Far right figure Ammon Bundy’s group, People’s Rights, is holding a protest on Saturday in Nezperce, Idaho. Best known for leading the 2016 armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and, more recently, helping kick off protests against public policies aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus, the target for Bundy and friends this time is different – the Lewis County Sheriff’s department.[1]

The rally comes on the heels of a shootout between police and a Bundy associate also involved in the 2016 Malheur occupation. Ammon Bundy has also recently made overtures to Black Lives Matter on the basis “common concerns” about police abuse of power, garnering push-back from his own movement.[2] Despite these developments, Bundy and his militia friends remain rooted in a far right brand of nationalism that would undermine civil rights and cripple the ability of federal government to address racial and economic inequality, ultimately privileging those who own substantial property over those who do not.

In short, Ammon Bundy and People’s Rights are not the allies of those who seek racial and economic justice.

Sean Anderson: From Idaho County to Malheur

The shooting and subsequent arrest took place after Sean Anderson, 52, of Riggins, Idaho, was pulled over July 18 by a Lewis County sheriff’s deputy for an apparent vehicle equipment violation. Anderson initially stopped along Highway 12, then fled the scene, leading an Idaho County deputy and Nez Perce Tribal Police on a 30-mile pursuit from Kamiah to Ferdinand, according to press accounts and the Idaho State Police.[3] Anderson eventually stopped outside a residential area near Ferdinand, where he is “accused of using a shot gun and firing it in the direction of a Lewis County Deputy after which officers returned fire,” according the state police. He was later charged with aggravated assault on a police officer [4]

Anderson was hospitalized for injuries sustained in the shootout and released on July 23. The Idaho State Police are leading an investigation into the incident in cooperation with the FBI and the Latah County Prosecutor.[5]

While details of the incident remain unclear, the Bundy-allied People’s Rights of Washington (PRW) called for prayers “that the officers responsible for this attempted assasination (sic) are brought to justice.”[6] The group went further, writing “Mark your calendar and plan to be in Idaho at the Lewis County Sheriffs (sic) Department, on Sat August 1, demanding Justice for Sean. All officers involved must be charged with attempted murder.”[7]  Of the incident, the group wrote,

“Sean fled and drove 1 hour, aiming to get inside his home county, and he called the Idaho County Sheriff seeking protection. He knew he had multiple officers following him and he called Ammon Bundy saying he was in fear for his life. He pulled over, after making it across the county line, and was immediately fired upon dozens of times by Lewis County AND Idaho County deputies as well as by 1 Nez Perce Tribal Police.”[8]

While PRW admits that Anderson fled the scene of a traffic stop, his appeal to the Idaho County Sheriff to protect him from the Lewis County sheriff echoes the playbook of the Posse Comitatus – a far right movement with origins in 1970s white supremacy that holds the sheriff to be the highest law enforcement authority.[9]

Anderson’s appeal to his own county sheriff does not appear coincidental.

Sean Anderson has a significant history of far right and paramilitary activism that has continued to present times. Most notably, Anderson was a participant in the January 2016 Ammon Bundy-led armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. One of the last four to leave the refuge after the 41-day standoff, Anderson gaining notoriety for a series of incendiary statements. In a video shown during his court case, Anderson called on people to flock to the refuge to “fight for your country,” declaring that the “media has been waiting for a bloodbath” and that “now there’s going to be one.”[10]

In another video, Anderson described the stand-off as a “free-for-all Armageddon” and declared, “If they [police] stop you from getting here, kill them.”  Anderson took part in digging trenches in anticipation of a government raid and admitted to discharging his firearm during the standoff.[11] In court, Anderson would say of his videoed statements that “I am very ashamed of it,” also referring to firing his weapon in the air as “absolutely inexcusable.”[12]

However, Sean Anderson continued to make outrageous, and bigoted, statements on Facebook long after the Malheur occupation. Over a year after his court-room apology, Anderson bemoaned that “It’s Sad that only the KKK, will stand up for American and it’s (sic) Heritage!!!”[13]

