is there a neo-nazi storm brewing in trump coun...

Trump country?Can national socialism, repackaged as ‘whiteidentity’ politics, earn votes in rural counties thatvoted for Trump?

by in Pikeville, Kentucky

When the men in black walked into herrestaurant one Friday morning and sat at theround table in the corner, Brittany Porterknew exactly what they were.

Pale, skittish, aggressively tattooed, they woreblack T-shirts with a cryptic white logo overtheir hearts. One had a razor inked along hisleft jaw and two SS lightning bolts drippingnext to his eye like a double set of tears. Onewore a handgun on his hip.

Is there a neo-Nazi storm brewing in Trump coun... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/04/n...

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Porter went to the table, smiled and askedwhat they wanted. It was just after 8am. Twoof the neo-Nazis ordered chicken nuggets.

On Facebook the night before, Porter readabout the group of racists who were coming toeastern Kentucky to hold a rally. They hadchosen an economically struggling stretch ofcoal country with a population that was 98%white and that had voted 80% for Trump. Intheir propaganda videos, the neo-Nazi leadershad talked about the scourge of drugaddiction in Pike County.

At 30, Porter knew Pike County’s problems.She herself was a recovered addict, as was herfriend Chrissy Wooton, another waitress atthe restaurant. Neither of them trusted eitherpolitical party. Wooton, whose husband is acoal miner, had voted for Trump. Porter hadnot.

Together, they discussed whether they shouldstart the day by accidentally pouring coffee


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into the neo-Nazis’ laps.

The neo-Nazis were on their way toWhitesburg, Kentucky, where they hadsecured a private piece of land in the woods tohold a weekend summit with a coalition ofother white nationalist groups. At the table,there were several members of theTraditionalist Workers party, including Jason,a sallow musician in a black-metal punk bandwho left New York City to move to a mostlywhite community in Indiana; Scott, who hadrecently been kicked out of an Irish pub inKentucky for celebrating Hitler’s birthday; andGabe, diffident and a little shy, with longeyelashes and the white power tattoos on hischeek.

Porter and Wooton watched from distance,swooping in now and then to refill the coffeecups. But they were too curious to stay quiet.Porter said people on Facebook “were talkinga bunch of crap”. They were saying that the


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group was the Ku Klux Klan.

Wooton asked again more bluntly: “Are youguys KKK?”

The event the men were attending did, in fact,have KKK members on the list of potentialguests. But the men at the table laughed andgrinned. They were a political party, MatthewHeimbach, the group’s 26-year-old leader,explained gently. “Our motto is faith, familyand folk,” he said. Heimbach was the mostfamous man at the table: the one who wasbeing sued for shoving and shouting at ayoung black protester at a Donald Trumpcampaign rally last March, and who hadrecently filed legal papers saying that Trump,who had reacted to the protesters by shouting“Get ‘em out of here!”, should be heldresponsible for his behavior.

Heimbach was wearing the same black T-shirt,with his party’s logo, as the other men, but hehad a big cross around his neck and the


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cheerful bearing of a youth pastor: burly,bearded, bouncy with enthusiasm. OneKentucky local who watched a propagandavideo Heimbach made had been perplexedthat he looked like a teddy bear.

Their political party had been misrepresented,Heimbach explained to the waitresses.They’re not the KKK. They’re focused onfamily and faith and local control, on fightingthe international corporations who came intoAppalachia and took all the profits fromKentucky’s coal. Heimbach did not try to sellthe waitresses on his plan for a white ethno-state, his conviction that the Holocaust didnot happen, his belief in thousands of years ofJewish conspiracy. He just talked about familystruggles and immigrants taking jobs andhurting workers and how white Americansneeded more representation.

Wooton, who had voted for Trump, wasresponding enthusiastically. She was furious


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at the lack of government response to theopioid addiction crisis and skeptical ofestablishment politicians. Her husband, a coalminer, had lost his job under Obama and beenhired again three days after Trump’sinauguration. Wooton came back to the tablerepeatedly to press Heimbach for moreanswers, explaining her manager was stillcalling him a racist. She asked if Heimbachwas willing to work with people of otherraces. He said of course he was. He talkedabout the importance of black communitiesmaking decisions for themselves, about howblack policemen might be better at policingblack neighborhoods. Wooton agreed andagreed again.

