The American fascists burning the pride flag. Screenshot via Unicorn Riot
“The 20 million people who tuned in to the prime-time January 6 Committee hearing last week saw proof that right-wing extremist groups played an essential role in planning and executing the attack – specifically, the Oath Keepers, who entered the Capitol in two 'stacks' wearing full tactical gear, and the Proud Boys, whose preparations for violence were recorded by documentary filmmaker Nick Quested.
“Days before the hearing, the Department of Justice indicted former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four other members of the group on charges of seditious conspiracy and other offenses, while members of the Oath Keepers, including leader Stewart Rhodes, were arrested on similar charges earlier in the year.”
(Thomas Lecaque. “Patriot Front and the Next Stage of the Culture War.” The Bulwark. June 13, 2022.)
The arrest of dozens of members of extremist group Patriot Front over the weekend shines a light on the new agenda for the militant factions of the far right. Their energies are now being focused on another goal: prosecuting a renewed culture war against sexual minorities.
A group of 31 men with ties to a white nationalist hate group were busted by Idaho police after they were found in the rear of a U-Haul van in the area of an LGBTQ Pride event in Coeur d’Alene on Saturday.
The group came from many states including Texas, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois, Arkansas, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon and Virginia. Coeur d’Alene is located about 35 miles east of Spokane, Washington.
“They came to riot downtown,” Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said at a press conference.
Thomas Lecaque, a professor at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, says, “The Coeur d’Alene pride event was not the only target. Christian fascists in Dallas protested at an LGBTQ bar at the beginning of the month as part of a coordinated far-right assault on Pride Month. American Nationalist Initiative, a neo-fascist group, planned to link up with Proud Boys to flash mob outside of a Planned Parenthood in Plano, Texas this weekend, while other planned to harass a Pride Drag event in Arlington.”
The Patriot Front formed after the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. The group seeks to provoke violence and intimidation of minority groups through its racist propaganda, according to a 2019 investigation by ProPublica.
The name “Patriot Front” is a rebrand – a variant that evolved from America’s growing pandemic of Trump-era hate groups and cross-pollinated with far-right strains originating in Europe. Patriot Front grew out of another white supremacist organization called Vanguard America, which fractured not long after a man associated with the group, James Alex Fields, drove his car into a crowd of anti-fascist protesters during the infamous 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. He killed one person and injured 19 others.
(Thomas Lecaque. “Patriot Front and the Next Stage of the Culture War.” The Bulwark. June 13, 2022.)
What They Stand For
The Southern Poverty Law Center reports the group's twisted nationalistic beliefs …
"The time of the Republic has passed in America as the system grows too weak to perform its duty. ... The damage done to this nation and its people will not be fixed if every issue requires the approval and blessing from the dysfunctional American democratic system. Democracy has failed in this once great nation."
– Patriot Front manifesto.
"The American Identity was something uniquely forged in the struggle that our ancestors waged to survive in this new continent. ... To be an American is to realize this identity and take up the national struggle upon one's shoulders. Not simply by birth is one granted this title but by the degree to which he works and fulfills the potential of his birth.”
– Patriot Front manifesto.
"An African, for example, may have lived, worked, and even been classed as a citizen in America for centuries, yet he is not American. He is, as he likely prefers to be labeled, an African in America. The same rule applies to others who are not of the founding stock of our people as well as to those who do not share the common unconscious that permeates throughout our greater civilization, and the European diaspora."
– Patriot Front manifesto.
Local Interest
Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, the Patriot Front – these anti-government groups and many more have been emboldened by Trump's “America First” policies and his white nationalistic MAGA movement. Ohio has 31 active anti-government groups – the second-highest number of extremist anti-government groups in the country, according to a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Only California’s 51 antigovernment groups exceeded the number found in Ohio, which has less than a third of California’s population.
(“Antigovernment Movement.” https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/antigovernment. Southern Poverty Law Center. 2021.)
Seventeen of Ohio's 31 antigovernment groups were considered militias in 2020. The Southern Poverty Law Center did not include the Ohio State Regular Militia in its list, though the FBI says that militia group is a "dues-paying subset" of the Oath Keepers.
(Madeline Mitchell. “'Likely to grow even worse.' Ohio ranks No. 2 for most extremist anti-government groups.” Cincinnati Enquirer. February 08, 2021.)
Ohio’s demographics could also be an explanation for the high number of anti-government groups.
