He crisscrossed the country. He fought in court. But white nationalist Richard Spencer has a simple explanation for why he will no longer give speeches on college campuses to spread the racist ideology of the so-called “alt-right.”
“They aren’t fun anymore,” he said recently.
Spencer’s explanation — as though white nationalism has ever been, or should ever be, “fun” — was a harbinger of what was to come from the radical right last week.
Less than 48 hours after Spencer posted his announcement to YouTube, the leader of the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP), Matthew Heimbach, was arrested and charged with battery of his wife and his father-in-law, Matt Parrott, himself TWP’s chief spokesperson.
Parrott announced his resignation from the TWP just hours after Heimbach’s arrest.
“I’m done. I’m out,” Parrott told Hatewatch staff last week. “SPLC [Southern Poverty Law Center] has won. Matt Parrott is out of the game. Y’all have a nice life.”
The next morning, Dylann Roof’s 18-year-old sister, Morgan, was arrested after bringing two weapons to school, authorities said. She also posted that she hoped students participating in Wednesday's walkout to protest gun violence would "get shot." She suggested that only "black people" would be participating in the walkout.
It's been a chaotic news cycle for the radical right — one that suggests that the fringe is, perhaps, unravelling.
But in the White House, where more than one hate group is enjoying unprecedented access to power, elements that were once considered fringe are being woven ever more tightly into the fabric of our government.
On March 13 alone, as TWP appeared to be in crisis, President Trump cited one hate group in a tweet and appointed a secretary of state with close ties to another.
“According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the $18 billion wall will pay for itself by curbing the importation of crime, drugs and illegal immigrants who tend to go on the federal dole,” Trump tweeted.
Just hours earlier, he had announced that Mike Pompeo would replace Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, playing right into the hands of the radical anti-Muslim movement in the U.S. and abroad.
“Rep. Mike Pompeo has been a steadfast ally of ours since the day he was elected to Congress,” said Brigitte Gabriel, leader of the anti-Muslim hate group ACT for America, as she presented Pompeo with the group’s National Security Eagle award in 2016.
Since Trump entered the Oval Office a little over a year ago, we have seen him welcome extremism into the White House time and again.
Even extremists once associated with Trump administration are enjoying access to power in a way that they never did before their time in the White House.
“Let them call you racists,” Stephen Bannon, former Breitbart editor and Trump chief strategist, told the French far-right last week. “Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists. Wear it as a badge of honor.”
Honor? There’s no honor among racists. Last week, if anything, proves that.
This article was published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights organization.
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