Here is Connor Mighell writing at The Federalist about the truth regarding the “alt-right”:
Identity politics of any stripe is not conservatism. Both fascists and communists oppose the core principles of the political right.
It goes without saying that what occurred in Charlottesville involved a literal and figurative “parade of horribles.” A collection of hate-filled morons turned a college town into their personal parade ground in a sickening display. Many were assaulted and killed as the marchers’ intentions shifted from assembly to riot.
The organizers of this orgy of evil seem to be operating under the sad delusion that they are part of “the Right.” Their choice to name their Charlottesville demonstration “Unite the Right” and insistence on using the term “alt-right” to describe themselves is further evidence of this belief.
I would like to disabuse these self-described “deplorables” of this false notion. The agitators in Charlottesville were not members of any recognizable right-wing movement. In fact, their purposes and methods contradict those practiced by the American Right.
Racism Isn’t Conservative and Never Has Been
The ideology of white supremacy is racism, plain and simple. Its evangelists preach that human beings should be segregated because they have different skin colors or their ancestors come from different places. To a white supremacist, racial ancestry gives each person an indelible identity that defines the relative value of each human life.
This idolatry of origin as somehow definitive of a person’s worth runs directly counter to the foundational principles of the Right, animated by the spirit of conservatism. Conservative political philosopher Russell Kirk famously defined conservatives as “those people who recognize an enduring moral order in the universe, a constant human nature, and high duties toward the order spiritual and the order temporal.” This description has nothing to do with race and everything to do with ideals.
Read more: The Federalist
Image credit: www.thefederalist.com.
