The marriage of Wise Use and political extremism is not a recent occurrence. The initial association with Rev. Sun Myong Moon's American Freedom Coalition set the tone for the Wise Use Movement's place in the political spectrum. Wise Use appeals to the same elements of regressive populism as the John Birch Society, the Liberty Lobby, Lyndon LaRouche's followers, anti-Indian activists, and other denizens of the far right.
Author David Helvarg described Wise Use as "...a militant new force on the political Right that has the power to impede and occasionally sidetrack attempts at environmental protection, intimidate politicians and local activists, and polarize or misdirect needed discussions over jobs, health and natural resources."
Note: see David Helvarg, The War Against the Greens, Sierra Club Books, 1994, p. 124.
Political extremism has been described as a "conveyer belt" by Leonard Zeskind, former research director at the Center for Democratic Renewal. Far right groups have overlapping memberships and more extreme groups frequently use more moderate ones as recruiting grounds. Thus, people with extremist tendencies are frequently "peeled off" by members of smaller and more extreme factions. This continual recruiting by extremists is why property rights groups will frequently have literature from white supremacist or other violent groups distributed at their meetings. The presence of white supremacist or militia literature at Wise Use meetings does not necessarily indicate endorsement by the less extreme group, but rather a willingness to cooperate with anyone who will endorse their issues.
The process works in reverse, as well. Wise Use groups will frequently have extremist splinter groups as subsets of their general membership. The cooperation between these factions can lead to very complex situations. The less extreme groups provide resources and support for the more extreme ones and the more extreme groups provide committed and radical activists. Should the activities of the extremists become embarrassing, the groups can always seek shelter in the claim that they are separate organizations.
In the Puget Sound region, several Wise Use groups are part of this cooperative network that extends into some of the most violent fringes of the extreme Right. These more extreme groups, in turn, have worked at organizing, promoting and supporting white supremacist, anti-Indian, and militia groups.
After the successes in the 1993 elections, many of the more moderate elements in the property rights groups turned their energies to exploiting their new power in local governments. This left a power vacuum that the more extreme members rapidly exploited. The result was that many of the Wise Use groups became more extreme in their activities. The resulting involvement with the growing militia movement has pushed the property rights groups into working relationships with some extremely radical and violent groups.
Chuck Cushman provided the rallying issue for the militia organizers when he toured northern Washington in early 1994 to organize opposition to the North Cascades Park proposal. The resulting furor over a mythical "UN invasion" has vastly exceeded the similar uproar around a hoax about "encephalitis carrying mosquitoes" at the Stone Lakes wildlife refuge in California. In both instances, Cushman has denied responsibility and attempted to distance himself.
Note: the mosquito hoax is described in Glen Martin, "The 'Killer Mosquito' Deception," San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 11, 1991.
Cushman has a history of using violent language and threatening tactics. In an interview on "60 Minutes", Cushman related how he encouraged things like video-taping environmentalists, disrupting meetings with noisy livestock or heavy equipment, and other methods of harassment and intimidation. Asked why he did such things, he compared his tactics to "Indians shooting flaming arrows over the wagon trains... to keep them awake at night."
At the Rome Grange, Cushman made over thirty references to violent acts in a half-hour speech. In every case, he associated the violence with his opponents. "They want to strangle you," was his most frequent remark. Cushman's set-speech emphasizes violent acts, theft, and arson. These themes repeat themselves over and over, creating the impression that these type of actions define the rules under which he and his supporters must operate.
Mitch Friedman's experience in Sedro Wooley and Rome Grange underscored this aspect of Cushman's presentation. Says Friedman, "I was known to both audiences and Chuck called attention to me every few minutes. On both nights I received threats: 'string him up,' 'let's hang him.' In fact, the only three times I've ever had my life threatened have been the three Cushman events I've attended. Cushman seems to try to maintain the anger and danger at just below the threshold. He says 'no guns' and almost mockingly speaks against violence. He definitely likes to keep the anger level high, though."
Note: quotation from Mitch Friedman, "CUSHMAN EVENTS RE CASCADES INTERNATIONAL PARK," April 1994, memorandum in Public Good archives.
Cushman's selection of the North Cascades Park as an issue marked the beginning of a new phase in Wise Use activities in Washington State. The so-called "Park Conspiracy" was used as the main recruiting issue in Washington State by white supremacists and other anti-government extremists who have been forming paramilitary "militias." In October 1994, Skip Richards, Kathy Sutter and Shirley Hardy hosted a group of militia promoters, white supremacists, Constitutionalists and other conspiracy cranks at the Laurel Grange. Ostensibly, the meeting was to discuss the North Cascades Park, but the presentations focussed on conspiracy theories. The initial flyer for the meeting has a subhead that reads, "North Cascades International Ecosystem boundaries will be controlled by electronic fortifications and supervised by the CIA." (emphasis in original.)
