Richard Spencer writes about the Paul Nehlen phenomenon:
Getting “red pilled” is one of the most inspiring—and traumatic—things ever to happen to us. It changes us, and not just how we look at politics, history, and society; it changes our personalities, ways of life, and relationships with friends and family.
It also brings a great deal of danger. Saying something as seemingly innocuous as “It’s Okay to be White” puts one’s job, status, and family in jeopardy. And the difficulty in swallowing the Red Pill is only matched by the difficulty of staying quiet once you have become aware of these shocking and hidden truths. (Nehlen clearly couldn’t keep a lid on it.)
Politicians rarely venture into the Forbidden Zone, regardless of the political climate and regardless of their own personal state of red-pilling. That is because politicians get elected by promising security and safety, with some bacon and patriotism on the side. Visionary leaders and activists, on the other hand, promise danger, excitement, and the moral satisfaction of being a principled heretic. Visionary leaders and thinkers can change the world, but they rarely get elected to Wisconsin’s First Congressional District…
Nehlen’s fundamental problem is that he never made a choice. Perhaps this resulted from the fact that his red-pilling is an ongoing process. Nehlen is “Normie friendly” to say the least, and as an engineer, he is most authentic when he talks about economic populist issues. But through his week of tweeting, he swiftly transformed himself into a Visionary Candidate. Nehlen thus forfeited Bannon’s dumb money and made it much more difficult for him to win. Worse still, Nehlen is simply not comfortable in the role of Visionary Leader, nor is he an idea man for this position.
I admire Nehlen’s courage and forthrightness; indeed, I’ll back him and help him to the degree that I can. But we must be brutally honest: Nehlen made the wrong choice, and this probably can’t be undone.
