The so-called alt-right movement is reprehensible, and legitimate conservatives have denounced it up and down. But the media keeps trying to paint the conservative movement and the alt-right movement as two peas in a pod. It’s simply not true. The principles of conservatism, centered around human rights, dignity, and liberty, are diametrically opposed to the principles of the alt-right, centered around white supremacism and bigotry. For evidence of that, look no further than the infamous video in which alt-right figure Richard Spencer repudiates and denounces the pro-life movement.
Writing in The Weekly Standard ahead of an alt-right protest in Washington, D.C., this weekend, the Charlotte Lozier Institute’s Hannah Howard traces alt-right views on white supremacy and eugenics back to Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, herself a eugenicist who dedicated her life to eliminating the “unfit”.
Howard points to a 2017 video by Spencer entitled “Why Tomi Lahren Is Right on Abortion”, in which Spencer aligns himself with the eugenicist views of Planned Parenthood and stridently denounces the pro-life movement, which believes in human rights for people of all races. Here’s the key bit from Spencer’s screed:
We should recognize that the pro-life movement—this is not the alt-right, this has nothing in common with identitarians, and I think we should be genuinely suspicious of people who think in terms of human rights and who are interested in adopting African children and bringing them to this country and who get caught up on this issue. We want to be a movement about families, about life in a deep sense, not just “rights” but truly great life, and greatness, and beautiful, flourishing, productive families. We want to be eugenic in the deepest sense of the word. Pro-lifers want to be radically dysgenic, egalitarian, multi-racial human rights thumpers—and they’re not us.
It would appear that Spencer and the alt-right have more in common with Planned Parenthood, whose racist heritage continues even today.
Howard’s full piece is worth reading.
Photo credit: American Life League via Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0
