White Shadow: David Duke's Lasting Influence on American White Supremacy
For a failed perennial candidate, David Duke is casting a long political shadow.
The avowed neo-Nazi and former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard never became a governor, a U.S. Senator or president, despite electoral bids for each.
But his stunning victory in a Louisiana legislative special election 30 years ago in February 1989 wasn鈥檛 a political aberration.
Instead, Duke鈥檚 win set off a larger fight that鈥檚 ongoing today as the Republican Party sees more candidates and officeholders who used to be considered the racist fringe of the political spectrum.
The issues, language and techniques Duke used to score an upset over fellow Republican John Treen in a district just outside of New Orleans proved instructive. Duke鈥檚 techniques showed others with extreme or far-right views how to dress up sometimes racist and xenophobic positions to win elective office.
Today, Republicans mimic Duke鈥檚 language on immigration and diversity. Hardcore racists copy the style and image Duke started to cultivate in the 1970s. Some candidates even court Duke鈥檚 supporters and appear on his podcasts.
Duke鈥檚 lone winning campaign, the only successful one in the United States by an avowed neo-Nazi, has cast a long shadow on America鈥檚 political landscape and laid the groundwork for an attempted takeover of the Republican Party.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (蜜桃传媒) tracked more than 300 candidates in 2018 with varying ties to extremism in the last election cycle.
The 蜜桃传媒 tracked neo-Nazis, racists, white supremacists, antigovernment zealots, and, to an extent, President Donald Trump. These candidates follow Duke鈥檚 campaign playbook of using racist dog whistle language, couching their ideas in innocuous language and cleaning up their looks for good optics.
President Trump went one step beyond mimicking Duke. Trump retweeted white nationalist and conspiracy theorists Lauren Southern and Paul Joseph Watson the weekend of May 4.
Duke did not respond to multiple interview requests from Hatewatch. But he told the Huffington Post in February 2017 that he was 听and Republicans taking up his issues.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 about time,鈥 Duke said in the Huffington Post interview. 鈥淚 think there鈥檚 a tremendous amount of frustration in the white community and that we鈥檙e at a tipping point.鈥
Duke鈥檚 mainstreaming of white nationalist language sets the table for what鈥檚 happening today in GOP politics.
鈥淚n some ways what we saw in Louisiana was sort of a dress rehearsal for conservative Republicans to learn how to appeal to frustrated whites,鈥 Tyler Bridges, a reporter who chronicled Duke in the book 听told Hatewatch. 鈥淭rump has very strongly tapped into that. It鈥檚 helpful to understand Donald Trump today by understanding who David Duke has been.鈥
Image reinvention
Duke, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, started his political and racist activism 50 years ago as a 听on the campus of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
Democratic political consultant James Carville, an LSU student at the same time as Duke, recalls Duke taking advantage of Free Speech Alley, a place on campus where anyone could pull up a soapbox and let their thoughts and opinions fly.
鈥淚t was college,鈥 Carville told Hatewatch. 鈥淎t LSU, he was just sort of one of those things that was part of campus. There鈥檚 the campus Nazi.鈥
But for a young white supremacist on the rise, parading around looking like a member of the Hitler Youth 鈥 about three decades after the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II 鈥 wasn鈥檛 a good image.
A couple of years out of college, with a degree in history in tow, Duke incorporated the Ku Klux Klan, Realm of Louisiana, in 1975. Quickly, Duke ascended in the group, rising to become the youngest leader in Klan history at age 24. He changed the leadership title from 鈥淕rand Dragon鈥 to 鈥淕rand Wizard鈥 and, while still wearing white robes and hoods for impact, also incorporated blue business suits to professionalize the group鈥檚 image.
During this time, Duke also denounced the Klan鈥檚 violent history, opened membership to women, and allowed Catholic members, which in heavily Catholic south Louisiana was a necessity to keep membership up.
鈥淲omen are the same as men in our organization,鈥 Duke said then. 鈥淚n fact, some of our best members are women.鈥
Much like Duke throughout his life, the changes were simply cosmetic. There were few questions about the Klan鈥檚 ongoing aims.
It also marked the first major change to Duke鈥檚 image and coincided with some of his early political activity.
Duke ran for state legislative office multiple times in the 1970s and 1980s in Baton Rouge and suburban New Orleans.
He also made a presidential bid on the virulently racist and antisemitic Populist Party ticket in 1988. He took 47,047 votes, for 0.04% of the national popular vote.
Less than a year later, Duke abandoned the Populist Party and signed on with the GOP.
