Wednesday, February 22, 2017
A Mandate from God
American Fascism
Studies
in Conflict and Terrorism, vol 22, issue 2, 1999 contains a review by
Paul de Armond titled A Time for New Beginnings, in which he examines
the history of ideas motivating the fascist movement in the United
States. In this article, de Armond locates Wise Use and Christian
Patriots within that movement. In his view, a study of the American far
right was overdue, and he notes the U.S. Taxpayers Party was a merger of
the Christian Right with Christian-Patriot white supremacists, that
emerged as an important fusion party of the extreme right during the
militia organizing drive of 1994. As Paul observes, USTP’s
constitutionalist ideology, choice of phrases and catalogue of enemies
provides targets for its “brigades”– much like the Tea Party does today.
Rather
than toss political labels around, de Armond urged a behavioral
definition of fascism, such as the Reagan administration’s use of the
American extreme right to organize paramilitary action in Central
America. He reminds readers that it was state and local governments that
used armed right-wing paramilitaries like the Klan to attack civil
rights activists in the 1960s, and that there is a continuity of the
American paramilitary right that includes the Klan, Minutemen, Aryan
Nations, Militia of Montana, Covenant Sword and Arm of the Lord.
With
each successive wave of violence, notes Paul, the expressions of
establishment surprise have become a predictable ritual, and that “It is
only in the case of the most horrifying or politically inflammatory
violence that significant law enforcement resources have been
committed.” As de Armond observes, there have been three waves of
right-wing militia organizing since the 1960s, which one can get more
detail about in his report Racist Origins of Border Militias.
In
his end notes, Paul says, “Fascism is a form of social change as a
movement and a form of social institution as an establishment. It is
neither a political ideology, a religion, nor a mental illness, though
it manifests itself in all these forms. It is a rationalization of
theft, just as statism is a rationalization of power, capitalism is a
rationalization of acquisition, and sociopathy is a rationalization of
the irrational. Anti-fascism is a form of informational public health,
related to epidemiology.”
White Supremacy Factions
Says
Paul, “There are two major threads to white supremacy: revolutionary
and mainstream.” The skinheads, neonazis and Klan are revolutionaries.
That is the smallest faction. The mainstreamers are far more numerous
and their rhetoric is strongly reflected in the Minutemen
(anti-immigrant groups) and Tea Parties. The main difference between the
two factions is their approach to electoral politics.
The
revolutionaries reject electoral politics and the mainstreamers embrace
it. Leonard Zeskind’s book, Blood and Politics is framed around an
analysis of the revolutionary/mainstreamer factions.
There
is a third faction, the separatist anti-government survivalists known
as the Christian Patriots. They propose withdrawal from society and
creation of isolated areas under their own law and authority. These were
the groups behind the militia violence of the 1990s. They draw on a
mixture of revolutionary and mainstream propaganda and ideology. The
hard core of the Christian Patriots are racist Christian Identity
believers who rejected the overtly revolutionary approach of Aryan
Nations under Richard Butler. John Trochmann of Montana, now a fairly
obscure character, was the paradigmatic leader of Christian Patriot
militias in the 1990s. Pat Buchanan’s political persona was a fusion of
mainstreamer and Christian Patriot influences.
All
three groups have adopted a core ideology of white racialist
nationalism. The core to this is an idea of distinct racial classes to
citizenship and the separation of races by both law and custom.
As
Paul observed in an October 1, 2010 remark at Metafilter, “The sunlight
v shunning debate is an old one. Every time there has been a crisis,
the sunlight approach wins. The key to defeating reactionary racist
politics is education and exposure. They work mostly by deception,
infiltration and subversion and these tactics are impossible when they
are subject to scrutiny and exposure leading to confrontation and
rejection. Shunning them actually give them additional cover.
The worst setbacks to the Tea Party have been due to exposure, not people trying to ignore them.”
Christian Patriots at War with the State
In
his 1996 essay Christian Patriots at War with the State, de Armond
observed that, “The [1995] bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal
building in Oklahoma City came as the latest in a series of rude shocks
to America. Starting with the shoot-out at Ruby Ridge which killed a
Deputy U.S. Marshal, the young son and the wife of white supremacist
Randy Weaver, Christian Patriot white supremacists have been steadily
escalating their endless war against American democracy.”
As
Paul noted, the formation of armed vigilante groups called “unorganized
militias” was first viewed in the media as the ranting of a bunch of
gun-nuts and crack pots. A year after the Oklahoma City bombing, the
nation was still uninformed about what Christian Patriotism is and where
it is leading people.
“The
long-standing failure of the FBI to arrest the Justus Township Freemen
in Jordan, Montana on charges of fraud, forgery, and intimidation of
public officials” says Paul, “focused national attention on the
individuals involved. However, the near-total absence of informed public
discussion has left most Americans in the dark as to what was really
going on with the Freemen, the militias and the Christian Patriot
faction of white supremacy.
Showing
the Freemen as cardboard ‘extremists,’ the media has not explored the
cohesive ideology and — more importantly — the theology that guides
Christian Patriotism.”