Several of the speakers -- Ben Sams, Don Kehoe, David Montgomery, Robert Crittenden -- were later involved in sponsoring Bob Fletcher, Randy and David Trochmann of the Militia of Montana at a militia forum held in Maltby, Wash. on February 11, 1995. At Maltby, CLUE member Ben Hinkle spoke about the Citizens for Liberty's recruiting efforts that targeted Whatcom County police.
Note: see Devin Burghart, "The Ellwanger Incident," The Dignity Report, Vol. 3 No. 1, Coalition for Human Dignity, 1995.
Wise Use groups, particularly those that take on issues involving Native-American tribes and nations, frequently are joined in these attacks by racist and white supremacist organizations.
Note: see Rudolph Ryser, The Anti-Indian Movement on the Tribal Frontier, Special Revised Edition, Center for World Indigenous Studies Occasional Paper #16, 2nd. ed., 1993. This landmark study of the roots of many Wise Use groups in anti-Indian Activities can be obtained from:
Center for World Indigenous Studies
P.O. Box 2574
Olympia,
WA 98507-2574
The price is $11.00 ppd.
Washington State Wise Use groups such as CLUE and others have overlapping memberships with organizations like United Property Owners of Washington, Lummi Fee Land Owners, Quinalt Property Owners Association, S/SPAWN (Steelhead and Salmon Protection Action in Washington Now), PARR (Protect Our Rights and Resources), and ICERR (Interstate Congress for Equal Rights and Responsibilities) that specifically engage in anti-Indian activities. The Lummi Nation, the Nooksack, Tulalip, Suquamish, Quinalt, Colville, and other tribes have all had disputes involving property rights groups that challenge the sovereignty of Native American local governments. Chuck Cushman's involvement in anti-Indian activities goes back at least to his appearance at the 1988 PARR national convention in Racine, Wisconsin.
Note: see Rudolph Ryser, The Anti-Indian Movement on the Tribal Frontier, op. cit., p. 33, for Cushman's involvement with the Anti-Indian movement.
At Cushman's Rome Grange meeting, the first speaker was Ben Hinkle of Bellingham, who was promoting his organization, Citizens for Liberty and a plan for abolishing the federal government called "The Ultimatum Resolution." Hinkle was an activist for the Populist Party of Washington and has been a member of Willis Carto's Liberty Lobby since the mid-70's. After the Washington State Populist Party split into neo-nazi/Klan and Christian-Patriot factions, Hinkle formed his own splinter group and named it Citizens for Liberty.
Ben Hinkle opened the Rome Grange meeting with a speech promoting the "Ultimatum Resolution." The Ultimatum Resolution pamphlet bears the subtitle, "Deficit Spending, The Final Solution." The resolution is a proposal to dissolve the federal government if the deficit exceeds $6 trillion. The following passage comes from page six of the pamphlet distributed by Ben Hinkle at Rome Grange:
The bloody history of mankind is getting close to being repeated in America. It appears that the only possibility of preventing historical repetition is to either convince 38 states to dissolve the Union and start over, or to separate ourselves, one by one, according to state boundaries. If neither of these two actions are successful, bloodshed and anarchy in the streets of America appear to be inevitable.
Note: passage cited is from: Joseph Stumph, The Ultimatum Resolution: Deficit Spending, The Final Solution, Committee of 50 States, March 1994.
Another document distributed by Hinkle at Cushman's meeting was a handbill that had been altered to substitute the name of Hinkle's group, Citizens for Liberty for that of the producer of the original pamphlet. Bearing the title, Executive Orders for the New World Order, this pamphlet originated with the Militia of Montana (MOM). This was the earliest known appearance of militia propaganda at Wise Use groups in Puget Sound.
The militia idea involves forming armed paramilitary groups to "uphold and defend the Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic." Though cloaked in much grand sounding Constitutionalist language, the militia concept assumes that citizens of the United States must be prepared to resist the police with armed force.
Militia organizing originated with white supremacists who have glorified the victims of the tragic 1992 stand-off at Ruby Ridge Idaho involving white supremacist Randy Weaver and the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidians at Waco, Texas. An October, 1992 meeting convened by Christian Identity minister Pete Peters in Estes Park, Colo. recommended forming "vigilante" groups using "Leaderless Resistance" tactics in response to the shoot-out at Ruby Ridge.
