05/24/2016
VDARE.com editor Peter Brimelow spoke at the American Renaissance Conferences. There will be video and a transcript of the speech later, but here’s the conference report from Amren.com:
Peter Brimelow, editor of VDARE.com, is one of the rare outsiders who predicted that Donald Trump would run for the presidency. “I had posted, saying he would run,” he said, “though I didn’t really believe it.” In like manner, at the 2015 American Renaissance conference, he talked about how a single speech can set the tone for an era. Examples would be Joseph McCarthy’s 1950 speech on Communists in the State Department and Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech in 1968. Mr. Trump’s June 16 announcement of his candidacy has likewise upended the political establishment. “One spark can start the conflagration,” he said. “It can be one spark or one politician.”As someone who has long promoted patriotic immigration reform–“the other kind is just another word for amnesty”–Mr. Brimelow echoed Ann Coulter’s opinion of Mr. Trump’s official position on immigration: “The greatest political document since the Magna Carta.” His policies respond to a deep yearning; at Trump rallies, audiences spontaneously start chanting “Build the wall, build the wall.”
Mr. Brimelow raised three questions about a Trump candidacy. First, can he win? Mr. Trump has been catching up with Mrs. Clinton in the polls, and he seems to be doing better than Mitt Romney with non-whites. Mr. Brimelow predicted that “if he can mobilize whites in a nation-wide ‘Southern strategy’ he could win by a landslide.”
Second, can he be trusted if he wins? “Absolutely not,” said Mr. Brimelow. “No politician can be trusted.” The important difference is that we know exactly what the other candidates would do, whereas there is at least some uncertainty with Trump. “He doesn’t seem drawn to the quiet life,” said Mr. Brimelow, “and facing down the beltway establishment is a sure-fire way to avoid the quiet life.”
Mr. Brimelow noted that the presidency is actually a much weaker office than that of the British prime minister, for example. President Trump could be like King Kong in the movie, tied down with hundreds of ropes and roaring. Still, much could be accomplished by thumping the bully pulpit and through “strategic deportations:” Whenever illegals “come out of the shadows” and demonstrate brazenly, the government could “round ’em up and ship ’em out.”
Third, what happens if Mr. Trump loses? “Hillary has made it very clear that anyone who gets in can stay,” said Mr. Brimelow, and “she could unleash an Angela-Merkel style tidal wave of immigrants, because she wants to deliver the death blow in the struggle for the future of America.”
“Last year,” said Mr. Brimelow, “I said it would take one speech. Now, I say it will take one election to make Mount America blow.” [AmRen 2016: The Wind is in Our Sails, AR Staff, American Renaissance, May 23, 2016]
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