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The Minutemen and the Mainstream
author info One of the most disturbing phenomenon of the Bush era has been the mainstreaming of the far right. Not long, those who consorted with militia types or proclaimed their plans to institute a theocracy in America weren't openly welcomed in GOP circles -- even extremely conservative ones. Larry Pratt was forced to resign as campaign chairman of Pat Buchanan's 1996 presidential campaign because of his ties to militia groups and theocratic white supremacists. Ralph Reed called on the religious right to disavow Christian Reconstructionism, calling it " an authoritarian ideology that threatens the most basic civil liberties of a free and democratic society."
In the last few years, though, the center of American politics has lurched so far rightward that it's increasingly hard to tell where the governing mainstream ends and the fringe begins. Early this year, I covered a conference in Washington, D.C. called Confronting the Judicial War on Faith that brought together Republican congressmen and hill staffers with leading Christian Reconstructionists and neo-confederates.
At the time, it seemed that the far right was riding conservative rage over the courts -- especially in the aftermath of the Terri Shiavo case -- towards greater influence and respectability. Now it looks like anti-immigration anger may prove an even more useful vehicle. |
A few days ago, The New York Times published a story headlined, "Capitol's Pariah on Immigration Is Now a Power." Rachel L. Swarns wrote:
For nearly a decade, Representative Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, has been dismissed by his critics as little more than an angry man with a microphone, a lonely figure who rails against immigration and battles his own president and party.
So radical were his proposals - calling for a fence along the United States border with Canada, for instance - and so fierce were his attacks on fellow Republicans who did not share his views that many of his colleagues tried to avoid him. Mr. Tancredo said Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser, had told him not 'to darken the doorstep of the White House.'
But last week, the man denounced by critics on the left and on the right suddenly emerged as an influential lawmaker. Pressured by conservative constituents angered by the continuing flow of illegal immigrants into the United States, Republicans rallied around Mr. Tancredo to defy the president and produce the toughest immigration legislation in more than a decade.
Tom Tancredo is a vocal supporter of the Minuteman Project, a vigilante effort to stop illegal immigrants from coming over the Mexican border. As author and blogger Dave Neiwert has assiduously documented , the Minuteman Project is an offshoot of the Patriot Movement, and has numerous ties to white supremacist groups. That hasn't stopped the conservative movement from embracing the Minutemen wholeheartedly, though. In fact, the website Townhall.com -- a spin-off of the semi-respectable Heritage Foundation -- has just named the Minutemen finalists for its "Citizen of the Year" Award. Townhall columnist Mike Adams calls them "true heroes" and urges readers to "join the fight by doing the job our cowardly politicians are unwilling to do themselves."
It's worth looking at who these heroes really are. The Southern Poverty Law Center offers a snapshot:
The night of April 3, armed vigilantes camped along Border Road in a series of watch posts set-up for the Minuteman Project, a month-long action in which revolving casts of 150 to 200 anti-immigration militants wearing cheap plastic 'Undocumented Border Patrol Agent' badges mobilized in southeastern Arizona. Their stated goal was to 'do the job our government refuses to do" and "protect America' from the 'tens of millions of invading illegal aliens who are devouring and plundering our nation.'
At Station Two, Minuteman volunteers grilled bratwursts and fantasized about murder.
'It should be legal to kill illegals,' said Carl, a 69-year old retired Special Forces veteran who fought in Vietnam and now lives out West. 'Just shoot 'em on sight. That's my immigration policy recommendation. You break into my country, you die.'
Carl was armed with a revolver chambered to fire shotgun shells. He wore this hand cannon in a holster below a shirt that howled 'American bad asses' in red, white and blue. The other vigilantes assigned to Station Two included a pair of self-professed members of the National Alliance, a violent neo-Nazi organization. These men, who gave their names only as Johnny and Michael, were outfitted in full-body camouflage and strapped with semi-automatic pistols.
Earlier that day, Johnny and Michael had scouted sniper positions in the rolling, cactus-studded foothills north of Border Road, taking compass readings and drawing maps for future reference.
'I agree completely,' Michael said. 'You get up there with a rifle and start shooting four or five of them a week, the other four or five thousand behind them are going to think twice about crossing that line.'
As anti-immigrant rage boils, I think we're going to hear a lot more of such sentiments -- some coming from inside the Republican Party. For now, the GOP seems to have given up on its conflicted attempt to win over Hispanic voters and is throwing in its lot with the xenophobes. And this could produce something we haven't seen before in this country -- an armed gang affiliated with elected officials.
The Minutemen and the Mainstream | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
The Minutemen and the Mainstream | 5 comments (5 topical, 0 hidden)
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