A meme posted by an alt-right account on Twitter. The circular symbol to the left is an “occult” icon, often used by neo-Nazis.
Credit: Twitter

Regardless of who triumphs at the ballot box, the biggest winner of this presidential election may be the alt-right: a sprawling coalition of reactionary conservatives who have lobbied to make the United States more “traditional,” more “populist” and more white.

Once relegated to the political fringes, the alt-right has become a sudden, shocking force in mainstream politics, closely identified with the Donald Trump campaign. Trump’s campaign chief executive, Stephen Bannon, is a former executive chairman of Breitbart News, which he once described as “the platform of the alt-right.” Trump regularly retweets the memes and messages of the alt-right, which has propelled the movement into the limelight.

[How the alt-right took over the GOP]

But lurking behind the offensive tweets and racially charged campaign rhetoric, there’s a more subtle — and far more dangerous — potential threat posed by the alt-right. As my colleagues and […]