Talking to Wooton, Heimbach acted like alocal politician: polite, a little longwinded, butgenuinely passionate. He was not RichardSpencer, the clean-cut, rich-boy racist whogot punched in the face at Trump’sinauguration. He was not a ranting internet


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troll. He was a small-town kid who puthimself through college selling customwardrobe tidying systems, and now he wasusing those skills trying to sell fascism to theAmerican people.

Heimbach’s Pike County trip was part of hisbroader preparation for 2018, when the partywas planning to field six candidates in localelections for school board, county council andother positions in Indiana, Kentucky,Tennessee, North Dakota and Texas. All thecandidates will be under 30, all open whitenationalists, though they plan to focus theircampaigns on more local issues.

Wooton kept coming back with morequestions, but it was clear that she liked muchof what she she was hearing. When she leftthe table, Heimbach grinned triumphantly athis group; it seemed he was attracting somelocal support.


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Stepping from the shadowsWhite supremacists and neo-Nazis complainendlessly about media lies, and yet no one ismore eager to pick up the phone thanHeimbach and other extremist leaders.Getting attention – even negative attention –helps them recruit and inch toward themainstream.

Analysts from the Data & Society ResearchInstitute concluded the far right has risen tonew prominence this past year in part by“attention hacking”, manipulating theconventions of mainstream news. Members ofthe “alt-right”, a mixed group of racists,nationalists, antisemites and misogynists,understand that many news stories are builton a framework of conflict and outrage, fueledby the power of a shocking image or the lureof a supposedly telling contrast. “The media’sdependence on social media, analytics andmetrics, sensationalism, novelty overnewsworthiness, and clickbait makes them


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vulnerable,” its report said.

People who have had personal run-ins withHeimbach – who have experienced him inaction – say the media should not simplyignore his activities. Instead of glamorizingthem or portraying them as cartoonishmonsters, scrutiny should attempt to revealtheir impact.

However, one anti-fascist observed, it doesn’tmatter if the news coverage attempts to benegative – neo-Nazis will still try to recruitpeople in the comments section underneath.

Measured in numbers, white nationalists andneo-Nazis remain the fringe of the fringe. Lastyear’s BronyCon, the annual conference ofgrown men who take an ironic fascination inthe cartoon My Little Pony, attracted 7,600people. Anthrocon, a convention of “furries”who like to do fun things while wearing fuzzy,full-body animal costumes, attracted morethan 7,000. The Kentucky neo-Nazi summit in


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April attracted about 150 people, about 75 ofthem members of the Traditionalist Workerparty. Heimbach claims that his party has 600dues-paying members nationwide. They donot call themselves Nazis. Heimbach said theterm Nazi is a slur, and that he drawsinspiration from many fascist and nationalsocialist regimes, not just Germany’s.

Heimbach said being labeled a Nazi wouldundermine his attempt to educate theAmerican people about “what nationalsocialism truly is”, claiming it invokes “everylie and every over-the-top media creation ofthe last 72 years [since 1945]”.

Ryan Lenz, an analyst at the Southern PovertyLaw Center, which tracks American hategroups, sees no justification for his argument.It is fair to label Heimbach a Nazi because heis an avowed national socialist, Holocaustdenier and antisemite.

“In this context, Nazi is not a slur. It’s not an


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attack. It’s an accurate description,” he said.

Neo-Nazi activism in America has beenundermined for decades by what bothextremist leaders and hate group monitorsdescribe as incredibly childish infighting.Neo-Nazis have squabbled over their religiousdifferences (some are Christian; others arepagans, some worshipping the Norse godOdin; one or two, a Neo-Nazi leader claimed,are even Buddhist), over their uniform andsymbol choices, over which neo-Nazi stolewhich other neo-Nazi’s girlfriend.

“Most of these people are malignantcontrarians who have a lot of loyalty and trustissues,” said Lenz.

But Trump’s rise to power has encouraged theextremists to try to bridge their divides.Neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan leaders werejubilant over an openly xenophobic,politically incorrect presidential candidatewho promised to stop illegal immigration and


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enact a Muslim ban – and they have pursuednews coverage, attracting headlines andstaging dramatic photos. In May, a number ofdifferent groups met in front of a threatenedConfederate monument and set gardentorches on fire. In the photos, shared aroundthe world, a mass of shadowy figures andflames made for a startling image.