Later, some of the participants of the Estes Park meeting formed an organization called the Constitutionalist Networking Center.9
Note: for the promotion of "Leaderless Resistance," see Pete
Peters, Special Report on the Meeting of Christian Men, October,
1992.
The Constitutionalist Networking Center is described in Leslie
Jorgensen, "Patriots," Colorado Statesman, Aug. 5,
1994.]
These groups were only two of several alliances of white supremacists, religious extremists and tax-resisters which evolved into the so-called "militia movement."
The central concepts of the militia are "preparedness", opposition to gun control laws and a belief that the United States either has been or soon will be invaded by foreign troops acting on behalf of a "New World Order conspiracy." One such "invasion" hoax was built around Chuck Cushman's attack on the proposed North Cascades Park.
Note: for a description of an incident involving an armed mob, see Jeannette Marantos, "U.N. invasion rumor ran wild," Wenatchee World, Feb. 2, 1995.
The Militia of Montana pamphlet reads in part:
What we have discovered is quite scary, very much unconstitutional and in every sense, acts of treason to the United States of America. There are individuals in this world, within this country, and in our own government who would like to rule the world, and they do believe that this is possible. They are and have been working towards this goal for decades. Some of the individuals caught up in this endeavor have been our very own elected officials. These power hungry individuals have corrupted our government and are working on sabotaging our freedom by destroying the Constitution of the United States, in order to establish the "New World Order" (a.k.a. "Global Community").11
Note: passage is from Executive Orders for The New World Order, Militia of Montanta, undated, Public Good archives.
Literature advocating the formation of armed militias appeared at other Wise Use meetings as well. In April, 1994, militia propaganda was distributed at a SNOCO PRA meeting along with the announcement of Alan Gottlieb's appearance at the Everett Freedom Forum to discuss the meaning of the Second Amendment. Darryl Lord, the leader of the Everett Freedom Forum, was identified as one of the men who threatened Ellen Gray at a public hearing in November 1994. Lord is now the executive director of SNOCO PRA.
Note: for one report on the Ellen Gray incident, see Diane Brooks, "Threats replace debate at hearing," Seattle Times, Nov. 15, 1994.
Both CLUE and SNOCO PRA have held meetings where Militia of Montana literature was distributed. During the Fall of 1994, members of both property rights groups sponsored meetings where a group called "Committee for Environmental Justice" presented conspiracy theories about the United Nations and the North Cascades Park. The Committee for Environmental Justice toured the state with the same issue, visited the same counties and was sponsored by members of the same property rights groups as had hosted Cushman in March of 1994. After one of the leaders of this group attracted criticism in regional newspapers, Homer Bakker separated his "Public Information Network" from the group. Both of these groups distribute information from the Militia of Montana. In February, most of the Snohomish faction involved with the "Park Conspiracy" organized a meeting in Maltby, Washington to promote the Militia of Montana.
Another tie between Western Washington Wise Use groups and the militias is John Stokes. Stokes was the organizer of the Freedom County secession organization in northern Snohomish County. Last April at a meeting of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, Stokes stunned the room by going into a diatribe about how Freedom County was a response to "Haitian immigrants, Chinese immigrants, Russian immigrants, uneducated people, people with HIV, criminally insane, sexual predators...."
Stokes has moved to the Flathead and Lake County area of Montana, where he has been active in both Wise Use and militia organizing. The November 1994 Montana Human Rights Network newsletter has an article on Stokes' arrival in Montana and the increasing overlap between Wise Use and racist organizations. The article states: "Ideologically, land use issues and the role of government has been providing the perfect opportunity to advance the concept of the supremacy of the county, a concept which has a great deal of currency with a number of racist organizations, particularly the Posse Comitatus."
Note: passage is from Montana Human Right Network, "The latest Montana import....extremism," Human Rights Network News, Vol. 3., No. 3, November 1994, pp. 3-4.]
The militia phenomenon has been very attractive to many people who oppose centralized government. As 1994 progressed, the issues of opposition to gun control, outrage over the tragedies at Waco and Ruby Ridge, and opposition to federal authority propelled the militia organizers into national attention. Wise Use groups in Washington State are often the largest local political organizations that are sympathetic to extreme right-wing ideology. In some ways, it was inevitable that Wise Use and the militia movement would find themselves working together.
