"State Citizenship": Patriot Ties To White Supremacists And Neo-Nazis
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Fri, 12 May 1995 18:11:36 -0400 (EDT)
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*** "STATE CITIZENSHIP" ***
** Patriot Ties To White Supremacists And Neo-Nazis **
By Tom Burghardt
Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights
** Introduction **
The "State Citizenship" or "Sovereign Citizen" movement is
but one arm of the broader Christian Patriot movement. In many
respects, the Patriots constitute the largest -- and most
dangerous -- branch of the contemporary North American far-right.
Though they claim not to be racists, Patriot ideology is
unabashedly white supremacist and anti-Semitic. While not every
follower is a racist, by and large, the core leadership is
composed of veteran far-right activists, white supremacists and
neo-Nazis.
Patriot beliefs center on a literal interpretation of both
the Bible and what is referred to as the "organic Constitution"
(the original Constitution and the Bill of Rights). Like other
right-wing fundamentalists, evangelicals and Reconstructionists,
Patriots believe that a vast conspiracy is directed against
(white) Christian Americans.
Paranoid conspiracism -- the belief that U.N. troops are
poised to invade the U.S.; supermarket bar codes are emblems of
the Satanic "mark of the beast" that will usher in the New World
Order; menacing "black helicopters" are everywhere; or that
undocumented workers, African Americans and women "are stealing
our jobs" -- are indicative of a mean-spirited white backlash
that has slipped over into racist scapegoating -- and violence.
As absurd as such theories appear on the surface, these are
the core values that lead to dictatorships, pogroms and genocide.
In many respects, we are witnessing the birth of an armed fascist
nucleus throughout North America. Is a mass movement of home-
grown Brownshirts "only a demagogue away," as one researcher
writing in the current issue of CovertAction Quarterly, suggests?
For many followers of the movement, Jews are the controlling
agents behind the "conspiracy" who operate through a number of
front organizations such as the United Nations, the Trilateral
Commission, the Council On Foreign Relations, the Federal Reserve
Bank, etc. Christian Identity, the "religion" of white
supremacists and neo-Nazis, has been able to expand its outreach
and actively recruit from the social layer attracted to the
Patriot movement.
Perniciously, Patriot organizations define two types of
citizens, white "state citizens" whose inalienable rights are
derived from God and the Constitution and "14th Amendment
citizens," i.e. people of color, whose alienable rights were
legislated into existence after the Civil War and the smashing of
the Confederate Slavocracy. The "state citizenship" component is
probably the fastest growing segment of the Patriot movement.
Leading ideologues of the Patriot movement rail against
democracy and describe the United States as a Republic. While
technically correct, their purpose is to draw distinctions among
groups of citizens in order to counterpoise their racist doctrine
of "organic citizens" and "14th Amendment federal citizens."
Accordingly, democratic processes are referred to as "mob
rule" and "mobocracy." This ideological line parrots that of
leading Christian Reconstructionists such as Rousas John (R.J.)
Rushdoony, the director of the California-based, Chalcedon
Institute.
Rushdoony has written that "The heresy of democracy...has
worked havoc in church and state, and it has worked towards
reducing society to anarchy."
Paralleling the racist "constitutionalism" of the Patriot
movement, Rushdoony and the Christian Reconstructionists are
working to establish a clerical-fascist "Christian Republic"
throughout North America.
The underlying ideology of the Reconstructionist movement is
based on racist exclusion and open discrimination against
minorities. Rushdoony writes:
"Every social order institutes its own program of separation
or segregation. A particular faith and morality is given
privileged status and all else is separated for progressive
elimination. The claim of equality and integration is thus a
pretext to subvert an older order or existing form of social
order."
Rushdoony admonishes his followers that in creating God's
Kingdom here on Earth, they must remember that "a monarchy is not
a democracy."
Christian Patriots form the backbone of the armed militia
movement. The origins of the contemporary militia movement are
the host of Posse Comitatus vigilante groups that sprung up in
the Midwest during the 1970's-1980's. Estimates of the number of
Patriots organized into active militia units range from a low of
10,000 to a high of more than 30,000 individuals; more than 5
million people, to some degree or another, consider themselves
sympathizers, attend "Military Preparedness" shows or subscribe
to Patriot newsletters and publications.
