After last year’s disaster in Charlottesville, very few white nationalists showed up to the follow-up rally in Washington, DC– which turned out to be “a total dud,” reports Vox.
Police and counterprotesters significantly outnumbered a small group of “Unite the Right” participants, with about 30 rallygoers, representing a loose coalition of groups including white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
They arrived in Vienna, Va., and took a public transit train into the city, where they headed to Lafayette Square across the street from the White House.
A sea of counter-protesters met the group during the hourlong gathering. Dozens of police officers were in the area, some on horseback. The far-right group had a permit to protest in the park until 7:30 p.m. but left shortly after 5 p.m., as it began to rain.
Some protesters threw eggs at police officers. Chants of “Go home Nazis” echoed through the park.
According to Vox news reporter German Lopez, there were plenty of reasons for the pathetic turnout from white nationalists, but the main reason is the disaster in Charlottesville.
“Charlottesville was a complete disaster,” he contended. “A moment that was supposed to somehow win white nationalists favor actively turned much of the nation against them when they engaged in violence and, in one case, literal murder.”
Lopez listed several more reasons for the low turnout, such as rallygoers fear of repercussions similar to that of Charlottesville.
“Several Charlottesville attendees had their identities revealed — which resulted not just in public shaming but in some attendees getting fired from their jobs,” said Lopez.
“That’s why neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin warned people to not go to this year’s rally, writing, ‘Getting doxed as a neo-Nazi street fighter will ruin your life, forever.’”
More, organizers of the 2017 Unite the Right have been embroiled in lawsuits filed by victims of the violence that took place.
And many of the alt-right’s biggest personalities, like Richard Spencer, lost funding platforms because, understandably, platforms like Patreon and PayPal didn’t want to be associated with advocates for the return of the Third Reich.
One white nationalist attendee (best known for sobbing uncontrollably at the thoughtof his imminent arrest) was even recently banned from entering the state of Virginia.
However, Jason Kessler, who organized the Unite the Right event, said he did not care about the low turnout.
“We had to prove the point we could do this rally and people would be safe” he concluded.
This summary was prepared by TCR staff reporter Megan Hadley.