The Alt-Right Aren’t All Gone Just Because Trump Lost
By: Justin Draper
Tags: Politics, America, Alt Right, Elections, Trump

Like most of the world and slightly over half of the United States, I breathed a huge sigh of relief when Biden was announced as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. Even with Trump’s ongoing and unfounded allegations of voter fraud and a stolen election, there’s really not much he can do to stop the inevitable.

Come January 2021, we’re going to have an adult in the White House again.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Biden wasn’t my first choice for U.S. president. Heck, I can’t even argue that he will be a good president. But in the choice between potentially bad and arguably evil, evil lost. And that’s something to celebrate.

Trump losing is a victory, that’s sure, but it doesn’t mean we’ve won the war. The Alt-right movement is still growing, and it still poses a tremendous threat both to society and to safety.

Who are the Alt-right?

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The Alt-right, as I discuss in my article “Social Media and the Rise of the Alt-Right” have existed on the fringes for several years, and really gained momentum with the candidacy and Presidential term of Donald Trump. The Alt-right movement is primarily characterized as an effort to unify various elements of the American far right and push them into the mainstream, particularly when it comes to issues of race, gender, sexuality and class.

The movement is predominantly young, white and male, and is reflective of a broader push under American conservatism to cater to a sense of a helpless hegemony under attack by scapegoat groups. This group is also credited with radicalizing members into violent acts, with a large spike in far-right extremism in recent years.

Why are they dangerous?

Though this movement grew with the rise of Donald Trump, it’s important to note that the goals of the Republican Party often align with the goals of the Alt-right. The Republican Party will be around a lot longer than Donald Trump, and the Alt-right will find new individuals to champion their cause within the GOP.

The Alt-right is one of the factions that have helped push the Republican Party further to the right, all but taking over mainstream conservatism, and we are going to have to deal with the threat of the Alt-right for years to come.

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That threat should not be taken lightly. Just this past month, several Alt-right supporters were arrested after they planned to kidnap, and possibly murder, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. This is a high profile example of the all-too-present threat of ultra-conservative violence. In 2020, white supremacists were behind more domestic terror attacks than any other group, contributing to far right terrorism is one of, if not the biggest security threat that the United States is currently facing.

The Alt-right is not just a threat to safety, but their preferred policy stances (many championed by the Republican Party) threaten to harm almost everyone — but particularly women, gender and racial minorities and poorer people.

The 2020 election saw elected Republicans shift even more towards the Alt-right with extremist candidates putting their name forward, and some even winning. Extremist QAnon promoter Marjorie Taylor Greene won a seat in congress even after promoting hateful and bigoted conspiracy theories. Donald Trump even referred to her as a “future Republican star.”

Donald Trump was an easily identifiable figurehead to everything bad about the Alt-right, both the regressive social and economic policy and the flippant or favourable attitude towards violence against political opponents. Now that he won’t be President, America is faced with two options:

Americans can forget about the Alt-right and the damage of ultra-conservative policies because the President doesn’t remind them of the damage with every tweet, or Americans can continue to fight the Alt-right. If we ignore the Alt-right just because they aren’t in the White House, they will continue to recruit new members, grow their ranks, and push ultra-conservative policy into mainstream politics.

And with a potential Republican controlled Senate, and a whopping 22 states where Republicans hold unified control over the governor’s office and both houses of the legislature, The Republican Party is still able to push their policy agenda.

What do we do now?

So how does the United States continue to make sure the Alt-right have little influence on policy? Support progressive activists.

Photo by Maria Oswalt on Unsplash

Joe Biden is heading to the White House because of progressive, and often racialized activists who have put in the ground work with those who were hurt most by Donald Trump and the Alt-right. Organizers like Stacey Abrams registered new voters, and convinced them why their vote mattered. Ms. Abrams and a network of organizations had registered more than 800,000 voters in Georgia alone.

Progressive policies are popular with voters. Policies like public healthcare and gun control are popular among Democrats, Republicans and independents, yet there is little action from either major party. Progressive organizers use these policy proposals to convince people who may not have voted, that it’s important to vote. Large social movements like Black Lives Matter take anger at racial injustice and funnel it to social action and protests. Progressive organizers have helped to take that energy and aim it at electoral change as well.

Progressive organizers can’t do it alone. They aren’t even universally supported by Democrats. But they get results in key areas that keep Republicans and the Alt-right out of power.

Every win that is delivered by a progressive organizer is a loss for the Alt-right. Every loss for the Alt-right is a win for political discourse, social progress and healthy democracy.