Conservative Pundits Use White Nationalist Sam Francis To Explain Trump's Popularity
White nationalists celebrate after Rush Limbaugh quotes Sam Francis, claiming vindication of聽their views
In the midst of Trump鈥檚 sustained popularity heading into the Iowa caucuses, the words of the late Sam Francis, an influential white nationalist, are being held up as vindicated by his peers.
On his January 20 broadcast, hard-right, conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh quoted a 1996 article penned by Francis for Chronicles titled 鈥� about Pat Buchanan鈥檚 presidential campaigns and position relative to mainstream conservatism.
Sooner or later, as the globalist elites seek to drag the country into conflicts and global commitments, preside over the economic pastoralization of the United States, manage the delegitimization of our own culture, and the dispossession of our people, and disregard or diminish our national interests and national sovereignty, a nationalist reaction is almost inevitable and will probably assume populist form when it arrives.
The passage, considered prescient by Limbaugh, followed an analysis by Michael Brendan Dougherty at The Week that argued that Francis had accurately described Donald Trump鈥檚 rise to popularity. White nationalists quickly held up Limbaugh and Dougherty鈥檚 statements as vindication.
A day later, the National Review took its stand against Trump, to the chagrin of mainstream conservatism and the celebration of the extremist right, which views the rebuke as the ultimate honor for Trump, a candidate who has shirked conventional tactics throughout his campaign.
Several days after Limbaugh鈥檚 broadcast, the National Review article appeared in full at Richard Spencer鈥檚 white nationalist thought catalog Radix Journal and the celebration of Francis鈥檚 foresight and Trump鈥檚 upending of the establishment began.
Hannibal Bateman, writing at Radix, declared that, 鈥淭he dispossession of the Beltway Right is a moment that should be celebrated and seized. 鈥� The controlled grammatical tyranny they have exercised over the thought of the Right is nearing its end. Instead of writing their obituaries with a period, let鈥檚 do it with an exclamation mark!鈥�
Brad Griffin, a leader in the League of the South and the force behind the white supremacist blog Occidental Dissent, wrote that same day, 鈥淪am Francis was right: we need to stop pretending we are 鈥榯rue conservatives鈥� or that we have anything in common with these bow-tied, low-T clowns. We don鈥檛 support the 鈥榗onservative agenda鈥� as articulated by the National Review. We are populists and nationalists, which means we are 鈥榯ethered鈥� to the well-being of our own people and protecting and advancing their interests, not some abstract ideology.鈥�
鈥淟ord Tinsdale,鈥� a prolific poster at Stormfront, the largest online white supremacist forum, went a step farther and admonished Limbaugh for refusing to acknowledge the inherent role of race in Francis鈥檚 argument.
鈥淣ow if only El Rushbo will also acknowledge, that what鈥檚 at the heart of this Nationalist & Populist movement is Racialism,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淐ome on Limbaugh. Grow a real set of nuts would ya [sic].鈥�
In 鈥淔rom Household to Nation,鈥� Francis reflected on a conversation he once had with Pat Buchanan at a fundraising event in which Francis told Buchanan that,
he would be better off without all the hangers-on, direct-mail artists, fund-raising whiz kids, marketing and PR czars, and the rest of the crew that today constitutes the backbone of all that remains of the famous 鈥楥onservative Movement鈥� and who never fail to show up on the campaign doorstep to guzzle someone else's liquor and pocket other people's money. 鈥� Go to New Hampshire and call yourself a patriot, a nationalist, an America Firster, but don't even use the word 鈥榗onservative.' It doesn't mean anything any more.鈥�
Admittedly, it rings of Trump. However, for all his supposed prescience about the merits of identifying as a conservative, it is important to remember that at his core, Francis was a racist who said such things as:
If whites wanted to do so, they could dictate a solution to the racial problem tomorrow 鈥� by curtailing immigration and sealing the border, by imposing adequate fertility controls on nonwhites and encouraging a higher white birth rate, by refusing to be bullied into enduring 鈥榤ulticulturalism,鈥� affirmative action, civil rights laws and policies; and by refusing to submit to cultural dissolution, inter-racial violence and insults, and the guilt that multiracialists inculcate.
Look no further than the voices that are celebrating Limbaugh for citing the ideas of a white nationalist as a 鈥渉istoric turning point,鈥� to see who are most excited by the rise of Trump. Make no mistake, however. It鈥檚 not Trump himself they鈥檙e celebrating, but the space he has created in the mainstream for their extreme views.
