Brunswick Beacon, 05.25.23
On May 6, a security guard in tactical gear shot 15 people at a Texas mall. Eight died, including a three-year-old boy. The killer had Nazi tattoos, a “Right Wing Death Squad” patch, and posted White supremacist content on social media.
Mother’s Day was the anniversary of last year’s Buffalo supermarket shootings that killed 10 Blacks and injured three. At his sentencing the killer said, “I shot and killed people because they were Black. I believed what I read online and acted out of hate.”
In 2018, according to Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, White supremacy became America’s greatest domestic terrorism threat. The FBI says terrorists "driven by a belief in the superiority of the White race continue to pose the primary threat of committing lethal violence against civilians.”
President Biden called on Americans “To stand up against the poison of White supremacy.” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) thinks White supremacists are getting a bum rap.
Tuberville is solely responsible for blocking the routine promotion of 184 senior military officers. The Pentagon accused Tuberville of endangering national security. Perhaps to change the subject, Tuberville said, “Democrats are attacking our military, saying we need to get out the White extremists, the White nationalists.” Asked if he thinks we should allow White nationalists in the military, Tuberville says “They call them that. I call them Americans.”
Asked to clarify his remarks, Tuberville doubled down. "What is a White nationalist?" he asked. The reporter said a White nationalist "is someone who propagates Naziism. Someone who doesn't believe Black and Brown people are equal to White people." Tuberville asked, "You think a White nationalist is a Nazi?" "Well, that is one of their beliefs," the reporter replied. "Well, I don't look at it like that," Tuberville said, "I look at a White nationalist as a Trump Republican.”
Has the party of Lincoln become the party of White nationalism? Are you okay with that?
Eileen Farrell
Sunset Beach