Despite emails proving Stephen Miller is a white nationalist, in order to get rid of him we must be rid of Trump

While we have seen Donald Trump be obliged to jettison administration officials like Rob Porter because of media outcry over alleged domestic abuse, complaints about his retaining racists in his administration has not had a similar effect in dislodging them. The release of Stephen Miller’s emails to former Breitbart editor Katie McHugh by the Southern Poverty Law Center should have once and for all been the end of Miller’s tenure in the White House, but other than muted “outcries” in the media, a few letters and online petitions calling for his removal, Trump has felt no pressure to abandon his chief enforcer of the one issue that he has never wavered on since he first announced his campaign for president—stopping all immigration from what he and Miller consider “shithole” countries, and reestablishing a country that is white to the core.

Miller’s emails show a fascination with crime committed by immigrants, whether terrorist acts and the just plain every day variety. Despite conservative think tanks like the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and the Cato Institute finding that immigrants—legal or illegal—of any race or ethnicity are less likely than the “natives” of being incarcerated or committing violent crimes, Miller called such research “more lies about New America.” The “evidence” to support links between immigrants and crime is almost solely the province of groups or people with race on the brain, who scour the Internet for crimes committed by minorities, immigrants and Muslims, throw them all together and claim that just because there seems to be a “lot” of cases justifies making outrageous claims without context, relativity, or reality. The fact that most mass shootings are by white males is something that Miller has chosen to ignore; his emails do not address them in the particular, and when he does “refer” to them at all—as in the Dylann Roof shooting of nine black churchgoers—he changes the subject to portray Southern white men as “victims” of liberal thugs trying to “steal” their heritage, as in the removal of Confederate flags and “monuments” to rebellion and slavery. 

Miller complains that “New American” is a festering cesspool of potential foreign-born terrorists, proclaiming that it is “shocking to look at the list, as we’ve compiled, of the number of foreign-born terrorists in the United States on voluntarily [sic] visas we handed out. The U.S. has been taking in Muslim refugees for decades, without any kind of pause or assimilation effort, creating huge pockets of radicalization. What plays out as chaos in Europe has been a longer-running and far more orderly process in the United States wherein poor Muslim migrants are legally brought here, placed into un-integrated communities, given preferential treatment for jobs, welfare and affirmative action, and plugged into our grievance culture.”

Of course, the reality is that since 9/11 the “radicalism” that Miller is talking about is hard to find. There has been isolated incidents of terrorist acts by  immigrants and U.S. citizens who are Muslim, but these have been far out-numbered by acts of terrorism by whites. In the last few months, investigators in the “sleepy” rural New Jersey county of Sussex arrested two men in separate incidents. One, influenced by the white supremacist literature found in his home, had stockpiled weapons was planning to “shoot up” a hospital; the second man was found to have neo-Nazi paraphernalia, illegal assault weapons and a grenade launcher apparently in preparation for an attack. The New York Times reports that since 9/11 right-wing extremists have been responsible for more deaths than any other domestic terrorist category—and that was certainly true before 9/11, as the Oklahoma City bombing would amply prove. Miller, like all racists, doesn’t like to have his mind “confused” by acts of domestic terrorism that do not support his world view: “The word homegrown is a word designed to confuse the thinking mind…It also connotes it comes out of something innate to the host country, rather than the visitor.” Yes, no truer words coming out of confused man consumed with race hate. 

But Miller’s principle target of hate are Hispanic immigrants, and the “zero tolerance” policy, the warehousing of children, the changes to asylum rules that make it almost impossible for Hispanic migrants to claim asylum despite the very real violence they are trying escape that the U.S. has much blame for, and the attempt to enforce a “public charge” rule that was last put in place to keep people trying to escape death at the hands of the Nazis from “flooding” the country—these all are the “brainchild” of Jeff Sessions, Miller and Ken Cuccinelli, another Italian-American racist who currently is “acting” deputy secretary of the DHS, waiting to replace the “acting” secretary as soon as he is “qualified” to take his place. But Miller is the one who is really “in charge” of all immigration policy, regardless of who is in what place, after having gotten rid of all those who felt constrained by such things as “the law.” Like Trump, Miller appears to be acting as if this is still the age of the divine right of kings—his word is the law, and he is, as King Louis XIV said, “the state.” Or as Miller has said repeatedly on news shows, Trump’s—and by association, his—power is absolute and will not be “questioned.”