Christian Patriots have also entered the anti-abortion
movement in a big way. One example of the influence of anti-
abortion ideology on the Patriot movement, is the active
participation of direct action anti-abortion leaders such as Rev.
Matthew Trewhella, the founder of Missionaries to the Preborn
(MTP) and Joseph Slovenec, a founding member of the Operation
Rescue network. Rev. Trewhella was a signer of Paul J. Hill's
"justifiable homicide" petition, endorsed by some 30 leaders of
the anti-abortion movement.
Members of Trewhella's group are also active within the far-
right United States Taxpayers Party (USTP), founded by ultra-
conservative, Howard Phillips, and the Wisconsin-based "Free
Militia." Last June, more than 20 MTP members participated in a
weapons training exercise at a Wisconsin farm owned by MTP/Free
Militia cadres.
Slovenec was the USTP candidate for Senate in Ohio during
the 1994 elections. Aided by a far-flung network of right-wing
activists, including Randall Terry, Slovenec received more than
263,000 votes and is currently USTP Executive Director.
Most Patriots are involved in tax protest and often use
illegal or quasi-legal means to avoid being monitored by the IRS.
The information contained in this report will center on two
organizations, the California-based State Citizens Service Center
and its' Santa Clara County branch. These organizations have
direct ties to white supremacists and neo-Nazis; they are also
part of a core group involved in militia organizing in the Bay
Area.
1. State Citizen Service Center (SCSC)
The State Citizen Service Center was founded by Richard J.
McDonald. 15 SCSC branches operate in California, including one
in the Bay Area. McDonald's group has done more than any other
Christian Patriot organization to take Patriot ideology -- with
its racism and anti-Semitism -- into cyberspace.
SCSC's primary focus is to provide followers with pseudo-
legal strategies to revoke "federal citizenship." The group
offers a "Citizenship kit" which "will walk you through the basic
steps to restore common-law Citizenship."
The ideology underlying McDonald's electronic newsletter,
"The Patriot," is racist to the core:
"What kind of citizen are you? Are you a 14th Amendment
federal citizen, or are you a Citizen of the several States, as
described in the Constitution as it was originally intended by
the Founding Fathers?"
SCSC's answer leaves little room for doubt:
"A free born White State Citizen in the several States, is
an individual whose inalienable rights are recognized, secured
and protected by the various State Constitutions against State
actions and against federal intrusion..."
"The 14th Amendment federal citizen, who is a second class
citizen...who has congressionally granted privileges that are
almost equal to the White Citizen. I say almost because these
privileges are secured against a debt of submission to the
morality legislated by Congress (including Income Tax)."
McDonald's SCSC is an amalgam of racist constitutionalism
and xenophobic "America First" isolationism. Rigidly homophobic
and anti-abortion, the SCSC, unlike more "mainstream" Christian
Right organizations such as Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition,
diverges from Christian Right anti-queer bigotry and anti-
abortion stances, to betray the core values underlying Christian
Patriot ideology -- white supremacy.
"Homosexuality and lesbianism are a violation of the common
law and the Bible, upon which this Nation and all the State
Constitutions were written. These were against the Law, so was
indiscriminate abortion..."
"In the so-called 14th Amendment the word 'born' is used,
signifying that the citizenship and protection of the so-called
14th Amendment do not operate until they are 'born' (i.e. left
the womb)...So in this jurisdiction, those not born are not
persons and have no protections. The privileges Congress has
granted can be taken away at any time it is in the best interest
of Congress to do so. These are commonly called 'civil rights.'"
"The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of
America (1787) utilized the word 'Posterity' signifying that the
future Citizen (Capital C) has this solid protection from the
date of conception..."
"So, for those of you who do not have primary State
Citizenship of the Union first, and are not State Citizens
first...abortions for any reason are legal..."
Simply put, the arguments offered by McDonald's State
Citizen Service Centers are identical to the core beliefs of
various Klan and neo-Nazi organizations: abortion and
sterilization is desirable to reduce "surplus populations," i.e.
people of color. These themes have circulated for years on the
racist right.
An excerpt from Jan Keown's, "Eugenics: The Upward Path,"
published in "National Vanguard" nearly fifteen years ago,
illustrates the point:
"A meaningful eugenics program must be a prime national goal
with the full support of determined leadership behind it. It
must be part of a total revolution involving a whole people.
