An Outsider’s Perspective

Mr. Stephen Bannon, President-elect Trump’s Chief Strategist and former executive chairman of Brietbart News

America’s Europeanized liberal elite are reacting with disdain towards their fellow countrymen for electing Donald Trump as their new President. Their vitriol shows an ugly side to these so-called “liberals” commitment to democracy when it reflects the choice of the masses. They have denounced disenfranchised Americans as racist and bigoted. One famous commentator even labeled it a “white lash.” Such rhetoric only polarizes this country further and aggravates racial tension. The liberals’ current goal is to bully the next President into excluding Stephen Bannon, Trump’s top strategist, by saying that he is a white nationalist and a member of the so-called “alt-right.” Others have denounced Trump for earning the endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan, or KKK.

Liberals claim that KKK groups, white nationalist groups such as the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, the Aryan Brotherhood, and anti-government groups such as the Oath Keepers are so-called “hate groups.” This is a convenient catch all and poorly defined term used to justify excluding these disenfranchised groups from fully participating in the political process. Even though these groups completely denounce the use of violence in achieving their ultimate goal of a Whiter and more free America, in their view. Although these White nationalist views are detestable to many, the reality is that they represent a cross-section of White Americans and their ideologies are deeply rooted in places like the American South and other historically disenfranchised regions.

Former KKK members and others who have been affiliated with White nationalist movements ran for office many times before, confirming their commitment to peaceful politics. Perhaps the best example was that of former Imperial Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke when he was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1989. The fears of Duke pushing a “KKK” agenda were largely unfounded as he focused on policy issues related to the American underclass. He never introduced any racist or anti-Semitic bills. Yet Duke’s enemies undermined him and continued to refer to him as a radical even though he followed US law to the letter.

Liberal Americans peddle in conspiracy theories that the goals of these so-called “hate groups” are merely a cover for a nefarious and violent agenda. Liberals point to some of these group’s past history of violence as justification to label them as extremists and stigmatize them. Yet no mainstream supremacist or nationalist organization in the United States has ever condoned the use of violence. Furthermore, after every time a member of their organizations or follower of their ideology is caught plotting to or has committed a crime they make sure to denounce them.

So why do America’s liberal elite — truly inauthentic Americans — insist on stigmatizing these groups and effectively push them out of organized politics? I found that the best way to study American White nationalists is to sit with them and understand them. We must be able to know why they believe in what they believe and cannot assume that any talk of racial superiority or difference between races is simply “hate.” I found that these people — although I disagree with them — love their country and families. They believe that they are fighting for the survival of their own “family” (the White race) in light of rapidly changing demographics that are in some part the result of globalization and policies liberals implemented. They also invited me into their homes for traditional American dinner even though I came from Asia.

The roots of the liberals’ hate towards White nationalists roughly date back to the American Civil War. The Northern states violently put down a Southern rebellion to secede from the American union in some part over slavery. The liberals dismiss the ideological roots of some White men’s racial beliefs. They ignore a long and vibrant tradition of a slave economy in the American south for hundreds of years that was the key engine of growth for the region. Whites believed that God made them superior to the Black race. Although they abandoned slavery, they still believed that it is their right to be segregated from the Black race as it offends their customs and traditions. Again, this may be detestable to people like us, but such views constitute a racist conservative consensus in many parts of America that is backed up by several conservative Christian interpretations of the Bible.

The liberals have always resorted to violence and repression to challenge these traditional American customs on race. First there was the Civil War, then a brutal era of reconstruction, and as late as the 1960s heavily armed military units were used to impose the liberals’ will. They also constantly humiliate and vilify any disenfranchised White person that expresses their racist, but non-violent beliefs. This process of transplanting alien European liberal values of racial equality has understandably generated a great deal of resentment from White Americans who grew poorer as non-Whites took their jobs.

There is no question today that many poor White communities have been left behind in the new America the liberals built. But the liberals’ inability to engage with White nationalists and offer them a fair chance at political participation will only further radicalize disenfranchised White American youth. As Western scholars on Islamism (another misunderstood phenomena) argued successfully with the “inclusion-moderation” theory, when so-called radical political groups are included in the political process they moderate as they have to pragmatically govern.

In reality, it is difficult to imagine real democracy in America without the full unrestricted participation of White nationalists. We can’t simply expect White nationalists to stop being White nationalists and abandon their ideology and religious traditions. If elected White nationalists have to give up their traditional views on race and need for a White nation, then this runs counter to the essence of democracy, as government should accommodate their preferences. Asking White nationalists to concede who they are and what they believe is also unsustainable and perhaps even dangerous, pushing conservatives outside the political process. Perhaps the best way to truly heal America’s racial divide is to give White nationalists a chance to govern the country and enter the White House. Faced with the daunting challenges of governing, they will likely abandon the most radical parts of their ideology as they have to work with Blacks, Muslims, Jews, and other communities.

The implications are clear, if somewhat disturbing. For democracy to flourish in America, it must find a way to truly incorporate supremacist, nationalist, and alt-right parties and, by extension, it should be at least somewhat in line with conservative American traditional views on race and what it means to be a traditional American.