Campus provocateur

Matthew Heimbach. His Pike

County trip was part of broader

preparation for 2018, when his

party was planning to field six

candidates in local elections in

Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee,

North Dakota and Texas.

Photograph: Pat Jarrett for the

Guardian


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Heimbach has been perfecting theprovocative art since he first made nationalheadlines in 2012 by founding a WhiteStudent Union at his university, the perfectlylogical complement to the campus’ BlackStudent Union, he said. Towson University,where he graduated in 2013, was majoritywhite. It was one of the safest publicuniversities in Maryland, but Heimbachwould lead journalists around campus atnight as he and his friends patrolled withflashlights in search of black crime.

When students and faculty protested thisbehavior, Heimbach claimed the ralliesagainst him were proof of anti-white bias. Theoutrage brought in television cameras and lefthis classmates of color deeply anxious.

“People were afraid of Matthew,” said IgnacioEvans, a former classmate and thevice-president of the Black Student Union atthe time.


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At a campus town hall meeting, Evansrecalled, Heimbach had said: “I am going tobleed this university white.”

“It sent shockwaves through the campus,”Evans said. As a result of Heimbach’sactivism, he thought attendance at campusevents dropped. People didn’t want to leavetheir rooms.

Everyone knew Heimbach had a gun. “Itwouldn’t be uncommon to see him in a videoshooting things,” he said.

Evans countered Heimbach’s views publicly –and, as a result, he was featured on whitesupremacist websites, one of which dubbedhim a “black supremacist”.

Evans said he had received a death threat athis college graduation, and walked across thestage fearing that he would be shot in front ofhis mother and his girlfriend.


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Jonathan Munshaw, who covered Heimbach’searly tactics for the Towson studentnewspaper, said he only ever verified oneTowson student who was part of the WhiteStudent Union: Heimbach himself. Butstudents on campus truly believed that thegroup was much bigger, Munshaw said – andthey were terrified.

To the national media, the campus conflictwas irresistible. “Matt was so accessible,”Munshaw said. “The national media outletscould come in and it was fairly easy for themto get a story because he was always verywilling and ready.”

It was the perfect recipe for a televisionsegment: the white supremacist, the blackstudents arguing against him. “It was an easystory,” Munshaw said.

Trump: the ‘gateway drug’ to


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white nationalismThe Aryan Terror Brigade. The NationalSocialist Movement. The neo-ConfederateLeague of the South. After he graduated fromcollege, Heimbach met and formed allianceswith so many different extremists groups thatLenz, the SPLC analyst, said he once thoughtHeimbach “might be an informant of thefederal government”.

Heimbach serves as a lynchpin between thescattered groups of the radical right – the onewho can build connections with “theworking-class skinhead movement and theupper-class academic racists”, said Lenz, whohas been interviewing Heimbach periodicallysince he graduated from college.

His argument, Lenz said, is: we’re allcompatriots in nationalism, and therefore weshould stand together, whether we believe inthe Holocaust or not.


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Heimbach had only been a white nationalistin college. But supporters of his WhiteStudent Union responded by sending himbooks in the mail that helped shift his viewsabout the Holocaust. “At the end of the day,”he said, “you end up at national socialism.”

Lenz said he does not know how Heimbach,who says he is forced to work low-paying jobs,can afford to travel constantly across thecountry and fly to Europe every year to meetwith far-right groups. He said Heimbach haddenied having a wealthy patron who fundedthe trips. Heimbach said he paid for the tripshimself, with some contribution from hisparty, and that he kept costs low by stayingwith other far-right activists.

“I’ve been waiting for my rubles to show up. Ithasn’t happened yet,” he said, chuckling,referencing “more than a few media outletsthat have claimed I’m secretly working for theFSB”.


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By the month before Trump’s election,Heimbach had shifted gears and developed anew message discipline “capable of spinninganswers to questions like someone who hadspent years in a spin room”, Lenz said.

Trump was Heimbach’s dream come true. Inearly 2016, Heimbach had described thepresidential candidate as the “gateway drug”to outright white nationalism.

