A peregrine falcon swoops over grazing cows. A giant Stars and Stripes is painted on wood with Bundy for governor and No trespassing attached. Up a gravel drive, past an upturned wheelbarrow, is a red, white and blue Bundy campaign bus and a sign that declares: Keep Idaho Idaho.
Ammon Bundys compound is situated under rolling green hills and a broad Idaho sky. From his five-bedroom farmhouse, the far-right activist gazes out at his 240 apple trees along with cherry, peach and pear trees. He points to the homes of two neighbors, both military men and both flying the American flag upside down.
Its a sign of distress, Bundy says. Im not influencing them in any way but, if there is going to be some type of civil war, I think it will be the military fracturing. I hope not. I believe more in a separation, if it was needed.
The bearded 46-year-old, notorious for armed standoffs with law enforcement that landed him in prison, has no chance of becoming governor of Idaho. But the mere fact that, during a year in solitary confinement, he wrote in his journal about a plan to run for elected office is indicative of a change in the political wind here.
Idaho has long been one of the most conservative states in America with its fair share of extremism. Now, critics warn, the extremists are being normalised. Once dismissed as backwoods fanatics, the far right have entered the political arena and identified a path to power.
That path leads through a state Republican party that has long exploited tensions between independent-spirited Idahoans and the federal government, which manages two-thirds of the states land, and more recently embraced former president Donald Trumps culture of grievance.
Trump beat Joe Biden with 64% of the vote here in the 2020 election. Democrats have not held the governors office since 1995 or statewide elected office since 2007. Most elections for the state legislature do not even feature a Democratic candidate.
Chuck Malloy, a columnist and former communications adviser to the House Republican caucus, said: Sure, we have a two-party system: its Republican and more Republican. Idaho is shifting more to the right every day.
In the Republican primary election for governor on 17 May, incumbent Brad Little, a stalwart conservative by national standards, is portrayed as a Republican in Name Only (Rino) by his even more extreme challenger, Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin (Bundy dropped out of the Republican race and is running as an independent).
McGeachin has sought to grab attention by issuing executive orders banning coronavirus mask and vaccine mandates when Little was out of state only to see them overturned on his return. But the political grandstanding appears to have backfired. Opinion polls suggest that McGeachin is heading for defeat.
Little, who can boast of a record $1.9bn budget surplus, could not be described as much of a liberal saviour, however. He made a pilgrimage to Trumps Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida only for the former president to endorse McGeachin four days later. As the state partys centre of gravity shifts right, he is shifting with it.
The governor recently signed one of the most extreme abortion laws in the country, banning the procedure after a foetal heartbeat is detected and allowing family members of rapists to sue providers. He also signed a bill banning transgender women from competing in womens sports.
Malloy observed: Little cant come across as looking pro-abortion in any way, shape or form so he signs this bill and makes the comments, well, I think its unconstitutional, but Ill sign it anyway. He doesnt want to go into a Republican primary election by being soft on the abortion issue or guns. Hes been picking his fights.
He added: Democrats cant be crazy about Brad Little. But to at least some people its a matter of do I vote for sane or insane?
Lauren Necochea, chair of the state Democratic party and a state representative, confirmed that she is unimpressed by the governor. She said: The difference between Little and McGeachin is really more style than substance. She personifies the far-right extremism while he panders to it.
Although Little is likely to retain the governors mansion, elections for other offices of state are more competitive between the hard right and harder right. Priscilla Giddings, a McGeachin ally, is running for lieutenant governor, while Dorothy Moon, a member of the far-right John Birch Society, is a contender for secretary of state.
Ral Labrador, a former member of the influential US House Freedom Caucus who once proclaimed Nobody dies because they dont have access to healthcare, is among the candidates for state attorney general.
The extremist faction has also been expanding its influence in the state house and senate, recently attempting to block government funding for healthcare and television and to criminalise librarians for disseminating material harmful to minors, though the measures were ultimately thwarted.
House member Chad Christensen, for example, proudly declares on his webpage his membership of the Oath Keepers, a militaristic, anti-government group whose founder, Stewart Rhodes, is facing charges of seditious conspiracy for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Scott McIntosh, opinion editor of the Idaho Statesman newspaper, said: When I moved here in 2006, the Republican party was very much dominated by reasonable Republicans. Brad Little would be in that category. All they were worried about was running a good small state government.
