It Isn’t Over For America

There’s hope even in a troubled age

The esteemed Jared Taylor recently declared, “It’s over” in an American Renaissance video. The “it” here is America. In his speech, he said he had started his organization 34 years ago in the belief this nation could correct its errors. But the rapidly growing tide of anti-white racism and heritage erasure has made him reconsider that stance. He now believes America is beyond saving and that whites should separate:

All my life, I have watched the United States degenerate. It’s no longer my country and it can’t be saved. I do not believe that it can ever again become a home for white people.

…

Can you think of a realistic way to “take America back,” as Republicans keep saying? It can’t be taken back.

It doesn’t matter who is elected president this year or four years from now or 40 years from now.

It’s over. We can’t take the whole country back. We’ll have to settle for something less.

Taylor’s opinion deserves serious attention. This is a man who has worked tirelessly to awaken white Americans to the problems they face. He is always reasonable and erudite in his commentary. This is why the powers that be work so hard to censor him. If Americans associated identitarianism with a respectable figure like Taylor rather than Hollywood Nazis, a whole lot more whites would come around to race realism. 

However, I have to respectfully disagree with Taylor’s conclusion. One cannot dispute the facts he musters in support of his argument. There is a war on our national heritage and it only looks to escalate as America becomes less white. There’s a fanatical anti-whiteness cultivated among our elite and taught in our schools, businesses, and popular media. The demographic picture looks grim, especially with millions streaming across our border every year.

It’s tempting to want to give up on America and look to new horizons. The issue is that the vast majority of whites are going to tune out the message of “it’s over.” They think on a different level from those of us in the know. The message also has the unintended effect of blackpilling our own audience. If told normal politics is a waste of time and we must pursue a far-fetched goal that’s hard to work toward in our day-to-day life, many will simply give up on politics altogether. Rather than work toward an ethnostate, they will turn to other pursuits. This would obviously fortify the corrupt status quo.

It’s better to think it’s not over and work with what we have.

There are many issues with trying to get white Americans to abandon their nationality in favor of their race alone. The great Sam Francis explained why this was wrongheaded nearly 30 years ago in the pages of American Renaissance:

Most white Americans retain too much sense of nationality and too much allegiance to their country and their own communities to accept the proposal of giving up large parts of the United States to others (racially different or not). For defenders of the white race and its heritage to adopt this strategy at this point would simply increase their problems because it would place them in antagonism to the patriotic and nationalist loyalties of most of their fellow whites and would allow their enemies to brand them as literally “un-American.”

By embracing a strategy that involved breaking up the United States, not only would whites be abandoning their own country but also they would be forced to give up appeals to its history, its traditions, and its interests as a nation.

Francis claimed that a white identity divorced from the American nation would be “the thinnest possible reed on which to base a movement.” He also says that whites relegating themselves to one corner of America would be against their inherent instincts for conquest and expansion.

The late writer concludes that racial separatism “does not impress me as a realistic strategy for the survival, let alone the flourishing, of the white race and any civilization it would be likely to build, at least at the present time.”

To summarize, it fails to identify any physical area for the relocation of either race; it fails to anticipate the likely pressures for recombination of the races; it relies almost entirely on a supposititious white racial consciousness that has no historical precedent and would be inadequate by itself, even if it existed, to sustain a real society, culture, or government; and it involves the deliberate surrender of part of a territory, political order, and civilization that were created by whites and remain theirs. Until the advocates of separatism can provide answers for these objections, I cannot see that what they advocate is anything more than a desperate and fantastic effort to avoid grappling with the real roots of our racial and cultural decline.

Francis favored a “take back America” strategy, which Taylor now considers hopeless. Despite its limitations, which Taylor accurately points out,, taking back America is the only strategy that is likely to appeal to white Americans. They still have a strong commitment to this country and its symbols, as evinced in Trump rallies and the recent fraternity demonstrations. Critics must recognize that Americans don’t have other traditions and symbols to rally around. A separate white identity from America isn’t apparent in our country. One would have to be created, which would be a tall task for any political movement. Ethnogenesis is a long process and is influenced by events largely out of our hands. We can get a number of our readers into this mindset, but we won’t have the same impact on the general public. It’s easy to invent a reality we want on the internet; it’s much harder to translate that into the real world. 

The type of racial consciousness whites would need for their homeland isn’t present. Only 15 percent of whites say their race is important to them (in contrast, the majority of every non-white group say their race is important to them). According to data collected by Erick Kaufmann for his book, Whiteshift, nearly 90 percent of the Trump voters he surveyed found that wanting a separate part of the country for your own race is racist. If Trump voters are strongly opposed to this idea, you have little constituency for it. 

Outside of its lack of popularity, there’s also the matter of whether America will allow this to happen. The answer is no. The Civil War set the precedent for the government’s attitude toward secession. The federal government would never allow white separatism in the US.

White separatism isn’t a new idea. The desire for a new country animated the alt-right as well. Yet, not much has come out of that idea. No symbols have been settled upon, no realistic territory has been drawn up, and no efforts have been made to build up a secessionist movement. Thus far, it has just been an idea debated on the Right. 

Calls to abandon ordinary politics are also common. (For the record, Taylor isn’t arguing that we should abandon them;he just doesn’t expect to have identitarian goals fulfilled through the ballot box.) However, few people come up with ideas of what we should do besides politics in the system we have. People always suggest creating intentional communities, but they rarely do that and the few attempts have failed miserably. There are always the rallies that don’t seem to achieve much besides displaying bad optics. There are even a vocal few who think going on welfare is far superior to electoral politics. 

Needless to say, there aren’t very good outlets to advance this cause outside of media creation and consumption. Like with the alt right, many will lose interest and find another hobby if there aren’t real-world results.

The main issue is arguably the message of “it’s over.” Most who hear it will not assume it’s time to take up a new strategy. They will think it’s literally over and there’s nothing they can do about it. Given little avenues to work towards a separate white state and little appetite for it among the public, people will opt to give up on politics altogether. Why worry about things you can’t change?

For many Americans, it doesn’t feel over. The statue destruction and demographic situation disturbs a great number of whites, but it doesn’t bother them enough to want to start a revolution or form a breakaway state. They’re too well-off to consider this. They’re only open to ideas achievable within the system. An economic collapse or some other catastrophe may change their way of thinking, but such an unlikely situation could make our predicament even worse.

Sam Francis believed the most important task was to build group consciousness among whites. Once that’s done, we can then work out the possibilities of what can be achieved. Francis argued the best way to achieve this was through the framework of American nationalism. That stance is still true today.

There are still glimmers of hope. Some schools in Virginia are restoring their old names to honor Confederate heroes. Affirmative action is being chipped away at in court. Donald Trump looks poised to win another term and can do great things on immigration, racial quotas, and anti-white indoctrination in the government and in schools. The Overton Window has shifted considerably in just a decade. These things won’t take back America overnight, but they do offer signs of resistance. They demonstrate that the historic American people still haven’t given up. That’s hope.

It’s understandable to look around and wish to completely separate. But our people are nowhere near that stage. It’s better to promise an America our people can be proud of again than to abandon it entirely. Instead of delivering a country to ourselves, the separatism message limits our ability to reach the people we need to redpill.