The “Alt-Right” is Unfortunately More Sizeable than a Fringe Movement

It’s amazing how many conservatives can criticize the politically correct movement and still use terms like “Alt-Right” or “White Nationalists.” It’s time to label these people for who they are-- Neo-Nazis, racists, homophobic sexists, bigots, etc. Better yet, we can accurately refer to this group as the “Racist-Right.”

Make no mistake, I’m not in any way categorizing all conservatives or Republicans as racists. There’s nothing wrong with having a right-wing or conservative ideology. However, it’s horrible that openly racist activists can spread their hatred under the banner of merely being “Alt-Right.” There’s no room for mincing words and Vice’s embedded coverage of the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” Rally gave them the opportunity to show their true colors. 

Too many people in the right-wing media praised Trump after he read a scripted speech that denounced the right-wing hate groups. That was, of course, after he had been widely criticized for his initial remarks, which essentially sided with the “Racist-Right” hate groups. However, Trump went off-script yesterday and reverted back to his initial remarks.

Trump’s response to the violence at this rally has been extremely well covered in the news, yet his approval numbers only dropped three points, from 37% to 34%. Therefore, we have to examine how much influence the racist-right has in this country.

A Neo-Nazi news and commentary website, DailyStormer.com, essentially applauded the death of Heather Heyer who was murdered by a speeding vehicle during that rally. That website described Heyer as a “drain on society,” a person “of no value,” and “a fat, childless, 32-year old slut.” 

You’re probably thinking that such views came from a fringe group on the dark web. Well, that’s sort of accurate. DailyStormer.com is now only available on the dark web. However, that is only due to wide public outcry that prompted GoDaddy and other tech companies to discontinue their service. 

Before being shut down, the DailyStormer billed itself as “The World’s Most Genocidal Website.” To get a more thorough description of the hatred spewed on that site check out this horrific report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

How Popular Was DailyStormer.com?

This website received much more traffic than you would expect. As of this morning, it was ranked #2,344 in the U.S. and #10,496 in the world, according to Alexa’s site information. It also should be noted that the site’s traffic increased substantially after Trump was elected.

For the sake of perspective, DailyStormer.com ranked significantly higher than many legitimate news & commentary websites:

NewRepublic.com    #2,405 in the U.S.

Observer.com            #3,235 in the U.S.

Reason.com              #3,601 in the U.S.

TheNation.com         #3,956 in the U.S.

ProPublica.org          #4,329 in the U.S.

There are several websites that are similar to DailyStormer, albeit with less traffic. Obviously, the views expressed on these websites don’t conform to mainstream culture. However, we have to remember the fact that President’s approval numbers barely budged after his horrible response to the Charlottesville tragedy. Therefore, you have to wonder what percentage of the American population that, in some ways, sympathizes with these hate groups.

Has the drug war rhetoric improved from the days of Teddy Roosevelt?

On this day in history, (February 13, 1905), Teddy Roosevelt delivered his “Lincoln Dinner” speech

Theodore Roosevelt

at the Republican Club in New York City. Roosevelt honored Lincoln’s legacy and he insisted that race relations needed to be improved throughout the country. This was a historic speech that represented genuine progress. However, he expressed himself in ways that revealed a deeper truth about the prevailing opinions about race at that time.

Roosevelt referred to white people as the “forward race” and he felt that it was their responsibility to train the “backward race” to fit within American culture and gain prosperity. He listed various issues, but Roosevelt was particularly concerned with morality, crime, and drug abuse. He said:

Laziness and shiftlessness, these, and, above all, vice and criminality of every kind, are evils more potent for harm to the black race than all acts of oppression of white men put together. 

Roosevelt’s condescension for other races wasn’t limited to black people. He was a firm believer in eugenics, which was a form of propaganda that was posed as “scientific proof” of the superiority of the white race. Eugenics was quite popular in the early 20^th century. Hence, many Americans believed that drugs needed to be outlawed to protect “inferior” races from themselves.

Teddy Roosevelt signed the first federal anti-drug law, the Opium Exclusion Act of 1909. The law didn’t explicitly target Chinese immigrants, but the intent was implicit. Numerous newspapers proclaimed that Chinese men were using opium to lure white women into sexual slavery. It was a contrived moral panic that was manufactured by the media, but there was some truth to higher addiction rates among Chinese immigrants. However, practically no Americans newspapers were critical of the American families that made fortunes selling opium in China. That includes Warren Delano Jr., the grandfather of Franklin R. Roosevelt.