Theyre still here but the Republicans who are getting elected, particularly in the past 10 years, are more interested in coming to the state capitol and pushing transgender rights, abortion, library criminalisation bills that are more culture wars they see going on in other parts of the country that they want to stop from happening here in Idaho.
Perhaps most insidiously, a new far-right generation is targeting and taking over Republican central committees at county level. It means that the election for governor might be less important than it seems since the winner will find themselves tugged to the right by a radicalised state government.
Shea Andersen, a marketing consultant who has worked on political campaigns, agreed: Theyve figured out that the real power in Idaho is not to hold the governors seat necessarily though certainly it would send a great message for them but any sort of fringe political viewpoint is better served by fanning out and getting your positions represented in more day-to-day operations, whether that is state legislature or county commissioner races or even races for treasurer and secretary of state.
The trend is especially pronounced in northern Idaho, a region infamous in the late 20th century for Richard Butlers effort to establish a white homeland from his 20-acre Aryan Nations compound. Butler was eventually bankrupted by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the compound was burned in June 2001.
Chris Fillios, a moderate Republican seeking re-election as a county commissioner in Kootenai county, has observed extremists on the march there. They have been told, infiltrate at every level: school board, county, city offices, anywhere and everywhere they can, state level, federal level, infiltrate, infiltrate.
Fillios sees a connection with alt-right figures such as Steve Bannon, a former chief strategist in the Trump White House. If we start from the national level and we look at Steve Bannon having identified his so-called 40,000 shock troops, the most fertile ground that they could find would be northern Idaho. If they can get a foothold here, they could use it as sort of a launch pad for the rest of the country.
A driving force is the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a thinktank that vets legislation and legislators for their conservative and libertarian credentials. Approached for an interview, the foundation emailed a one-word reply: Nope. Approached in person at its office near the state capitol in Boise, the foundations staff gave a brusque refusal.
Tellingly, the foundations website asks: Are you a refugee from California, or some other liberal playground? Did you move to Idaho to escape the craziness? Welcome to Idaho. Were glad to have you here. You are one of the new Idahoans. The people who came to the Gem State seeking a home that reflects their values: small government and a freer life.
This is a trend that has been called right flight as conservatives pour into Idaho from liberal, racially diverse states. It could be seen as part of the grand sorting of American national politics as liberals move to places where they will find like minds and conservatives do likewise, meaning that blue states turn bluer and red states turn redder.
Stephanie Witt, director of the Applied Research Center at Boise State University, said: The newcomers arent liberals. Theyre as conservative or more conservative than the people who are here.
I remember one woman I met at a county womens forum. She was a recent transplant from southern California and shes just like, We cant let California happen here. She felt like she was really holding a line.
California is the most diverse state in America; Idaho is 93% white. But Tom Luna, the first Hispanic person elected to statewide office in Idaho as superintendent of public instruction, denies that race is a motivating factor. I dont see white flight as a reason at all for people moving here. I dont know the numbers but Ive met a lot of new people that have moved here and I see quite a diversity that identify themselves as Republicans.
Luna is now chair of the state Republican party. He rejects the notion that it has gone rogue. This is the same party that has led for the past 20 years resulting in now one of the fastest-growing, if not the fastest-growing, state in the country, and one reason is because of quality of life.
But among the new arrivals is Bundy, who grew up in Utah and lived in Arizona before moving to Idaho seven years ago. The father of six children settled on farmland outside Emmett also the home of Governor Little, a third-generation sheep and cattle rancher about an hour north-west of Boise.
Bundy was infamous for standoffs with federal agents near his familys ranch in Nevada in 2014 and at the Malheur national wildlife refuge in Oregon in 2016, which left one man dead. He served prison time but denies that he was leading armed rebellions and claims he won the PR battle.
The federal government has been attacking the land users ranchers, loggers, miners and other people, he said in an interview, wearing a checked shirt and paint-flecked jeans and sitting near a baby grand piano. Theres been this almost theological battle thats been going on for decades and decades over the land in the west.
He articulates the small government ideology of many far-right Republicans here: I believe that we should become independent. Weve got plenty resources and we should be able to stand on our own and not be dependent on the federal government to pay our medical bills and to build our buildings and all of that. But were like welfare junkies. We cant seem to get off of it.
