No welcome mat for ‘alt-right’ white nationalist

A leavening dose of optimism is in order to balance the national alarm over what’s come to be known as the “alt-right” movement.

Tuesday night at Texas A&M University in College Station, the man who dreamed up “alt-right,” white nationalist Richard Spencer, spoke to a crowd that filled a 400-seat ballroom.

But according to news media accounts, Spencer’s supporters were vastly outnumbered in that crowd and outside the ballroom by people who came to protest what he stands for.

The idea that a man like Spencer and his outlook on what’s needed in society today might gain even a little traction is chilling.

After all, he’s the one in the viral video proclaiming “Hail Trump” at a recent rally in Washington, D.C., and receiving the Nazi salute from supporters. President-elect Donald Trump has disavowed the alt-right movement.

Spencer’s 45-minute speech at A&M centered on the greatness of European whites, the ills of multicultural society and a reawakening of white people.

All of which is the opposite of what thinking people want. There is no human progress, no civic survival, no societal gain in pitting race against race.

Texas A&M is not the state’s leading institution of liberal thought — that’s two hours away, in Austin. Yet overwhelming numbers of people gathered at A&M against Spencer’s way of thinking.

It was sort of like slamming a door in his face. That’s encouraging.

This story was originally published December 7, 2016 at 5:42 PM with the headline "No welcome mat for ‘alt-right’ white nationalist."