By Jim Coufal
Having just finished historian Timothy Egan’s book, “Fever in the Heartland” about the Klu Klux Klan in Indiana during the Depression times, I’m responding to a desire to bring a warning to citizens of our country (at least the readers of this piece). My experience tells me that upon hearing “KKK,” most people picture the lynching and burning of Black Americans, burning crosses and people wearing white robes and pointy hats with eye slits. Some may even remember the destruction of parts of large cities like Tulsa, Okla., and, yes, the parts destroyed were Black enclaves.
This was in many respects not new, but the flowering of historical egregious white hatred of Blacks, immigrants, Native Americans, Hispanics, Catholics and Jews who were not – and today are not – considered Americans by White Christian Nationalists (WCNs), but a lower form of humanity than whites, especially lower than protestant white men.
But Egan focuses on more insidious KKK principles and actions in Indiana during the four years of white demagogue David Stevenson who, through bribery, threats, violence and lies become the “Grand Dragon” of the KKK. Stevenson had sheriffs, lawyers, judges, legislators, newsmakers and more among his membership. He famously declared “I am the law,” and called himself the greatest crowd psychologist in the world. These people made pledges to him and the KKK that overrode legal pledges; they required total allegiance.
The KKK had structure, organization and leaders, while White Christian Nationalism is an ideology without such structure or organization. Historically, the KKK had three eras of emergence, followed by falls and reemergence. Its fourth emergence is going on today via WCNs, and it works with misinformation, bribery, threats and tactics similar to what the KKK did. One format of this is to work to get WCNs elected to local offices (school boards, town boards, etc.) to move them up the elected ladder. They are already in federal offices (e.g., Marjorie Taylor Green). Scholars see WCNs as much or more political than a religious movement, but the relationship is complex. Americans United says WCNs “are sometimes aligned with racist movements, but their ultimate goal is seen as a branch of white supremacy, because it would result in a society governed by conservative white Christian men who would make decisions for everyone else.”
Perhaps it is too generous to call them conservative; more realistically, they are strict fundamentalists. Their goals are those of the KKK, brought on most recently by school desegregation, civil rights laws, freedom marches, MLK, police brutality and other such factors.
Do look carefully at who you support and vote for to see if they thrive on misinformation, lies and wild promises.
Editor’s note: Jim Coufal of Cazenovia is a part-time philosopher and full-time observer of global trends. He can be reached at madnews@m3pmedia.com.