ARYAN NATIONS DEFLATES ‘SOVEREIGNS’ IN MONTANA

of whites who are struggling economically
raises the specter of an outright
political war along racial and ethnic
lines over the distribution of resources
and opportunities.”
Contributing to this war, remarkably,
have been Trump and a number of other
GOP presidential candidates. Trump, of
course, has attacked Muslims, Mexicans
and black people (he re-tweeted a neo-
Nazi’s statistics falsely claiming that
blacks are overwhelmingly responsible
for the murder of whites). But Ted Cruz,
Jeb Bush and others have made inflammatory
comments about Muslims, Carly
Fiorina has told false stories that demonize
abortion providers, and Ben Carson
and others have attacked LGBT activists
and the Supreme Court over legalizing
same-sex marriage. The U.S. House
of Representatives took up a bill to end
the resettlement of refugees, riding a
wave of fear after the San Bernardino
attacks. And others joined that anti-Muslim
parade, ranging from Christian Right
groups such as the American Family
Association to the Klan.
Although many expected race relations
would improve after the 2008
election of President Obama, that has
not been the case. Several studies have
shown a rise in anti-black racism, and a
November poll by CNN and the Kaiser
Family Foundation found that 49% of
all Americans see racism as a “big problem.”
That’s way up from 28% in 2011,
and eight points higher than the 41% who
thought so in 1995.
America may be headed for a better
place. But the Harvard scholar
Robert Putnam has argued that as ethnic
diversity rises, trust both between
and within ethnic groups declines. As
Putnam argues, that does not mean that
multiculturalism is a failure, but rather
that inter-communal bridgebuilding
is important as diversity increases. In
other words, the road ahead will not be
an easy one, and Americans of all races
and creeds will need to work to rebuild
a true national community.
What follows are more detailed looks
at sectors of the radical right.
ANTI-LGBT GROUPS
Years of fighting a losing battle against
human rights for LGBT people culminated
for anti-LGBT groups in 2015 with
the Supreme Court’s June decision in
Obergefell v. Hodges, ushering in national
marriage equality. The ruling set off near
hysteria among groups on the religious
right, with people like GOP presidential
candidate Mike Huckabee warning that it
would “criminalize Christianity.” Others
on the Christian Right, including Family
Research Council President Tony Perkins,
Focus on the Family founder James
Dobson and Liberty Counsel President
Mathew Staver, warned that the decision
would lead to armed conflict in America.
Obergefell was not the only loss for
those opposed to gay rights. A lawsuit
brought by the Southern Poverty Law
Center (SPLC) against JONAH, a New
Jersey group that claimed to “cure” gay
people of their homosexuality, resulted
in its shutdown. And Illinois became
the fourth state in the nation to ban the
provision of JONAH-style “reparative
therapy” to minors.
Facing so many defeats, anti-LGBT
groups redoubled their efforts to pass
so-called Religious Freedom Restoration
Acts (RFRAs), meant to allow businesses
to claim religious belief as a defense
against discrimination lawsuits, at the
state and federal level. Sixteen states
considered RFRAs in 2015, and Arkansas
and Indiana passed theirs. But in
Indiana, a major backlash from the public
and a large number of corporations
convinced the legislature to backtrack
FACEBOOK (FRAZIER); AP IMAGES/LAFAYETTE POLICE DEPARTMENT (HOUSER); FACEBOOK (SMITH)
JULY 22
Officials in Arizona arrest
Parris Frazier, Robert
Deatherage and Erik Foster,
border vigilantes with the
Arizona Special Operations
Group, and charge them
in an alleged plot to rip
off drug cartels. The men
allegedly planned to steal
and sell cocaine. Frazier
also is accused of agreeing
to murder a rival.
JULY 23
John Russell Houser walks
into a movie theater in
Lafayette, La., shoots two
people dead and wounds
nine others before killing
himself as police close
in. Earlier, in posts to neo-
Nazi and racist websites,
Houser praised Adolf Hitler,
Timothy McVeigh, David
Duke and lone wolf attacks,
although his motives in the
shooting are not clear. He
also showed a keen interest
in anti-Semitism.
AUG. 1
Three men in Gaston
County, N.C., are arrested
and accused of stockpiling
weapons and making bombs
in order to resist a military
occupation. Walter Eugene
Litteral, Christopher James
Barker and Christopher
Todd Campbell allegedly
fear that a U.S. military
exercise known as Jade
Helm 15 is actually a plot to
impose martial law, a widespread
conspiracy theory on
the far right.
AUG. 4
Charles Smith of Baldwin
Borough, Pa., pleads guilty
to possessing an illegal
destructive device. Police
who raided his home in
2014 found 20 bombs and
a podium and business
cards that indicated he ran
a “White Church” that met
there regularly. An array of
white supremacist literature
was also found. A federal
judge later sentences Smith
to 7½ years in prison.
AUG. 6
FBI agents arrest Shane
Robert Smith of Whitehall,
N.Y., for allegedly collecting
an arsenal, including
illegal machine guns and
a silencer, to murder Jews
and African Americans.
Smith created the Facebook
page NYND, which is said
to stand for New York Nazi
Division, and his interests,
as listed on a Russian social
media site, include “preserving
my race … and destroying
the government.”
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