The shockwaves of the events of August 12th, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia continue to reverberate throughout the country like the aftershocks of a great quake. Decent people everywhere mourn the tragic death (terrorist murder, really) of Heather Heyer, a courageous fighter for the antiracist cause. More imposing right-wing demonstrations are scheduled in cities traditionally thought of as liberal and left-leaning.

What prompted me to write this essay and blog post is that I heard Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism*on the NPR program Fresh Air on August 23rd. It was a discussion that should be more widely held given all the racism and other right-wing extremism being so widely manifested by the election and administration of Donald Trump. It is concerning the militia movement, which first came to the fore in the administration of George Bush in the early 90s but has roots stretching back farther than that.  As many of you remember, theirs was an ominous and puzzling presence in Charlottesville on August 12th and at other recent demonstrations. When I first saw reports of them at the demonstration I thought that must have been openly allied and providing armed protection to the neo-Nazis and white supremacists, but later I learned that they claimed to only be defending the free-speech right of all demonstrators. I believe this is ultimately not true. They are definitely taking a side and it’s not hard to see what side that is. To find out why please read on. The NPR discussion mentioned above really gave me a lot to think about. Much of what I discuss as fact in this essay is taken from the answers Mr. Pitcavage gave in the interview on Fresh Air.

Almost all of the Charlottesville news and discussion that I have heard has been concerning the toxic and odious white supremacist, neo-Nazi side, the anti-racist counterdemonstrators that include the militant -Fascist group known popularly as Antifascist or Antifa, and of course Trump’s infamous equivocation of these opposing sides. The other significant force at work there was of course the patriotic militia movement. The patriotic militia movement (hereafter ‘militia movement) in the United States started becoming larger and more powerful in the early 1990s, died down early in the last decade and then swelled with new membership and activity with the election of Barack Obama. This alone says to me and many others that they indeed have a white-supremacist bent, or at least some overriding fear of people of color and the so-called Browning of America (see my post “Donald Trump’s Big Fat Wall of Racism and White Supremacy”). The driving force of the movement is based on conspiracy theory, according to Mr. Pitcavage. The main conspiracy, according to its membership is what they call the eminent coming of a totalitarian “New World Order” which is a shadowy, world totalitarian government that has already taken over much of the world and now has its sites aimed at the only bastion of freedom left, the U.S., as they see it. The reason they are such firearm enthusiasts, or commonly and rightly known as “gun nuts”, is because they are organizing, training, and preparing for an armed struggle against this impending New World Order, helped by the complicity of the existing U.S. federal government, attempting to impose its rule on our country and importantly to them, nullify the Second Amendment and other rights and come door to door to confiscate everyone’s firearms. To many advocates of gun ownership this is the only way that personal liberties are to be maintained against the abuses of any strong central government (a point that is highly debatable), not just the New World Order and hence to lose gun rights means the loss of all liberties. If they did not fear an outside, globally dominant New World Order, their conspiracy theories would probably involve the existing federal government as they are strongly antigovernment, period. Another well-known conspiracy theory that propels the militia movement is the coming internment of law-abiding citizens by the forces of this coming order, for which the concentration camps are already secretly being established. The militia movement posits itself as an in situ resistance force to the New World Order. There is only one problem: Pitcavage states that absolutely no evidence for the New World Order as militia members describe it exists. 

Spokespersons on the scene for the militia movement present in Charlottesville said they were establishing themselves there as a peace-keeping force and to defend free speech. This was tolerated by law enforcement largely because Virginia is an open-carry state. I personally think it had no business establishing themselves there at the demonstration and counterprotest but that is not to be discussed further here. What I do want to explore now is how it fits into the current political situation and what its future place is in it.

Them militia movement claims that it is distinct and different from the white supremacists whose free speech it was there to defend. They are adamant that they are not neo-Nazis and not racists. Some, very few, militia members in various states are even people of color. Still, many militia are very anti Islamic and anti-immigrant, the latter on display as many militia groups have taken it upon themselves to “guard” the U.S. southern border (PBS Frontline: “Guide to the New Militia Movement”, May 2017). Now this seems perhaps that we should take them at their word about them wanting to keep the peace and so forth but hold on because they share more than a few similarities with those from whom they claim to be separate. But according to Pitcavage, a lot of crossover exists between the two sides. Please also note that members of the militia movement or individual militias do not establish themselves to be peacekeepers at demonstrations  for Left or Liberal causes, such as the anti-war movement, pro-labor actions, Black Lives Matter or other civil rights actions, or any for the Trump resistance. They have never been known as fighters for free speech as an ideal–the Second, not the First Amendment, is their main concern–but it seems that they were interested in protecting the free speech of neo-Nazis and other white supremacists on that day in Charlottesville. I do not remember if any of the Left demonstrators welcomed their presence or benefited from it, but concerning the former, I tend to think not, to put it lightly.