“He’s not one of us and everyone needs toknow that,” Heimbach told the site Vocativlast year, describing the president. “But he’sopening political space. He’s definitelyopening up political space for people likeourselves.”

On 1 March 2016, Heimbach and some of hisparty members attended a Trump campaignrally in Louisville, Kentucky. Heimbach waswearing a red “Make America Great Again”hat. Almost immediately, he and his groupcaught the attention of a Trump protester in


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the crowd.

“For a second, I thought they were counter-protesters [against Trump]. They looked likepunk rock kids,” the protester said. Then sherealized: “No, those are skinheads.”

The protester asked not to be named to avoidattacks from far-right trolls. She describedwatching Heimbach move through the crowdbefore the speech, handing out literature,trying to recruit Trump supporters for hisTraditionalist Worker movement. He wascircumspect, as usual, talking about workerslosing jobs.

“I don’t think I ever even heard him say theword white,” she said. Instead, it was:“‘People are coming in, close the border, andthey’re taking our jobs and our communities’– it was very dog whistle-y.

“Nobody gave him any flak about it,” theprotester said. “He wasn’t getting any


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pushback.”

In retrospect, she thought, Heimbach helpedin revving up the crowd, priming it for whatcame later.

When the protester’s group finally raised theirbanners toward the end of Trump’s speech,Heimbach’s group immediately rushed them,not just to tear down their anti-Trump bannerbut also to punch them, several protestersalleged in a lawsuit. The onslaught “was sointense and violent” that the protester, whowas in the back, said she was overwhelmed.

The protester said Heimbach and his grouphad insinuated their way into the middle ofthe crowd, and when a moment of tensionarrived they suddenly turned violent, andother men around them mirrored theirbehavior, shouting, pushing, furious.

Trump, from the stage, had called: “Get ’emout!”


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A video from the rally shows Heimbach, in hishat, repeatedly laying hands on a young blackprotester, Kashiya Nwanguma, and shoutingin her face. Next, an older man in a Koreanwar veterans uniform shoves her, follows herfor a few steps and shoves her again.

Three protesters are now suing Heimbach anda Korean war veteran over this violence – andsuing Trump for inciting the violence.

A federal judge recently ruled that the casecould move forward, writing: “It is plausiblethat Trump’s direction to ‘Get ’em out of here’advocated the use of force.”

In a letter to the head of a Korean warveterans chapter, the veteran, AlvinBamberger, apologized and said he wasashamed of his behavior, according to a copyof the letter obtained by a local news outlet.He blamed his behavior on being caughtbetween black protesters and whitesupremacists, though he acknowledged that


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was no excuse.

In a blogpost afterward, cited in court filings,Heimbach wrote: “There’s some viral footageof several heated moments in Louisville. Onefeatures yours truly helping the crowd driveout one of the women who had been pushing,shoving, barking, and screaming at theattendees for the better part of an hour.” ( Incourt filings, Nwanguma denied she had donethis.)

“It won’t be me next time, but WhiteAmericans are getting fed up and they’relearning that they must either push back or bepushed down,” Heimbach wrote.

In court filings, he had denied that he behaveimproperly, but also argued that Trumpshould be held responsible for his behavior.

Heimbach was charged with harassment, amisdemeanor, and was recently served asummons to appear in court.


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#EnglandYoureDrunkFor decades, American neo-Nazis have beentrying to break into the mainstream byrunning for local political office, as Heimbachis now hoping his supporters can do. GeorgeLincoln Rockwell, the head of the AmericanNazi party, told a journalist in 1966 that heexpected he would be elected president by1972 on a national socialist ticket, pushed tovictory by a dramatic economic collapse.Instead, he was murdered by one of his ownsupporters outside a laundromat in 1967.

Far-right parties in Europe have had morepolitical success. Amid the Greek debt crisis in2015, Golden Dawn, a violent neo-Nazi partyknown for beating attacks on immigrants andpeople suspected of being gay or on the left,captured the third largest number of seats inthe Greek parliament.

American neo-Nazis look at Golden Dawn’srise and take hope. Heimbach has met with


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far-right nationalists across Europe, he said,including three visits with Golden Dawn overthe past three years.

