Ugly problem with political Right

There’s an ugly new current running through parts of the political Right — a growing attempt to sanitize what should never be sanitized: overt fascism, national socialism, kinist racial theory, and anti-Jewish conspiracy. In corners of the internet and certain activist spaces, people are “ironically” quoting Hitler, praising the Third Reich’s “order,” and calling all Jews “globalist parasites.” Some of them even try to reframe Hitler as some misunderstood nationalist hero.

That alone is disturbing enough. But what’s worse is the emerging chorus of voices — including influential conservatives like Matt Walsh — saying we need unity, even with them, for the sake of “winning politically” (“no enemies to the right”). 

To be clear: unity itself is good. Conservatives have lost far too much ground to pointless infighting. We’ve split over secondary issues and handed the Left the culture war on a silver platter. But unity is not a moral blank check. True unity can’t come at the expense of first principles — truth, human dignity, and liberty under God. Once we trade those for the illusion of strength, we don’t win. We rot from within.

There’s actually a perfect parallel for this in the church world. Years ago, the “Revoice” movement emerged in Evangelical circles — marketing itself as a “safe space” for LGBT inclusion within Christianity. It claimed to just “welcome” everyone, but beneath that language was a quiet redefinition of biblical truth. By normalizing sin under the banner of compassion, Revoice diluted the Gospel it claimed to uphold. It was seeker sensitivity for homosexuality — a slow moral surrender dressed up as kindness.

That’s exactly what “unity” with Nazi sympathizers looks like in politics: tolerance of evil wrapped in pragmatism. “We don’t agree with them,” the argument goes, “but we need them to win.” No. That’s not a strategy. That’s a compromise pretending to be courage.

Now, to give the devil his due — Matt Walsh and others like him are absolutely justified in their anger toward the modern Left. The Left is deranged, institutionally powerful, and aggressively hostile to faith, truth, and normal life. Conservatives are right to see it as a real threat. When Walsh says the Left is violent — pointing to things like the assassination attempt on Charlie Kirk — he’s not wrong. The radical Left dominates the institutions that control culture, finance, and speech, and they use that power to crush dissent. They are, without question, the more dangerous threat on an institutional level. He’s also right to note that the establishment Right has gone on too long doing absolutely nothing about this real threat.

But here’s where Walsh’s reasoning falls apart: just because the far-right extremists don’t have institutional power, and just because the establishment has dropped the ball, that doesn’t mean they aren’t evil (and dangerous, if given the opportunity). And grafting them into the conservative base is handing them that opportunity. 

Power doesn’t make a worldview right or wrong — it just determines how much damage it can do. The Nazi ideology he’s overlooking would be just as barbaric if it ever gained the same power the Left currently wields. Evil isn’t graded on a curve.

And we’ve seen how this plays out. A week ago, a Politico piece lit a match under this conversation again. It detailed leaked group chats from a young Republican organization where members were “joking” about loving Hitler, gassing Jews, and raping women. Sure — Politico is a far-left outlet that framed it as proof that all conservatives are Nazis. But that doesn’t make the entire thing fiction. The story rings true to what’s actually brewing beneath the surface of parts of the younger right — an ugly undercurrent of racist, anti-Jew, “ironic fascism.”

And if we call for unity with that, we’re doing exactly what the Left has accused us of for years. We make their smear look true. That’s not only morally vacant — it’s politically stupid. Siding with or excusing Nazi sympathizers doesn’t just stain your conscience; it hands the Left a gift-wrapped propaganda victory. For years, progressives have falsely smeared anyone right of center as a “Nazi.” But the moment we tolerate real fascists, we give their slander teeth. It alienates normal voters who came to the Right precisely because we weren’t radical — and guarantees the Left wins again. It’s not a strategy. It’s an op.

Part of the problem is that conservatives have been so relentlessly gaslit by the Left that we’ve gone numb to the word “Nazi.” For decades, progressives have hurled it at everyone — from Mitt Romney to your grandma for saying she likes the Constitution. The Left cried wolf so many times that now, when real wolves show up — actual neo-Nazis and fascist sympathizers — people on the Right roll their eyes. They assume it’s just another overreaction.

