White Supremacy Is a Dangerous Threat Because Republicans Use It
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
White Supremacy Is a Dangerous Threat Because Republicans Use It
Jonathan Chait 5-6 minutes 5/19/2023
Horrifying developments in the week since Biden’s warning have vindicated it.
Last week, when President Biden declared “the most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland is white supremacy,” conservatives grumbled . Wilfred Reilly, writing in National Review , complained that Biden exaggerated the scope of the white-supremacist threat, since it only results in a small number of murders: “Stop race-baiting and fearmongering, and let’s widen our focus broadly — across avenging not merely the 20 or so annual victims of white-supremacist hate, but also the other 20,000 people murdered here every year.”
It is true that Americans of any race have a statistically tiny chance of being murdered by a white supremacist. But the main threat of white supremacy is not random terrorist violence. It is that the movement is gaining actual political and state power.
A generation ago, this would have seemed far-fetched. In 1996, Bob Dole’s presidential nomination acceptance speech declared: “If there’s anyone who has mistakenly attached themselves to our party in the belief that we are not open to citizens of every race and religion, then let me remind you, tonight this hall belongs to the Party of Lincoln. And the exits which are clearly marked are for you to walk out.” In 2005, Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman acknowledged and formally apologized to the NAACP for the party’s Nixon-era Southern strategy, which deliberately courted racists.
There was enough ideological distance between the GOP and white supremacists that Jonah Goldberg could write a book, Liberal Fascism , positing that Nazi ideology was not on the political right at all. The thesis was never correct, but it retained a surface-level plausibility for a time. (After January 6, 2021, Goldberg conceded that fascism indeed has a home on the American right.)
One of Donald Trump’s enduring contributions to American politics has been to give white supremacists a stake in Republican politics. They do not control the party, but they now have a role in it.
The evidence of the white-nationalist right’s growing influence comes in slow drips, with every new revelation merely blending in to the landscape. Just in the week since Biden’s speech, several stories have underscored how terrifyingly normal this phenomenon has become.
Talking Points Memo discovered that Wade Searle, the digital director for Representative Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona, is a follower of Nick Fuentes, the leader of a Nazi-like organization. Far from expressing any remorse at the news, Gosar has remained defiant .
Also this week, the FBI announced it had revoked the security clearance of three agents who had expressed sympathy for the January 6 insurrection. One of the agents refused to participate in an arrest of Tyler Bensch, who the bureau alleged belonged to a right-wing militia group connected to the Three Percenter movement.
On Friday came the most terrifying news of all. The supervisor of the intelligence branch of the police force in Washington, D.C., Shane Lamond, was indicted for allegedly tipping off former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio about his pending arrest in conjunction with January 6. The indictment alleges that Lamond and Tarrio communicated at least 500 times on an encrypted app.
All these stories are horrifying, but none of them are surprising. Organizations and ideas that were once too far from the political system to have any hope of influence, or didn’t even exist at all, have gained a foothold in the system. They have allies in the security system and a voice in the conservative movement’s political network.
So no, maybe white supremacists don’t kill as many people as regular street crime. It is nonetheless true that the threat it poses to Americans is profound and growing. And the conservatives who refuse to acknowledge it, and who complain about Biden invoking the danger while doing nothing to marginalize the extremists in their midst, are complicit.
White Supremacy Is a Threat Because Republicans Use It
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I would bet my life that there are more white supremacists in the FBI than there are communists.
Maybe, maybe not. I suspect that a vast majority of the rank-and-file agents and analysts are patriotic and dedicated citizens who believe in justice for all based on real evidence and proven facts.
[deleted]
Stop flapping your lips, prove it.
The truth is self-evident. Disprove it....you can't.
I asked you to prove it. I guess you cant.
I post articles, quotes, and expert opinion, you post far right talking points.
If you cant prove what you are claiming with articles, quotes or expert opinion, just say so.
Prove it.
[trolling]
maybe white supremacists don’t kill as many people as regular street crim
gee. You think? Organized white supremacists kill about zero people a year.
Just look how far the author of this piece has to strrrreeeetch to find examples. FBI agents who aren’t alleged to believe in white supremacy must be because they objected to how the government handled J6, which had nothing to do with white supremacy. Have fun making that make logical sense.
White supremacy as an acceptable belief system in anything approaching the mainstream was dead by 1980. In a country of 330 million people there are still likely thousands, like there are for any crazy, fringe belief, but they are the definition of fringe. Despite all joe Biden’s fervent hopes, there is no organized group of white supremacists, wielding power and/or attacking people. Even if “white supremacy” gets redefined to include Enrique torrios, and Mexican gang members.
it’s a phantom menace to scare progressives and keep people from paying attention to what democrats are actually doing with the actual power they wield.