Bundy has been arrested multiple times in Idaho. Once such incident occurred in 2020 because he refused to leave a statehouse auditorium while protesting against pandemic legislation after officials ordered the room to be cleared. Earlier this year he was involved in protests that helped force a hospital into temporary lockdown.
The rise of such tactics by extremists, which has included harassing and intimidating Republican legislators deemed too moderate, and storming into school or district health board meetings, sometimes with AR-15 rifles, has raised the specter of political violence in the states future.
McIntosh of the Idaho Statesman said: I only see it getting worse. I dont see a way out of it.
View post:
Republican and more Republican: Idaho shifts ever rightward - The Guardian
- The Grotesque Slander of Comparing Gaza Protesters to Neo-Nazis - The New Republic - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Joe Alt Is A Strong Fit For The Los Angeles Chargers - Sports Illustrated - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- How The Manosphere Of Alt Right Content Targets Boys - BuzzFeed - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- Say Hello To Joe Alt, Future Hall Of Fame Right Tackle - Barstool Sports - April 29th, 2024 [April 29th, 2024]
- An Alt-Right Icon Just Gave the Single Dumbest Seinfeld Take Ever - Cracked.com - April 4th, 2024 [April 4th, 2024]
- Ireland & Wales Rugby Fans Take On Alt-Right On Twitter - Balls.ie - February 18th, 2024 [February 18th, 2024]
- Doja Cat Reacts to Backlash Over Alt-Right Comedian T-Shirt: 'It Didn't Affect the World' - TooFab - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Doja Cat Responds To Backlash Over Alt-Right T-Shirt: 'It's Not An Attack' - HipHopDX - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Marvel and DC Writer Mark Waid Rejects Mark Millar's Call To Root Out Comic Book 'Cancel Pigs', Dishonestly Paints ... - Bounding Into Comics - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- Maudlin Strangers unveil intense alt rock banger Im Not In The Right Mind [Video] - EARMILK - December 19th, 2023 [December 19th, 2023]
- The Dark Economics of Russell Brand - WIRED - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Pro-Kremlin Propagandist Ties to White Nationalist Movement ... - Southern Poverty Law Center - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Opinion | How to Argue Against Identity Politics Without Turning Into ... - The New York Times - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Anna Wintour: 'I just have to make sure things are being done right' - Financial Times - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- Opinion | Donald Trumps Abortion Shell Game - The New York Times - September 23rd, 2023 [September 23rd, 2023]
- How to Treat Right-Wing Violence in the U.S. - The New Yorker - August 30th, 2023 [August 30th, 2023]
- Scalise, No. 2 House Republican, Says He Has Blood Cancer - The New York Times - August 30th, 2023 [August 30th, 2023]
- Emails reveal Secret Service contacts with Oath Keepers - Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington - August 30th, 2023 [August 30th, 2023]
- How Trump's Election Lies Left the Michigan G.O.P. Broken and ... - The New York Times - August 30th, 2023 [August 30th, 2023]
- Alt Right: A Primer on the New White Supremacy | ADL - March 2nd, 2023 [March 2nd, 2023]
- The Dangerous Subtlety of the Alt-Right Pipeline - March 2nd, 2023 [March 2nd, 2023]
- The Alt-Right Manipulated My Comic. Then A.I. Claimed It. - March 2nd, 2023 [March 2nd, 2023]
- Richard Spencer: Five Things to Know - Anti-Defamation League - February 20th, 2023 [February 20th, 2023]
- From Alt Right to Alt Lite: Naming the Hate - Anti-Defamation League - February 18th, 2023 [February 18th, 2023]
- Alt-right Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com - February 18th, 2023 [February 18th, 2023]
- What Is QAnon, the Viral Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theory? - January 8th, 2023 [January 8th, 2023]
- Benedict XVIs Most Powerful Influence on the Catholic Church Came Before He Was Pope - The New Yorker - January 6th, 2023 [January 6th, 2023]
- Netflix Removed Kanye's 'Harmful Alt-Right Beliefs' From David ... - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Where Are All the Women on This Alt-Right, Anti-Choice, Toxic ... - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Forbes Gets Punked - Labels FTX Former CEO's Girlfriend a "New Darling ... - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- Alt-Right Picks Wrong Side in Dutch Farm Crisis - November 23rd, 2022 [November 23rd, 2022]
- La Mirada Chamber Invited Alt-Right Racist to Moderate School Board ... - October 30th, 2022 [October 30th, 2022]
- Hate & Extremism | Southern Poverty Law Center - October 30th, 2022 [October 30th, 2022]
