In vino veritas, or perhaps more appropriately, in Bud Light veritas: These were the words that came to mind while I watchedSaturday's Proud Boys riot in Washington, D.C.

For years, the Proud Boys have angrily resisted critics who say the group is racist, claiming instead to be for "Western chauvinism."Before the heat got to him and he quit, Proud Boys founder (and onetime Vice co-founder) Gavin McInnes described the group as being "alt-right without the racism." The Boys'insistence that they are absolutely, definitely not a bunch of racistseven led to ugly infighting when a splinter group broke off over the refusal of group leaderstocommit to overtly white nationalistbeliefs.

But on one Saturday night in Washington, fueled by alcohol and rage over Donald Trump's electoral defeat, the pretense that "Western chauvinism" is not a racist ideology collapsed. After hours of drinking and ginning themselves up, the Proud Boys stole Black Lives Matter flags and targeted counter-protesters who were gathered in Black Lives Matter Plaza. A group of Proud Boys dramatically lit a large Black Lives Matter flag on fire, while flashing the "OK" sign, which of late has been appropriated by racists as a "white power" symbol. Vandalismat two historically Blackchurches,Asbury United Methodist Church and Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, is being investigated as a hate crime.Four people were stabbed in altercations between the Proud Boys and counter-protesters.

Saturday's rally was ostensibly about protesting Trump'sloss and claiming that he wasthe victim of a "rigged" election. But with inhibitions loosened by booze, angerand literal (as well as metaphorical)darkness, the truth was illuminated: The rage about Donald Trump's electoral fateis about racism.It's a part of the growing fury taking hold of conservativesastheir control over American culture slips further and further out of their grasp. Trump is just the latest vehicle for this anger, but this story is about a lot more than him. It's bigger even than electoral politics. This is about a more fundamental issue: over Who gets to define America,and the widespreadreactionary outrage over being outnumbered by more liberal, more diverse and more cosmopolitan Americans, and feeling unable to stop the tide of progress.

Trump was able to amass an extraordinary 74.2 million voters with a message of resentment at "political correctness" and "woke" culture, a story about how conservative white people are supposedly being victimized by a changing America. But as much as that campaign whipped up millions of Americans, at the heart of it all was a misdirection. What conservatives really want iscontrol over the culture. Thatisn't something that can be won at the ballot box, and they know it.

If the actual goal of the angry right werecontrol over governance and policy, they should be thrilledby the past year.

Despite Trump's defeat, the GOP has maintained control over the Senate (pending the results of Georgia's runoff elections next month) and gained at least 10 seats in the House, nibbling the Democratic majority down to a bare minimum. They have alsopacked the federal courts so thoroughly that meaningful Democratic legislation may be impossible to enact for at least a generation. Unless Democrats can pull upsets in both of the Georgia races to be decided on Jan. 5,incoming President Joe Biden will be hamstrung by all-too-familiar obstructionist Republicans.

But instead of being happy or at least begrudgingly accepting what was mostly a win for Republicans, the right has exploded inrage. That's because Donald Trump's defeatwas a reminder thatno matter how much Republicans maintain power through a drastically tilted electoral playing field, conservatives are still, culturally speaking, a minority and one that's shrinking rapidly, at that.

This is why right-wingers always act like angry losers, no matter how many political wins they stack up. There's a limit to how much cultural change can be reversed at the ballot box or even in the courts. Of course, thepolicy fights over police reform, reproductive rights, same-sex marriageand immigration matter quite a bit to real people's lives. But even when the right wins on policy, the cultural changes racial diversity, women's increased equality, the mainstreaming of LGBTQ people march on. That's why Proud Boys targetedBlack Lives Matter iconography instead of, say, the offices of Democratic Party leaders or progressivethink tanks.

The same weekend that Proud Boys were throwing a public tantrum in Washington, Cleveland's baseball team finally gave in to longstanding pressure and announced itwould drop its venerable but racist name, the "Indians." The move comesafter the NFL team in D.C. dropped its formername, which was a far more viciousslur against Native Americans. Trump, unsurprisingly, whined about the Clevelanddecisionon Twitter, calling it "Cancel culture at work," even though the team's privateownersmade the decisionand its players will take the field next season as usual. Even in using thatterm, Trump tacitly admittedthat his poweras president, andas massivecultural icon to the right, can do nothing to stop the anti-racist pressure campaign that caused thename change.

Trump's ultimately futile war over the military's move toban Confederate iconography and rename bases currently named after Confederate figuresis similar. That'sa lost cause, and not just because Trump will soon leave office and the military will just proceed with itsplansunder Biden. Military leaders are making these decisions themselves,reflecting changes that have already occurring withinmilitary culture as the services have becomemore racially diverse and more open towomen.

There are any number of otherexamples. Even as the right keeps on railingagainst these cultural changes, it can't help but reflect them. For instance, Saturday's right-wing rally featured an extremely lame hip-hop act, juxtaposing right-wing cultural appropriation with overt acts of racism. But this seeming contradictionis just SOP for Trumpers. Trump himself would dance badly to songs by the Village People at rallies where he'd promise to appoint more right-wing judges to strip LGBTQ people of their rights.

What else are conservativessupposed to do? Have crap music at their events? Even "Western chauvinists" understand thatif they limitthemselves to white, straight,conservative-oriented music, they're doomed to host a lame party. So they borrow very heavily from the samecultures they view as an existentialthreat to "America."

Again, that's why right-wingers eternally act likevictims, no matter how many electoral wins they rack up. "MAGA" was a promise to restore a fantasy version of an American white-bread past. The entire Republican National Convention was a lengthy whine about "cancel culture" and "political correctness," which areright-wing scare terms to demonize shifting social mores that reject open bigotry. The implicit promise was that, by electing Trump for four more years, he would make it socially acceptable to be shitty again. That promiseturned out more than 74 million people.

Make no mistake, Trump did a lot of damage in four years: He wrecked the economy, unleashed a pandemic, made the lives of immigrants miserable androlled back environmental protections the list goeson. But he wasn't able to dothe one thing that his supporters most dearly wanted, which was to remake the culture in their image. He couldn't do that in four years, and he wasn't going to do it in eight. It's not impossible to use political power to do such a thing the Jim Crow South and Nazi Germany being the most obvious examples but it generally requires heavy-handed state violence and censorship crackdowns that Trump flirted with but was never remotelyable to implement on the scalenecessary to fulfill those MAGA desires.

None of which is to say that everything will bejust dandy now that Trump is leavingoffice. Racism, sexism, homophobia and other bigotries continue to be a major poison. Systematic racismstill creates majorinequalities in health, wealth and other social markers.To say that the culture is changing isn't to say that it haschanged, and the right-wing assault on human rights is causing real people real pain every day. But none of these realities placate conservatives, who are still enraged that progressives continue to push for and often gain ground, especially in the cultural sphere.

And nowa neofascist movement has been unleashed in the U.S. Trump's failed coup was, for him, about ego and power. For his supporters, however, it was a symbol of their long-term hopes of managing to wrest back control over the culturedespite being both outnumbered and largely incapable of generating attractive cultural touchstones to lure other Americans to their side. The right islosing the culture war, and itsanger over that willcontinue to grow, even asTrump himself is pushed out of the spotlight.

Go here to see the original:

Proud Boys' party is over: Trump fans throw tantrums because they've lost more than an election - Salon