The county supremacy movement that first gained notice in Catron County, New Mexico has also been entangled in the militia agitation. The Catron ordinances (also known as "custom and culture" ordinances) have been a popular issue for Wise Use proponents. The National Federal Lands Conference (NFLC), an organization in Utah that promotes the Catron ordinances, listed Ron Arnold of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise on its board of advisors. In October 1994, the NFLC began actively promoting the formation of militias as a way of enforcing county supremacy. After the Oklahoma City bombing, Arnold began proclaiming that he had severed all ties with the NFLC "several years ago."
Walla Walla and Okanagon Counties have passed county supremacy ordinances and resolutions. The Walla Walla ordinances were challenged in Federal Court, but the case was dismissed after the citizens that brought suit were denied standing. Although the Washington Attorney General issued a legal opinion that these ordinances are unconstitutional, the state has not yet taken a case to court. Other counties that have considered pursuing the Catron strategy are Chelan, Ferry, Pend Orielle, Lincoln, Grant and Stevens Counties. Activists with property rights and the county secession groups in Whatcom, King and Snohomish Counties are also studying the "custom and culture" ordinances and have purchased model legal documents, organizing manuals and newsletters from the National Federal Lands Conference.
In a nutshell, the Catron ordinances assert that the power of county government is superior to that of the state and federal government. A complex pseudo-legal argument attempts to pervert the meaning of the words "custom" and "cultural", which appear in many federal laws regulating the public's land, into the phrase "custom and culture." This verbal contortionism is then used to squeeze the camel of county sovereignty through the needle's eye of the state and federal constitution's supremacy clauses.
Note: one of the best analyses of the Catron hoax can be found in Scott Reed, "The County Supremacy Movement: Mendacious Myth Marketing," Idaho Law Review, Vol. 30, 1993-94. Mr. Reed is the attorney who won the landmark Boundary County lawsuit.
Both state and federal constitutions establish an orderly hierarchy of law that proceeds from the federal Constitution through that of the states and then to the charters of local government. The basic premise of the Catron ordinances is to stand this procession of powers on its head. In the only court test of county supremacy to date, the Catron ordinance in Boundary County, Idaho was found to be unconstitutional under both the U.S. and Idaho constitutions.
The subject of white supremacist politics is a very complicated one and beyond the scope of this report. Suffice it to say that neo-nazis and the Ku Klux Klan are only a small part of the universe of white supremacist politics. Most white supremacists and anti-semites do not go in for fancy-dress military costumes or flowing white robes. The stereotype of all racists being exhibitionists is both inaccurate and unfair.
The majority of bigots resent being compared with a bunch of Hitler-worshippers. Most racists do not stand out as being unusual in dress, speech or action. One of the most common (roughly 60%) racial extremist ideologies is not neo-nazism, but something called "Christian Patriotism". The most widely known Christian Patriot group is the Posse Comitatus, a violent anti-semitic tax resistance movement. Gordon Kahl, a Posse leader in the Midwest, brought the movement to national attention when he killed two U.S. Deputy Marshals and a county Sheriff before he died in a shootout with law enforcement.
Note: For information on the Christian Patriots, see James Aho, The Politics of Righteousness: Idaho Christian Patriotism, University of Washington Press, 1990. Also see James Corcoran, Bitter Harvest, Gordon Kahl and the Posse Comitatus: Murder in the Heartland, Viking, 1990.
The use of the term "Christian" was widely adopted by white supremacists in the 1970's as a form of cover for their activities. The Christian Identity movement (a term that William Potter Gale claimed to have coined) is a non-Christian sect that uses the Bible to justify their racist and anti-semitic beliefs. Some key beliefs of the Identity Movement are that Anglo-Saxons (frequently referred to as "Aryans") are the true "Israelites" of the Bible; that only whites have souls and descended from Adam; that the "Pre-Adamic mud people" (all non-whites) are only animals; that the Jews are the literal "spawn of Satan" and trace their lineage to the mating of Eve with the serpent in the Garden of Eden; and that "end-times" have already arrived and that the "Tribulations" will continue until they, the "true Israelites," achieve dominance over society.
The most widely known Christian Patriot group is the Posse Comitatus, but there are literally hundreds of variants and splinter groups. While Identity beliefs are widespread among the Christian Patriots, there are many other religious beliefs present as well.