According to Pitcavage, the militia movement is absolutely pro-Trump and were ecstatic when he was elected. Here is where the crossover of belief systems gets the most dangerous. Trump is their champion.  He will protect their gun rights and is not in anyway a multiculturalist like their mega-demon, Hillary Clinton apparently is. Trump is an nationalist / fascist / racist who wants to “Make America Great Again”, meaning as it was before some modest progress in racial equality had been made, or when whites felt ever so much in charge. This is the appeal across the Right. It appeals to the angry and poor whites, drowning in debt, working shitty service sector jobs with little or no health insurance who blame Big Government, Latin American immigrants, and other minorities for their problems. Certainly, I feel empathy for these members of the working, middle and poor classes, but their blame is totally misplaced. Again, members of the militia movement claim not to be racist, but please notice that most of them bought into Trump’s racist, white-supremacist agenda enough to be celebratory when he was elected. Some of course, such as the Three Percent United Patriots (Mother Jones, “I Went Undercover”, Nov./Dec. 2016) are openly racist. I tend to think that almost all of Trump’s ardent supporters, including the minority ones, are indeed racist. They are just not out in the open about their aims and beliefs as the neo-Nazis and their repulsive kind are. The militia movement is indeed a right-wing movement, and let’s face it: Racism lives on the Right, even among most who consider themselves merely conservative. Even though not openly allied (at least not yet) they are on the same side. It is a difficult thing to say, but I believe the racism of militia members who claim not to be racist is in fact is not the crude, open racism of the neo-Nazi or KKK member, but a more sophisticated, respectable kind. It is the racism of people that deny they are racist when called on it yet continue to do things–like vote for Trump or see African-Americans as inherently lazy or criminals–that do harm to all people of color. For example, a respectable middle class person who shall remain nameless once argued that the proof of inherent black criminality is found in the disproportionate percentage of their incarceration. That of the many militia members claiming not to be racist is akin to the racism of the respectable, country club Republicans and other loathsome personalities. In the typical militia member’s case, we might call it a sort of mainstream folk racism, the kind fed upon and metastasized by AM right-wing and conservative talk radio. It is simply denying their racism while their actions show different.

To say the militia movement is well-armed is an understatement. Will we continue to see them more and more in the public square? Probably. Because at this conjecture the militia movement now sees Antifa as its most visible enemy, a vanguard if you will, of the New World Order, although Antifa is nowhere near as organized (Pitcavage considers it more of a “network” than an organization) and its members are not characteristically or ever known to be armed with firearms. Antifa, as we know are a definite and militant presence in many public political events. In their conspiratorial way, militia members believe that some Antifa are even trained in Syrian terrorist camps and well-funded by their other mega-demon, liberal philanthropist George Soros. Mark Pitcavage concluded that the main reason that the militia were in Charlottesville that day was not so much to protect free speech but to provoke and confront Antifa. Many if not most of the 500 different militia groups in the U.S. believe that Antifa are the shock troops of the New World Order. Again, no actual evidence exists for this ridiculous but extremely dangerous notion. Since they want to confront Antifa they definitely see them as a threat and probably perceive them to be much better organized and even armed then they are in reality. It is not clear that by wanting to confront them that they mean to provoke them into a violent battle in which the better armed militia would win, thereby neutralizing their new enemy, or to imply intimidate them, making Antifa less effective or disbanded entirely. Hopefully, any kind of blood bath can be avoided.