Miller was particularly enthralled with the “facts” as invented by VDare, a white nationalist website that among other things of a racist nature trafficked in the “white genocide” and “great replacement” mythology, which posits that nonwhite peoples, unless somehow “stopped,” will eventually displace white people all over the planet. But like Pat “Hispanics are out to destroy America” Buchanan and Ann Coulter, Miller sees Hispanic immigrants as the present “danger” and one that must be eradicated immediately. Of course, in order to get the public “acclimated” to the idea that Hispanics are a subhuman species that must be treated as little more than “vermin” and an “infestation”—the kind of imagery used in the Nazi film “The Eternal Jew”—there must be “proof” of this, and McHugh has admitted that during her time at Breitbart she was a willing partner in disseminating stories from far-right sources—including those recommended by Miller—that sought to portray Hispanic immigrants as sexually-obsessed monsters and violent criminals. Although Republicans have been portraying Hispanic immigrants in this manner in campaign literature on a regular basis since at least 2004, what is different is that the person at the very top—Trump, who is supposed to provide the moral compass for the country—is behaving exactly like the kind of ignorant, white trash bigot who should not be driving policy of any sort in this country.

Miller advocated for two 2013 FBI crime statistic links for Breitbart stories; neither one of them “proved” anything that should have been “useful.” For one thing, although the “ethnicity” of white offenders in homicide cases was not recorded by all states, in fact what the FBI could account for still very much debunked the idea that the majority of whites were the “victims” of nonwhites, and that immigrant crime was rampant. For example, 3005 homicide victims were classified as “white,” but 2509 of the offenders in those cases were also white. When in cases it could be broken down by “ethnicity,” there were still twice as many non-Hispanic white offenders as Hispanic. Out of 4850 total arrests (not convictions) for homicide, Hispanics accounted for 1052; out of 9671 arrests (not convictions) for sexual assault, Hispanics accounted for 2006. The FBI did not break down these statistics by legal status; how Miller believed that these two sets of statistics would “prove” any of his arguments in regard to immigrant crime just shows how “thinking” people with race on the brain can be “confused” by being attacked by too many numbers. To make things “easier” on his feverish mind, Miller and the far-right sources that provide his “proof” just “assume” that all Hispanics are immigrants; in fact 47 million out 52 Hispanics who are legal residents in this country are U.S. citizens. 

The email exchanging between Miller and McHugh in 2015 appear to be completely out of control, with Miller in particular seeming to spend hours and hours, day and night, scouring for stories on the Internet about minority and immigrant crime; it is literally his sole reason for being. One “story” idea curiously was to undermine the Hispanic news network show Univision for its coverage of immigrant bashing in the U.S., by accusing it of being “racist” against indigenous people: “1. Should people of Spanish descent, especially those living in immigrant communities, be banned from displaying the Spanish flag given Spanish conduct in Latin America? 2. Should [Univision anchor] Jorge Ramos apologize for Spanish conduct in Latin America, and redress it by ensuring more people of indigenous backgrounds have hosting duties on his network? 3. Should the cross be removed from immigrant communities, in light of the history of Spanish conquest?”

Of course Miller really doesn’t feel any “sympathy” for the plight of indigenous people in Central and Latin America; he just wanted to embarrass Univision. His emailing reestablishes the point: “I think the words ‘immigration reform’ should be redefined as meaning ‘immigration control’ and those who oppose ‘immigration control’ as proponents of mass immigration.” During the 2015-2016 primary season, Miller took to criticizing Sen. Marco Rubio in particular, probably because he is Hispanic: “Just a reminder that Rubio's (immigration) bill would have legalized tens of thousands of the most dangerous criminal aliens, including gang members, sex offenders, and those with multiple criminal convictions.” At another point, Miller complains of “Illegals with mental diseases, psychopathy, coming back to USA.” 

Miller several times referred to Pres. Calvin Coolidge, who apparently doesn’t get as much attention as he should concerning his racist views. Coolidge once wrote in advocating for what would eventually be the 1924 immigration law, “There are racial considerations too grave to be brushed aside for any sentimental reasons. Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend. … Quality of mind and body suggests that observance of ethnic law is as great a necessity to a nation as immigration law.” The irony of this was that by “racial,” Coolidge was also referring to certain “inferior” Europeans, such as those from southern, central and eastern Europe—those who did not “score” well on the U.S Army’s “intelligence” tests, which was actually more a measure of one’s English language literacy (Stephen J. Gould’s book The Mismeasure of Man does a good job of debunking this and other scientific racism and eugenics myths)

Miller also seems fascinated by racist novels like “The Camp of the Saints,” written by a racist Frenchman named Jean Raspail. The book tells of a “flotilla” of Indian migrants who arrive in France apparently with the intention to rape, plunder and depopulate France of white people. White nationalists fight back, in some cases by killing pro-immigrant “leftists.” In one passage, an old professor argues with a young "leftist" about a "multicultural" France. “But don’t you ever ask yourself what something like this would mean? The mixture of races, and cultures, and lifestyles? The different levels of ability, different standards of education. Why, it would mean the end of France as we know it, the end of the French as a nation.” He then shoots the "leftist" dead. Needless-to-say this book has gained some notoriety among white nationalists and neo-Nazis. Such is what you find on Miller’s book shelf. 

