Peter Gay:A democracy on the edge | Columns | thesunchronicle.com – The Sun Chronicle
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We had just finished watching an episode of “Mad Men” on the Amazon Prime app when I switched our Smart TV back to our Comcast converter.
The never-before seen video of the rioters — some called them tourists — smashing their way through doors and windows into the building was on the screen. Although I had no intention of watching the report of the Jan. 6 select committee when they kicked off their series of hearings in primetime a week ago Thursday, I was soon glued to my seat.
“Did you ever think you’d see that in America?” I asked Pattie.
The video taken that sad day in U.S. history was so clear it was easy for law enforcement officials to identify and file charges against members of the Proud Boys and other extremists.
I knew little about those groups until I read an article earlier that day by Tim Dickinson in the June edition of Rolling Stone magazine.
The story started with a brief explanation followed by profiles of five of the most prominent far rights groups. “While they all share a love of guns and a loathing of liberalism, not all militant groups share the same tactics, aims, or trigger points. How do you differentiate an Oath Keeper militant from a Proud Boy brawler or a Boogaloo Boi from the Patriot Front?”
In writing the article, Dickinson consulted with Matt Kriner, a senior research scholar at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counter-terrorism.
Most Americans had heard of the Proud Boys after our former president told them to “stand back and stand by” in the first of two debates against Joe Biden. It’s my opinion that his bizarre behavior that night cost him the votes of undecided Americans and ultimately the election.
“The Proud Boys declare themselves to be ‘Western chauvinists,’ which is ‘a fancy way of saying white supremacists or white nationalists,” Kriner is quoted in the story.
The Oath Keepers were also identified in the video. The group were visible marching up the Capitol stairs in military formation.
They “tout themselves as guardians of the constitutional order against what they perceive as encroaching federal tyranny. They recruit heavily among veterans and law-enforcement personnel, appealing to their vow to protect the country against ‘all enemies foreign and domestic.’”
The third group mentioned in Dickinson’s article sounds more like a hip-hop dance group than white supremacists. It turns out the Boogaloo Bois name came from the movie sequel, “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.” Kriner describes them as, militants seeking “their own sequel, a new civil war, shorthanded as the ‘Boogaloo,’ which is seen as both imminent and necessary.”
The timing of the Rolling Stones’ story was impeccable. Not only was it published just before the committee’s report, but the fourth group listed, The Patriot Front, made headlines days later when 31 members were arrested in Idaho before an alleged plan to riot at a Pride event.
Members are part of a “hate group that revives Italian fascist symbols and slogans like ‘blood and soil,” but it projects itself under a red-white-and-blue banner of ‘extreme patriotism.’”
Unlike the first three groups, the Front recruits younger members, specifically, teens.
“They show up in flash mobs and use graffiti, defacing public murals celebrating diversity of LGBTQ pride.”
The fifth group profiled is Atomwaffen. “They are literal Nazis, declaring: ‘National Socialism is the only solution to reclaim dominion over what belongs to us.’ Many white-supremacist groups attempt to sugarcoat their noxious beliefs to redpill new recruits, but Atomwaffen is for hardened haters.”
I was describing the chilling article to a friend who I often differ with politically. He told me that I have nothing to worry about because those groups won’t be coming for us. I’m sure the comment was to make me feel comfortable. It did not.
By the way, when the video concluded and the committee went into recess, I switched over to Fox News to get their angle on the hearing.
To say I was surprised that Sean Hannity, the former president’s mouthpiece, was critical of the committee’s report would be a lie. I was shocked, however, at the lower third graphic that read, “JAN 6TH CMTE FUELS FALSE NARRATIVES AS SHAM INVESTIGATION DRAGS ON.”
The graphic rotated with another that read, “INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON KEY FACTS, JAN 6TH CMTE ORCHESTRATES ANTI-TRUMP SHOW TRIAL.”
The article and the coverage by Fox News have me convinced that the days of the democracy, as we know it, are numbered.
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