Here’s a thought: When you read Melissa Ryan’s excellent and important article on how the alt-right is making inroads through the Republican Party, check out the version we published online, which should appear around the time this issue reaches subscribers. Check out the links to substantiating sources for each and every astonishing fact.
Take, for instance, the link that backs up the statement that Cecily Wright, then-chair of the Republican Party in Spokane County, Washington, spoke publicly on behalf of alt-right provocateur James Allsup, who was forced to resign as president of the College Republicans at Washington State University after taking part in the Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The linked article goes beyond what is relayed in our story. It describes how Wright introduced Allsup at a small local conservative event in July 2018 with these words: “It’s pretty darn sad, and people’s lives are destroyed with these labels that are being hung on them because we don’t take time to really figure out, ‘Is it true or is it not true?’ . . . I have a gentleman here this evening who has been label-lynched.”
This, mind you, was the very same “gentleman” about whom Wright had issued an official statement—meant for a larger and more general audience—the month before: “Mr. Allsup has never been affiliated in any official capacity with the Spokane County GOP. His past statements, affiliations, and actions are deeply out-of-step with the values of the Republican Party, as well as the values of the Spokane County GOP and our members.”
Wright, who jokingly told a reporter she’d “like to go punch the guy [Allsup] in the nose,” went on to assure all and sundry that “the Spokane County GOP remains committed to standing against white supremacy, racism, and bigotry in all forms. We will always support a free society where individuals are judged on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.”
Adding links to stories is something we do for every piece we publish. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it. The links are useful for fact-checking and to readers who want to dig deeper. And, on a topic like this, that’s something we all should be willing to do.
Our focus on the rise of the alt-right in this issue also has an excerpt from a new book by Alexandra Minna Stern on how its members have connived to use culture and social media to win followers as a precursor to political engagement. Simon Davis-
Cohen presents new information on the close ties between the National Sheriffs’ Association and a designated anti-immigrant hate group. And we have pieces from the frontlines of hate, from the executive director of a civil rights group whose offices were burned down earlier this year, and from a former fascist who understands firsthand the mindset of people who do horrific things.
Elsewhere in this issue, contributor James Goodman looks at the efforts of communities across the country to push back on the government’s network of detention centers—might as well call them what they are, concentration camps—for immigrant families and children. The Progressive is one of a group of publications, also including YES!, Jacobin, In These Times, Truthout, AlterNet, and Raw Story, that have backed a national call to action against these cruel camps—an effort that is endorsed by Naomi Klein, Jeremy Scahill, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Noam Chomsky, among many others.
“From abolitionism to Standing Rock, Americans have come together time and again to defy horrific injustice,” the call-to-action declares. “Now, as the government tries to normalize concentration camps, it is time like never before to target those responsible” and oppose them through “any nonviolent means necessary.”
Finally, we have several articles that look back in time, seeking information and inspiration to apply to current struggles. Lance Smith writes a lovely piece on the fiftieth anniversary of Woodstock. Christopher Cook ponders the promise of organic farming, past and present. And I recall the astonishing sequence of events that took place forty years ago when a tiny political magazine called The Progressive was thrust into a major Constitutional battle against the federal government over the publication of an article meant to challenge nuclear secrecy.
Today, similar battles are still being fought, as with the prosecution of individuals including Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange for having the audacity to spill government secrets that protect no one but the government. The struggle is always changing, never ending. And The Progressive is proudly part of it.