Gone were the polyester suits, the shaggy hair parted to the side, flat cheekbones and minimal chin. The new-look Duke 鈥 with blow-dried hair, a strong chin and cheekbones, courtesy of surgical procedures 鈥 could have stepped out from behind the anchor desk of a local television station.
The cosmetic changes came with a new message. No more talk of Jews, blacks and minorities. Duke now talked about 鈥渆qual rights for all,鈥 preserving heritage and reforming government programs. Duke adapted the political language of presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Duke criticized welfare, immigration and affirmative action, sharpening and using such language to mask his far-right positions and policy proposals, such as requiring people receiving government benefits to have pregnancy-prevention devices implanted in their bodies.
鈥淗e wanted to mainstream white nationalism,鈥 said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
After being seated in the Louisiana House of Representatives, Duke filed a small batch of bills, but only one, an anti-affirmative action plan, ever got to a vote on the House floor. It passed. The Louisiana State Senate allowed it to die.
Underneath the political image, Duke maintained his Nazi and racist ties, even selling Nazi literature from his home, which doubled as his legislative office.
But the public-facing candidate and legislator had more of a mass appeal.
Duke took 671,009 votes out of 1.6 million cast in the 1991 gubernatorial race, but also snagged 55 percent of the white vote.
鈥淗e was able to reinvent himself as something very different than what he really was,鈥 said Bob Mann, a former U.S. Senate aide who teaches communication at Louisiana State University.
Between 1990 and 1992, Duke ran for U.S. Senate, for Louisiana governor, and in the U.S. presidential primaries, and lost each time. But in losing, Duke helped others win. He blazed a path that other candidates, including one from his backyard, would follow in the years to come.
Without baggage
Steve Scalise, a young, local, Catholic school graduate and computer technology businessman, cut an attractive figure when he got into state electoral politics in the New Orleans area.
He also knew the district in which he was running was predominantly white, older and conservative, just like the district that elected Duke.
Stephanie Grace, now a columnist for The Advocate in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, met Scalise early in his political career. At the time, Grace was a young reporter for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, and Scalise was an aspiring politician.
鈥淭his is what I remember about the first time I met Steve Scalise nearly 20 years ago: He told me he was like David Duke without the baggage,鈥 .
The context was that Scalise would adopt Duke鈥檚 issues, which were becoming mainstream Republican ideas, without his background in the Klan and neo-Nazi movements.
鈥淪calise was saying a lot of the same things Duke was staying without the racism and antisemitism. Trump makes comments today 鈥 in much of the same way that David Duke did 25-30 years ago,鈥 Bridges said.
Scalise鈥檚 claim of distance from Duke came into question in 2014, after it became public that Scalise spoke as an 鈥渉onored guest鈥 to the European-American Unity and Rights Organization听(EURO), a racist and antisemitic group听once led by Duke and his top lieutenant, Kenny Knight.
But as Scalise went from state legislator to the number two Republican in the U.S. House, that incident haunted him and, by late 2014, he called speaking to the group a mistake听while insisting he didn鈥檛 know it was a white supremacist organization.
In short, Scalise was courting Duke鈥檚 voters while denying he knew they were Duke鈥檚 voters.
鈥淗e walked into a white supremacist and neo-Nazi convention and didn鈥檛 immediately turn around and walk out,鈥 said Lamar White Jr., a lawyer and blogger 听of Scalise鈥檚 speech to EURO. 鈥淚t sounds like the speech he made was tailor-made for a bunch of white racists.鈥
For Carville, the use of couched language is typical of Duke and his imitators. Certain words and phrases are a giveaway, Carville said.
Carville said many Duke supporters use coded language to hide the racist meaning behind what they are saying. 鈥淸Duke] had more respectable people for him than respectable people want to admit,鈥 Carville said.
Others used Duke鈥檚 way with language to great effect.
鈥淗e definitely foreshadowed what we鈥檙e seeing now,鈥 Mann said. 鈥淎 lot of people who voted for Duke are still around. They still walk among us.鈥
Both U.S. Sen. David Vitter, who represented much of Duke鈥檚 old legislative district while serving in the state House and later Congress, and former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal opposed welfare and immigration and sounded like Duke when discussing it.
鈥淲e need to insist on assimilation 鈥 immigration without assimilation is invasion. We need to insist people that want to come to our country should come legally,鈥 . 鈥淸They] should learn English and adopt our values, roll up their sleeves and get to work.鈥
White said Jindal took Duke鈥檚 issues but made them palatable.
鈥淭here were a few instances where it almost seemed verbatim from David Duke,鈥 White said.
