How Far-Right Extremism Invaded Mainstream Politics

<p>Over the course of Donald Trump’s presidency, the far-right fringe became a surprisingly visible and influential force in American politics. Eruptions of extremist violence — including the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 and the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection — have made militant groups like the Proud Boys and conspiracy theories like QAnon into household names. On his popular cable news show, Tucker Carlson recently name-checked <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/15/opinions/tucker-carlson-replacement-theory-peter-brimelow-republican-party-hemmer/index.html" target="_blank">the “great replacement” conspiracy theory</a>. And in <a href="https://www.prri.org/research/competing-visions-of-america-an-evolving-identity-or-a-culture-under-attack/" target="_blank">a recent survey</a>, nearly a third of Republicans agreed with the statement that “true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”</p><p>The historian Kathleen Belew has spent her career studying political violence and the once-fringe ideas that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/11/08/far-right-extremism-dominates-gop-it-didnt-start-wont-end-with-trump/" target="_blank">now animate</a> even right-of-center politics and news media. She is a co-editor of “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520382527/a-field-guide-to-white-supremacy" target="_blank">A Field Guide to White Supremacy</a>” and the author of “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674286078" target="_blank">Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America</a>,” which tells the story of how groups — including the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and Aryan Nations — coalesced into a radical white-power movement after the Vietnam War. These groups were united by a core set of beliefs about the threats of demographic change and governmental overreach, perceived hostility toward white Americans and the necessity of extra-political, often violent, action to achieve their aims.</p><p>This