There has been much discussion over the past year about the alt-right, a conservative political movement. The movement has gained traction and supporters throughout the 2016 presidential election cycle.

The Daily Orange spoke with two Syracuse University professors of political science, Michael Barkun and Mark Rupert, to understand exactly what the alt-right is and why it matters.

The Daily Orange: What is the alt-right as a political movement?

Michael Barkun: It’s hard to define because it’s not a unified political movement. It’s kind of a tendency that incorporates a number of strands. … It’s anything but a homogeneous movement.

Mark Rupert: It seems to me like it’s become sort of an umbrella term that encompasses several different kinds of things so that at the core of it is this white supremacist element. So there’s kind of an authoritarian strain, a libertarian strain and a white supremacist strain that would deny that it’s white supremacist.

One common idea that is pervasive among these people is the idea of white genocide, which is that one of the projects of the liberal elite is to open up the U.S. to lots of immigration, especially people of color, especially Hispanics, and to encourage their population growth while the population of white Americans declines, relatively. So they see themselves as defending whites against cultural and demographic extinction. They don’t mean literally white mass murder, they mean demographic and cultural domination. So they identify themselves first and foremost as white, then they see themselves as in competition with other races, and that’s what informs their politics.

The D.O.: Is there room for the alt-right to become an organized movement?

M.B.: I really doubt that. It’s become a kind of conduit for the movement of what had been fringe ideas about white nationalism moving into the mainstream.

M.R.: I don’t know. It seems like maybe for different reasons they have rallied around (Republican presidential nominee) Donald Trump as their champion. I think Trump has embodied the little bit that they have in common.

So will they be able to find another champion that brings them together in a similar way in the future? I think there will be people who might not be just exactly like Trump but who will speak to similar kinds of anxieties. I think the white supremacist wing of the alt-right is hoping that Trump will open a door for them to a broader public appeal and to a broader type of respectability in the sense that they won’t just be just dismissed as crazy racists anymore. And I think that has made them very optimistic.

The D.O.: Do you feel that Donald Trump at his core can be characterized as alt-right?

M.B.: He’s not an alt-right figure but some of the themes in the campaign are themes that resonate with people associated with the alt-right. And consequently they have picked that up. There have also been allegations that the Trump campaign hasn’t done enough to distance itself from support from alt-right circles.

M.R.: One, it’s hard to say what’s in his head and in his heart. Certainly he doesn’t help us when he talks. But his main policy proposals certainly sound a lot like white nationalism.

“Silent majority” has been a code word in American politics for working and middle class whites for decades, since Nixon, and he talks about him representing and being the voice of the silent majority. So, it’s pretty racially saturated. Alt-right, I don’t know, but I think definitely white nationalist.

His father had some involvement in the Ku Klux Klan. He and his father both were sued by the federal government for racial discrimination in their apartment buildings in the ’70s, which I think is why Trump is so bitterly opposed to political correctness. So, there’s a history of racism there. Donald Trump Jr. has some shady connections with some of the alt-right world. Trump has retweeted a lot of stuff from the white supremacist and alt-right blogosphere. So, you know, I wouldn’t say alt-right equals Trump and Trump equals alt-right, but there’s overlap.

The D.O.: Do you think the alt-right will continue to gain popularity?

M.R.: What worries me is less Donald Trump and more the people flocking to him. It sort of indicates that there is a core of people who are perfectly comfortable or actually favor a sort of white nationalist politics, and that’s really scary. The fact there is a group of people that are eager to support that and a mainstream party who are willing to tolerate it or are kind of quiet and go along with it because of the political support it brings, that’s kind of scary. So, that’s a real concern, because I don’t think those people are going away.

The D.O.: What is the reason for the popularization of the term alt-right in this election cycle?

M.B.: One, a figure associated with the alt-right is a major figure in the Trump campaign organization, Steven Bannon, and he’s been the head of the Breitbart website, which has been one of the major internet sources for a lot of alt-right material. And obviously the Trump hostility toward immigration from Mexico and toward Muslims, both in the United States and the Muslims coming into the United States, fit well within the framework of alt-right thinking, though he himself is not an alt-right thinker.

M.R.: Well, I think Hillary sees a partisan advantage in identifying Trump as clearly as possible with racism, misogyny and homophobia. And those connections are there to be made. … A lot of people, even if they would lean republican under other circumstances, can’t support that.

The D.O.: To what other political movements can this be compared?

M.R.: In the ’90s, there was a patriot militia movement. They weren’t all white supremacist but there was a strong segment of white supremacists within the movement. In the 1960s and ’50s there was the Ku Klux Klan movement that organized against integration and civil rights.

In the 1920s the Klan had a huge influence across the United States, millions of members. They dominated state governments in places like Ohio and Indiana.

It’s as American as apple pie. So when someone says we’re better than that or that’s not really America, that’s an aspiration, it’s not really historically accurate. It’s been a part of American history.

Published on September 27, 2016 at 12:25 am

Contact: mpmoor02@syr.edu