In the extreme form of Christian Patriotism, the Constitution and the first ten amendments are referred to as the "organic Constitution". For the believers in the organic Constitution, neither the later amendments, federal legislation, nor Supreme Court rulings are valid. Most Christian Patriots oppose the federal income tax and many practice what is called "Common Law," a sort of do-it-yourself approach to the courts. Common Law documents can be very elaborate and frequently challenge the legitimacy of government authority with accusations of "violating the oath of office."
Another Christian Patriot issue is "sovereignty." There are many different forms of sovereignty, ranging from "individual sovereignty" to "state citizenship." Sovereignty issues are sometimes the subject of newspaper personality profiles, particularly the more eccentric individuals who claim that their property constitutes a sovereign nation, complete with phoney passports, citizenship documents, self-made licenses plates and the rest. Not paying income tax, having a social security number, using ZIP codes, or licensing motor vehicles are all common ways that "sovereign citizens" seek to avoid responsibilities while drawing on other citizens' tax dollars.
Christian Patriotism has a potent undercurrent of white supremacy and anti-semitism. It is common for people to be attracted to Christian Patriotism by the elaborate schemes for never paying taxes again. It is only after one begins to look into the Christian Patriot literature that one finds the references to "international bankers" and the "Jewish Question." Most Christian Patriots loudly deny that they are racist or anti-semitic while simultaneously distributing literature that claims that the Holocaust never happened, that Jewish bankers control the world and that only whites have "first class" citizenship.
The key distinction between Christian Patriots and the Klan/neo-nazi white supremacists is that the Christian Patriots will adamantly deny that their brand of white supremacy is racist, while the Klan/neo-nazis will be more forthright. Christian Patriots and neo-nazis share a goal of overthrowing the existing political system and replacing it with a form of ethnic/racial nationalism.
The first intimation that the militias' use of violence could pose a serious threat to targets of Wise Use hostility came in April 1994, when Jere Payton, an environmentalist in Ferry County, reported the appearance of a man dressed in camouflage clothing and carrying a rifle outside her home. The man has never been identified, but there had been meetings of John Trochmann's Militia of Montana in nearby Wauconda immediately preceeding the incident. Members of John Shaver's Okanogan Concerned Citizens (OC3) Wise Use group participated in the Wauconda militia meetings.
It is significant that Payton was targeted for Wise Use intimidation over the Cascades International Park by the same group that Chuck Cushman and Shaver organized as the Okanogan Concerned Citizens Coalition (OC3).
Note: see Kathy Durbin, "the Battle for Okanogan County," Seattle Weekly, January 11, 1995 and Catherine Kenny, "Not everyone likes the idea: International park proposed," Omak-Okanagon County Chronicle, March 2, 1994.
Cushman has acknowledged in an interview with this writer that he first heard of the Cascades International Park while in the Okanogan that February.
Within a matter of weeks, the combined Cushman / militia uproar over the Cascades International Park was in full cry.
Note: see Mary Koch, "100 county residents protest propsed part at Seattle Conference," Omak-Okanogan Chronicle, March 30, 1994 and Herald staff and wire services, "Rally protests park proposal," Bellingham Herald, March 26, 1995.
Shaver says "the coalition is not radical," but internal documents from OC3 tell a different story. During the period when the militia meetings were taking place, OC3 meeting notes indicate an internal power struggle. A Shaver memo on county coalitions dated May 21, 1994 admonishes members a "key to success" would be "NO RADICAL POSITIONS" [emphasis in original.] During this period (February to June 1994) the John Birch Society and the Washington Citizens Alliance (a homophobic political group) were being considered for membership in OC3. The "radicals" were finally excluded from the coalition, but this occurred several months after the militia meetings. The same set of memos details Shaver's plans for making anti-gun control positions, Catron ordinances, and the "International Peace Park" important issues for the coalition, indicating that he did not view these positions as "radical."
On November 14, 1994 an equally serious incident occurred. Unlike other Wise Use/militia incidents, this was the first time that the identity of an attacker was known.
In written testimony before Rep. Charles Schumer's (D - NY) July 11, 1995 panel on militias, Ellen Gray, Director of Pilchuck Audubon Society's SmartGrowth Campaign, stated:
...The hearing on the Critical Areas Ordinance quickly developed a hostile overtone. Testimony was primarily from [Snohomish County] Property Rights Alliance members who advocated no protection for critical areas and no government regulation of land. Several referred to environmentalists as "fascists," "eco-nazis" and "eco-terrorists". Many citizens who had planned to testify decided not to speak because of the hostility and anger from some members of the crowd.