Christian Identity
“Americans
are amazingly tolerant of diverse religious beliefs” noted de Armond.
“Religious con men, charlatans, self-appointed messiahs, frauds,
thieves, bigots, crack-pots and cranks have flourished in America as
nowhere else.”
“One
such religion,” says Paul, “is Christian Identity. Incorporated in Los
Angeles in 1948, Wesley Swift’s Church of Jesus Christ Christian was
initially a racist sect which became Christian Identity. The central
belief in Identity doctrine is the existence of two races on earth: a
godly white race descended from Adam and a satanic race fathered by
Satan.”
In
1970, Swift died, and Richard Butler assumed control and moved the
church to Idaho, where he renamed it Aryan Nations — Church of Jesus
Christ Christian.
As
de Armond observed, “The function of religion in the lives of these men
was to provide a theological justification for their racism and
anti-Semitism. Stated another way, racism and anti-Semitism were their
religion.” The Identity movement was the glue to hold together racist
ideology in the United States, and is the inspiration for America’s
present white supremacist movement.
War against Democracy
“Baldly
stated,” says de Armond, “the white supremacist movement seeks to
undermine federal authority and bring about the collapse of the United
States of America. The destruction of federal power is the prerequisite
to establishing a new racial nationalist state. It is highly unlikely
that such a thing is within the means of the small number of militant
racists, but it is certain that they will continue to use all means at
their disposal to pursue that unrealistic goal.”
These
means include bombings, sabotage, undermining discipline in the armed
forces, counterfeiting, tax evasion, bank robbery, subversion of local
governments and law enforcement, fraud, and attempts at nuclear,
chemical, biological and psychological warfare. Instances of all of
these acts have occurred.
Christian Patriotism
White
supremacy is not monolithic. It has factions and clear distinctions can
be drawn between them. The largest and most active faction has adopted
the name “Christian Patriotism.”
Christian
Patriotism is the result of the confluence of the far-right tax
resistance movement, regressive Populism, and Identity doctrine. The
Christian Patriot branch of white supremacy has its legal and
philosophical roots in the “property rights” and “states’ rights”
clauses in the Constitution. These sections of the Constitution were a
compromise necessary to enlist the cooperation of the slave-holding
states in replacing the unworkable Articles of Confederation with the
federal Constitution. The exaltation of the rights of property over the
rights of people is a common denominator of the entire right wing of
American politics.
As
de Armond continues, “A major advance in the right-wing mythos came in
the aftermath of the Civil War. In seeking ratification of the 13th and
14th Amendments to the Constitution, the victorious Unionists were
confronted by the near insurmountable obstacle of Article V, which
requires the consent of three quarters of the states in order to ratify
an amendment to the Constitution.
The
recently conquered Confederacy — now rejoined to the Union — possessed
sufficient votes to block the amendments abolishing slavery, extending
the full rights of citizenship to all people born in the United States
and granting equal protection of the laws to all people within the
United States’ jurisdiction. The Unionists solution was to impose
military occupation governments in a sufficient number of the former
Confederate states long enough to ratify the new amendments. Immediately
after ratification, the military governments were replaced with
civilian ones.
This
historical fact is little known outside of the South. The response to
the forcible alteration of the Constitution was a conspiracy theory
which asserts all amendments beginning with the 13th and 14th Amendments
were never properly ratified and thus are not part of ‘the supreme Law
of the Land’ as described in Article VI. This conspiracy theory has
become the central myth of Christian Patriot ‘common law’ — the organic
Constitution.”
In its most concise form, the myth of the organic Constitution can be summarized as follows:
The Constitution is a divinely inspired document in which human agency is secondary to God’s will. Only the original Constitution and Bill of Rights as signed by the Founders is the supreme Law of the Land and this law should be interpreted in the light of Biblical understanding.
The Constitution is a divinely inspired document in which human agency is secondary to God’s will. Only the original Constitution and Bill of Rights as signed by the Founders is the supreme Law of the Land and this law should be interpreted in the light of Biblical understanding.
The
upshot of the myth of the divinely inspired organic Constitution is
that Christian Patriot sovereigns can do whatever they want if they
convince other sovereigns that such an action is “constitutional.”
According to the Christian Patriots, no other laws apply but the ones
that they recognize.
Common Law
“Common
law” as practiced by the Christian Patriots is not law in the sense
that most people understand it. It is the arbitrary and capricious
pronouncements of petty tyrants. The Christian Patriots frequently claim
that common law descends from the Magna Carta. It does, but only in the
sense that they see themselves as modern feudal lords whose sovereignty
is granted by God, sealed by their “pure-bloodedness” and secured by
their property. The “peers” of a common law jury are not peers in the
ordinary sense of equals. They are peers in the sense of aristocratic
lords in the earthly Kingdom of Heaven. As sovereigns, their word is
law. Failure to obey that law is treason and punishable by death.
Attorneys
are frequently baffled by common law practices, since the documents
which the Christian Patriot sovereigns issue frequently look very
similar to standard legal documents. Many Christian Patriots have spent
considerable amounts of time studying legal language and procedure. As a
result, Christian Patriot common law shares much of the form of law,
but few of the basic assumptions and definitions. Most of the jail house
lawyering done by Christian Patriots is learned by rote and believed
with a religious fervor.