What do other Jews think of Miller? Not all find him an embarrassment. On the white nationalist website Occidental Observer, someone who describes himself as Jewish, a Marcus Alethia, Ph.D., asserts that “Young right-leaning Jews don’t have many Jewish figures to look up to… But thankfully we now have Stephen Miller, the 32-year old Trump advisor and immigration hard-liner recently blamed by Democratic senators for scuttling their desired amnesty deal for illegal immigrants…Jews, and Americans overall, need more Stephen Millers. Brash, unafraid, quick-witted, verbally formidable, and unabashedly “America First,” Miller is a powerful spokesman for economic nationalist positions, anti-globalism, and for preserving this country’s original culture and people against the Democratic scheme to flood it with illegal and legal immigrants whose main gift to America will be their reliable Democratic votes in every future election… Yes, we Jews have Miller, but we also have the ADL and the SPLC — powerful well-funded groups who conduct witch hunts against anyone who dares speak out against multiculturalism, open-borders, globalist doctrine, or who dares to criticize Jews.” 

He goes on: “Jewish political influence in the US is still overwhelmingly negative, despite the great work of a few good Jews… Like many non-Jewish critics of Jews, I just want Jews to stop attacking Europeans and their descendants in their former colonies by pushing destructive ideologies and policies…To look at just one simple factor: the people pouring into the US in recent years are no more Jew-friendly then the White Americans who made up almost 90% of the county in 1960 were. In fact, they are likely to be considerably less Jew friendly. Mexicans have no special relationship with Jews or with Israel.  Neither do Somalis, or Syrians, or Afghans…there is no tangible benefit today to ordinary American Jews today from the importation of quarter of Mexico’s population, or to ordinary French Jews from a million new Muslims. To think otherwise is to deny reality.”

I don’t know how many people of the Jewish persuasion actually accept this “justification” for racially-inspired immigration policy, simply because nonwhite immigrants offer no “benefit” to Jewish people. But we’ll assume that there are more Millers out there, especially in orthodox Jewish communities; in New York these communities have had a history of anti-black conflict. The question of whether established neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups view the Jewish Miller as a “kindred spirit” is an interesting one. The SPL Center notes that anti-Semitic white nationalists are of a dual mindset in regard to Miller. For example Andrew Anglin of the neo-Nazi  Daily Stormer decided to overlook Miller’s religion:

“The thing here is: Stephen Miller… actually is pushing for white nationalist policies. That doesn’t mean he is a ‘white nationalist.’ But all of the policies he is advocating are the ones that white nationalists would be advocating in his position. Again: everything that he does is intended to stop brown people coming in while getting as many as possible out. It is simply a fact that there is nothing I have seen this Jew do that I disagree with. I don’t know what that means, or really feel a strong need to make a determination about what that means. I’m happy with him continuing doing what he is doing, as he appears to be doing it very well.”

Miller also apparently knew and associated with white nationalist Richard Spencer while at Duke University; Spencer, who denies being a neo-Nazi but embraces Nazi racial ideology and the trappings of power (he allegedly demands that followers give him a "Sieg Heil" salute when he enters a room), is another person who also didn't seem to mind Miller's religious affiliation. Although Miller denies an association with Spencer, who advocates for a white "ethnostate" both here and in Europe, Spencer himself told Mother Jones that “It’s funny no one’s picked up on the Stephen Miller connection. I knew him very well when I was at Duke. But I am kind of glad no one’s talked about this because I don’t want to harm Trump.”

Yet in the face of calls to fire Miller, Trump has attacked Miller’s detractors as being “anti-Semitic.” Six Jewish groups have issued an online petition calling for Miller’s ouster, noting that “As American Jews, we are outraged that this administration would use the rising anti-Semitism for which it is responsible to deflect away from its embrace of white nationalists like Miller. The White House is trying to render the word ‘anti-Semitism’ meaningless, while simultaneously inciting violence against Jews. American Jews will not be spoken for. We speak for ourselves, and our demand is clear: Stephen Miller must resign.”

Yes, Miller must resign or be fired. But that won’t happen because when it comes right down to it, most Americans, while not necessarily condoning his views, don’t really feel any empathy or identification with the people who are being denied their human dignity. That is just the plain fact. Even 10,000 emails of a white supremacist bent won’t change that. As long as Miller continues to do Trump’s bidding and doesn’t say anything to offend him, Trump will have his “back.” In the end, the only way to get rid of Miller is to get rid of Trump.