A despicable new article in the Washington Post delves into the connection between Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and the clandestine world of 21st century white supremacy. Because the Post found a certain element of support for Trump within modern white nationalist groups, they hoped to make the subtle inference that Trump is a white supremacist himself.
“One of the things that our organization really stresses with our membership is we want them to educate themselves on issues, but we also want them to be able to learn how to open up a conversation with other people,” said Rachel Pendergraft in an interview with the Post. Pendergraft is the national organizer of the Knights Party, a group carrying on the KKK tradition. She says that Trump provides members with a way to open up a conversation about white issues with people who might otherwise decline to talk to them.
According to the Post:
The same rhetoric that frightens critics (“Trump has really lifted the lid off a Pandora’s box of real hatred and directed it at Muslims,” said the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Mark Potok) draws praise from supporters such as former Louisiana politician and KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.
The paper also pointed out the makeup of Trump’s rallies, describing them as “rowdy, mostly white crowds” prone to “ugly outbursts.”
“It’s all very surprising to me,” said Don Black, the founder of white-supremacist site Stormfront. “I would have never expected him to be the great white hope, of all people. But it’s happening. So that’s what we talk about. That’s what so many of our people are inspired by.”
On several occasions throughout the article, the authors make it clear that Trump has publicly distanced himself from these unwanted endorsements. But they bring it back around again and again to the racists, ensuring their over-arching argument doesn’t get lost in the facts.
And the question is: So what?
White-rights groups support Trump because he’s politically incorrect and he’s willing to stand up for American immigration law. Just because these groups share certain beliefs with Trump doesn’t mean Trump is a white supremacist. President Obama shares certain beliefs with ISIS, but it doesn’t mean he is a terrorist.
This would be the kind of biased attack you might expect from a political rival, but it’s unconscionable that reporters would construct an article this way. This isn’t an op-ed, mind you; it’s a piece of “journalism.” The takeaway is supposed to be that voters should pause and wonder if they want to support the same candidate they like over at Stormfront.
What the media won’t acknowledge is that they created their own horror here. If there is a racial divide making it possible for Trump to say things he might not have been able to say four years ago, it’s only there because of the fantasies woven by the Washington Post and other liberal newspapers and outlets. Fact has become entirely expendable in the Black Lives Matter movement, entirely absent in the war against Islamic terror, and distorted beyond belief in the realm of illegal immigration. If white Americans are angry, it’s not because they are suddenly donning a KKK hood; it’s because racial politics have gone much too far. This is defense, not offense.