- America First Political Action Conference - Wikipedia - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Pepe the Frog - ADL - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Paul Joseph Watson - Wikipedia - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Jack Posobiec - Wikipedia - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- QUIET - Wikipedia - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Shintaro Abe - Wikipedia - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- #FireMcMaster, explained. How alt-right media and a handful of | by ... - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Right-wing politics - Wikipedia - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Real Viking History and the Imagined White Supremacist Past | Time - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- More Toxic, Alt-Right, QAnonism | No Minister - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Steve Bannon's influence on conservative politics: Expert on alt-right explains - University of Colorado Boulder - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Alt-right - Wikipedia - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Alt Right: A Primer on the New White Supremacy - Anti-Defamation League - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- How the Alt-Right Happened - American University - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Alt-right pipeline - Wikipedia - October 17th, 2022 [October 17th, 2022]
- Richard B. Spencer - Wikipedia - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- incel Meaning & Origin | Slang by Dictionary.com - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- red pill Meaning & Origin | Slang by Dictionary.com - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Just The News - Media Bias/Fact Check - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- The Download: TikTok moral panics, and DeepMinds record-breaking AI - MIT Technology Review - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Roe vs. Trump in the Michigan Midterms - The New Yorker - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- PhD student examines clash of masculine identities on internet hate site - University of Toronto - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- Clickbait extremism, mass shootings, and the assault on democracy time for a rethink of social media? - The Conversation - September 27th, 2022 [September 27th, 2022]
- By Reading Brainwaves, an A.I. Aims to Predict What Words People Listened to - Smithsonian Magazine - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- A Case of Rhabdomyolysis in a Young, Morbidly Obese, Asthmatic Woman With COVID-19 - Cureus - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- Mothers of the movement: Leadership by alt-right women paves the way for violence - The Conversation - September 11th, 2022 [September 11th, 2022]
- An antidemocratic philosophy called 'neoreaction' is creeping into GOP politics - The Conversation - August 2nd, 2022 [August 2nd, 2022]
- How Stop the Steal Captured the American Right - The New York Times - August 2nd, 2022 [August 2nd, 2022]
- Alt Right: A Primer on the New White Supremacy - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Will Tehama Sheriff Candidates Ties to Alt-Right Extremists Alarm ... - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Racist Great Replacement Conspiracy Went From Alt-Right to Mainstream - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Trump and his mob tried to overthrow American democracy and threaten to try again - Ohio Capital Journal - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- Pacifism is the wrong response to the war in Ukraine - The Guardian - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- How Culture Went Back to the Middle Ages - ArtReview - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- FoxO3 restricts liver regeneration by suppressing the proliferation of hepatocytes | npj Regenerative Medicine - Nature.com - June 24th, 2022 [June 24th, 2022]
- The Alt-Right Has Its Very Own TV Show On Adult Swim - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- The Nation: "The Libertarian Party Goes Alt-Right" - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Milwaukee business owners don't all want the RNC - Wisconsin Examiner - June 11th, 2022 [June 11th, 2022]
- Alt-Right Incels at Deep State Daily Stormer Site Celebrate Buffalo ... - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- Alt Right Journalist Whos Lost Every Lawsuit Over Banned Accounts ... - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- PBS, Lincoln Project Label DeSantis, Press Secretary 'Alt-Right' - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Verdict: The Actual Malice of the Trial - The New York Times - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- How To Keep Meat Juicy With Science : Short Wave - NPR - June 3rd, 2022 [June 3rd, 2022]
- What Do Female Incels Really Want? - The Atlantic - May 17th, 2022 [May 17th, 2022]
- 'Well be here again': How tech companies try and fail to prevent terrorism - Protocol - May 17th, 2022 [May 17th, 2022]
- Listen up! Here are the finalists of the 2022 Student Podcast Challenge - GBH News - May 11th, 2022 [May 11th, 2022]
- Dark Enlightenment - Wikipedia - April 27th, 2022 [April 27th, 2022]