4 lessons from the lame ‘Unite the Right 2’ rally
Charlottesville sequel shows movement’s weakness
The “alt-right” rally that promised hundreds of white supremacists in the streets of the nation’s capital, to mark the first anniversary of the violent “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville, Virginia, fizzled in the rain on Sunday.
Maybe two dozen people showed up. They were escorted in and out of the event by law enforcement, their protest cut short by two hours as thousands of counterprotesters showed up.
This was supposed to be a demonstration of leadership and organization. Instead, the splintered alt-right movement appears close to collapse a year after exploding onto the public scene in Charlottesville. And for that, the nation can be thankful.
The cause of advancing white racism is increasingly rudderless and leaderless, perhaps a victim of its own violent and unrestrained overreach last year. Big names, including alt-right leader Richard Spencer and former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke, were conspicuous no-shows Sunday. Andrew Anglin, founder of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer publication, even lobbied against his readers attending.
The only leader there on Sunday was Jason Kessler, a “Unite the Right” architect. These days, Kessler is more divider than uniter within the movement, according to a Lawfare blog analysis.
Sunday’s pathetic showing was the latest in a trend of decline. Only a few hundred attended a highly touted “White Lives Matter” event in Tennessee last October. By March, when Spencer spoke at Michigan State University, 50 were there to listen.
None of this means that there aren’t plenty of racists and neo-Nazis lurking in the shadows and on the internet, or that they don’t represent a continuing danger. But it is heartening to see that, even in this era of extreme political polarization, their hateful ideology has such limited public appeal.