost. I volunteered for Trump, despite not supporting him personally.
And trying to wrap him in a “populist” label is just another way to chip away at what he has achieved, so far. Especially when you try to squeeze him into the same class as Tiny Tom and Crazy Bernie. Since the links that I attached seem to not be working, things I would categorize as Trump achievements would include lowest unemployment rate since 1988, a $182 BILLION SURPLUS by our Big Government in April, and a 76% drop in illegal immigration on the southern border. I would take his conservative values over most of the GOP fakers in congress any day whether those values are based on history or past philosophical leanings! He is following through on his conservative promises and that is all that matters to me.
The one label I would agree with is he is an outsider. That is truly the reason he has people on both sides of the political divide getting their underpants in a bunch, and I am loving every minute of the show!
On the surface of it, if you didn’t know anything about the man who apparently organized it, a candlelight vigil to support keeping the R.E. Lee statue looks like a respectable thing. There are candlelight vigils for many things. The left-wing mayor and vice mayor of C’ville are the ones who have created this division between Virginians who want to purge our state’s history, and those who want to preserve it. Now of course due to the actions of this extremist individual (Mr. Spencer), they are going to use this and any racial chants to brand all statue supporters as being white nationalists when that is not what this is about. The mayor and city council brought this on themselves.
I tried to point that out. We were all against removing the statue. I’m just also against white nationalism.
What does it mean? It means Spencer figured he would have less of a chance getting his ass kicked in Virginia than he would have had he gone to New Orleans. Why try to over think this?
You need to open your eyes to the cancer growing around you. Don’t ignore it like they did in Europe.
The cancer has been growing since the early fifties. Haven’t you heard? The nation state is obsolete. Populism is just a holdover from a different time.
En Marche! To a Utopia for Mankind. World Peace, World Law, World Government, for all!
🙁 That sucks.
Maybe you should try reading dusty old books written by forgotten leaders, hidden in the deepest recesses of libraries. You could find your beliefs are challenged.
History is where I get my ideas.
I don’t think your ideas include a District 12 style of scenario anywhere close to being included in a serious treatise.
And the left wing media will do its best to make it look like they represent the Republican party. That will make it even harder for us when we complain about left wing shenanigans.
The Democrats are ones to talk – they participate in this kind of sick identity politics all the time and they do so with moral superiority. It’s frustrating.
It’s no different than this little jerkoff equating the alt-right as all Nazis. I bet he’s still jerking odd to Jeb bush.
I argued vociferously against nominating Jeb.
Ted Cruz, John Kasich……take your pick.
That’s a total butthurt move equating anti-establishment with skinheads. In case u didn’t notice, Proud boys (self-described ALT-right) openly says they hate skinheads and disavow them.
Richard Spenser created the alt-right.
I don’t understand why people even care to separate themselves from this stuff. I mean, seriously, even arguing that you aren’t associated with these people legitimizes some kind of association.
It’s people like you that created so many SARVIS voters in 14 and gave Warner the senators seat.
Well, I used to be a registered Libertarian. However, since moving to Virginia, I’ve completely committed to the Republican Party. The LP no longer represents me. Justin Amash, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Dave Brat, Thomas Massie, and Rand Paul do.
Good for you. I hope you can understand that after a year of being called a bigot by the left, how upsetting it is to find my own party members doing the same.
I actually do understand it, but understand that I’m addressing white nationalists and people obsessed with white identity politics. They aren’t Trump’s populists, but they are being successful at getting their foot into the door of that movement. I’m trying to put my foot on the throats of those people, which really ought to be appreciated as an act of protecting Trump’s populist movement (despite not being a fan of it).