Just such a revolution was coming to fruition in Germany in the
fateful year of 1933, under the leadership of Adolph Hitler.
Never before had a national government come to power fully
committed to the biological ennoblement of the nation...Germany
was well on the way to a revolutionary new age of racial
dynamism, but an aroused world Jewry had other ideas. The rest
is history. With the destruction of Germany the eugenics idea
was 'discredited.' Anyone since that time daring to express
concern about problems of racial equality has found himself under
attack by the New Inquisition. A taboo on racial thought in the
academic world is rigidly enforced, and the new orthodoxy of
human equality reigns without challenge."
The path from "The Bell Curve" to "organic state
citizenship" and "racial hygiene" is but a rest stop on the road
to fascism.
2. State Citizen Service Center, Santa Clara Branch
Directed by Norm Baker, the Santa Clara branch of McDonald's
State Citizen Service Center meets every other Wednesday in San
Jose at Jans Bar & Grill, 2705 Union Ave, Corner of Union &
Curtner. Meetings run approximately 1 to 2 hours. Venue owners,
according to Baker, are supportive of SCSC's organizing efforts.
Baker's group has been monitored for several months by anti-
fascist activists based in the Bay Area. During this period,
evidence has been gathered linking Baker to a broader Christian
Patriot network of right-wing tax protesters, anti-Semites,
racists, anti-abortion operatives and the burgeoning militia
movement in California.
Anecdotal evidence also link Baker's group to the militantly
anti-abortion evangelical, The Home Church. Congregation members
have also been linked to the theocratic, Sunnyvale-based
Coalition On Revival (COR). Mike Kiley, pastor of the Home
Church is a long-time associate of Jay Grimstead, COR's
president. During Operation Rescue National's 1993, "Cities of
Refuge" campaign in San Jose, Home Church members joined
Operation Rescue of California and the OR front-group, Christian
Action Ministries.
The majority of meeting time is set aside for discussion of
various aspects of "State citizenship" ideology. "14th Amendment
citizenship" is counterpoised to the "Sovereign Citizenship" of
white Christian Americans. Baker takes great pains to deny he or
others involved with his organization are racists. However,
literature distributed at Baker's meeting indicates at the very
least, tolerance, if not tacit support for those who espousing
racist and anti-Semitic hate.
Among the materials purchased at SCSC meetings were the
following publications:
Charles A. Weisman: "America: Free, White & Christian"
Charles A. Weisman: "The Law On Abortion"
Rev. Pete Peters: "America the Conquered"
Rev. Pete Peters: "Death Penalty for Homosexuals is Prescribed
in the Bible"
Weisman is a top-flight leader of the Christian Identity
movement and close associate of Rev. Pete Peters and the
"Scriptures For America" Identity group based in La Porte,
Colorado. Peters is one of the rising stars of the Christian
Identity movement. His broadcasts are carried on a national
network of dozens of shortwave and am radio stations. Peters'
weekly television show, "Scriptures For America" is carried on
the Christian Right, Keystone Inspirational Network.
"The Pilot Connection:" This Stockton-based group is led by
racist "constitutionalist," Milton Pilot Jr., aka, Phillip Marsh.
Pilot is the author of a 1986 book, "The Complete Patriot," an
open apology for anti-Semitism and racism. Pilot recommends that
readers refer to Christian Patriot James "Red" Beckman's "The
Church Deceived" as the best book available to "explain the
source of the conspiracy." Beckman's work is an anti-Semitic
diatribe which concludes that Hitler's Holocaust was an "act of
God."
Primarily concerned with anti-IRS tax protest, Pilot's areas
of interest link racist "constitutionalism" to the Militia
movement. In fact, an associated project of Pilot's, New Nation
USA (NNUSA), was partially founded by Christian Identity and
Posse Comitatus leader, Col. William Potter Gale.
Lt. Col. James "Bo" Gritz: Gritz, the 1992 Populist Party
candidate for President, has a long history of involvement with
the Christian Identity and Christian Patriot movements. His
book, "Called to Serve," was largely financed by Christian
Identity leader, Rev. Pete Peters.