The “Heritage” to which Anderson refers is apparently the display of Confederate symbols, the paramilitary activist posting memes defending the Confederate battle flag as well as monuments to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee.[14] Conversely, in July 2017 Anderson posted a meme calling for “REMOVAL OF ALL STATUES, BUST & PORTRAITS OF BARRACK OBAMA ON ANY PUBLIC PROPERTY. AS WE DEEM IT A SYMBOL OF TREASON AGAINST THE UNITED STATES” [Capitals in original].[15] It is unsurprising, therefore, that in June 2017 Anderson had posted a meme declaring that “WHITE PRIVELEGE IS A MYTH PERPETUATED BY THOSE WHO HATE WHITE PEOPLE” [Capitals in original].[16]

In August 2019, Anderson directly penned ideas starkly at odds with religious liberties and the U.S. Constitution, writing, “So we allow Muslims to be elected to Congress and change our values and traditions…We allow babies to be murdered…We allow our rights to be trampled…I’m ashamed!!”[17] In June 2017 Anderson had posted a meme declaring that Islam is “a deadly worldwide cancer.”[18] Anderson displayed an awareness of the anti-Muslim wing of the movement by posting material from Pam Geller, Michael Savage and JihadWatch.[19] Anderson would also post material from Krisanne Hall, the far right “constitutionalist” whose “theories” would dramatically undercut the 14^th Amendment and civil rights in the United States.[20]

Not content with disparaging Muslims, Anderson has posted memes mocking transgender people and casting Mexicans as people who “piss on our flag, break our laws, murder and rape our citizens, loot our Treasury and transport poison into our country.”[21] And Anderson would post a meme promoting the anti-Semitic canard that liberal Jewish philanthropist George Soros and the “Bilderberg group” were “puppet masters” that selected Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton.[22]

 

Anderson has also maintained an affinity for militia activity. In February 2020, Anderson would make his Facebook profile picture a photograph of he and his wife Sandra Anderson, who was also involved in the 2016 Malheur standoff.[23] In the photo, Sean Anderson is armed and displaying the “OK”/“Three Percenter”  hand symbol, while Sandra Anderson sports Three Percenter attire. [24] Anderson would repeatedly defend those who participated in the 2016 Malheur occupation and post other memes with Three Percenter images.[25] In early July, Anderson played an apparent role in attempting to bring Ammon Bundy and militia activists into the middle of an issue involving the Rainbow Family and the Nez Perce Tribe – later offering a July 12  “Citizens militia update” on the matter.[26]

People’s Rights of Washington also describes Sean Anderson as an “area assistant with People’s Rights Idaho.”[27]

And finally, like many in the militia sphere, Sean Anderson displayed his opposition to COVID-19-related restrictions, posting a well-circulated meme of an armed colonial soldier that states, “No more masks…No more stay at home or closed businesses…We have no intention of respecting any new little laws or civil orders. Don’t push your luck.”[28]

Ammon Bundy, the Far Right Constitution and “People’s Rights”

To hear Ammon Bundy tell it, he and People’s Rights are simply concerned about government abuse of power. Earlier this month, Bundy indicated he would attend a July 21 Black Lives Matter “Defund the Police” rally in Boise, Idaho, even stating that “I do believe, in many ways, that the police do need to be defunded.” Bundy backed out of the event in the wake of criticism from members of his movement.[29]

In the same speech describing plans to attend the BLM event, Bundy voiced the Posse Comitatus-like view that “we delegate policing and arresting power to certain people, but who do we, when it comes to law enforcement, do we the people delegate it to?…The sheriff, and only the sheriff.” He continued that he would “hold up a Lavoy Finicum sign at the event and “support the defunding of unconstitutional police forces that are controlled by our federal government.”[30] Finicum, a participant in the Malheur occupation, was killed in a shootout with Oregon State Police after attempting to evade a police roadblock and appearing to reach into his pocket where he had a gun, facts often obscured by FBI misconduct during the standoff.[31]

Bundy continued, claiming that the very name “Black Lives Matter” was intended by elites to divide people of different races:

“Black Lives Matter is funded by a white man, a rich one. Right, that’s where they’re getting their funding. And Black Lives Matter, at least the black people, should understand that. And Black Lives Matter, in it’s own, in the very term, even though I support, I do support a lot of the movement, but Black Lives Matter, the term alone, is divisive. The name is divisive. Right? Alone. You don’t think that they chose that name for no, of course they chose than name for a reason. It was to divide the blacks against the whites. That’s what it’s for.”[32]

Ammon Bundy went further, defending a racist statement made by his father, Cliven Bundy, during the latter’s own armed standoff with federal agents in 2014.  After being asked why he was willing to work with the BLM movement, Bundy elaborated that

