Letters: Beware the alt-right in the White House

I’m scared. You should be too. At the very highest level of national policy making, as the chief White House strategist for our new president, will be Stephen Bannon, former chairman of the right-wing website Brietbart News, which he has called the “platform for the alt-right.” The “alt-right” has been called “racist, xenophobic and misogynist” — a white-supremacist movement.

So what’s wrong with white supremacism? Isn’t it just being proud of a “white” heritage? No. It’s valuing people on the basis of their race. It’s the belief that all are equal under the law only if they belong to the superior race. Historically, the idea of racial supremacy has led to hatred and exploitation of the supposedly inferior group, as under slavery and apartheid and Nazi Germany.

For the alt-right, like the Nazis, the strength of the nation depends upon its racial purity. In America, neo-Nazi hate groups asserting white supremacy have risen dramatically in recent years. Dylann Roof is only one of many examples. Extreme right groups — which, like Donald Trump, are supported by Vladimir Putin’s Russia — have arisen in Western Europe. Like our own Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups, they have been encouraged by Trump’s victory.

This is not a matter of policy differences between Republicans and Democrats. The very survival of our democracy is at stake. Let’s be vigilant lest we lose our liberties.

This story was originally published January 5, 2017 at 5:48 PM with the headline "Letters: Beware the alt-right in the White House."