Gritz solidified his standing as a leader of the Patriot
movement by intervening during the stand-off between the FBI and
Idaho survivalist and racist, Randy Weaver in 1992. Literature
for a number of Gritz's current projects were discussed at Norm
Baker's SCSC meetings. Specific references were made to Gritz's
paramilitary SPIKE team ("Specially Prepared Individuals for Key
Events") training seminars.
Gritz has had a long-standing series of relationships and
collaboration with racists, anti-Semites and neo-Nazis including
David Duke, Louis Beam, James "Red" Beckman, Willis Carto and
Rev. Pete Peters.
"The Spotlight:" "The Spotlight" is the flagship
publication of Willis Carto's Liberty Lobby. Carto has been
identified as the premier anti-Semite in the United States. His
"Noontide Press" is the largest publisher of pro-Nazi materials
in the U.S. Carto was the chief architect behind the
organization of the racist Populist Party (David Duke ran for
President on the Populist Party ticket in 1984) and the Institute
for Historical Review (IHR), a California-based Holocaust
revisionist outfit that denies that Hitler's genocidal Third
Reich murdered millions of Jews and other racial minorities.
British Holocaust Revisionist, David Irving, has written for and
addressed venues organized by the IHR.
"Operation Vampire Killer 2000:" Written by retired Arizona
cop, Jack McLamb, OVK 2000, is a distillation of Patriot thinking
concerning the "New World Order." McLamb, the director of the
Arizona-based, Police Against The New World Order (PATNWO),
publishes "Aid and Abet," a newsletter directed towards
recruiting police and active duty military personnel to the
Patriot movement.
"The New American:" "The New American" is the flagship
publication of the right-wing, conspiratorial John Birch Society
(JBS). Although the JBS has renounced racism and anti-Semitism,
their conspiratorial governmental and banking theories, anti-
abortion, homophobic and nativist rhetoric has been freely
adopted by the white supremacist movement. They have, however,
been somewhat critical of the Christian Patriot movement.
"Perceptions:" "Perceptions" is a strange "New Age" journal
that provides a platform for various conspiracy theories, right-
wing advocacy of the "State Citizenship" movement, "New Age"
medical quackery, reports on UFO's and other oddities. Norman
Baker and Richard McDonald have published in "Perceptions."
Adverts run the gamut...right-wing conspiracism, Christian
Patriot newspapers, as well as information on "channeling" and
"past life" memory recovery.
At the March 22 meeting, Walt Didrion, a representative of
an entity called "The Oakland Militia" made a presentation.
Didrion discussed the growth of the militia movement in northern
California. He also offered the Militia of Montana's (MOM) "Blue
Book," for sale. The "Blue Book" is a 75 page paramilitary
training manual which advocates the organization of militias into
clandestine cells.
MOM, based in Noxon, Montana, was organized by the Trochmann
family. John Trochmann, MOM's self-styled commander, has been
associated with Richard Butler's Idaho-based Aryan Nations
compound. Trochmann has spoken from the same platform as Louis
Beam, a close associate of Aryan Nations and the principle
architect of the "leaderless resistance" strategy for the white
supremacist, Patriot and anti-abortion movements.
Leaderless resistance (LR) strategy is based on the tactic
of organizing paramilitary combat cells without ties to any
established neo-Nazi, Christian Patriot or anti-abortion group.
LR proposes an organizational format that relies on
decentralization of cells combined with a unity of purpose and a
common methodology regarding targets to be attacked.
Beam's "Leaderless Resistance" strategy was first presented
at the Christian Identity-initiated "Meeting of Christian Men
Held in Estes Park, Colorado October 23, 24, 25, 1992 Concerning
The Killing of Vickie And Samuel Weaver By The United States
Government." A copy of the "Special Report," including Beam's
text, is distributed by Rev. Peter's "Scriptures For America"
organization.
A key text distributed by the Wisconsin-based, Free Militia,
"Principles Justifying The Arming And Organizing Of A Militia,"
describes the process of LR perfectly:
"THE FUNDAMENTAL RULE GUIDING THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FREE
MILITIA IS CENTRALIZED PRINCIPLES AND PLANNING BUT DECENTRALIZED
TACTICS AND ACTION."
