海角大神

Dave Kerns says Hillary Clinton鈥檚 effort this week to paint Donald Trump as a bigot because of his association with members of America鈥檚 nationalist 鈥渁lt-right鈥� movement was disingenuous and unfair, mostly because the allegations assumed guilt by association.

The injection of the alt-right into the broader American conversation came after Mr. Trump brought in alt-right-leaning Breitbart News publisher, Stephen Bannon, to lead his campaign, and as Hillary Clinton, in Reno, Nev., on Thursday, lambasted Trump for handing a megaphone to white nationalists 鈥� and released .

Trump has repeatedly disavowed such connections, having in the past said, 鈥淗ate groups are not for me.鈥� And Mr. Kerns, a woodworker visiting Atlanta for the country鈥檚 largest woodworking conference, doesn鈥檛 formally count himself as a member of the ephemeral 鈥渁lt-right,鈥� which operates largely anonymously on the internet and whose true numbers are unknown.

Yet he does share some alt-right notions 鈥� including admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin 鈥� as well as a common lament: He doesn鈥檛 understand why black people keep voting for the Democrats when it鈥檚 obvious to him that the party is only using them to get elected. 鈥淚鈥檓 with Trump: Give something else a try,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he truth is, if we keep going this way, this country will be destroyed.鈥�

As such, Kerns illuminates at least part of the working dynamics of Trump鈥檚 theoretical 鈥渟ilent majority鈥� that he says will take him to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in November. Whether it鈥檚 racial, economic or cultural, the alt-right believes in a fundamental transformation of American society, one which will guarantee the primacy of what some in the movement call the original 鈥渒ith and kin鈥� 鈥� white 海角大神s 鈥� who founded the country.

Whether it鈥檚 a working electoral strategy or not is far from certain, given that polls show Trump shedding, not gaining, key supporters, including white suburban women.

But even critics say the emergence of the alt-right may have its functions, as well 鈥� informing primarily the Republican Party to embolden, and perhaps widen, its search for how to remain nationally relevant.

鈥淟ike my grandma said when her pressure cooker exploded: 鈥榊ou鈥檝e got to vent that thing or it鈥檚 going to blow,鈥欌�� says Michael Hill, the president of the secessionist League of the South, who counts himself as a member of America鈥檚 alt-right community. Politics, as well, 鈥渘eeds a little relief valve.鈥�

Historians trace the movement鈥檚 roots to the 1950s, when the GOP establishment began ousting extreme elements such as racists, anti-Semites, and members of the John Birch Society. The term itself was coined as recently as 2008 in a speech to the H.L. Mencken Club by political philosopher Paul Gottfried, who defined the alt-right in part as those who are 鈥渃onvinced that we are right in our historical and cultural observations while those who have quarantined us are wrong.鈥�

"My reading of the alt-right is that they go beyond saying 鈥榣iberals鈥� in the narrow sense of the left-wing of the American political spectrum,鈥� adds Thomas Main, a Baruch College, School of Public and International Affairs, CUNY聽public affairs professor who is writing a book about the alt-right. 鈥淚 think [the alt-right has] a problem with the whole shebang of democratic liberalism. They鈥檙e saying: 鈥業t鈥檚 not true that people are created equal.鈥� That鈥檚 when things start spiraling out of control because then a moderate alt-right position might be that white people are going to rise to the top if you stand back and allow things to happen. But if they don鈥檛 rise to the top, then another step is necessary: 鈥榃e better make sure that they stay at the top.鈥� That鈥檚 when we get into really hairy stuff.鈥�

What鈥檚 new and undeniably powerful is that there鈥檚 a youthful prankster component that revels in punking the establishment, whether Democrat or Republican, primarily through viral memes that have been successfully used to sway everything from online polling to what鈥檚 trending on Twitter.

Toying with fascist rhetoric while hailing pop singer Taylor Swift as an 鈥淎ryan goddess,鈥� many of those in the alt-right paint their efforts as obviously ironic pranksterism. But the聽joke, for many Americans, wears thin pretty fast.

鈥淚鈥檝e never met an alt-right individual in person,鈥� Kurt Schlichter, a columnist for the conservative TownHall.com website, wrote on Twitter after Mrs. Clinton鈥檚 Reno speech this week. 鈥淏ut then, I don鈥檛 break into Doritos fragment-strewn basements.鈥�

Indeed, the alt-right 鈥渋s in the ether where it鈥檚 hard to identify actual faces,鈥� says Marc Hetherington, a political science professor聽at Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, and co-author of 鈥淎uthoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics.鈥濃�淏ut it still does have effects, and the effects are mostly negative. What these alt-right memes are doing is making it seem more legitimate to express [racist] views. The outcome of that is that a country that鈥檚 already pretty racially polarized will become somewhat more so.