“There will come a point where the peoplebegin to awaken. [Golden Dawn] had to gothrough many years as a dedicated smallgroup of men and women to carry the flame,”Heimbach said.

He has also met with nationalist activists inthe Czech Republic and spoke last year at theannual conference of Germany’s NationalDemocratic party. He calls himself a friend ofthe British neo-Nazi group National Action,which was banned in December after thehome secretary dubbed it a terroristorganization.

Heimbach has also been banned fromentering the UK “on the grounds that yourpresence here would not be conducive to thepublic good”. In response, he tweeted it wasoutrageous that he was denied while “radical”


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Muslims were let in. “#EnglandYoureDrunk”,he wrote.

Heimbach can put on a show of moderation.He doesn’t think everyone should have to livein a white ethno-state. That’s just hispreference. He doesn’t hate other races. Hejust thinks that black Americans have, onaverage, a “lower future time orientation”.

In interviews and speeches to otherneo-Nazis, Heimbach is less circumspect,quoting Goebbels and speaking fondly ofMussolini.

He is a Holocaust denier, believing that thesystematic murder of 6 million European Jewsby the Nazi regime did not happen, that it’s alla “Bolshevik conspiracy”. He has expressedsympathy for the racist killer Dylann Roof andpraised white supremacist Norwegian massmurderer Anders Breivik.

Real Christianity, he said, is “patriarchal,


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homophobic, racist and antisemitic”. Helaughed. “I see that as a good thing.”

Heimbach lives in Paoli, Indiana, with his wifeand son; his fellow party leader, Matt Parrott;and Jason, the young white nationalist whomoved from New York City to join him andwho now edits his video projects andproduces white nationalist music. Three otherwhite families who support their views havemoved to Paoli to join them, Heimbach said –two from northern Indiana, one from Virginia.They try to get together weekly for boardgame nights and home-brewed mead. Theyplay Risk – “of course, the battle of worlddomination” – and Cards Against Humanity.

“We played Monopoly, but then we decidedthat was too capitalist,” Heimbach said.

Almost none of the consequences he hasfaced for his activism seem to faze him.Heimbach says he was excommunicated byhis Eastern Orthodox church for his racist


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beliefs. His family cut him off after he becamefamous for founding the White StudentUnion. By his count he has been fired fromseven jobs, including a position as a traineecase worker at the Indiana department ofchild services. He claimed this was apunishment for his political convictions.

A spokeswoman for the department wrote inan e-mail Heimbach was “dismissed for hisbehavior at work” after less than three weeksas a trainee. “His behavior in training wasdisruptive of the workplace, incompatiblewith public service, and not protectedspeech,” she wrote. “For example, what I’vebeen told is that, while in training, hisresponse to a question suggested violenceagainst a client.”

Since college, Heimbach has been able todraw other racists around him, forming alikeminded group that acknowledges him as aleader. Throughout hours of interviews he has


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a politician’s confidence, but when he talkedabout his family, he sounded sad.

“My parents didn’t exactly know what I wasthinking or up to. I think in modern America,[there are] a tremendous amount of parentswho would be horrified and scandalized withwhat their young sons and daughters arereading on white nationalist forums orreading on the Daily Stormer,” he said.

After the coverage of his White StudentUnion, his family – who did not respond torequests for an interview for this article –confronted him in a phone conversation.

“My folks said that they didn’t raise me likethis, that they didn’t approve of this and that Ihad to make a choice, if I was going to do thisor choose my family. And I said to them, thisis choosing my family, because I want mysiblings and their grandchildren to have afuture. They didn’t understand.”


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The rise of Nazi thought in America couldchange that, he said. “Hopefully, as politicschanges, as our ideas continue to grow,hopefully we’ll be the new mainstream beforetoo long.”

“I’m not bitter and resentful,” he said later. “Ithurts – like, it’s not easy – but it’s the safestthing for them to do.”

On maneuversThe night before their rally in downtownPikeville, the neo-Nazis gathered on a scruffypatch of private land to eat picnic food andlisten to each other give speeches about thefuture of the white race.

That evening, a convoy of about 20 cars hadwound from the parking lot of a Walmartthrough narrow Kentucky back roads, pastsmall houses flying the Confederate flag.White residents stood at their front doors oron their porches, watching silently as the cars


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passed.