“My father was ridiculed five years ago for saying that he felt like what, that in many ways, the black community was still oppressed. And he asked the question, ‘I wonder,’ this is a 74 year-old man, he says ‘I wonder,’ and it sounds so racist, it was the wrong words, so I’m gonna quote it, but what he said was, I believe right. He asked the question, ‘I wonder if they were better off back then,’ and he said it a little different than that, right, because they were in families… but then you go, ‘but they were enslaved,’ yes they were, it was terrible, right, but what’s happening now. We’re all being enslaved. We are. We can’t. We’re afraid to go to a store without a mask. It’s not about race at this point. It is about tyranny.”[33]

 

While equating chattel slavery with wearing a community-protecting mask is offensive enough, the elder Bundy’s statement that Ammon Bundy defends was, indeed, racist:

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro…and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch… They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”[34]

Ammon Bundy holding that his father’s racist statement “was, I believe right” is likely not an anomaly. Recall, for instance, that the Bundy family has been influenced by the work of W. Cleon Skousen, the far right figure who once worked closely with the conspiracy-weaving John Birch Society’s speakers bureau.[35] Ammon and Ryan Bundy brought copies of an annotated pocket U.S Constitution produced by the late Skousen’s National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS) to Malheur. And Cliven Bundy once stated, “It’s [the same NCCS pocket Constitution] something I’ve always shared with everybody and I carry it with me all the time…That’s where I get most of my information from. What we’re trying to do is teach the true principles of the proper form of government.”[36]

As IREHR has described elsewhere, W. Cleon Skousen’s 1982 book The Making of America codifies a racist revision of U.S. history that appears echoed back in Cliven Bundy’s statement about slavery – a revision casting slavery as humane, painting Abolitionists as villains, describing enslaved African people as “usually a cheerful lot” and heaping praise on Confederates for their treatment of the human beings they enslaved.[37]

Skousen’s 1981 book, The 5,000 Year Leap, deploys selective quotes to claim that the U.S Constitution is rooted in the Bible and that America is a Christian nation – core elements of Christian nationalism. In this book, Skousen also wrote that “No Constitutional authority exists for the federal government to participate in charity or welfare” – a skewed reading of the U.S. Constitution, particularly given its Commerce Clause (Article 1, Section 8), that would gut the capacity of the federal government to address racial and economic inequality and favor those who own significant property over those who do not.[38]

In keeping with all of this, a study of the Malheur standoff by the Anti-Defamation League concluded that “Almost a quarter of the participants have expressed some sort of racism, anti‐Semitism, or anti‐Muslim bigotry, with the latter being the most common.” [39]

This pattern has apparently continued with Sean Anderson’s involvement in People’s Rights of Idaho.

Ammon Bundy has also allied with far right figures who have opposed inherent indigenous rights and promoted political violence. For instance, in October 2019 Bundy headlined a “New Code of the West” conference in Billings, Montana alongside longtime Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) leader Elaine Willman and Washington State Representative Matt Shea (R-Spokane Valley). A lead organizer of the conference, Laura Lee O’Neil, is a Montana-based supporter of the John Birch Society, as documented by the Montana Human Rights Network.

Elaine Willman and CERA have long been committed to the outright termination of tribal government and abrogation of treaties between indigenous nations and the United States. Matt Shea, an anti-Muslim bigot and Christian nationalist, was removed from the Washington State House Republican Party Caucus after a report commissioned by the legislature found he had “engaged in and promoted a total of three armed conflicts of political violence against the United States Government” – including Cliven Bundy’s 2014 armed standoff and Ammon Bundy’s 2016 Malheur refuge occupation.

Finally, despite the bold rhetoric of concern about police abuse of power, at least one representative of People’s Rights has voiced support for the federal units that have attacked peaceful protesters in Portland, Oregon, including the “Wall of Moms” and Mayor Ted Wheeler. After being teargassed, Wheeler stated, “I’m not going to lie. It stings. It’s hard to breathe, and I can tell you with 100% honesty I saw nothing that provoked this response.”[40] Responding to a commenter stating that the “unmarked federal ‘agents’ are unconstitutional,” Blayne Sukut, speaking on behalf of People’s Rights, defended this authoritarian development:

“If your (sic) speaking of the federal agents in Portland they are protecting federal property there. They do have insignia on their clothing. It is harder to see with the camo. But the media won’t show any shots where you can see it. And its (sic) hard to see on citizen video. Its (sic) not a peaceful protest. Their not arbitrary rounding up anyone. They are arresting people who destroy property. They get read their rights and arraigned. There’s plenty of citizen videos showing the destruction of property, fires, broken windows, graffiti, and business looted.”[41]

Sukut fails, however, to address the issue of documented assaults on peaceful protesters by federal agents, or to distinguish between the damage to federal property he claims drove the federal presence in Portland and damage to federal property that took place during the 2016 Malheur refuge occupation.