During my testimony, as I was presenting Pilchuck Audubon Society's comments on the ordinance, several members from the audience spoke loudly trying to interrupt my presentation. Towards the end of my comments a loud catcall came from the audience, again trying to interrupt my testimony.
After my testimony the Council called for a short break. I stood up to stretch. I noticed a commotion 2 rows ahead of me. A man I did not recognize reached under his seat, pulled out a hangman's noose made out of rope, turned in his seat to face me, shook the noose in the air and said, "this is a message for you!" Immediately afterwards another man I did not recognize approached me. He leaned toward me and said, "We have a militia of 10,000 and if we can't beat you at the ballot box we'll beat you with a bullet." I asked him if that was a threat. He did not respond. I asked him his name. He did not respond. He then turned and left the meeting. [emphasis in original]
I immediately reported the incident to the Council Chair. I then asked the President of the Property Rights Alliance to identify the man holding the noose. He said the name of the man with the noose was Darryl Lord. I then asked Mr. Lord for the name of the militia member who had threatened me. He gave me a name but it could not be verified after an investigation by the local police department.20
Note: Ellen Gray, testimony before congressional panel, "America Under the Gun: The Militia Movement and Hate Groups in America," Washington D.C., July 11, 1995.
Darryl Lord denied involvement in the incident in a letter to the Everett Herald and other papers in the region. Lord was elected to the position of Executive Director of SNOCO PRA in March, 1995. No charges were filed by the Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney in connection with this incident.
At the same panel that Ellen Gray testified at in Washington, D.C., Bill Wassmuth, Executive Director of the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment, also testified about the militias:
...Because of our concern about the rapid increase in militia activity in the region, we convened a meeting in January of this year of researchers and representatives of a number of national and regional organizations to share information about the militia movement. A summary of that meeting is included in my written testimony.
We see the militia movement as the paramilitary expression of the Christian Patriot Movement. Because there is a great deal of variation within the militia movement, we must avoid painting all militias with the same brush. However, we have serious concerns about the militia movement that seem to pervade all groups that identify themselves under that title. These concerns are:
1. The negative impact of the militia movement on the orderly and peaceful functioning of communities.
2. The promotion of racist and anti-Semitic philosophies within the militia movement, and its ties with white supremacist groups.
3. The potential for violence from the militia movement.
Note: Bill Wassmuth, testimony before congressional panel, "America Under the Gun: The Militia Movement and Hate Groups in America," Washington D.C., July 11, 1995.
The January conference that Wassmuth referred to in his testimony unanimously concurred in these observations about militias:
• People are being drawn to militias around a number of issues including gun control, anti-government sentiment, property rights, and various conspiracy theories.
• Wise Use, property rights groups, and militias are forming around the same issues and in some cases involve the same people.
Note: Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment, "Militia Activity of Great Concern to Northwest," Northwest Beacon, NWCAMH, no. 23, February 1995.
The threads of pseudo-legalism, terrorism, racist ideology, and supremacy weave through Wise Use. It is the rare Wise Use group that lacks ties to right-wing extremist groups. The most common sources of extremist views for Western Washington Wise Use groups are: the John Birch Society, the Liberty Lobby and its newspaper The Spotlight, the Lyndon LaRouche organization, the Fully Informed Jury Association, and various "Patriot" or militia groups, particularly John Trochman's Militia of Montana and its predecessor United Citizens for Justice.
Wise Users like to posture that "property rights are civil rights," but Wise Use seeks to enhance the inequality of economic position between the propertied and the propertyless. Wise Use opponents are frequently the target of civil-rights abuses: harassment, intimidation, assault, and arson are the most common crimes. Wise Use has used people's fears and insecurities to promote conflict as political process; portrayed violence as legitimate conduct; focussed hatred on selected victims and then made revenge its motive for action. Fear, hate and revenge are not the planks of a civil-rights platform.
It may be civil-rights groups, rather than environmentalists who rise to the challenge of Wise Use's extremism, violence, illegal activities, and political harassment. The recent convergence of civil-rights and environmental interests in response to the harassment, intimidation and violence of the overlapping Wise Use and Christian Patriot movements has led to new awareness and understanding of the threat that these groups pose to both the rights of citizens and to participatory democracy, itself.
Ultimately, it becomes a question of conduct, not content of speech. The legislative system has been blind to the damage done to the national, state and local economies by the policies of Wise Use. As Wise Use becomes more openly enmeshed in the violence of the radical right, dealing with Wise Use will become a matter of public safety, rather than economics.
Return to Wise Use in Northern Puget Sound Table of Contents
