This article at the American Independent got me thinking yet again about the left’s ham-handedness when it comes to framing it’s message, a trait shared by the Democratic Party generally. The article is about the fact that Tommy Tuberville, one in a now long line of stupid Southern Senators (it’s a selling point down there) emitted a statement in support of “white nationalists”. No question that his remarks were stupid, though he’ll pay no price for them.
What I take issue with is the use of the word “white nationalist” as a synonym for “white racist”, “America hating Nazi”, or any number of terms that more accurately describe the people to whom he was referring.
I don’t know who originated the term “white nationalist”, but it has found a home in the language of the left and the Democratic Party. Read the linked article and you will see that the Biden folks use the term in condemning Tuberville.
It reminds me of the fact that for years the people who favored abortion rights were fine with calling their opponents “pro-life”, a term those proponents had conferred on themselves, rather than a pejorative term that more accurately described them. It also reminds me of the ridiculous term “defund the police”, terminology that it was obvious would be used against calling for a policy that really amounted to rethinking the role of the police in our society. “White nationalism” is not quite as bad, but if the point of coining these terms is to sway the opinion of those who are not already afraid that the country is being Nazified (new word there) then the term should make the threat clear. The term “nationalism” is one that is open to interpretation, particularly by people who don’t pay a lot of attention to politics. After all, they might ask, what’s wrong with being a nationalist, so long as you’re a nationalist for the USA! It seems to make sense to avoid ambiguities or language that requires people to do a bit of research to understand completely.
Speaking of research, after writing the above I did a bit of research in my Merriam-Webster. The term “nationalist” is defined as follows;
a member of a political party or group advocating national independence or strong national government
So, by that definition, the Founding Fathers were all nationalists.
However, Merriam-Webster further enlightens me regarding the term “white nationalist”. It’s definition:
one of a group of militant white people who espouse white supremacy (see WHITE SUPREMACY sense 1) and advocate enforced racial segregation
According to the dictionary, the term goes back to 1951, though in my experience, it has been rarely used until recently. In any event, it is still asking too much of the unengaged voter to parse the language. The message should be clear. Call a racist fascist a racist fascist.
AFTERWORD: It’s been a while since I posted anything, one reason being that I’ve spent a lot of time recently performing my duties as treasurer for our local party committee, preparing for a fundraiser that we held this past Saturday. This post was drafted a few days ago, as the article to which it refers is now about a week old, but I never got around to posting it. It seems to be the case that the more time you have on your hands, the less you tend to do.
By the way, the fundraiser to which I referred was held to honor two of Groton’s finest, Joe DelaCruz and RIta Schmidt. Joe represented part of Groton and part of New London in the State legislature for a couple of terms. He’s a sheet metal worker, and decided not to run again because he couldn’t afford to live on a state legislator’s stipend. Most state legislators have sources of income that enable them to spend time in Hartford without any economic loss to speak of. In any event, Joe did a great job while representing us, and we’re all hoping he will re-enter politics soon. Joe has an uncanny ability to communicate our issues well to people, and I think he’d do well in the Trumpish locales to the north of us.
Rita has been involved in community improvement projects and has held political office here in Groton for decades. I helped draft her bio for the ad book we put together for the fundraiser, and we had trouble cutting it down to one page. She has been instrumental in making Mystic the tourist destination it has become. She was also the first Democratic mayor of Groton, which had a Republican majority town council for decades until Trump helped us turn it around.
I realize this Afterword is not exactly relevant to the first part of the post, but it’s my blog and I can write whatever I want, so long as I don’t get in trouble with Ron DeSantis.
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