In 2022, in the midst of right-wing blind fury over the COVID pandemic, violent, anti-government extremist Ammon Bundy decided to run for governor of Idaho— one of the most fascist-oriented states in the country— although he didn’t live there. In June 2021, with the backing of Roger Stone and Ron Paul, Bundy announced he was running for the Republican nomination against incumbent Republican Governor Brad Little in a crowded field of far right extremists that included the neo-Nazi Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin, who had been endorsed by Trump. He said if elected he would protect Idaho from “Joe Biden and those in the Deep State that control him,” stating that they are attempting to eliminate freedom of religion, gun rights and parental rights. He vowed to eliminate property taxes and the state income tax.
Rather than lose the primary by splitting the fascist vote, Bundy withdrew in February, 2022 and announced he would run as an independent, announcing that “The Republican Party platform is the platform I stand behind but the Republican establishment in Idaho is full of filth and corruption.” Bundy came in third, but a very strong third, beating Democratic Party candidate Stephen Heidt in 34 of 44 of Idaho’s counties, basically, backward, the sparsely-populated rural counties where MAGA’s brand of Naziism is widely embraced by the all-white populations. It was the best performance of an independent candidate in Idaho since 1926 when the Progressive Party nominee, Scott Hall, polled 28.4% and came in second, beating the Democratic candidate.
Bundy is probably best known for leading the 2016 occupation the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon and for his role in Cliven Bundy’s (his father) standoff against federal agents in Nevada. Arrested and indicted half a dozen times, he has deftly used a dysfunctional justice system to avoid any accountability over the years. His People’s Rights Network is a robust fascist domestic terrorist organization with around 40,000 members in the northwest U.S. A credible report from the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights and the Montana Human Rights Network exposed the group as “Ammon’s Army, and it marches to a far-right drumbeat of narcissistic rage and insurrection, [which involves] troubling displays of far-right conspiracism, racism, antisemitism, anti-indigenous and anti-transgender sentiment, and omnipresent threats of violence.” Their analysis pointed out that the People’s Rights Network is a bigoted, White supremacist, anti-Semitic, Christian nationalist social movement seeking to “overturn civil rights with a pre-Civil War interpretations of the U.S. Constitution,” making common cause with secessionist and violent right-wing militias such as the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters and Patriot Prayer. They are financed by wealthy extreme right sociopaths hiding their donations through cryptocurrency transactions. He was last thought to be hiding— forecourt actions— in southern rural Utah.
And then, yesterday, The Guardian broke a story about Bundy moving to take over the Oregon Republican Party. Jason Wilson reported that at least 66 members of the People’s Rights Network “have attempted to win local positions of influence” in the Republican Party in 3 central Oregon counties this week, “with some facing no opponent and thus winning their positions by default.” In 2022 Bundy’s group had huge successes in Deschutes County (Bend) Republican primaries winning enough party offices to take control of the county Republican central committee and elect psychopath secessionists Scott Stuart and Connie Whelchel as chair and vice-chair. They are attempting to accomplish the same take-overs in Crook (whose voters just approved a measure to join Idaho) and Jefferson counties.
The move is part of what appears to be a coordinated attempt to capture the local Republican party infrastructure, following a far-right strategy of “entryism” into more mainstream political bodies.
…The revelations about the group’s highly organized participation in the Republican primaries raise questions about the extent of anti-government infiltration in the Republican party at the grassroots level, both now and in the immediate future.
PRO5’s strategy resembles the “precinct strategy” as coined by Arizona GOP activist Dan Schultz and promoted by MAGA figures including Steve Bannon and Trump himself. That reflects a “shared instinct on the far right post-2020,” according to Devin Burghart of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights (IREHR), an organization that researches far-right extremism.
“They want to take over the local party apparatus and change it from the ground up,” he said.
No big deal? Who cares? Not all fascist takeovers began with violence the way they did in Italy (Mussolini in 1922), Spain (Franco in 1936) and Chile (Pinochet in 1973). Fascism in Germany (Hitler, 1933), Hungary (Orban, 2010) and Turkey (Erdogan, 2016) all came through the ballot box. And that brings us to the question of how democracies can protect themselves from characters like Bundy and his racist organization who seek to use democratic means to achieve anti-democratic ends— or how to defend against fringe groups infiltrating, subverting and capturing mainstream parties. There were no guard rails in Deschutes County (not a kook county, by the way… Trump was defeated there in 2020).
Democracy isn’t always great at defending itself, although in the 1930s the openly Nazi and anti-Semitic German American Bund— which began in Buffalo in 1936, quickly spreading to other New York cities and to German communities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin-- was smashed by popular federal government actions. Similarly, William Dudley Pelley’s Christian nationalist Nazi group, the Silver Legion, was badly beaten in the 1936 presidential election (making it onto the ballot in Washington State and winning about 1,600 votes) and gradually disappeared.
Perhaps, today, strengthening transparency requirements for political candidates and parties can help reveal any ties to extremist or fringe groups. Robust disclosure laws should require candidates to disclose affiliations with organizations like People’s Rights Network, the Proud Boys, etc. When I was in grade school, a required course was Civics. Investing in civic education and community engagement empowers voters to make informed decisions and resist attempts at manipulation. Reversing Republican successes in weakening public education in general should be a major progressive goal and promoting critical thinking skills and media literacy would help individuals recognize and reject extremist narratives. If Florida had a well-educated population, for example, would something like Ron DeSantis be elected governor?
naziism started in bavaria and spread. And just a few years after it started, a minority chancellor declared democracy dead and became fuhrer.
our naziism may have started in any of several states. but it has flowered in FL. There is more than a nascent presence in probably 35 states, including ID and eastern OR.
The commonality between? A dearth of resistance. Nobody stops it. Hitler became fuhrer and came within an eyelash of becoming fuhrer of all of europe and a majority of asia. Where will ours BE stopped? Or will it ever be stopped? Someone and something has to actually stop it. Won't be your democraps. That much is for sure.