Jacob Siegel writes for Politico:
“The ‘alt-right’ or ‘alternative right’ is a name currently embraced by many white nationalists, neo-Nazis and so called ‘race-realists’ along with a number of other groups in a coalition of the far right. Their ideology emphasizes preserving and protecting the white race in the United States in addition to, or over, other traditional conservative positions such as limited government, low taxes and strict law-and-order,” according to the Associated Press definition.
While nationalists promise anti-immigration policies and protectionist economic measures as a boon to their country’s citizens, relying to various degrees on racial and ethnic undertones to make their case, the alt-right dispenses with citizenship altogether and appeals directly to racial identity.
The alt-right’s love of Europeanism blends racial politics with a quasi-religious faith in a pan-European identity. You can hear this clearly when one of the movement’s leading voices, the white nationalist Richard Spencer, praises Trump as the first politician “who’s fighting for European identity politics in North America.”
