So What Do I Have To Fear?

Deborah Favorite

So What Do I Have To Fear?
By Deborah Favorite, November 10, 2016

Yesterday, I just received in the mail my Southern Poverty Law Center publication, and as has been the case for many months now, DT is of prime concern. This issue primarily focuses on the White Nationalist’s Alternative to American Conservatism with an article titled, “Trump Campaign Hires Breitbart Exec Stephen Bannon, Cozies Up Closer to the Alt-Right.

“The Alternative Right, commonly known as the Alt-Right, is a set of far-right ideologies, groups and individuals whose core belief is that “white identity” is under attack by multicultural forces using “political correctness” and “social justice” to undermine white people and “their” civilization. Characterized by heavy use of social media and online memes, Alt-Righters eschew “establishment” conservatism, skew young, and embrace white ethno-nationalism as a fundamental value.

“Recently, Trump appeared at a campaign rally with a poster based on an anti-Semitic meme previously circulated online by notorious white supremacist David Duke. The announcement of Bannon’s hire makes the Breitbart-Trump connection official. As former Breitbart News editor Ben Shapiro described the connection in an article:

With Bannon embracing Trump, all that changed. Now Breitbart has become the alt-right go-to-web-site, with Yiannopoulos pushing white ethno-nationalism as a legitimate response to political correctness, and the comment section turning into a cesspool for white supremacist mememakers.

“Over the past year the media outlet has been openly promoting the core issues of the Alt-Right, introducing these racist ideas to its readership – much to the delight of many in the white nationalist world who could never dream of reaching such a vast number of people.

“The slow, but steady, shift toward more radical ideological content is troubling considering Breitbart’s reach. Breitbart.com is one of the top 1,000 most popular websites on the Internet, and just outside the top 200 most popular websites in the United States, according to Alexa.

“Political observers speculate that the hiring of Bannon will further erode hopes within the GOP that Trump will rein in his trademark bombast and “pivot” toward the center. As the Washington Post reported, Bannon has other ideas:

Bannon, in phone calls and meetings, has been urging Trump for months to not mount a fall campaign that makes Republican donors and officials comfortable, the aides said. Instead, Bannon has been telling Trump to run more fully as an outsider and an unabashed nationalist.”

Why should any of this bother me? Here is my very personal list of reasons:

1. I am a woman, I am of Jewish blood, I am a very long time practicing Buddhist;
2. I have a daughter who is a Lesbian, has a spectacular life partner and who recently composed a deeply moving letter mentioning her grandmother's stay in a Nazi camp and the slaughter of most of their remaining family members;
3. I have a son with three wonderful children who are all on the spectrum of special needs;
4. I have a sister married to a Mexican;
5. I have a cousin married to a Japanese;
6. I have a cousin raising a multi-racial grandbaby; whose own adopted children are East Indian and the other multi-racial;
7. I have an auntie who falls into the seniors with disabilities;
8. I have a cousin married to a black man;
9. I have relatives who are practice Judaism, Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, and nothing at all;
10. I have relatives who are Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and nothing at all.

Some of my family members and in-laws of family members, I am sure voted for Trump, and my heart aches at their ignorance. They have no idea of the potential devastation a Trump administration will bring to this country. I pray they all take 5 minutes to read anything factual about how the Third Reich took over Europe last century.

This cancer is fast growing and has the power to turn things topsy-turvy with the blink of an eye. WAKE UP AMERICA, take this precious life a bit more seriously and choose to make more well-informed decisions about the humanity we all share this planet with.