The press, if you can call Slate the press, is beginning to see what I had seen several years ago.
I encountered white nationalist KKK/skinheads when I was a planning commission member of Lower Frederick Township in Montgomery County. Other planning commission members told me not to get involved, that they're dangerous. The KKK consisted of a few old men with political ties. The skinheads were racist thugs selling drugs and robbing banks. They came together under "lighted" crosses along the Perkiomen Creek. The KKK/skinheads along with anti-government “property rights” extremists tried to stop the Perkiomen Trail. The Perkiomen Trail is now a real estate attraction and several businesses cater to trail walkers and riders.
In Coatesville I recognized the same kind of people at Coatesville City Council meetings. A combination of drug dealers and anti-government “property rights” extremists. They were led by Pat Sellers, a long time John Birch Society member and anti-government white nationalist who appeared to believe blacks are genetically inferior.
Pat Sellers picked the "Bloc of Four" candidates and he ran their campaign. We got a city council friendly to drug dealers, controlled by slumlords, an unscrupulous white supremacist lawyer and con men devoted to becoming millionaires from their government positions. They didn't get what they wanted, the city burned down. I assume Pat Sellers was ecstatic over Coatesville burning down.
Back in 2006 I told the Chester County Democratic Committee to watch Pat Sellers, that he is a very dangerous man. While in Coatesville I recognized that the CCRC and Republican Party's base voters were becoming more and more white nationalist. That Chester County Democrats would be facing a more and more anti-government, ideologically racist Chester County Republican Committee.
I decided in February of 2016 that Hillary Clinton would not win Pennsylvania, no matter who the Republican candidate was. The former union Democratic base in Pennsylvania is now a Republican white nationalist base. We live in a state dominated by white nationalist voters frightened that their way of life is threatened.
Slate
It’s not just rhetoric anymore. It’s a political program that could set American democracy back 150 years.
By Jamelle Bouie