The Growth Of Political Extremism And White Supremacy In The United States

The emergence of Donald Jr. Trump as the republican party’s presidential candidate in the 2016 American presidential election brought forth the re-birth of a new vine of the supporters as a result of its subtle racial undertones which unconsciously accommodated white supremacy. The supremacists were drawn to Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again” campaign which in fact gave more than enough leeway and subconscious support to the racist ideologies on which white supremacists thrive. The rate of hate crimes committed by white supremacists in America have increased by at least 20 % within that time. Political extremism such as this concerns the support of certain ideologies with a sense of pseudo apprehensions of how things are meant to be controlled in a society. This usually tends to lean towards violence and infringement of peoples’ rights.It has been proposed by many political analysts that the most practical way of curtailing the rapid growth and dominance of white supremacy in America is through re-education or unlearning, but this has proved to be ineffective because it is an overlong process to an exponential problem that needs immediate action. Therefore, the immediate and most effective solution would be disenfranchising people found guilty of hate crimes.

The growth of political extremism stems from charismatic leadership with a ‘legitimate’ claim, which in this situation concerns the drive for white supremacists to not only preserve, but to maintain political, historical, social and physical barriers that suppress any race that is not the Aryan white race. Minds of these political extremists are easy to analyze. They are prompted by many elements which include fear of inferiority, or anger due to ignorance. They commonly display the depth of these ideologies in the hate crimes they commit against other races which have rapidly increased in frequency in the past two years. For example, in 2017, members of a neo-Nazi group in Kansas started a ruckus over simply being coerced to stand on the same queue as a Hispanic girl; after continuously hurling racial slurs at her, she refused to move, and, as a result, they took it upon themselves to create a violent situation, beating her up almost leading her to death.

In another case, a white supremacist trump apologist who attacked a group of African American girls with a knife on their way back from a night club at 3:00am in Atlanta, Georgia. He left two girls severely injured and one dead from stab wounds. In September, a member of an alt-right group committed a school shooting against a predominantly African- American student population. After the police apprehended him, he exclaimed that he was “cleansing the state of what held them back… the Negros.”. In an ideal world, it is only rational that the same amount of time utilized to create a culture, paradigm or belief is required to break it down and unlearn it. Simply educating people takes too long when considering the high frequency of crimes being committed and number lives being lost. White supremacy has been an ideology passed down from generations to generations. The government has enacted some laws to attempt to curtail these hate crimes but most of them leave loopholes due to their vagueness for offenders to be left off the hook.

Historically, the United States has been lackluster on the firmness of civil rights.; For example, during the civil rights era which was from 1945 to 1968, the government neglected the rights of non-white America, and refused to give them equal rights., Due to the political strength of the South, where white supremacy was most prominent, in the 20th Century, it was nearly impossible for clear and concrete laws to be created. Disenfranchisement of white supremacists is an effective solution to this vein of political extremism because it is forceful enough to invite a paradigm shift within people that are searching for power and authority that fall under this group. Seeing as the United States uses the democratic system, the right to vote and to be voted for is a pillar of a citizen’s freedom of choice. Voting is a crucial avenue of nationalism, without it any citizen that would ordinarily be able to vote would be left devoid of their legal right to choose a leader. It creates an avenue to rethink whether or not these faulty ideologies and acting out with hate crimes are worth facing the full wrath of the law on the matter.

The issue here of course moves past an ideology shift as this solution would not necessarily cause that, but much like in the case of the KKK, it would cause these groups to go into hiding in a bid of legalize by any means necessary their actions. This means that on paper, white supremacy can be abolished while in the hearts and minds of those involved, the long term process of unlearning can ensue as a result of seeing others prosecuted or disenfranchised for endorsing the same beliefs. State governments in America control the power to adjust the criteria for franchise, for example felony disenfranchisement for people that have been incarcerated for a year. So it is optimistic to hope that a law such as this can be passed based on the desire to caution and eventually eradicate political extremism at least from this angle.

In the 21st Century, as governmental strength is not centralized and as the south has become more liberated, this is the most appropriate time for the enactment of this law, those suspected of committing hate crimes should also be investigated for history of these tendencies in their background and if found guilty should face the wrath of this law amongst other punishments.

Every human has universal rights that should never be infringed upon such as the right to life, the right to religion, freedom of association, freedom of movement and so on. When people do infringe on these rights problems then arise dividing people into groups and pinning them against one another other. White supremacy has now divided the United States making the nation a hostile zone for foreigners and citizens alike. Many lives have been lost due to this division. Although Education would have been the ideal solution to this problem, there is simply no time to wait for people to unlearn an ideology passed down from generations to generations. Withdrawal from their suffrage rights will be a concrete solution as it is immediate and meaningful to them therefore the optimum warning for any offenders.