Others have been very direct about copying Duke鈥檚 language.
鈥淔irst off, I鈥檓 not a racist,鈥 . 鈥淚 love my heritage but I believe in equal rights, and I don鈥檛 think you have to put down the races to defend your own.鈥
Wisconsin Republican Paul Nehlen,听an avowed white supremacist听but without Duke鈥檚 Klan background, has appeared on Duke鈥檚 podcasts on Rense Radio Network, which hosts antisemitic and neo-Nazi broadcasts as well as promotes conspiracy theories.
And, in those appearances, Nehlen sounds remarkably like Duke from his political days.
鈥淲e should be proud of our history. We鈥檙e not suggesting others should not be proud of their history,鈥 Nehlen said in February 2018 on Duke鈥檚 show. 鈥淏ut听neither should we back down.鈥
The appearance on Duke鈥檚 radio show was a direct appeal to his followers as Nehlen sought the GOP nomination for Congress in Wisconsin in 2018. He lost.
Fear of minorities
One of the issues Duke pushed on the campaign trail, and still pushes hard on his podcasts and Twitter, is the idea that white people are being overtaken and discriminated against.
The concept of white grievance and fear of minorities has been around for a while 鈥 but usually tucked neatly into the couched language of respectable campaigning. George H.W. Bush and his campaign strategist Lee Atwater did it in 1988, pushing such themes in commercials about black inmates being furloughed, like in .
Duke, a year later and since, has taken it on directly.
鈥淚 do think that there are certain tendencies, certain behavioral tendencies, that are more inherited, and I think that blacks generally, in terms of our society, have more of a tendency to act in anti-social ways,鈥欌 . 鈥淚 think blacks have more of a tendency to commit crime.鈥
Lawrence N. Powell, a Tulane University history professor and a founder of the anti-Duke group the , sees a direct line between Duke鈥檚 rise in Louisiana 30 years ago and the current political environment in America.
鈥淲hat happened here in the late eighties and early nineties presaged the ethno-nationalist backlash taking place today,鈥 Powell told Hatewatch.
U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, may be the best example of Duke鈥檚 war playing out. King, who has been known to retweet white supremacists and nationalists, told CNN in 2017 that 鈥渨estern civilization鈥 must be defended.
And, when asked, King declined to say if he believed an American Muslim, an Italian American and a Jewish American could all contribute equally to society.
鈥淭hey contribute differently to our culture and civilization,鈥 . 鈥淚ndividuals will contribute differently, not equally to this civilization and society. Certain groups of people will do more from a productive side than other groups of people will.鈥
Duke even took to the U.S.-Mexico border before it became a hot issue.
Duke hyped the , which he said was an attempt to help federal officers arrest people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego.
It turned out to be Duke and three buddies in an old sedan with a sign attached to the side of the car.
, of which Duke was the publisher, advocated beginning 鈥渢he creation of the Superman鈥听by shooting 鈥渋f necessary鈥 illegal aliens entering the U.S. across the southern border.
鈥淭he answer? 鈥 Create a narrow no-man鈥檚 land on our southern border. Shoot interlopers if necessary and establish army bases all along the border and use soldiers to help patrol the border if the above measures don鈥檛 meet with enough success.鈥
Trump has faced criticism for hinting border agents 听and for making a joke after a supporter . He has also deployed 听to the border and says he wants to send more.
Trump called for the U.S. military to patrol the border in May 2018 in an attempt to secure it, even though border crossings in 2017 were at the lowest level since 1971.
鈥淯ntil we can have a wall and proper security, we鈥檙e going to be guarding our border with the military,鈥澨
Nehlen, on Duke鈥檚 radio show in January, echoed the NAAWP editorial more directly.
鈥淎rmed machine gun turrets every 300 yards,鈥 Nehlen told Duke of his vision for the border wall. 鈥淎nd you can automate those. Anyone who approaches that barrier will be treated as an enemy combatant. Man, woman or child.鈥
To Mann, comments like that are more than an echo.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 pretty easy to draw a straight line,鈥 Mann said.
White sheet blues
Gone are the days of the white-sheeted Klansman or brown-shirted Nazi spewing racist and antisemitic comments.
Today鈥檚 extremist candidate looks good in a blue business suit, button-down shirt听and neatly coiffed hair.
It鈥檚 a style Duke used to great effect in 1989, his 1990 U.S. Senate run and his 1991 gubernatorial bid in Louisiana, in which he won 55 percent of the white vote.
Others have followed that reinvention.
