Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson was a leader in this campaign, who recently embraced white nationalist “replacement theory” to his white audience – that the Democratic Party was trying to replace “the current electorate” with “third world voters.” In response, the Anti-Defamation League called for Carlson’s resignation, noting that the villainous theory that Carlson defended is the basis of “the modern white supremacist movement in America.” (Carlson – laughably – has said he was not reenacting the theory, but was raising a “voting rights question.”)
On Wednesday, far-right GOP Congressman Scott Perry echoed Carlson’s poisonous view during a Congressional hearing, stating that “ many Americans ” believe that “ we are replacing American-born Americans – born Americans to permanently change the landscape of this. transform. very nation. On Friday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has a well-documented history of intolerance against Muslims, blacks and Jews, reportedly planned to launch the ‘America First’ caucus in Congress to celebrate ‘Anglo-Saxon political traditions’ and the essence of the “replacement theory” that non-white people are a threat to “America’s long-term existential future.”
But on Saturday, Greene, who once said that “the most abused group of people in the United States today are white men,” scrapped the schedule for the launch of the caucus after a media firestorm and even criticized some fellow Republicans. , with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeting that the GOP was not the party of “nativist dog whistles” and GOP conference chairman Liz Cheney writing that “Racism, Nativism and anti-Semitism are bad.”
That is a positive development. But the charges from Greene, Perry and Carlson to the right should have been deafening. GOP members of Congress should have held a press conference in which they, with one voice, denounce white nationalism and anyone who proclaims it. Instead, we saw only a handful of Republican leaders cry out, while most of the remaining 262 GOP members of the House and Senate remained dangerously quiet – similar to the hushed response after GOP Representative Paul Gosar spoke to a white person in February. nationalist convention.
This limited response from the GOP normalizes the growing deadly threat that white nationalism poses to our nation – and I am not saying that when some “woke up” liberals. Experts warn us of this threat.
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified last month that some of those involved in the January 6 terrorist attack on the Capitol were also those motivated by “racially motivated violent extremism, including White.” Wray added that the number of arrests of violent extremists who are what you would categorize as white supremacists “nearly tripled between 2017 and 2020. This reflects the feeling we heard from the Department of Homeland Security last October that white supremacist extremists” the most persistent and deadly threat in the homeland ”.
A new study by the Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST) at the University of Chicago on those arrested in the Jan. 6 attack makes a clear call that we must stop the further spread of white nationalism. This study examined the details of the then 377 people who were arrested for their role in the riot and found an unexpected common feature: the people who were arrested “usually come from places where non-white populations are growing fastest.”
CPOST then took part in a broader study to determine “the roots” of why some on the right supported the Jan. 6 attack. The answer: “One driver stood out overwhelmingly: fear of the ‘Grand Replacement’.” Yes, the same white nationalist replacement theory advocated by Carlson, Greene, and others on the right.
Professor Robert Pape from the University of Chicago, the report’s lead author, shared a worrying wrinkle when I spoke to him on my SiriusXM show a few days ago. Support for political violence on the right was no longer solely in the hands of those on the “fringes,” he warned. There was previously a “mainstreaming” of these views, demonstrated by the support of people such as CEOs and employees.
While we’re not sure how many white Americans are really afraid of being “replaced” by people of color, we need to address this issue. GOP leaders should not only publicly denounce supporters who hold this view, they should also pledge not to appear on media outlets that exude white nationalism. We cannot allow this vision to tighten its grip on America.
It may be Pollyannaish, but we must try to reach Americans who hold these views in an effort to address the concerns – even if we only peel away a small percentage. Remember, the same bigoted philosophy was embraced in 1850 by the nativist “Know-Nothing Party” (originally known as the American Party), which warned that America’s character would be destroyed by the wave of European immigrants such as the Irish and the Germans – especially Roman Catholics, who saw the “Know Nothings” as a threat to the Protestant character of the country.
How many today would say that Irish, German, Italian and other Catholic immigrants were a threat to America? I bet most would say they contributed to the greatness of this nation – including some who now see immigrants as a threat to America’s character.
Pape, who has long studied terrorism, has urged us not to ‘ignore’ this movement, adding a terrible warning that ‘the ingredients exist for future waves of political violence, from lone wolf attacks to large-scale attacks on democracy ‘.
These are the bets. Silence in the face of white nationalism is not an option for anyone who wants to make sure the January 6 attack was a one-off – not a preview of what might come next.
