Far Right, Totally White, You Got That Right

More than 35,000 Ku Klux Klan members marched down

Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C August 8, 1925

  “Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger, not the gun.” Donald Trump, August 5^th.

As President Trump decries bigotry, racism and hatred, blaming mental illness for the spate of mass shootings that have so accelerated since his ascension to power, his administration seems to be well aware of one hard fact: racists, white supremacists and bigots are a substantial core of his political, must-have base. A little rhetoric – emphasizing mental illness – is tolerable… as long as nothing changes. Promises of change, background checks instantly recanted (and back again?), are acceptable as long as they are not kept. Divide and conquer is the new GOP path to grow or at least sustain political power. The last moderates in the GOP are retiring from Congress. It is all Trump now.

You only have to look at the policies of his Department of Homeland Security to understand how unconcern our elected government is about containing domestic hate groups that we euphemistically call “domestic terrorists” – remembering that any segment of society that rises up is always labeled “terrorists” by the incumbent power. What Britain called our Revolutionary War fighters. But what we have in the United States today is hardly noble, hardly freedom fighters, just Ku Klux Klan’ers without the hoods. Maybe that’s why Trump never uses that “domestic terrorist” label to describe these mass killers.

If you want the truth about where our government stands, follow the dollars our government spends to see the priorities. “Last year, every extremist killing in the United States involved a follower of far-right hate groups or ideology. (Andres Leighton Associated Press) UNDER President Trump, 85% of the ‘countering violent extremism’ grants awarded by Homeland Security targeted Muslims and other minority groups. (Lola Gomez Austin American-Statesman).” Los Angeles Times, August 6^th.

Gun laws are never going to change in any material sense in a Republican administration. Trump is hardly going to back a massive expenditure of federal funds to rein in people in his main constituency. He’s hardly going to allocate meaningful federal funds to stem the rising tide of Russian interference, already targeting African-American and other minorities telling that their votes don’t count so why bother voting.

“In the aftermath of mass shootings in Texas and Ohio, President Trump vowed Monday to give federal law enforcement ‘whatever they need to investigate and disrupt hate crimes and domestic terrorism.

“But the Department of Homeland Security, which is charged with identifying threats and preventing domestic terrorism, has sought to redirect resources away from countering anti-government, far-right and white supremacist groups.

“The shift has come despite evidence of a growing danger. Last year, every extremist killing in the United States involved a follower of far-right hate groups or ideology, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. The FBI has noted a sharp increase in domestic terrorism cases involving white supremacists…

“Under President Obama, the office had about 40 full-time staff and a $24-million annual budget, according to Nate Snyder, an Obama administration counterterrorism official. The office now has fewer than 10 full-time employees and a budget below $3 million… ‘You have some very dedicated government employees still at the office dealing with terrorism prevention and just trying to keep the lights on,’ Snyder said.

“After Trump’s election, members of his transition team told Homeland Security officials they wanted to reorient programs meant to combat violent extremism to focus more on the threat posed by radical Islamic terrorism… But right-wing and anti-government groups have carried out more domestic attacks, and killed more Americans, than foreign terrorist groups since 2001, data show.” LA Times.

It is their time. White Supremacists feel it in the air. Outliers are massing on social media, abetted by their President, his television news outlet and his supporters. But make no mistake, terror is indeed escalating… from the inside.

              I’m Peter Dekom, and the most unfortunate patterns of history are repeating themselves within our republic… and very little is being done to stop them.