With that said, let’s continue reviewing Teddy Roosevelt’s speech from this day in history. You have to put a speech within the context of the time period. Even though Roosevelt expressed some clearly racist viewpoints, in fairness, the overall tone of Roosevelt’s speech was quite progressive for this time period. Albeit, it was a very low benchmark. For example, Roosevelt noted in his speech:

I am glad to say that during the last three months the (reports)…show a smaller number of lynchings than for any other three months during the last twenty years.

What will historians have to say about our current era? The punishments are less severe, and the political rhetoric has changed. However, the discriminatory nature of drug laws hasn’t improved much over the course of 100 years. In fact, there is now a higher percentage of black men in prison in America than there were in South Africa during Apartheid. A disproportionate percentage of blacks and Latinos are serving prison sentences for crimes even though all races use/sell drugs at relatively equal rates.  

Teddy Roosevelt openly asserted that minorities needed to be protected from themselves. On the other hand, no current politician can make such claims, but that doesn’t mean that a sizeable group of voters wouldn’t like to see a resurgence of Jim Crow. After all, everyone knows that white people won’t be targeted with the “stop and frisk” programs that Donald Trump supports. Furthermore, it would be Chicago’s black and Latino neighborhoods that would be converted into official police states if Trump made good on his threat of “bringing in the Feds.” Yes, that’s the same condescending racial tone that was more openly asserted over 100 years ago.

How do you think historians will describe our current era?

Likely Attorney General Jeff Sessions: A Proud Soldier in the Drug War

Will his appointment ruin the progress of the legalization movement?

Trump's nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to be the next Attorney General hasn't been welcomed by liberals and progressive groups, to say the least. Most of this criticism relates to his comments that resulted in losing a nomination for a federal judgeship in the 1980s. He stated that the NAACP and ACLU were "un-American...communist-inspired...and tried to force civil rights down the people's throats." Sessions testified that the comments were taken out of context, but the most severe damage to his reputation came from his comments about the KKK. In private, Sessions said that he felt the KKK was "OK until he found that they smoked marijuana." He claimed that his words were just a joke. One witness backed up his claim while another felt that his words were sincere. In fairness, it's difficult to believe that anyone would make such a statement in a serious tone. Also, Sessions was instrumental in the prosecution and eventual murder conviction of a leading member of the KKK. Regardless, it is impossible to support his nomination for Attorney General due to his poor civil rights record alone.

How will he affect the drug policy? Well, he's an outspoken advocate of the drug war. You've probably come across some of his memorable quotes over the last few days. If you're not familiar, he has criticized President Obama, on multiple occasions, for stating that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol. One instance in 2014, Sessions noted that "Lady Gaga says that she is addicted to it." In April he declared that "good people don't smoke marijuana." Sessions even conflated marijuana with more dangerous drugs like heroin in this clip from 2015. He also speaks proudly of his efforts in the drug war and hearkens for the days of the Just-Say-No  80s.

With that said, Sessions has, at times, acted in a very reasonable manner regarding the drug war. Check out this funny clip. 

He was one of the Senate leaders to push for reducing the penalties for crack cocaine in comparison to powder cocaine. These laws have unjustly punished the economically poor and minorities since the 1980s. Sessions was also a supporter of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), which was a harm reduction bill aimed at the opioid crisis. 

CONCLUSION 

There was a false narrative in the media that the Obama administration didn't interfere with the legal marijuana industry. Several law-abiding dispensaries were raided by the DEA. Also, many of these businesses were punished with civil asset forfeitures by federal agencies and the IRS has been known to target these dispensaries with obscure money laundering statutes. Hence, Jeff Sessions, most likely, won't be much more adversarial to the legal marijuana industry than Eric Holder. After all, eight out of nine states passed their legal marijuana ballot measures (recreational or medical) this month. Suffice it to say, that's a mandate by the electorate. In addition, Trump stated that he would respect states' rights with the marijuana issue during the campaign. And if there is one thing that Donald Trump respects it is polling numbers and sixty percent of Americans now support legalized marijuana. 

On the other hand, both Trump and Sessions often point to the flow of drugs from Mexico as one of the key issues in our country. Sessions will likely be the "law and order" official that Trump was looking for. In other words, Sessions will likely be much more punitive with illegal drug trafficking. He will probably reverse much of the progress from softening "three strikes laws" and mandatory minimum sentences. Look no further than his statement from March of this year:

"Indeed, (President Obama) instructs his Justice Department not to prosecute drug traffickers, or, if pursuing charges, to prosecute for lesser crimes. He also is pushing leniency and early release for thousands of convicted drug criminals despite Bureau of Justice Statistics showing 99.7 percent of imprisoned drug felons were convicted of drug trafficking offenses, not drug possession. This abandonment of the tough-on-crime policies that led to drastic reductions in drugs and crime beginning in the 1980s is directly contributing to the rise in drug use, overdose deaths and violent crimes in major cities."