A number of us have been trying to communicate that Confederate symbols reflect the ideology that underlies much of the gun movement, various private militias and armed organizations.[1] White nationalist racism has been evident for decades at gun shows, militia get-togethers and in their social media. With NRA help, they’ve been working to refight or reverse the results of the Civil War. Their guns are intended to give white nationalists political power, and the killing sprees, often with streaming video, are welcomed to generate copycats and trigger the new war, which they’re convinced they have the weapons to win. They are not for democracy in America; the Confederacy is the future, not the past.
Reporting makes it look like school shooters are a random bunch of deranged individuals. But those killers study white nationalist literature, read the manifestos and watch the videos of their predecessors. Nothing is truly random. White nationalist antipathy toward African-Americans, people of color, Jews, Muslims and liberals leads to murders in churches, Temples, Mosques, grocery stores, and concerts. These extremists are fundamentally disloyal, arming themselves for war against America.
Their disloyalty drives taking law into their own hands. Dislike for rules about grazing on federal lands led to an armed standoff with park rangers. Dislike for election results led to storming the capital. As their arrogance spreads, we’re all in their sights.
After the Civil War, supporters of the defeated Confederacy used murder to reduce their opponents’ voting power. Malcolm Nance, whose new book, They Want to Kill Americans, I strongly recommend, updates that story. Terrorists make no moral distinctions. All of us are potentially in their sights.
Of course the white nationalists are being taken for a ride. Nance eloquently summarized a point analysts and economists have been trying to make, that under the white-nationalist-driven-Republican Party, most Americans “would see none of the profits of America but would literally pay for the wealth and prosperity of the richest of the rich.” Neo-Confederates haven’t connected their financiers and candidates with damage instead of service to the working classes who make up the bulk of the whites these racist extremists claim to defend. They’re for a lawless jungle run for the benefit of wealthy kleptocrats.
So what do we do?
First, we can take the wraps off investigating domestic terrorism – it should have been obvious since McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995 that homegrown white terrorism is a major problem in the U.S, and getting worse. But because of the ties of violent white nationalist groups with the Republican Party, Congress hasn’t dealt with it effectively, though the FBI is finally catching up.
Second, despite the Court, we can put limits on guns; we can remake the illegitimate Court; and, if necessary, rewrite the Second Amendment.
Third, with our votes, we can make Republican support for violent extremists toxic.
Fourth, vote – we can wrap up our skepticism and get ourselves, family and friends to the polls. The religious right, their white nationalist allies, and corporate supporters can tell you voting pays huge dividends. There are enough of us to restore our country – if we get ourselves, families and friends to the polls.
[1] See my Unfit for Democracy (NYU Press, 2016), chap. 8.
Steve Gottlieb’s latest book is Unfit for Democracy: The Roberts Court and The Breakdown of American Politics. He is the Jay and Ruth Caplan Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Albany Law School, served on the New York Civil Liberties Union board, on the New York Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Iran.
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