Posted on November 14, 2016

Alt-Right Exuberant After Trump Victory

Caitlin Dickson, Yahoo! News, November 12, 2016

{snip}

But for members of the alt-right, the amorphous, nationalist fringe movement that gained mainstream recognition during the 2016 campaign, the brash businessman’s ascension through the Republican primary ranks and ultimately to the presidency was a victory many years in the making.

“It was like I was in a bit of a dream last night,” Richard Spencer told Yahoo News on Wednesday. “It was like a pinch-me moment.”

{snip}

“This is a very, very significant victory against virtually the entire American political and media class,” said Jared Taylor, another prominent alt-right figure and the founder of the white nationalist magazine American Renaissance.

{snip}

“We take it for granted that blacks will vote for candidates who promise good things for blacks. The same for Hispanics as well,” he said. Taylor is a self-described “race realist,” or proponent of the widely-denounced theory that certain races are biologically superior to others, and has advocated on behalf of eugenics.

“You could argue that, for the first time, whites are clearly beginning to vote the way people of other races do–that is to say, in their own interests,” he said.

{snip}

Even now, alt-right leaders like Taylor are the first to admit that Trump is “not one of us.” But they are also quick to recognize Trump’s campaign as a vehicle for their interests. {snip}

“Building a wall to keep out illegals, sending home all illegals, taking a very hard look at Muslims, ending sanctuary cities, putting an end to birthright citizenship,” Taylor said, rattling off Trump campaign proposals that resonate with the alt-right.

{snip}

Taylor compared Trump’s presidential win to the similarly unexpected success of this summer’s Brexit referendum to withdraw the United Kingdom from the European Union. Not only were both “considered nearly impossible by pollsters,” Taylor argued, but like Brexit, Trump’s win is also “part of a worldwide reawakening of nationalist sentiment.”

{snip}