I remember reading some time ago that the numbers of people in groups the espoused white supremacy numbered about 8,000 total in the country.
Hardly a threat to anyone.
Depends on how much those 8,000 scare the fuck out of the other 329 million ±/- it seems........
Judging by the triggered posts some leftists make believing what they are told shows they are scared shitless.
Or are just clueless
It is true that Americans of any race have a statistically tiny chance of being murdered by a white supremacist. But the main threat of white supremacy is not random terrorist violence. It is that the movement is gaining actual political and state power.
Absolutely no evidence that this so called movement is growing. And the average American is more likely to be caught in the crossfire between warring gangbangers than a white supremacist.
Enrique Tarrio isn't even white. Tarrio is of Afro-Cuban descent. Tarrio isn't a result of white traditions and culture. And we're supposed to believe Democrats' whitewashing of Tarrio?
Any opposition to Democrats' race laden politics is white supremacy. Republicans appealing to the traditions and values of a predominantly white population is white supremacy. You know, even Democrats can't win elections without appealing to that predominantly white population, too. Joe Biden's dire warnings about the demise of democracy is an appeal to the traditional values of a predominantly white population.
Democrats, particularly loud mouthed liberals, can't explain why race based allegations and attacks on traditional heritage and values is any different than the politics of the Nazis. Democrats can't explain how weakening and shrinking the Federal government leads to Fascism. Democrats can't explain how the FBI being transformed into a secret police defends democracy and avoids Fascism. Neoliberal Democrats can't explain why globalization isn't pursuit of imperial domination of the planet.
Our friends on the left love to use the white supremacy boogie man. Meanwhile they ignore to the black on black violence which is many, many, many factors worse.
Ignorance is bliss for those folks
Everyone knows that the black population would be far higher if not for the ridiculous high numbers of black on black killings and the millions of black aborted babies.
If some would take responsibility for their lives, the population of blacks would rise and the argument of make believe "white supremacy" would go away.
White Supremacists are Putin's patsies.
That's very true. Throughout Europe and here in the U.S. many of them find common ground with Putin and his regime.
I wonder what would happen (if) the Putin Regime collapses and is replaced with a not autocratic governing body. Would the 'new government' in order to regain trust with the world community reveal Kremlin secrets that could be devastating to past and current right wing actors in the US and rest of the world? Follow the money!
Saying that I fail to understand why the US and NATO do not do whatever it takes to extricate every vestige of Russian forces in Ukraine immediately. In my opinion this Russian invasion of Ukraine could be completely and utterly ended in a matter of weeks. We have the technology, the weapons and the reason to do so.
Like a sitting Senator offering a quid pro quo to help the Russian dictator deal with the American President in exchange for aid in an upcoming Presidential election?
Can you imagine the outrage if that were ever revealed? He surely wouldn't be called the lion of the Senate and treated as an American hero. That would never happen.
The military industrial complex in America also has many reasons to let the whole thing just play out in a proxy war.
They sell more weapons, analyze Putin's capabilities, gauge the Russian peoples' ability to deal with unending war, weaken Ukraine's ability to go anti-America, gain more NATO allies and just get to sit back and watch America's worst enemy shoot himself in the foot over and over without having to raise a finger or lose American lives.
The Russian war against Ukraine is a win-win situation on multiple levels.
Care to expand on that?
Is every person [deleted have ties to Putin?]
Just Trump and his fascist crew.
We hear "there are only 8,000 white supremacists" , that is of course an "official" number. White supremacism goes hand in hand with the "replacement theory" that is accepted by millions.
Any efforts to maintain a "white" majority, or to create white enclaves, or to defend "western civilization" are manifestations of , in broad terms, white supremacy. Anti-diversity laws and an anti-diversity ideology are remnants of white supremacy. Neo-confederacy sympathies are white supremacy. Housing segregation is white supremacy. In order to change you have to actually and completely change.
Efforts to maintain a white majority? Ridiculous. That’s nothing but a bunch of claptrap. The reality ... white is already a majority. Has been forever in the USA. No effort required.
And if you want to have a discussion about discrimination you better start looking in your own backyard. Colleges that enact diversity measure that exclude whites, Asians and straight folks, etc are discriminatory. This includes schools that restrict enrollment by those other races and lifestyle choices.
So yeah, that knife cuts both ways.
This white man with college degrees voted for Obama twice and would vote for Michelle Obama should she decide to run.