Despite the President’s Pandering, White Nationalists Are Still Losing: New at Reason

The hatred and havoc that erupted last weekend in Charlottesville were a reminder that every push toward enlightenment elicits spasms of reaction. The white nationalists who gathered to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee from a public park were aggrieved that they no longer enjoy being members of the ruling race, suggests Steve Chapman. That status carried great privileges, and it’s no surprise that these modern misfits bitterly resent the changes that undid it—or that they are willing to resort to intimidation and brutality to restore it.

But they are fantasizing to think they can succeed, argues Chapman. The turmoil in Charlottesville may look like the beginning of something big for the cause of white nationalism. But those were not birth pangs. They were death throes.

View this article.