CT Blue

I checked my previous posts, and much to my surprise, I have not ranted on this subject before, so here goes.

Twitter is all a-twitter today because Ilhan Omar branded Stephen Miller a “white nationalist”. This is sort of like branding me a lapsed Catholic, but what Omar doesn’t seem to understand is that not only is it perfectly acceptable for a Republican to be a “white nationalist” but that it breaks the rules to point it out. She is an anti-Semite for stating a fact, and that means she should be scorned by Republicans and Chuck Schumer alike, but as a Republican Miller is entitled to his “white nationalism” being ignored even as it hides in plain sight. After all, CNN is undoubtedly keeping his seat warm should we escape the definite fall of the Republic in 2020.

But hypocrisy is not what this rant is about. This rant is about the term “white nationalist”, which has become a frequently used term over the course of the last couple of years. I may be wrong about the timing, but I think it’s come into vogue pretty much contemporaneously with the advent of our racist, anti-Semitic president.

I object to the use of this term.

For one thing, it is a term that out and proud “white nationalists” prefer. I don’t think they should get to call the shots on this any more than anti-abortion people should get to brand themselves “pro-life” as they happily support wars, the death penalty, and child kidnapping.

But I actually have a more nuanced reason for opposing the term.

First, lets agree that, depending on the context, “white nationalist” means “racist”, “bigot”, “anti-Muslim”, “anti-Semite”, or “Nazi”, or any combination of the foregoing. These are terms that the average person in this country understands fairly well. “Nationalism”, on the other hand, does not, in America, have the pejorative force that it has in Europe. Here it acts as a purifying agent, a respectable sounding substitute for the ugly reality, sort of like the way “ethic cleansing” has stood in for genocide.

So I take issue with Representative Omar. Lots of the terms I’ve listed above can be used to describe Miller. Personally, I’d go with “Nazi”, and so would his rabbi, but racist or bigot would do just as well. The term “white nationalist” lets him off far too easy.

On a related note, in that it relates to Stephen Miller, I think Steve over at No More Mister Nice Blog, has the right idea here as a way of getting rid of him.