Photo: US Army Rangers train in Florida
White Nationalists of the pre-World War Two era tended to favor the United States government, most likely because they saw it as enforcing most of their common values. With Southern states having disproportionate power in the Senate, and with most military bases located in the South and some even being named for Confederate generals, White Nationalists could see that the federal government respected most of their ideals.
During the Cold War (1945-1991), the US military was at the forefront of racial desegregation, and by the 1980s, the armed forces were the most racially integrated institution in American life. Racial tolerance was enforced internally, and the external enemy, the Soviet Union (the USSR), became the main focus of military attention. Southerners, White and Black, served in the military in higher proportion than Americans of other regions.
The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 (killing 169 people) came right after the 1991 fall of the USSR, carried out by a former soldier (not a Southerner) who had first enlisted when the Soviets were still the main enemy. Almost immediately, after the Soviet collapse, the bomber and his allies decided their greatest enemy was his former employer, the US government.
How did this happen? It happened because the Extreme Right, which often overlaps the White Nationalist Right, no longer sees the US government as representing the interests of the White race, as they define it. White nationalists often say that the Constitution was only meant for European White people in 1790, and expanding constitutional rights to non-whites is a betrayal of White America.
Fast-forward to 2023 and an Air National guardsman, Jack Texeira, has been charged with espionage for publicizing US government secrets online. This security leak embarrassed the US government by exposing various US military and intelligence activities to the whole world. This data included facts about the war in Ukraine and alleged US involvement.
Prominent right-wingers, such as Tucker Carlson and Representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene(MTG), have lauded Jack Texeira. MTG even said the reason Texeiera was arrested was because he was “White and Christian.” (This is the same MTG who briefly advocated for a Congressional Anglo-Saxon Caucus). Fox news host Tucker Carlson lauded the leaks for exposing the depth of US involvement in the Ukraine war.
The leaker himself, Texeira, participated in online chats where members shared anti-Black and anti-Jewish memes. As a military employee, he knew he was damaging the security of the organization he worked for. In fact, that may have been his intent. If he believed the US military no longer served the long-term interests of the White race, as he defined it, then the harm he might cause to fellow service members, or the country as a whole, was a justified action. Ironically, Texeira’s job was to ensure cybersecurity for the military, to prevent the same leak that will likely keep in prison for a long time.
If the political right wing, both in politics and media, want to spare the lives of American troops in a possibly escalating War in Ukraine, they might try appealing to a broader base in American society. They should spearhead a motion to remove all structural racism in American life. That means communicating that a free and equal American society demands recognition that the United States is a multi-racial democracy and a multi-racial society.
Organized racial hatred is a cancer for a democracy, because organized hate’s declared enemy is the democracy itself.
STOP THE HATE
(Since the writing of this article Fox news has fired Tucker Carlson, for reasons unclear.)
