I would have to disagree. If we are talking about governance, I just don’t see any objective comparison of the Obama terms and what we have seen so far in Trump’s that can conclude that the left is equally extremist or dangerous in that capacity – campus kerfuffles notwithstanding.

Now being unimpressed with a party and seeing it as the root of the current Alt-Right ideology are two different things. I’m not especially impressed with the Democratic Party at the moment either. I think there is a dire need for them to step up to bat in order to provide a firewall between a toxic president (and his party) and the rest of the country. I’m not sure they are up to it. I desperately hope they are.

I personally believe that we would be in less danger now if Hillary had won, though I certainly didn’t see her as my ideal president (very few are). But between her and Trump, I couldn’t vote for her fast enough. However, as I said, extremes beget more extremes – it will get worse on both sides.

I just don’t agree. I think the left is just as tribal at home, and just as globalist/interventionist abroad. They are certainly just as bought and paid for by Wall Street and the large banks. For every nutcase on the right, there is one on the left. I don’t say this out of antipathy for the left, or out of some polemic tit for tat. I would have voted for Bernie if he had won the Dem nomination, as I view his brand of “college sophomore socialism” as relatively benign and easily tempered by practical realities. I’m just flat-out unimpressed with Dems (especially where they have actually had an opportunity to govern), and just as alarmed by their brand of extremism:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cMYfxOFBBM

I would concur with David on this. Many of the values you espouse are explicitly counter to the alt-right, especially since you appear to have a belief in our constitutional republic which they explicitly do not. I do not read in your posts any idea that the only way to advance is to reduce others, which is a common theme on what is considered the alt-right (women’s rights infringe on men’s rights/racial justice punishes white people/economic gains occur when other nations or groups lose/etc).

However little comfort you may get from “going left,” the views you describe for yourself are definitely left of the prevailing ideology of the GOP, and certainly the Alt-Right. The latter do not just hold views which differ from the traditional right wing positions, but which are often rooted in those traditional views taken to the extreme. In many ways they are simply the logical extension of where the Right has been headed, whether they realized it or not.

As Obama said recently, Trump et al are a symptom of a problem that has been in the making for a long time, not the problem itself. As someone who has voted from both sides of the aisle since the 80s, I agree with that wholeheartedly. As this process advances, extremes beget more extremes. In the end, I think it is unhealthy across the board, but one can’t avoid the fact that, as of now, this is rooted in the right wing.

I’ve never found Libertarianism to be a viable ideology for a modern society. It seems little more than a reaction to the idea that both sides are equally bad and so a pox on both your houses, just leave me alone. In the end, it solves nothing so perhaps we agree there. That’s not to say, as with most ideologies, that there aren’t some bits of it that it shares with the others. Few complex positions are entirely wrong (or right).

Well, then I am now alt-right, because I reject the likes of Bill Kristol and the Bush clan, who want a sort of crypto-colonialist American Empire and have spent decades hollowing out the middle class. My unease at those things is not remedied by going left, and libertarianism is more of a counterbalance than a solution. Certainly I am not going the racist way of despicable Ann Coulter, nor do I support Trump (which is not to suggest I support nothing that Trump does, only that I think he is a neuroses-addled manbaby with monarchical tendencies who may need to be removed from office).

Our American Constitutional ideals are the common foundation upon which a truly diverse society can live in peace, with universal guarantees of liberty. I 100% believe that. Europe has utterly failed in this regard, but we can succeed, as we have externalized and codified our ideals, and we have never experienced the “benefit” of centuries of unchallenged homogeny.