This
can — and frequently does — lead to considerable confusion and shouting
matches in courtrooms, as occurred when the Justus Township Freemen
were arraigned.
The
Christian Patriot claim that real courts do not have jurisdiction over
them is the usual starting point for common law legal shenanigans. The
peers of the Christian Patriot Republic refuse to be judged by anyone
who is not a Christian Patriot sovereign. Only Christian Patriot common
law courts with juries composed of sovereigns can sit in judgment of a
sovereign. Should anyone disagree with the sovereign challenging
jurisdiction, that disagreement — even coming from the bench in a real
courtroom — is an “unconstitutional” act and thus proof of treason.
Since the penalty for treason is death, the next step is usually a death
threat against the judge, sheriff, prosecutor, county clerk or whoever
dares to disagree with the sovereign.
The Banking Conspiracy
The
final piece in the Christian Patriot puzzle is their attitude towards
money and banking. Expressed — as usual — as a conspiracy theory, the
Christian Patriot mythos describes “money” as only gold and silver. All
paper currency and financial institutions (except their own) are
fraudulent.
In
the minds of Christian Patriots, the banks are all controlled by Satan
through the Jews. It’s not as fashionable these days to say Jews control
the banks as it used to be, so the most common catch-phrase is
“international bankers.” In the minds of Christian Patriots, the center
of the entire conspiracy is housed in the Federal Reserve and the
creation of the Federal Reserve was part of the Illuminati conspiracy
which also altered the Constitution by passing all those
“unconstitutional” amendments to the organic Constitution.
With
the creation of the Federal Reserve System, the passage of the income
tax and the final recognition of federal responsibility for the general
welfare during the New Deal, the final stones of the foundation of the
modern “banking conspiracy” theory were laid. Again, the generational
lag postponed the superstitious hysteria past the end of WWII. At this
time, the seeds of Identity began to take root through the actions of
Wesley Swift, William Potter Gale, Richard Butler and others under the
cover of “anti-communism.”
Christian Patriot World View
In
their corner of American political opinion, Christian Patriots have
collected all the conspiratorial baggage of American history and
assembled it into a cohesive and comprehensive — but fundamentally
irrational — explanation of the world. These beliefs commit them to
revolutionary and frequently violent action. While not all Christian
Patriots are believers in Identity doctrine, most — if not all — have
adopted the assumptions of Identity as key beliefs. De Armond’s 1997
report Putting the Far Right into Perspective distinguishes between the
Christian Right and Christian Patriots, and examines the different
behaviors, rationalizations and strategies of right-wing groups and
movements.
As
de Armond remarks, “The Christian Patriot movement is driven much more
by the theological world-view of Identity doctrine, rather than a
political ideology. Because religion has only recently come to play a
direct role in national politics, there is a blind-spot in most
observers’ picture of the outbreak of Christian Patriot militancy which
began in 1992. This is no doubt partly due to the respect for and
toleration of religious dissent in America. The result is that Christian
Patriots — such as the Justus Township Freemen in Montana — have been
labeled “extremists” without a serious examination of the belief
structures which have led them to their current situation.”
Conspiracy
theories and Identity doctrine drive the movement. Ken Toole is
director of the Montana Human Rights Network, the first civil-liberties
group to come into direct confrontation with militias. In Ken Stern’s
book on the militias, A Force Upon the Plain, Toole explained how
Identity recruitment works:
“At the front end, it’s picking up lots and lots of people by hitting on issues that have wide appeal, like gun control and environmental restrictions, which enrage many people here out West. Then you go a little bit further into the funnel, and it’s about ideology, about the oppressiveness of the federal government. Then, further in, you get into the belief systems. The conspiracy…Finally, at the narrow end of the funnel, you’ve drawn in the hard core, where you get someone like Tim McVey.”
“At the front end, it’s picking up lots and lots of people by hitting on issues that have wide appeal, like gun control and environmental restrictions, which enrage many people here out West. Then you go a little bit further into the funnel, and it’s about ideology, about the oppressiveness of the federal government. Then, further in, you get into the belief systems. The conspiracy…Finally, at the narrow end of the funnel, you’ve drawn in the hard core, where you get someone like Tim McVey.”
As
de Armond observed in 1996, “The notion of Christian Identity doctrine
as the “motor” for militant white supremacy is widely shared among
experts. Many of the most violent white supremacist groups of the last
three decades have either been led by or composed of individuals who are
Identity believers. Among experts, the overwhelming majority agree that
Christian Identity provides the “motor” for recruitment, propaganda and
militant action by Christian Patriot white supremacists.”
A mandate from God is a powerful thing.
Endnote:
The text of this essay is almost exclusively from the writings of
Public Good Project research director Paul de Armond, who passed away in
2013. Creation of this composite, edited by Public Good Project
administrative director Jay Taber, is intended to bring Paul’s writings
on the topic together into a single comprehensive analysis.
