The Rhetoric of War
Something is happening on the radical right. Even as the presidential campaign season heats up and, with it, the possibility of ridding themselves of their hated black president, extremists are ratcheting up the rhetoric of war.
Something is happening on the radical right. Even as the presidential campaign season heats up and, with it, the possibility of ridding themselves of their hated black president, extremists are ratcheting up the rhetoric of war.
The League of the South, for instance, has long been threatening a second Southern secession with the aim of creating a separate nation ruled by an 鈥淎nglo-Celtic鈥� majority. But the talk was mainly academic, and the league鈥檚 political efforts never seemed to go anywhere.
Now, league president Michael Hill is telling his followers that 鈥渨e are already at war鈥� and urging them to buy AK-47s, hollow-point bullets and tools to derail trains. At its July conference, some 60 league members learned how to draw down on an enemy. Asked Hill: 鈥淲hat would it take to get you to fight?鈥�
William Gheen, the leader of the nativist group Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, said this August that in order to save 鈥渨hite America鈥� from 鈥渄ictator Barack Obama,鈥� it may be necessary to engage in 鈥渆xtra-political activities that I can鈥檛 really talk about because they鈥檙e all illegal and violent.鈥�
Sounding a similar note was former Fox News host Glenn Beck, who told his radio audience the same month that if Obama were to lose the 2012 election, his administration 鈥渨ill try to destroy America鈥� on its way out. He said the next president would have to be willing to sacrifice his life to resist Obama鈥檚 nefarious plans. 鈥淚 firmly believe race riots are on the way,鈥� Beck added.
Similar sentiments are emerging among many radical groups and activists. But it may be in Montana where these developments are most striking.
In this issue鈥檚 cover story, we describe how radicals of various stripes 鈥� neo-Nazis, self-described constitutionalists, antigovernment 鈥淧atriots鈥� and others 鈥� are retreating to the Big Sky State, also known as 鈥渢he last, best place.鈥� With varying emphases, many of these men and women are hunkering down for a last stand that one of them compares to the Battle of the Alamo.
鈥淲e know there鈥檚 a fight coming,鈥� said Chuck Baldwin, the 2008 presidential candidate of the far-right Constitution Party who moved to the state with 18 family members a year ago. 鈥淲e know there is a line being drawn in the sand.鈥�
In June, militia activist Dave Burgert allegedly fired shots at a Montana sheriff鈥檚 deputy before fleeing into a national forest. In September, neo-Nazi activist Karl Gharst threatened to convene a 鈥渃itizens grand jury鈥� to investigate 鈥淛ewish criminal organizations,鈥� including the Southern Poverty Law Center. The same month, another well-known neo-Nazi, April Gaede, told Intelligence Report writer Ryan Lenz, who tried to interview her for our Montana story, that she was getting her gun if he didn鈥檛 leave immediately. Gaede has been imploring 鈥渨hite nationalists鈥� to 鈥渃ome home鈥� to Montana, a state that is nearly 90% white and a mere 0.4% black.
A siege mentality is developing, fraught with conspiracy theories that have long animated the radical right. Baldwin says he is fervently hoping for victory, 鈥淸b]ut if not, I would rather die fighting for Freedom with liberty-loving patriots by my side than be shuttled off to some FEMA camp.鈥�
As the war rhetoric heats up, some formerly unlikely alliances are being made. The Constitution Party and Baldwin, for instance, are not known for open racism, although Baldwin argues that leaders of the Confederacy were not racist and 鈥渢he South was right.鈥� But Baldwin鈥檚 new Montana church, Liberty Fellowship, includes in its swelling congregation Randy Weaver, the white supremacist and occasional visitor to the Aryan Nations鈥� Idaho compound who was in a famous 1992 standoff.
An enormous fury seems to be developing in other sectors of the extreme right as well. The American Family Association (AFA) is a well-known group with a $20 million budget that rails against 鈥渋ndecency鈥� in the media and, especially, homosexuality. In recent months, after saying that Obama 鈥渘urtures a hatred for the white man,鈥� AFA鈥檚 best-known spokesman, Bryan Fischer, suggested that welfare was incentivizing black 鈥減eople who rut like rabbits.鈥�
What鈥檚 going on with all this white-hot rhetoric?
It鈥檚 hard to say. But it does seem possible that many of these people, like Baldwin and Fischer, sense that they are losing the big battle. Growing majorities of Americans now favor same-sex marriage and other gay rights. Neo-Nazism, neo-Confederacy and other forms of explicit white nationalism are not doing well. The Tea Parties may have offered some hope to the far right early on, but they, too, seem to be fading.
Now, with the Republican presidential debates producing no clear favorite or obviously strong candidate, many on the extreme right may be hunkering down for another four years under a relatively liberal black president. And that may be simply too much for them to bear.