"What is meant by this key statement is that the whole
Militia must be committed to the same cause and coordinated in
their joint defense of a community. Thus, there must be
allegiance to a higher command. But specific tactics should be
left up to the individual elements so that the compromise of a
part does not compromise the whole. Furthermore, all training
and combat actions should be up to the smaller elements, again
that isolation or decapitation does not render the smaller units
inept."
"The way a balance between these competing concerns is
achieved in the Free Militia is to organize all elements into
'cells.'" (emphasis in original)
(The Free Militia, "Principles Justifying The Arming And
Organizing Of A Militia," 1994, p. 78)
State Citizen Service Centers are frontline organizations
linking the public facade of the Christian Patriot movement to
shadowy paramilitary, fascist networks. In this respect, they
also represent a move by white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups to
exploit white working class and petty bourgeois anger with
"economic restructuring," corporate "downsizing," a precipitous
decline in the standard of living and the perceived loss of
(white) privilege.
3. Conclusions
The increasing popularity of the racist theory of the
"Sovereign Citizen" whose "God-given" rights and privileges are
threatened by second-class "14th Amendment citizens," has found a
dangerous resonance in the passage of the nativist Proposition
187, the current move to abolish affirmative action and the rise
of the Militia Movement.
While we can argue over the specifics of why demagogues such
as Patrick Buchanan, Newt Gingrich, Pat Robertson and other
"mainstream" politicos enjoy a resurgence of popularity among a
frightened middle class, other forces to the right of the
Republican Party and the Christian Coalition are assembling their
troops.
As the rhetoric of racist exclusion, anti-Semitic hate and
"property rights" (the anti-environmental, "Wise Use" movement)
becomes "mainstreamed" by the bourgeois media, attacks on people
of color, queers, women, environmentalists and the organized
proletariat form the backdrop for a generalized assault on the
economic, political, social and cultural rights of the working
class by the corporate bourgeoisie.
Unlike their neo-Nazi bonehead allies, the Christian Patriot
movement represents the cutting edge for racist attacks and
fascist organizing throughout North America. This does not mean
that we shouldn't organize or forcefully confront any open
manifestation of activity by neo-Nazi groups or organizations.
It does mean, however, that we must be prepared to counter -- and
shut down -- more "subtle" but no less dangerous manifestations
of fascist organizing in the Bay Area such as the State Citizen
Service Centers.
Sources
Robert Crawford, S.L. Gardner, Jonathan Mozzochi, R.L. Taylor
The Northwest Imperative: Documenting A Decade of Hate, 1994
Coalition For Human Dignity
P.O. Box 40344
Portland, Oregon 97240
Robert Crawford, S.L. Gardner, Jonathan Mozzochi
Patriot Games: Jack McLamb & Citizen Militias, 1994
Coalition For Human Dignity, Portland, Oregon
Tracey Jefferys-Renault & Jerry Sloan
Without Justice For All: A Report on the Christian Right in
Sacramento and Beyond, 1994
Planned Parenthood of Sacramento Valley, Public Affairs
Department, 2415 K Street, Sacramento, CA, 95816-5001
State Citizen Service Center
Voice: (818) 762-5412
BBS: (818) 762-1288
State Citizen Service Center
Santa Clara County Branch
1009 E. Capitol Expressway, Ste. 312
San Jose, CA 95121
(408) 559-1720
The Pilot Connection
6333 Pacific Ave., Suite 334
Stockton, CA 95207
Scriptures For America
P.O. Box 766
La Porte, Colorado 80535
Militia of Montana
P.O. Box 1486
Noxon, Montana 59853
(408) 559-1720
* * * * *
(An earlier version of this report was prepared by researchers
and activists with the Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive
Rights [BACORR] and presented to an organizing meeting of the Bay
Area Coalition Opposing Fascism [BACOF] on April 12, 1995). For
information on anti-fascist organizing in the Bay Area contact:
Bay Area Coalition Opposing Fascism (BACOF)
1388 Haight Street # 19
San Francisco, California 94117
BACOF Anti-Racist Hotline: (415) 789-8165
*****************************************************************
BACORR: DEFENDING CLINICS, EXPOSING TERRORISM -- BECAUSE NO
ONE'S GONNA DO IT FOR US!
*****************************************************************
Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights
750 La Playa # 730
San Francisco, California 94121
Office: (415) 252-0750
Fax: (415) 431-6523
E-Mail:
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