People’s Rights of Washington (PRW), an ally of Ammon Bundy also promoting the August 1 protest, has shown its own troubling political leanings. The group has been active in mobilizations against COVID-19 related restrictions and has closely allied with Joey Gibson, the Patriot Prayer leader known for street confrontations with anti-fascists, attending anti-Muslim events, and who is currently facing federal riot charges. Like Sean Anderson, People’s Rights of Washington also looks to the Krisanne Hall as a constitutional authority.[42] And People’s Rights of Washington’s Kelli Stewart and Joey Gibson have echoed the Posse Comitatus-like view of the sheriff as the highest law enforcement authority.

In 2017 Sean Anderson would post videos of now People’s Rights of Washington leader Kelli Stewart circulated by the Bundy Ranch.[43]

While the Ammon Bundy-led rally in Nezperce, Idaho wraps itself in public concern about police abuse of power, its roots lie in a far right vision of American at odds with civil rights.

We should make no mistake about this.

[1] People’s Rights. Justice for Sean. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/events/612038402757236/

[2] People’s Rights. Facebook. July 27, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=154406042897924&id=111347783870417.

[3] Associated Press. Correction: Police Pursuit-Shootout Story. Idaho State Journal. July 23, 2020. https://www.idahostatejournal.com/news/state/police-idaho-suspect-in-shootout-was-part-of-2016-standoff/article_37889f1a-f07b-54e9-b6ba-36dec613fdef.html; Idaho State Police. News Release – Update – Suspect Charged with Aggravated Assault upon a Peace Officer after Pursuit. July 23, 2020. https://isp.idaho.gov/news-releases-view/

[4] Idaho State Police. News Release – Update – Suspect Charged with Aggravated Assault upon a Peace Officer after Pursuit. July 23, 2020. https://isp.idaho.gov/news-releases-view/

[5] Ibid.

[6] People’s Rights of Washington. Facebook. July 22, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/uniteforlibertynow/videos/729433900961450/

[7] People’s Rights of Washington. Facebook. July 22, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/uniteforlibertynow/photos/a.100830844957206/150814549958835.

[8] Ibid.

[9] For background on the Posse Comitatus, see Levitas, Daniel. 2002. The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right. New York: ST. Martin’s Press.

[10] Bernstein, Maxine. Oregon standoff defendant Sean Anderson apologizes for inflammatory video messages from refuge. The Oregonian/Oregon Live. May 4, 2016, updated January 9, 2019. https://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/05/oregon_standoff_defendant_sean.html; Associated Press. One Malheur occupier apologizes for rants. Statesman Journal. May 6, 2016. https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2016/05/06/1-occupiers-oregon-refuge-apologizes-rants/84014498/; Anderson and three others involved in the armed occupation would later plead guilty to misdemeanor trespass. See Bernstein, Maxine. 3 Oregon standoff defendants plead guilty to trespass, pay $1000 restitution. The Oregonian. February 6, 2017. Updated January 9, 2019. https://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2017/02/three_oregon_standoff_defendan.html

[11] Bernstein, Maxine. Op cit.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Anderson, Sean. Facebook. July 9, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/220863045102982

[14] See Anderson, Sean. Facebook. May 17, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/180886345767319?; Anderson, Sean. Facebook. May 11, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/185604218628865; Anderson, Sean. Facebook. June 10, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/203638726825414

[15] Anderson, Sean. Facebook. July 5, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/218824318640188

[16] Anderson, Sean. Facebook. June 11, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/204299103426043

[17] Anderson, Sean. Facebook. August 29, 2019. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/642848196237796

[18] Anderson, Sean. Facebook. June 17, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/208146089708011

