While police in many instances have handled Antifa rallies (riots?) badly, many Antifa members have been arrested. While it’s true that many in the institutional left and the media have made excuses for Antifa, very, very few actually endorse their tactics or platform, to the extent they have one beyond “make trouble.”

Likewise, the Alt-Right did have some influence on Trump’s election, but it was nowhere near the driving force behind it. As far as policy goes, on issues like immigration and foreign policy, what many on the left see as Alt-Right influence is actually the influence of West Coast think tanks like Hoover and Claremont that have nothing at all to do with the Alt-Right, but make sincere and sometimes compelling arguments about the future of America.

The attraction to conflate these two groups, Antifa and the Alt-Right, with so little actual power to the broader movements they claim to represent is easy to understand. But it can also be lazy. Of course it’s easier to attack the fringe and pretend it’s the center of the other side than it is to address the legitimate concerns of reasonable people one disagrees with.