The news shocked many Americans. The FBI announced they had thwarted an armed rightwing extremist militia plot to capture local government officials and hold them hostage.
You may think I’m talking about
the October arrests of more than a dozen Michigan militia henchmen who were
planning to abduct Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and put her on trial for the
heinous crime of trying to save Michiganders from the coronavirus.
You’d be wrong if you did.
What I described above was a 1934
plot to seize control of the San Diego, CA city hall by a rightwing militia of
quasi-Christian zealots called the Silver Shirts. Founded in 1933 by William
Dudley Pelley (right), a one-time presidential candidate, the Silver Legion of America
was patterned after the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s Black Shirts with
the intention of establishing a “Christian Commonwealth” in America that would
exclude all Jews and nonwhites.
The Silver Legion was a
pro-fascist/Nazi group, one of several that existed in the U.S. in the 1930s.
(See: American
Fascists: A Forgotten History.) The local contingent of Silver Shirts concocted
a plan to overthrow San Diego’s city government when they heard rumors that a
group of communists was making similar plans (they weren’t). Two Marines from
Camp Pendleton uncovered the plot when they infiltrated the Legion while
investigating a series of weapons thefts from local military units.
Militia coup attempts like those
thwarted in San Diego and Michigan might seem rare, but they aren’t unknown, and
they are no laughing matter. They pose a very real threat to American citizens
and to our democracy.
The first antigovernment militia coup was the
1791 Whiskey Rebellion. Contrary to the belief of many radical gunowners that
the Second Amendment was intended by our Founding Fathers to provide for the
overthrow the government, the Whiskey Rebellion was quickly put down by a
federal force led by then-President George Washington. (See: The
Myths that Drive America’s Love of Guns.)
Anti-government militia plots
have been the bane of American life, particularly since the 1990s. Several militia
plots were uncovered during that decade. Members of a group called the North
American Militia planned to bomb several targets in Michigan, including a
federal building and an IRS building, and even discussed assassinating various
government officials.
In 1997, members of a Missouri
militia group planned a July 4 attack on Fort Hood, Texas, as the military base
hosted an annual “Freedom Festival” attended by 50,000 men, women, and
children. Fortunately, the FBI and the Missouri State Highway Patrol thwarted
the plot. (See: The
Militia Movement.) And in March 2011, the FBI charged nine members of an
extremist militia group in Michigan with seditious conspiracy for plotting to attack
law enforcement and spark an uprising against the government. (See: Domestic
Terrorism: Focus on Militia Extremism.)
These rebellions were stopped or
quickly suppressed before they started. But that doesn’t mean militia coups are
not dangerous. In 1898, a white supremacist militia successfully overthrew the
biracial city government of Wilmington, NC. There was no response to the deadly
coup from local police, the state government, or Washington, DC. Its success is
having unfortunate repercussions in today’s presidential politics, as Donald
Trump keeps holding up that event as a model for future coups. (See: The
White Supremacist Coup that Trump Uses as a Template.)
Many Americans like to believe
Timothy McVeigh’s April 19, 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building
that killed 168 men, women, and children was the act of a “lone wolf”
terrorist, Timothy McVeigh. In fact, in addition to McVeigh, three accomplices
were also charged and tried for the crime. They had hoped the bombing would
initiate an uprising that would take down the U.S. government. McVeigh was also
a member of Christian Identity, a rightwing, white supremacist militia, which
the FBI believed may have also been involved with the plot. (See: Were
There More OKC Conspirators?: The Elohim City Connection.)
The last four years saw a rise in militia activity, thanks to the hateful and extremist rhetoric of Donald Trump. Armed militia members confronted peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors and marched to protest social distancing practices implemented by local governments in the wake of the coronavirus. Even before planning to abduct Gov. Whitmer, Michigan militia gunmen marched on the state capitol in an obvious threat to state lawmakers.
Not all rightwing coup plots were
the work of militia movements. In 1933, a group of wealthy conservative bankers
and financiers plotted to raise a private army and use it to overthrow the American
government and establish a fascist dictatorship. Called The American Putsch and
The Bankers Revolt, the plot was thwarted by the man they approached to lead their
army. Smedley Butler, a retired Marine Corps major general and two-time
recipient of the Medal of Honor, played along with the conspirators and
collected evidence for the FBI. One of the alleged conspirators was a wealthy,
pro-Nazi financier named Prescott Bush, father and grandfather of two U.S.
presidents. (See: American
Fascists: A Forgotten History.)
Unlike George Washington riding forth to preserve the country and democracy during the Whiskey Rebellion, Donald Trump has done nothing to mitigate the threat from these rightwing extremist groups. On the contrary, Trump appointed self-avowed pro-fascist, white nationalists like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller to his staff. He’s referred to white nationalist groups as “some good people” and told the Proud Boys to “stand by.” Trump has also called for armed militia members to act as “poll watchers” during the balloting. His failure to condemn these hate groups or their malicious plots only encourages them to continue their terrorist plots. More conspiracies will be on the horizon as long as this irresponsible president remains in power.
And despite the best efforts of
law enforcement, the next plot may not be stopped in time.
