Does Supporting Current Right-Wing Policies Make You A Racist?

Traditional conservativism is dying because conservatives are happy to support racist ideals. But does this make them racists?

I have been desperately trying to avoid this conclusion. I know there are some good people on the right and there have been some constructive right-wing thinkers. But the reality is sinking in fast: the right-wing those folk supported no longer exists.

Perhaps it’s better to call it conservatism - the ideology meant to preserve traditions, family values, religious ideals, law and order, a productive economy, and a general sense of civility. While I could never get behind conservatism - it always seemed like rich folk trying to convince poorer folk that rich folk should keep all the power -, I kind of understood the ideology. I understand the desire to preserve what you have in a rapidly changing world.

But the conservation side of conservatism died some time ago. What was seen as far-right politics, where racism, ignorance and greed abound, has absorbed most of it.

To be clear, I am not saying that people with conservative (traditional) ideals don’t exist anymore. Indeed, I suspect that most of those who support current right-wing policies are traditional conservatives. I am merely saying that those who classify themselves as conservatives have accepted massive compromises to their conservative ideals to support current right-wing policies.

The question then - that really is unavoidable if we are being honest with ourselves - is how many traditional conservative values do you have to sacrifice until you are no longer conservative and are simply a supporter of the far-right?

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Proposition

To simplify it, I consider the far-right as having two main factions. One is that of some form of supremacy. The other is that of deregulation hypercapitalism. Racism and rabid greed.

Now, either of these groups will sacrifice other ideals - rule of law, family values, religious ideals, etc…- in order to fulfil their single objective - racism or wealth.

Those who wish to exploit consumers, workers, and the financial markets will, if rabid enough, permit and even support racist and even fascist policies so long as within such policies there is room to exploit further. Such vulture capitalists may not consider themselves racist. Indeed, they may care little what ethnicity you have; they are equal opportunity exploiters. They will just as easily exploit the white, domestic worker as they would workers abroad. In their minds, they have no strong sense of animosity to any race; their own loyalty is to the market.

Does this then mean they are not racist?

This is the common denial for facultative racists. They think that being racist is about feeling animosity against a particular ethnicity or wanting to see them suffer.

Of course, this isn’t the case at all.

Indeed, this “passive cognitive racism” is what was behind the rise of fascism in 1930s. The small proportion of folk whose entire existence is about being a racist - the ‘proud racist’, so to speak - would get no where were it not for the racists who are in denial. And, I’m afraid, the rise of racism (and it’s cousin, fascism) is entierly on the shoulders of those on the right of the political spectrum. All of those on the right of the political spectrum.

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Justification

At this current time, many right-wing (previously known as conservative) political parties have shifted considerably more towards the far-right. This means they have adopted racist policies that appease the supremacists and deregulation policies that appease the vulture capitalists. While they may continue to espouse ideas of family values and law and order, while they may continue to act as the party for the free market and capitalism, the adoption of far-right policies makes them a far-right party. To support them, even if you agree with some of their policies, is to support far-right ideology which includes racism.

There are red lines that civilised folk don’t cross. We cannot support dictatorships. We cannot support child exploitation. We cannot support those policies which undermine democracy and the rule of law. Racism, by its very definition, is anti-democratic - the notion that some people are worth less than others. It is then, for any logical person, an unavoidable, albeit unpleasant, conclusion that anyone propping up those right-wing parties who are pursuing far-right policies is in fact a supporter of racism and is, whether intentionally or not, a racist.

It’s a hard pill to swallow. That your actions are racist. Indeed, your actions, through what you may perceive as a small compromise, are anti-democratic, anti-civilisation. The correct move is to distance yourself from such political parties. Whether there are elements of that party you believe in or you have been a life-long conservative, once the red line has been crossed then the only civil option is to remove your support for that party fully and completely. In some way, this is how you let the party know that they need to change. In another way, it is how you retain your own ideals and sense of self.

Remaining loyal to a political party that has betrayed humanity and your core values is not loyalty to your conservative ideals, it is blind obedience. And, today, it makes you a racist.

Photo by Khaled Ghareeb on Unsplash