Heart of Darkness

White Supremacy and the Core of the Conservative Movement

Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them…. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. — Karl Popper

Last week, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville drew widespread condemnation for his comments during a radio interview with local NPR affiliate WBHM. Tuberville, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was asked by reporter Richard Banks whether he believed White supremacists should be allowed to serve in the United States military. The Senator responded: “Well, they call them that. I call them Americans. What happened after January the sixth — and I was here on January the sixth — we were attacked on the Senate floor. Saying all these people that came into the Capitol were extremists, they were against the country. There was a lot of people. There were probably a hundred of them that came in, broke windows and broke doors that should have been locked up. That’s not how we do it in America.”

After the fallout from those (quite literally) rabble-rousing remarks, the…