But this time, it’s not the Left crying “Nazi.” It’s Christians and conservatives — people like myself, Seth Dillon, Joel Berry, Ben Shapiro, Keri Smith, Will Spencer, Brandon Tatum, and many others. The very people who’ve been falsely smeared for years are now warning that the real thing has crept into our backyard. That alone should make every serious conservative pause.

And let’s be clear about what we’re talking about when we say “Nazi.” This isn’t edgy “national pride.” Nazism was an industrialized system of cruelty: the Nuremberg Laws stripping Jews of citizenship, Kristallnacht burning synagogues across Germany, the T4 euthanasia program murdering the sick in the name of “purity.” Schools taught children to report their parents for racial “impurity.” Bureaucrats turned human beings into numbers. It was the machinery of death wrapped in patriotic slogans.

That’s what we’re being asked to “unify” with. And as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn — who suffered under the Soviet gulag — reminded the world, “The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” He, a man who saw leftist evil up close, saw firsthand that evil doesn’t belong to one political camp. The Left’s cruelty in the USSR mirrored the same soul sickness that drove fascism in Germany. His message was simple: evil grows wherever people stop saying “no.”

Again, pundits like Matt Walsh seem to assume the far right is less dangerous simply because it doesn’t have the same institutional power. But that’s naïve. Power doesn’t create moral corruption; it merely exposes it. The main reason why the radical Right hasn’t acted as brutally as the radical Left is that it can’t. Yet. And Matt appears blind to this reality because he hasn’t been on the receiving end of the Right’s evil, like his friend Shapiro and Dillon have. 

Walsh also argued that his driving principle is loyalty to his friends — that he wants to stand by them no matter what. This sounds noble at face value, but the reality here undercuts that very argument. I mean, think about — his own colleagues and friends are the targets of these Hitler-sympathizing extremists. Ben Shapiro, Seth Dillon, Lara Loomer, and Josh Hammer have all received real death threats from fringe-right lunatics. One man, Nicholas Ray, a follower of Candace Owens who was pushing the idea that “the Jews” and Shapiro’s circle plotted to kill Charlie Kirk, was recently arrested after making violent threats against those conservatives and their families. Abby Libby — a young Christian conservative mother — has been doxxed, threatened with rape and murder, and even had her newborn child threatened. 

So how does unity with those people make sense? If loyalty is the point, how does aligning with your friends’ would-be killers honor that principle? Would he be ok with Ben Shapiro calling for unity with those who want him dead? I think not. But that’s precisely what he’s calling for in reverse. 

And most importantly, as a professing Christian, Walsh’s call for “unity” with evil is more than just politically misguided — it’s spiritually dissonant. Scripture commands believers to “expose the deeds of darkness,” not fellowship with them. A Christian who excuses evil for strategic gain isn’t showing wisdom or courage. He’s showing fear. It’s a terrible witness to the world — the same kind of moral compromise the Church made in the Revoice movement.

Conservatism, properly understood, is not authoritarianism with an American flag draped over it. It’s the defense of ordered liberty — limited government, individual rights, and the equal dignity of all people. Nazism obliterates every one of those foundations. It rejects God’s image in man and replaces it with hierarchy, collectivism, and blood-and-soil idolatry. It is fundamentally anti-conservative.

We ought not unite with Nazis precisely because we are conservative. It’s that simple. 

And that brings us back to the question: what does principled unity look like?

It means standing shoulder-to-shoulder on first principles — not turning a blind eye to evil in our ranks. It means drawing clear lines: no alliances with people who promote racial hatred or violence. It means calling it out publicly when we see it — not because we want to “cancel” anyone, but because silence lets poison spread.

This isn’t a call for more division. It’s a call for discernment. We can fight the Left with everything we’ve got without surrendering our moral compass in the process. We can win elections and keep our integrity. As Walsh rightly noted, intolerance to evil is a virtue, but this should equally apply to evil in our own ranks. 

Unity is good. But unity that abandons truth is surrender by another name. Say yes to principled cooperation. Say no to pragmatic complicity.