Jonah Goldberg: This Is How It Starts (corrupting Conservatism)

Source: National Review | November 14, 2016 | Jonah Goldberg

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Even if you want to take a sympathetic or even supportive stand on Bannon, it’s simply a fact he is not a typical conservative. He is a supporter of the alt-right, which stands for the alternative right, which as a matter of semantics and logic, never mind ideology, is not part of mainstream conservatism. It wants, by its own claims, to replace the conventional right with an alternative right. Bannon has said this explicitly. And even if you buy his disingenuous denials that his “alt right nationalism” is in any way racist or anti-Semitic, you should at least take him at his word that it is not conservatism as we know it.

And yet last night I saw Indiana congressman Todd Rokita on Fox News responding to criticisms of Bannon by saying something like (I’m quoting from memory, I can’t find the transcript or clip anywhere) “I think people are just saying that because they object to any conservative in the White House.” If I substantively misinterpreted his remarks, I’ll be the first to apologize. But I’m certain I didn’t.

This is folly. First, if Bannon is just a typical conservative, why aren’t people complaining about Priebus’s support for white nationalism? Answer: Because he’s not a white nationalist. By all means, if you think the charges against Bannon are unfair, make that case. Or if you agree with Bannon’s ethno-nationalist ideology, please tell us that. But please don’t smugly dismiss the concerns by suggesting that Bannonism is simply conservatism. It’s not. And even Steve Bannon says so.

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