[19] Anderson, Sean. Facebook. April 29, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/178833259305961; Anderson, Sean. Facebook. June 7, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/201835353672418; Anderson, Sean. Facebook. June 13, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/205761343279819; Anderson, Sean. Facebook. April 29, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/178444419344845

[20] Anderson, Sean. Facebook. June 6, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/219523295236957

[21] Anderson, Sean. Facebook. April 29, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/178487712673849; Anderson, Sean. Facebook. May 5, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/182010065654947

[22] Anderson, Sean. Facebook. June 15, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/207183163137637

[23] Bernstein, Maxine. The Oregonian. Sandy Anderson, one of four holdouts, wasn’t aware of federal orders to leave, lawyer says. February 19, 2016. Updated January 9, 2019. https://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/02/sandy_anderson_one_of_last_4_r.html

[24] Anderson, Sean. Facebook. February 18, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=780290959160185&set=ecnf.100015378630133&type=3&theater

[25] Anderson, Sean. Facebook. May 4, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/181697385686215; Anderson, Sean. Facebook. May 6, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/182503995605554; Anderson, Sean. Facebook. June 11, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/204415050081115

[26] Anderson, Sean. July 12, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/891686291353984

[27] People’s Rights of Washington. Facebook. July 23, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/uniteforlibertynow/posts/151210553252568

[28] Anderson, Sean. Facebook. July 2, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/883556305500316

[29] Bundy, Ammon. YouTube. https://youtu.be/J1lqgCEQy9s; Ibid. See also Pruett, Greg. Update: BLM – Boise Moves Protest to Undisclosed Location, Ammon Bundy Says He Will Not Be There Now. Idaho Dispatch. July 20, 2020. https://idahodispatch.com/blm-boise-moves-protest-to-undisclosed-location-ammon-bundy-to-join-them/

[30] Ibid. See also Pruett, Greg. Update: BLM – Boise Moves Protest to Undisclosed Location, Ammon Bundy Says He Will Not Be There Now. Idaho Dispatch. July 20, 2020. https://idahodispatch.com/blm-boise-moves-protest-to-undisclosed-location-ammon-bundy-to-join-them/

[31] Zaitz, Les. Bullet casings disappear from LaVoy Fincicum shooting scene, sources say. The Oregonian. March 15, 2016. Updated January 9, 2019. https://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/03/bullet_casings_disappear_from.html

[32] Bundy, Ammon. YouTube. https://youtu.be/J1lqgCEQy9s

[33] Ibid.

[34] The full quote from Cliven Bundy was: “I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro…and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do…And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?… They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.” Blake, Aaron. Cliven Bundy on blacks: ‘Are They Better Off as Slaves’. Washington Post. April 24, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2014/04/24/cliven-bundy-on-blacks-are-they-better-off-as-slaves/

[35] Wilentz, Sean. Confounding Fathers. The New Yorker. October 11, 2010. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/18/confounding-fathers

[36] Duara, Nigel. Oregon armed protestors invoke the Constitution – annotated by a conspiracy theorist. Los Angeles Times. January 21, 2016. https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ff-oregon-standoff-constitution-20160121-story.html