“We have a lot of rural areas and a lot of those areas are somewhat poor, and you know, these groups sometimes believe that it’s the government’s responsibility or fault for them being poor,” said Harry Trombitas, a retired FBI Special Agent.
A direct connection to the Patriot Front? James Alex Fields of Maumee was the terrorist who rammed his car into the crowd of counter-protesters at the 2017 “Unite the Right Rally” in Virginia. Attendance there was promoted by Columbus-native Andrew Anglin, who founded the white supremacist Daily Stormer website. It is the world’s biggest neo-Nazi website.
Luke O’Brien, senior reporter at HuffPost reported …
“A few days after Donald Trump declared his presidential candidacy – launching into an attack on Mexican “rapists” – Anglin endorsed him as 'the one man who actually represents our interests.'
'Anglin immediately put all his resources toward willing a Trump presidency into reality. He churned out cheerleader posts and deployed his trolls on behalf of Trump, directing several of his nastiest attacks at Jewish journalists who were critical of the candidate or his associates.
“Anglin hadn’t been to the polls in years, but he wasn’t going to miss a chance to vote for Trump. His absentee ballot arrived in Ohio from Krasnodar, a city in southwest Russia near the Black Sea, according to Franklin County records. That the Russian government wouldn’t know about an American inside its borders publishing a major neo-Nazi website seems improbable.
“Anglin worshipped Putin, and seemed like exactly the type of online agitator Russia might use to sow chaos during the U.S. election. In March, Auernheimer told Daily Stormer commenters that he was setting up the site’s forum on “a much beefier server in the Russian Federation.” Anglin would later swear on his site – “under penalty of perjury” – that he’d never taken money or direction from the Russian government.
(Luke O'Brien. “The Making of an American Nazi.” The Atlantic. December 2017 Issue.)
The election helped elevate The Daily Stormer from one of several influential white-nationalist sites to a key platform of the alt-right, though the site wasn’t nearly as popular as Anglin wanted people to think. He and Auernheimer often bragged that it got millions of unique visitors a month, but comScore put the site’s monthly visitors closer to 70,000. Still, Anglin knew how to make noise – and by any metric, the post-Trump trend line for his site pointed up.
O'Brien reports …
“In May 2016, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer had asked then-candidate Trump about the death threats and harassment Anglin’s army had leveled against the journalist Julia Ioffe after she wrote a profile of Melania Trump for GQ magazine. (Ioffe now works at The Atlantic.)
“'I don’t have a message to the fans,' Trump said.
“The fans. His people. 'We interpret that as an endorsement,' Anglin told a reporter when asked about Trump’s refusal to condemn white nationalists.
(Luke O'Brien. “The Making of an American Nazi.” The Atlantic. December 2017 Issue.)
To close, I want to further explore the Ohio connection to anti-government groups. The reader can note the high interest in the Buckeye State and find parallels to hatred across America.
In 2017, the SPLC compiled a list, and this news organization placed all of the known Ohio hate groups on the map below. Each group has been categorized by its overall ideology and has been color-coded. Note that all markers do not represent specific locations. Those that are statewide have been placed towards the center of the state for ease of understanding.
Seven black separatist (blue) groups, most notably The Nation of Islam, create the largest category of known hate groups (SPLC definition).
The Klu Klux Klan (black) has six groups listed, four of them being statewide groups (SPLC definition).
Five anti-Muslim (gold) groups with an ACT for America group operate in each of the three biggest cities of Ohio (SPLC definition).
There are four known anti-LGBTQIA+ (purple) groups, which say they are Christians stopping the "homosexual agenda" and often resort to crude ad hominem hate speech (SPLC definition).
Four neo-Nazi (red) groups, including the headquarters of the Daily Stormer and a motorcycle gang, are in Ohio (SPLC definition).
Three racist skinhead (green) groups are known for being violent factions of white supremacists with their shaved heads (SPLC definition).
Three white nationalist (orange) groups are in Ohio. White nationalist is mainly an umbrella term, and the groups are those that suggest some type of inferiority of nonwhites (SPLC definition).
Two Christian Identity (yellow) groups are anti-Semitic groups that claim to be Christian despite having little to do with the religion (SPLC definition).
A single radicalized Catholic (grey) group, known as Radical Traditional Catholicism, is a group of anti-Semites that subscribe to an ideology rejected by Catholics (SPLC defintion).
Most of these groups are in the three biggest cities, however there are two known black separatist groups in the Dayton area.
(Joe Gurnig. “Hate groups in Ohio: How many are there, and where are they?” Dayton Daily News. August 15, 2017.)
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