For the Radical Right, Obama Victory Brings Fury and Fear
When the word came in last night that Barack Obama and the Democrats had won national elections in a decisive victory, millions of Americans went to bed, satisfied that even if their candidate didnât win, democracy had survived. The results made it clear that this election had in no way been stolen.
But not so at Ole Miss, which last month marked the 50th anniversary of deadly segregationist riots. Shortly after midnight, several hundred mostly white students protested furiously, reportedly yelling anti-black racial slurs and throwing rocks at passing cars. An Obama/Biden campaign sign was burned before campus police broke up the crowd in Oxford. There were apparently no arrests or injuries.
The reaction to the re-election of our first black president from the radical right â and that seemed clearly to include some University of Mississippi students â ranged from sputtering rage and name-calling to calls for a new Southern secession, mass emigration to Europe, or even the break-up of the United States. There was one thing large numbers seemed clearly to agree on: The changing racial demographics of our country, expected to lose its white majority by 2050, was key to the result.
âWelcome to a truly white minority world,â wrote one commenter on Stormfront, the worldâs largest white supremacist Web forum, which is run by a former Alabama Klan leader. âThe future is now. There is no denying this. The sun has set on humanityâs greatest era: 1500-2000. ⌠[T]he only way to survive this war of annihilation is separatism. ⌠[W]e have to choose regions or states.â
âWe have truly fallen under Godâs judgment,â wrote another. âYou will never see another white man occupy the White House again.â Responded a third: âIf you can immigrate to Europe you start making plans. ⌠America will become largely a non-white population that is poverty stricken and all those government programs will soon disappear. It will happen. No more Medicare and no more social security.â
The loss of a white majority in the United States has helped drive a truly explosive growth of the radical right in the last three years, and that now seems likely to accelerate. Hate groups in recent years have risen to more than 1,000, and the number of antigovernment âPatriotâ groups has shot up from just 149 in 2008 to 1,274, according to research by the Southern Poverty Law Center. For months now, groups on the radical right have increasingly fretted about a possible Obama victory. Now that that has occurred, the radical right may grow more dangerous still.
On Stormfront, given this reality, it wasnât surprising to find talk of violence in the wake of the election. âI live in a liberal area so many of my âfriendsâ are shouting for joy,â lamented one poster at the racist site. âI donât actually have many real friends and the ones I do have are scared and talking about arming themselves.â
Over at the conspiracist website Infowars, some reactions werenât that different. âNow is the time to leave this country,â wrote a commenter using the name munglejonkeys. â[T]hey have brought about a communist takeover without firing a single shot. America will resemble Zimbabwe (economically) in a few years and there will be a huge shift in the welfare-dependent knob-slobs who thought that selling their souls for an Obama-phone was such a great deal. ⌠All because white people didnât oppose political correctness 35 years ago.â
Remarkably, similar sentiments seemed to crop up in what is taken as the political âmainstream.â Fox Newsâ Bill OâReilly, fearing an Obama victory, said last night: âThe white establishment is now the minority. And the voters, many of them, feel that the economic system is stacked against them and they want stuff.â He added: âThe demographics are changing. Itâs not a traditional America any more.â
Donald Trump, the billionaire unrepentant âbirther,â didnât mention race. But he tweeted last night that the election was âa total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!â He went on to characterize the Electoral College, which gave the race to Republican George W. Bush in 2000, as a âdisaster for democracy.â
The anti-gay right reacted with fury, as well. In a long thread on the passage of same-sex marriage referenda at the antigovernment site Free Republic, commenters were apoplectic â and frightened. âGet ready for Godâs wrath,â wrote one. âThe people are choosing Satanâs finest.â âFudgies win again,â wrote another. âIncidents of HIV [to] rise again.â And a third: âAmerica is going to pay for its unbelief and its love of abortion and homosexuals. ⌠And IT DESERVES IT.â
âSICK SICK SICK,â wrote still another. âWhat a filthy night this election is.â
In fact, as pointed out on CNNâs religion blog, the whole election was a ânightmare scenarioâ for conservative Christian leaders. Noting the approval of two same-sex marriage referenda, the re-election of a president who supported such marriages, and the rejection of hard-line anti-abortion candidates, CNN said the election results âseemed to mark a dramatic rejection of the Christian rightâs agenda.â
âThe historic nature of these results are hard to overstate,â Robert P. Jones, a pollster who specializes in politics and religion, told CNN regarding the referenda in Maine and Maryland. âGiven the strong support of younger Americans for same-sex marriage, itâs unlikely this issue will reappear as a major national wedge issue.â
Non-Islamic domestic terrorism in the United States shot up in the wake of President Obamaâs first election in 2008, spurred by fury over the âsocialistâ president and the racial change that he represents in the American population. Now, given the reaction from the radical right to last nightâs election results, that seems likely to continue â or to get even worse, as racists and right-wing radicals seethe.
Joseph Farah, who runs the conspiracist ânewsâ site WorldNetDaily, sounded typical. âI think things are going to get very tough in America over the next four years,â he said. âI expect more division, more stratification, maybe even the disintegration of the constitutional republic that was the envy of the world for so long. Itâs time to hunker down. Itâs time to prepare for the worst â economically, militarily, socially, culturally. The revolutionaries have won a major political victory. The America haters are running the country for another four years.
âThat is not a pretty prospect.â
âOK, now we have all seen the writing on the wall, AGAIN!â wrote one person in a Stormfront post that seemed to capture the general feeling of helpless rage. âThe question is, What are we going to do about it? What is our plan?â