[37] As IREHR’s Devin Burghart described in 2015, In the pages of The Making of America, the discussion of the Fifteenth Amendment, which prohibited abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, quickly devolves into a racist re-writing of history, where slavery is depicted as “humane,” where the children of slaves are repeatedly refered to as “pickaninnies,” where Abolitionists are the villains, and where Confederate leaders are praised for the way they treated their slaves. According to The Making of America, slaves were treated well. The food was good, and “clothing also was on the par with that of the poorer white people and no less adequate in proportion to the climate than that of Northern laborers. If the pickaninnies ran naked it was generally from choice, and when the white boys had to put on shoes and go away to school they were likely to envy the freedom of their colored playmates.” In The Making of America, slaves were “contented” and “usually a cheerful lot” according to the book, “though the presence of a number of the more vicious type sometimes made it necessary for them all to go in chains.” Skousen’s book depicts slave masters as caring and just. “The instruction of planters to overseers almost universally emphasized the care to be given to slaves, firmness without brutality, and justice unaccompanied by indulgence being emphasized.” How good were things on the plantation between slaves and their masters? According to The Making of America, “As to the intimacy of relations between the owners and their chattels, not only did Negro ‘mammies’ suckle the children of their masters, but it was no disgrace for the [white] mistress to act as a wet nurse for a suddenly orphaned pickaninny. The Making of America even highlights what it calls “the blessings of slavery.” For example, according to the book, slaves had it so much better than their masters at weddings. “Negro weddings were attended by white people who joined in the celebration. If the marriages were of a rather impermanent nature, that fact was frequently considered as ‘one of the blessings of slavery.’ At church and camp meetings the Negroes, in their own section of the building or tabernacle, enjoyed the experiences immensely. They could shout without restraint, while the masters, in order to preserve their dignity, had to repress their emotions. It made little difference if religion was thrown off soon after the camp meeting dissolved—backsliding was pleasant, and there was always a chance to get intoxicatingly converted again.” The book systematically downplays the horrors of slave life, dismissing everything from slave breeding, to the brutality of punishment of slaves, the breaking up of families, and much more. When it comes to brutality, he even argues that “the slave owners were the worst victims of the system.” Praising Confederate States of America President, Jefferson Davis, The Making of America makes the preposterous claim that, “At least as numerous as the cases of barbarity are the number of instances of extreme indulgence [of slaves].” Life was good for slaves on Jefferson Davis’s plantation until “the Union soldiers broke up the order of his Mississippi plantation in 1862.” The Making of America casts the Abolitionists as villains of the antebellum period. According to the book, the Abolitionists, not slavery proponents, delayed the emancipation process that Southern slave-owners secretly wanted, “until after 1800 the South was quiescent or even favorable to the movement to limit slavery.” Abolitionists were also blamed for slave insurrections. As a result, “The constant fear of slave rebellion made life in the South a nightmare,” for slave owners…. Skousen’s 1981 book, The 5,000 Year Leap. …pulls together selective quotations and unsupported assertions to claim that the U.S. Constitution is rooted not in the Enlightenment, but in the Bible. See Burghart, Devin. Third Controversial Speaker Scheduled to Speak at South Carolina Tea Party Convention. Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. January 16, 2015. http://tremololabs.com/2015/01/16/third-controversial-speaker-scheduled-to-speak-at-south-carolina-tea-party-convention/. See also Skousen, W. Cleon. 1985. The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution. Washington D.C.: National Center for Constitutional Studies, Washington DC.

[38] Burghart, Devin. Third Controversial Speaker Scheduled to Speak at South Carolina Tea Party Convention. Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. January 16, 2015. http://tremololabs.com/2015/01/16/third-controversial-speaker-scheduled-to-speak-at-south-carolina-tea-party-convention/.; Duara, Nigel. Oregon armed protestors invoke the Constitution – annotated by a conspiracy theorist. Los Angeles Times. January 21, 2016. https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ff-oregon-standoff-constitution-20160121-story.html. See also Shupe, Anson and John Heinerman. Mormonism and the New Christian Right: An Emerging Coalition. Review of Religious Research. Vol 27 (No. 2). (Dec 1985), p. 146-157. These authors describe the broad attack on federal power, including institutions that potentially protect worker’s health, environmental quality, civil rights and economic fairness, noting that the center’s targets included “the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Communication Commission’s fairness doctrine in editorial broadcasting, the federal government’s change of the gold standard in currency, all subsidies to farmers, all federal aid to education, all federal social welfare, foreign aid, social security, elimination of public school prayer and Bible reading, and (that familiar right-wing nemesis) the United Nations.”

[39] Anti-Defamation League. Anatomy of a Standoff. https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/documents/assets/pdf/combating-hate/Anatomy-of-a-Standoff-MalheurOccupiers.pdf.

[40] McGreal, Chris. Portland mayor teargassed by federal agents at protest. The Guardian. July 23, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/23/donald-trump-portland-oregon-mayor-ted-wheeler-teargas-federal-agents; see also, Dickinson, Tim. From the Administration that Brought You Kids-In-Cages, It’s Tear-Gassed Moms.  Rolling Stone. July 22, 2020. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/from-the-administration-that-brought-you-kids-in-cages-its-tear-gassed-moms-1032760/

[41] People’s Rights. Facebook. July 27, 2020. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=154406042897924&id=111347783870417

[42] Anderson, Sean. Facebook. May 3, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/181162735739680; Sean Anderson. Facebook. May 4, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/181776402344980

[43] Anderson, Sean. Facebook. May 3, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/181162735739680; Sean Anderson. Facebook. May 4, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/seananderson.anderson.9/posts/181776402344980