Yet the alt-right鈥檚 roots, at least according to some, can be traced all the way back to the antebellum South, when the Rev. Robert Lewis Dabney, an aide-de-camp to Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson, began writing about fundamental fissures within American conservatism 鈥� largely the epic struggle between traditionalism, the vision of a America as a country of people over principles, and liberalism, improving lives by hewing closer to the Constitution鈥檚 core principle, that 鈥渁ll men are created equal.鈥�

鈥淚 think the original alt-right-ers in America were Southern nationalists,鈥� says Mr. Hill, a Killen, Ala.-based former history professor at a historically black college who is listed in the Southern Poverty Law Center鈥檚 鈥淗ate Watch鈥� project. He points to the Reverend Dabney, who after the Civil War wrote, presciently: 鈥淭he meaning of northern conservatism is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit with a respectable amount of growling but always acquiesces at last in the innovation of the progressives.鈥�

Dabney鈥檚 antebellum observation, says Hill, 鈥渋s a perfect picture of what the alt-right has come to call 鈥榗uckservatives,鈥� [a sexual and racial pejorative based on the word cuckold.] So, I think there鈥檚 little doubt that Southern nationalism is the original strain. It鈥檚 always been blood and soil, kith and kin for people down here, and that鈥檚 what the alt-right pushes, is this idea of a true nation 鈥� that happens to be white and European.鈥�

This week, many in the alt-right movement huzzah-ed Clinton鈥檚 admonitions, calling it validation. 鈥淚 think [Clinton's critique]聽only strengthen its appeal,鈥� says Mr. Kerns, the woodworker.

One alt-right Twitter user who only wanted to be known by his handle, #JaredTSwift.聽told The Daily Beast that the alt-right鈥檚 online support for Trump has 鈥渘 鈥�. People have adopted our rhetoric, sometimes without even realizing it. We鈥檙e setting up for a massive cultural shift.鈥�

One of the movement鈥檚 intellectual leaders, a 30-something journalist named Richard Spencer,聽has said, "There are races who, on average, are going to be superior."

Similarly, former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke said 鈥淚鈥檓 overjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues I鈥檝e championed for years,鈥� he聽, in July announcing his candidacy for a Louisiana seat in the US Senate.

Dylan Sly, a Kansas City woodworker, voted for Trump in the primary. He says he doesn't believe in white supremacy, but also doesn't believe that society should try to vilify unpopular opinions to the point where people no longer feel free to express themselves. At the same time, when Trump won the nomination, he got a sinking feeling, 鈥渓ike, oops, what have we done?鈥�

That buyer鈥檚 remorse may be in part why the alt-right has gained a wider prominence as Trump鈥檚 core. As the New York mogul has driven some of his base away 鈥� including, significantly, suburban white women 鈥� he has had to reach deeper and deeper into the conservative movement for fans. He has landed on a strain of American politics that may be as vexing as it is apparently ascendant. That became obvious as Trump struggled to ease his tough immigration rhetoric 聽this week 鈥� key to the alt-right's support 鈥� while not seeming to ease it.

鈥淭rump isn't really part of the alt-right, even if he has gotten closer to it than most politicians,鈥� writes Bloomberg View鈥檚 Rannesh Ponnuru. 鈥淗is recent moves and Clinton's 鈥� speech suggest that both candidates understand that the alt-right is a leaden anchor rather than a rising force.鈥�

But whether it ultimately plays into Trump鈥檚 gambit, the alt-right鈥檚 emergence on the political scene is indisputably having an influence, one which will be hard to ignore as the country gets ready to retire its first black president.

The movement 鈥渋s playing it for all it鈥檚 worth, and they have succeeded in getting the ear of a major party presidential candidate,鈥� says Professor Main, at Baruch College.

Still, there are 鈥渟erious limits鈥� to the alt-right movement, says Professor Hetherington,聽鈥淭rump鈥檚 rallies may be huge and really intense, but if you add all of those rallies up it鈥檚 probably going to be 1 or 2 percent of what he needs to win an election.鈥�

鈥淚n the end, there might not be enough of us,鈥� acknowledges Kerns, the woodworker.