Art Jones, a professional neo-Nazi who won the GOP congressional nomination by default in an Illinois district in 2018, has abandoned overtly Nazi symbols and language in exchange for a blue suit, crisp white shirt and red striped tie on his campaign website.
Others, such as Nehlen, opt for more casual wear of button-down shirts with the sleeves rolled up or jeans.
And, among the politicians, gone are the Nazi-style and militaristic haircuts. Neatly cropped hair, even slight comb-overs, are the order of the day for most politicians.
Patrick Casey, the 29-year-old head of Identity Evropa, puts on sweaters, collared shirts and khakis to go with close-cropped hair, as he did early in 2018 at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., where he blended in at the large-scale Republican gathering.
Casey is hoping to carry Duke鈥檚 work to a new plateau. 鈥淭o take over the GOP as much as possible,鈥 .
Leonard Zeskind, president of the Institute for Research and Education of Human Rights and author of Blood and Politics: The History of White Nationalism from the Margins to the Mainstream, knows exactly what Casey and others are pitching.
鈥淚t is not ethnonationalism, but white supremacy,鈥 Zeskind said.
The new look has spread even to those extremists not running for office.
These days, people such as Richard Spencer, the self-described intellectual force behind the 鈥渁lt-right,鈥 and his cohorts such as Evan McLaren, are more likely to have a prep school look or a blue suit.
At the 鈥淯nite the Right鈥 rally in August 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, many of the racists and extremists gathered not wearing stormtrooper boots, but khakis. The Proud Boys, another hate group, favor Fred Perry short-sleeved golf shirts.
It鈥檚 all an attempt to look normal and acceptable. It can be traced back to Duke鈥檚 political rise, said White, the attorney and blogger.
鈥淗e was always this guy,鈥 White said of Duke. 鈥淗e was always a neo-Nazi. But he dressed himself up and people were willing to believe him.鈥
A long, white shadow
Donald Trump came down the escalator of his hotel in New York in 2015 to announce his candidacy for president and took to calling Mexican immigrants criminals of all stripes.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e sending people that have lots of problems, and they鈥檙e bringing those problems with us. They鈥檙e bringing drugs. They鈥檙e bringing crime. They鈥檙e rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,鈥 Trump said in June 2015.
It was a moment that fired up his base of aggrieved white voters. It also fired up Duke for his 2016 U.S. Senate run.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 fair to draw a line connecting David Duke to Donald Trump,鈥 Bridges said.
In his 2016 announcement video, Duke, who spent 15 months in federal prison for tax fraud, promised to 鈥渟top the massive immigration and ethnic cleansing of the people whose forefathers created America.鈥 He declared, 鈥淲e cannot have free trade without fair trade.鈥 And he said he was 鈥渙verjoyed to see Donald Trump and most Americans embrace most of the issues that I鈥檝e championed for years.鈥
Duke pulled about 58,000 votes out of 1.9 million cast in that 2016 race to replace the retiring Vitter, a Republican caught in a prostitution scandal. That placed him seventh in a field of 24 candidates 鈥 25 years after his last statewide run for governor.
He also backed Trump in February 2016, saying on the 鈥淒avid Duke Radio Program鈥: 鈥淰oting for these people, voting against Donald Trump at this point, is really treason to your heritage.鈥
Trump initially refused to denounce Duke, even going so far to say as he didn鈥檛 know who the former Klan leader was. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know anything about what you鈥檙e even talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists,鈥 . 鈥淪o I don鈥檛 know. I don鈥檛 know 鈥 did he endorse me, or what鈥檚 going on? Because I know nothing about David Duke; I know nothing about white supremacists.鈥
After five days of bad publicity, Trump simply said 鈥淚 disavow鈥 when asked about Duke鈥檚 endorsement.
Duke, who stays active on Twitter, has also injected himself into political races elsewhere, endorsing Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right wing candidate for president of Brazil, in October. Bolsonaro rejected the endorsement. He also won the election.
Also, Duke鈥檚 connection to Scalise has turned up in a Democratic ad questioning the House Republican鈥檚 speech to EURO.
In the ad, the narrator describes Scalise as 鈥渓inked to KKK leader David Duke鈥 as his picture appears behind the newspaper headline 鈥淪teve Scalise Once Defended Himself Against Links to David Duke.鈥
Duke himself has faded from the electoral scene, a result of scandals, criminal convictions and his brand of politics being taken on by more mainstream politicians, Levin said.
鈥淗e won鈥檛 go away,鈥 Mann said.
Carville suspects he knows why.
鈥淩acism is a potent strain in politics,鈥 he said.
And, if Duke鈥檚 legacy is any guide, a long-lasting one.