Remember that the militia movement, or least many parts of it, has not always acted like a defensive force. Many times its members have been busted planning attacks using improvised explosives. More information can be found on the ADL site under the title “Extremism, Terrorism, & Bigotry: The Militia Movement”. One other stalwart source on the militia movement and its offensive operations is one Ms. J.J. MacNab, who “travels the country, leading training seminars for law enforcement on militia and other right-wing extremists. She says the groups have committed or planned hundreds of violent attacks”(PBS Newshour: “Why Militia Groups are Surging Across the Nation”, April 19th, 2017).  The threat posed by right-wing extremist groups is real and growing and they are capable of intensive and highly destructive violence. While perhaps not including those groups present at Charlottesville the movement as a whole is getting scarier and they are pumped up and filled with new conspiracies of tyrannical government military takeovers by the likes of right-wing maniacal personalities such as Alex Jones and even tacitly supported and encouraged by right-wing Republican politicians (Newsweek: “Right-wing Extremists are a Bigger Threat to America Than ISIS”, February 16, 2016).

As we’d cited earlier most of the militia movement as well as other right-wing armed extremists fervently support Donald Trump. This is the first time since the beginning of the modern militia movement at least, that the far Right has found so much to support in a U.S. President, who got elected on a racist platform. We have scattered throughout the nation well-armed and extremist groups in support of Trump given who given what we know about them gives extreme cause for concern when speculating just how they will support him. It is indeed strange to consider that many very rational and intelligent people in reliable media and elsewhere describe Trump as a fascist, and fascism is a system of strong oppressive government if there ever was one, why so many on the anti-government right support him.  What could they possibly see in him? They see in him finally a president, not who is anti-government like them, no, but one who shares their backward-looking, reactionary world-view and will protect their excessive Second Amendment rights. Certainly Trump is no small-government president nor did he campaign like one. He has never been an ideological individualist like many on the Right, including free-market libertarians, are. Therefore, I am in agreement–and increasingly disturbed, because the situation is unlike anything I have ever know before in this country–with an article appearing in Politico which describes the militia movement as ultimately not neutral but in fact absolutely partisan in that and ready to take their struggle to a new level in that…

…evidence has mounted over the past six months that the militias have gravitated decisively toward one side in the street battles that have played out recently in cities across the country. Indeed, during these first months of Trump’s presidency, these loose-knit organizations making up America’s militia movement are losing their anti-government ideological purity as they grow increasingly close with a segment of the right wing from which many in the recent past had generally kept their distance. Their presence as a private security force for an increasingly public coalition of white nationalist factions—Ku Klux Klan followers, neo-Nazis and “alt-right” supporters—has transformed a movement that has already demonstrated a willingness to threaten violence (“How Militias Became the Private Police for White Supremacists”, Politico.com, August 17th, 2017).

They are probably strategically smart enough to avoid any well-coordinate confrontation on a wide regional let alone national level with the U.S. military or even law enforcement in its various levels of tactical ability. As well-armed as they are they do not have the firepower to compete. Nor do I see their battle against Antifa developing into open armed warfare between the two sides or including any would-be members of an armed left.  Instead, they will carry out a smaller scale struggle in the public sphere, both literally and figuratively, because theirs is also a battle for public sympathy and support going all the way up to the halls of state power. They may in time become, ironically, a paramilitary force on the side of a truly oppressive fascist state, and this time not an imaginary one.

The fact that law enforcement now considers them a far greater threat then Islamic extremist terrorists, that they are capable and have a record of carrying out violent quasi-military or terrorist operations, and most importantly, have become a well-armed and organized force within the reactionary and fascist modern Right movement, makes the patriotic militia movement more dangerous than ever before. I do not recall a time when such a grass-roots, well-armed movement existed, so well-prepared for open conflict and definitely taking sides in a time when the country is so polarized. Perhaps in the heyday of the KKK in the 1920s when their membership numbered four million. For them to take sides in such a volatile time might signal the beginning of more active and violent operations unofficially in support what the Trump regime hopes to accomplish. One form it may take for the near future is the intimidation of dissent against Trump, as many may fear to take place in protests attended by well-armed militia because of the possibility of a bloodbath, which would probably be the result of rogue militia members or simply because of accidental gunfire, as supposedly happened at the Boston Massacre. This is a particular danger because although organized and networked, the militia movement has of course no central command, their ideologies vary, e.g., some are indeed openly racist, and therefore make their own decisions. In other words, we cannot guarantee how any particular militia is going to proceed.

* You are going to have to link to the transcript and podcast by cutting and pasting the bold letters as your Google search terms. I tried but could not make a link to it. Please also note that I do not meant to endorse the ADL except in its campaigns against antisemitism, racism, and its Extremism pages which are an excellent resource for these times. Particularly, I do not support their stance on Palestine.