America's White Terrorist Problem: White Supremacists Have Plotted the End of America As We Know It, and See the Pandemic as Their Chance

As has been widely documented, the Reopen America “Movement” is a completely fraudulent event paid for and organized by Right Wing billionaires like the DeVos’s and pushed by Fox News and the Trump Administration for political purposes. The purpose, like all psy-ops, was to create the appearance of a populist moment that could be used and manipulated in order to frame a narrative and national mood. Despite attempts by both Fox and Trump to lend it authenticity, the American people have overwhelmingly rejected the idea out of hand.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t those who are taking advantage of the fabricated uprising. White supremacist groups and separatist militias have been participating in these “rallies,” particularly in Michigan, where armed men stormed the state house on Thursday and repeatedly intimidated legislatures by lording over them and invading their spaces.

Unfortunately, the discourse around the event has avoided calling it what it is - terrorism - and has instead focused on lampooning the men as hobbyists and posers. But make no mistake, what happened was a much larger incident and much more troubling than simply posing.

We have, in the United States of America, a massive problem with white terrorism. Though the events of September 11th and its tragic aftermath have obfuscated the reality of our situation, white terrorism has been a much larger and more prevalent threat than anything originating from al-Qaeda, ISIS, or any other group. White terrorists have killed more and been involved in far more incidents, it just so happens that media refuses to connect the line between these moments and instead chooses to label them as “lone killers” or “lone wolves.”

This movement has been in place for decades, but found root in the 1990’s with the so-called “Patriot Movement” that coalesced as a response to tragedies in Ruby Ridge, Idaho and Waco, Texas in which federal agents killed innocent Americans. They were incidents that showcased the federal government’s inability to handle situations arising from religious cults desiring an apocalyptic showdown, but were spun quickly by the National Rifle Association and the Republican Party into instances of tyrannical domination.

These appeals were political and financial in their goals as both groups recognized an opening to grow their political and fundraising bases by playing into the tyrannical perception. NRA President Wayne LaPierre studded his speeches and fundraising letters with references to “jackbooted thugs” and the GOP began liberally referring to “the New World Order,” stoking racist and paranoid fears.

All of this eventually led to the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995, committed by white supremacist and Patriot Movement member Timothy McVeigh, who believed he was dealing a blow to the New World Order and the conspiracy peddled by the NRA and the GOP.

McVeigh was covered for a time as a racist, white terrorist, but eventually would be portrayed, as all white terrorists, as a lone wolf and demented criminal. He inspired others and is still a hero to the white supremacist terrorist network, which was inspired by the same writings as McVeigh to build and organize.

Since McVeigh, these groups have only grown in scope and power. They have accrued arsenals of weapons, trained for military maneuvers, worked on developing bombs, and plotted continually. These are not simply “hillbilly gun-toters.” They are experienced, many of them veterans of the military or law-enforcement, and they are dedicated to the complete overthrow of the United States of America as we know it.

According to their plans, they have looked and looked for weaknesses in the system where they can grow and exploit vulnerabilities. They have discussed assassinating politicians. Have discussed bombing more federal buildings. Their plan is to use a crisis as a means to start a massive racial war, from which they will emerge victorious and institute full-throated fascism.

They are explicit in these plans and in recent weeks have considered the possibility that this pandemic might be their opening. They have considered weaponizing it and using it as cover for their attacks. Already there have been documented cases of white supremacists planning on destroying hospitals and getting ahold of the coronavirus in order to turn it into a weapon. These protests are open displays of hostility and nothing short of political terrorism.

Make no mistake, this is how democracies die. As they weaken and shrivel on the vine, paramilitary groups begin to make a mockery of the process and inject fascism into the dying body. They carry out displays of power and intimidation like waltzing into a statehouse. What we saw in Charlottesville was part of this. Michigan was yet another step. Just pretending they don’t exist will not make them go away. And in this, a time of societal and political crisis, vigilance is the only protection from what they intend to inflict upon this country.

Jared Yates Sexton is the author of American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed its People, available for pre-order from Dutton/Penguin-Random House. His work has appeared in the New York Times, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, Politico, and elsewhere. He currently serves as an associate professor of writing at Georgia Southern University and is the co-host of The Muckrake Podcast.