There’s a moment in every democracy when the fringe stops being the fringe. It’s not when an extremist gains followers online, or when their rhetoric briefly trends on social media. It happens when institutions that once stood as gatekeepers begin to open the door. That’s why the growing embrace of Nick Fuentes by groups like the Heritage Foundation isn’t just a warning light—it’s a klaxon.

Fuentes is not coy about his worldview. He has praised authoritarianism, advanced a self-described “Christian nationalist” vision for America, and repeatedly promoted white nationalist ideas. He has denied or minimized the Holocaust, praised segregation, and openly admired Adolf Hitler—infamously claiming that Hitler was “cool” and insisting the regime “wasn’t that bad” compared to modern America (sources: Southern Poverty Law Center; ADL; Fuentes livestream archives). He has positioned LGBTQ+ Americans as enemies of the nation and called for the eradication of what he considers “degenerate” culture.

For years, these positions were dismissed as the rantings of someone sealed inside the darker corners of the internet. But something has shifted. When a major policy institution like the Heritage Foundation—long considered a pillar of mainstream conservatism—begins to entertain, wink at, or amplify the themes that animate Fuentes’s movement, the line between conservatism and extremism doesn’t blur. It moves.

This isn’t about partisan identity. Republicans and Democrats alike should care when a political ecosystem starts warming to ideas once recognized as dangerous. The American right has always had its ideological range—from libertarians to evangelicals to national security conservatives—but it has also had boundaries. Those boundaries are now eroding.

The danger isn’t that Fuentes himself becomes a figure of mass appeal. The danger is that his ideas—anti-gay, authoritarian, ethno-nationalist, historically revisionist—start to seep into the bloodstream of institutions with real influence on policy and culture. That’s how extremism becomes normalized: not with a bang, but with an invitation.

Democracies don’t collapse because a single extremist rises. They collapse when ordinary people stop recognizing extremism for what it is.

There’s a moment in every democracy when the fringe stops being the fringe. It’s not when an extremist gains followers online, or when their rhetoric briefly trends on social media. It happens when institutions that once stood as gatekeepers begin to open the door. That’s why the growing embrace of Nick Fuentes by groups like the Heritage Foundation isn’t just a warning light—it’s a klaxon.

Fuentes is not coy about his worldview. He has praised authoritarianism, advanced a self-described “Christian nationalist” vision for America, and repeatedly promoted white nationalist ideas. He has denied or minimized the Holocaust, praised segregation, and openly admired Adolf Hitler—infamously claiming that Hitler was “cool” and insisting the regime “wasn’t that bad” compared to modern America (sources: Southern Poverty Law Center; ADL; Fuentes livestream archives). He has positioned LGBTQ+ Americans as enemies of the nation and called for the eradication of what he considers “degenerate” culture.

For years, these positions were dismissed as the rantings of someone sealed inside the darker corners of the internet. But something has shifted. When a major policy institution like the Heritage Foundation—long considered a pillar of mainstream conservatism—begins to entertain, wink at, or amplify the themes that animate Fuentes’s movement, the line between conservatism and extremism doesn’t blur. It moves.

This isn’t about partisan identity. Republicans and Democrats alike should care when a political ecosystem starts warming to ideas once recognized as dangerous. The American right has always had its ideological range—from libertarians to evangelicals to national security conservatives—but it has also had boundaries. Those boundaries are now eroding.

The danger isn’t that Fuentes himself becomes a figure of mass appeal. The danger is that his ideas—anti-gay, authoritarian, ethno-nationalist, historically revisionist—start to seep into the bloodstream of institutions with real influence on policy and culture. That’s how extremism becomes normalized: not with a bang, but with an invitation.

Democracies don’t collapse because a single extremist rises. They collapse when ordinary people stop recognizing extremism for what it is.

We can debate tax policy, education reform, and foreign aid. But we should not be debating whether America should revisit its stance on Hitler, rewrite the Holocaust, or resurrect the idea of a nation defined by race or religion. If organizations like Heritage want to maintain their place as serious contributors to public life, they cannot treat this ideology as just another voice in the marketplace of ideas.

Some ideas are not part of the marketplace. They are the fire.
And we should know better than to play with it.

Some ideas are not part of the marketplace. They are the fire.
And we should know better than to play with it.