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Trump. They are angry over the coming<br />
loss of a white majority (predicted<br />
for 2043 by the Census Bureau), the falling<br />
fortunes of the white working class,<br />
worsening income inequality, the rise of<br />
left-wing movements like Black Lives<br />
Matter, major advances for LGBT people,<br />
growing numbers of refugees and undocumented<br />
workers, terrorism, and more.<br />
Their anger, above all, is directed at<br />
the government.<br />
In November, the Pew Research<br />
Center reported poll results showing<br />
that just 19% of Americans trusted the<br />
federal government always or most of the<br />
time, a number that is less than a quarter<br />
of the 77% level of trust recorded in<br />
the late 1950s. Just 20% saw government<br />
programs as being well run, and<br />
59% said the government needs “very<br />
major reform,” up from 37% under<br />
President Bill Clinton in 1997.<br />
A January poll, this one by NBC<br />
and Esquire, found that the news<br />
makes 77% of Republicans and 67% of<br />
Democrats angry at least once a day.<br />
Whites were angriest, at 73%, compared<br />
to Latinos (66%) and blacks (56%).<br />
“Such voters are nostalgic for the<br />
country they lived in 50 years ago, when<br />
non-Hispanic whites made up more<br />
‘PATRIOT’ GROUPS 1995–2015<br />
858<br />
523<br />
435<br />
217<br />
194<br />
158<br />
143<br />
171<br />
1996<br />
1997<br />
1998<br />
1999<br />
2000<br />
2001<br />
2002<br />
2003<br />
2004<br />
2005<br />
2006<br />
2007<br />
2008<br />
2009<br />
2010<br />
2011<br />
BILL CL<strong>IN</strong>TON 1993-2001<br />
GEORGE W. BUSH 2001-2009<br />
152<br />
132<br />
than 83 percent of the population,” The<br />
New York Times’ Eduardo Porter wrote<br />
of lower-income whites in a trenchant<br />
essay this January. “Today, their share<br />
has shrunk to 62 percent as demographic<br />
change has transformed the<br />
147<br />
131<br />
149<br />
512<br />
824<br />
1274<br />
1360<br />
1096<br />
874<br />
998<br />
2012<br />
2013<br />
2014<br />
2015<br />
BARACK OBAMA 2009-<br />
United States into a nation where others<br />
have a shot at power.<br />
“Their fear is understandable. In general,<br />
the concerns of Hispanic and black<br />
American voters are often different than<br />
those of white voters. But the reaction<br />
AP IMAGES/JAN BAUER (CL<strong>IN</strong>TON); AP IMAGES/MIKE GROLL (BUSH); AP IMAGES/CAROLYN KASTER (OBAMA)<br />
MAY 3<br />
In Garland, Texas, anti-Muslim<br />
propagandist Pamela<br />
Geller holds a Muhammad<br />
cartoon contest, an obvious<br />
provocation that she bills as<br />
a “free speech” event. Two<br />
Arizona roommates, Elton<br />
Simpson and Nadir Soofi,<br />
attempt to attack the gathering<br />
in the name of radical<br />
Islam, but are almost immediately<br />
killed by a police<br />
officer with a pistol despite<br />
their body armor and semiautomatic<br />
weapons.<br />
JUNE 3<br />
A police officer and an FBI<br />
agent shoot dead Usaamah<br />
Rahim after he allegedly<br />
lunges at them with<br />
a military knife in Boston.<br />
Officials say Rahim initially<br />
planned to behead<br />
Pamela Geller, but instead<br />
attacked officers.<br />
JUNE 17<br />
In an attempt to start a<br />
“race war,” Dylann Roof<br />
murders nine black churchgoers<br />
at Emanuel AME<br />
Church in Charleston, S.C.,<br />
after accusing African<br />
Americans of raping white<br />
women and trying to “take<br />
over.” The massacre provokes<br />
a major backlash<br />
against the Confederate<br />
battle flag, which Roof venerated,<br />
and that in turn fuels<br />
enormous rage and pro-flag<br />
rallies on the radical right.<br />
JULY 16<br />
Four U.S. Marines are<br />
killed by Kuwaiti-born<br />
Muhammad Youssef<br />
Abdulazeez, a naturalized<br />
U.S. citizen, in an Islamist<br />
attack on a military recruiting<br />
office and a naval<br />
facility in Chattanooga,<br />
Tenn. Abdulazeez is also<br />
killed. Members of the III<br />
Percenters, an antigovernment<br />
group, later insist on<br />
guarding a number of other<br />
recruiting centers with guns<br />
despite officials’ requests<br />
that they not do so.<br />
JULY 21<br />
Former correctional officer<br />
Michael O’Neill blows<br />
off his own leg while building<br />
bombs in his parents’<br />
garage in Wheatland, N.Y.<br />
While authorities do not<br />
know what O’Neill’s plans<br />
might have been, the garage<br />
is hung with white supremacist<br />
propaganda — including<br />
Nazi symbols, Klan posters<br />
and Confederate memorabilia<br />
— and O’Neill is<br />
ordered held without bail.<br />
AP IMAGES/LES STUKENBERG, THE DAILY COURIER (SIMPSON); AP IMAGES/SALT LAKE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE (SOOFI);<br />
AP IMAGES/MARK GARF<strong>IN</strong>KEL, BOSTON HERALD (KNIFE); LASTRHODESIAN.COM (ROOF); AP IMAGES/DAVID GOLDMAN (FUNERAL)<br />
38 splc intelligence report
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