A member of the Texas GOP’s 2018 platform committee has proudly dubbed himself a “white nationalist,” arguing that nationalism has nothing to do with race superiority.
Ray Myers took to Facebook last week and declared to his followers, “Damn right, I’m a white nationalist and very proud of it,” The Texas Observer reported.
Ray Myers, 74, (left, posing with Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz) accused the left of trying to make white folks feel bad about their heritage. (Image courtesy of Facebook)
Myers, a former delegate for Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz‘s 2016 presidential bid, defended his statements in an interview with the newspaper, saying he saw nothing wrong with labeling himself a white nationalist. For him, it’s all part of being a “patriot” and putting “America first,” a sentiment recently echoed by President Donald Trump.
“I am Anglo and I’m very proud of it, just like black people and brown people are proud of their race,” Myers, 74, said. “I’m a patriot. I’m very proud of my country. And white nationalist, all that means is America first. That’s exactly what that means.”
“That’s where the president’s at,” he continued. “That’s where I’m at and that’s where every solid patriotic American is.”
Like Trump, Myers proceeded to attack the mainstream media and accused the left of pushing a narrative aimed at making white Americans feel ashamed of their heritage. He then compared using the term “white nationalist” to African-Americans declaring that “Black Lives Matter.”
“Is there anything wrong with saying they’re Black and proud?,” he argued. “I mean, just like Black Lives Matter, white lives matter, too. We’re all in the same melting pot. Now why can’t we say, as Anglos, that we’re proud?”
J.T. Edwards, an African-American member of the State Republican Executive Committee, denounced Myers’ comments in a statement Friday.
“To have so-called white nationalists in our party is basically an abomination of the very foundations of the Republican Party,” Edwards told the newspaper. “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Mr. Myers’s position is part of the problem.”
Myers’ remarks come two months after Trump faced backlash for chiding “globalist” leaders and also labeling himself a “nationalist.” When asked to clarify what he meant, the POTUS scoffed at the idea that it had any racial underpinnings and insisted his use of the term was purely patriotic.
“To me, I don’t have to clarify. It means I love the country,” Trump told Fox News. “It means I’m fighting for the country.”
The Anti-Defamation League defines white nationalism as a form of white supremacy “that emphasizes defining a country or region by white racial identity and which seeks to promote the interests of whites exclusively, typically at the expense of people of other backgrounds.”
The Observer noted that Myers has been involved in GOP politics for years and was one of the Texas Republicans chosen to craft the party’s platform for 2018.
Among other things, the platform features pushes for several questionable objectives, including “English, and only English” voter ballots, “reasonable use of profiling” to nab radical Islamic terrorists and the prohibition of any kind of immigration amnesty. The party’s executive committee unanimously passed a “non-discrimination” resolution this weekend that affirmed its support of religious liberty within the party, the newspaper also reported.
When asked about Myers comments, a Texas GOP spokesman referred to the “non discrimination” resolution and a remark from Republican Party Chairman James Dickey insisting “racism and bigotry is not what the Republican Party of Texas stands for.”
https://www.texasobserver.org/damn-right-im-a-white-nationalist-declares-texas-gop-platform-committee-member/