The road turned from pavement to dustygravel to dirt. In the field at the top of a hill,there was a white rental tent, rows of cars, aportable toilet. Young men inparamilitary-style black outfits strode aroundthe tent, armed with rifles and walkie-talkies.

The dress code for the white supremacist

Members of the KKK, the

Traditionalist Worker party and

the National Socialist Movement

gathered for a weekend of

speeches, demonstration and

fellowship at a private

campground in Whitesburg,

Kentucky. Photograph: Pat

Jarrett for the Guardian


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unity summit in April was strict: men weresupposed to wear “a black work shirt, blackpants, and black boots; with an organizationalpatch on the left arm. Women are requestedto dress modestly and in black as well.”

Heimbach had allowed a small group ofjournalists to attend the Whitesburg neo-Nazisummit, including the Guardian and a Frenchtelevision crew, to attend part of theweekend’s private speeches. He claimed thathe had turned down other larger Americanoutlets, disliking their coverage.

In the tent, decorated with a White LivesMatter banner, the neo-Nazis slammed Trumpfor claiming he was both a nationalist and aglobalist, and for keeping so many Jewishpeople as advisers. But they said they stillhoped that the movement he had startedwould give them a political opportunity.

“Reform is impossible,” Heimbach declared inhis speech. Heimbach assailed the removal of


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Confederate monuments, comparingpoliticians who permitted monuments towhite supremacy being taken down to Isisdestroying temples in Syria.

“How long is it before the statues to Unionsoldiers are torn down, because, well, theyweren’t multicultural enough they weren’t asaccepting of transgender rights for children ...they weren’t progressive enough?

“How long before not just the south but everysymbol of our people is wiped clean from thisEarth like we never existed?”

Heimbach’s speech was well received. But asthe night went on, the divide between thetraditional neo-Nazi groups and the new,internet-savvy “alt-right” began to show. Thespeeches grew so dull, despite the periodicNazi salutes and chants of white power, thatmost of the younger extremists melted awayinto the dark, leaving a smaller and smalleraudience to listen to old Nazis drone on.


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On Saturday morning, they conducted a seriesof military marching exercises at their retreat.The man leading the exercises advised thegroup that perception is reality. Comingacross as disciplined and tough and organizedwere crucial to their mission. But the drillingwent poorly. One young man, obeying theorder to turn, stepped boldly the wrong way.

That afternoon, the neo-Nazis managed to bean hour late to their own protest in downtownPikeville. More than 100 anti-fascists inbandanas had arrived by 2pm, when the rallywas supposed to start. There was no sign ofHeimbach and his crew.

When the larger group of more than 100people marched in, they were in good spirits,waving flags and carrying hand-paintedwooden shields with fascist symbols and, inone case, a real axe, bundled with sticks, ahome-made symbol of fascism. Heimbachbounced through the scrum in his sensible


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shoes, helping to organize his followers intoneat lines. Despite the howls of the plastictrumpets and the chants of the anti-fascistsand the long lines of state police on the otherside of the barricades, he moved with nosense of drama, as if he were a high schoolcoach organizing his kids at an away game.

Gabe, the one with the razor tattooed on hisjaw, was in the front row, holding a shield andclearly excited. “Fuck you!” he bellowed atthe protesters.

Scott, wearing a rifle and aviators, wasstanding nearby. “Gabe!” he hissed in awarning tone. Gabe subsided.

“Take a bath! Take a bath!” the fascistschanted at the anti-fascists.


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Heimbach’s public speech was heavy on thesocialism and light on conspiracy theories,denouncing corporate interests andenvironmental degradation, endorsing workerunions and “nationalization of keyindustries”.

“The Republicans and the Democrats supportWall Street, they support more wars, theysupport your blood being spilled for theirsake,” he said, over the sounds of shouts andjeers and horns.

The attendees were trained on

marching in formation by the

handful of military veterans in

the group. Photograph: Pat

Jarrett for the Guardian


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“We are here to tell you: you don’t have tochoose the lesser of two evils. You can choosepeople that are actually on your side. Becausewe are you. We are the people you go tochurch with, you see in the grocery story, youwork with.”

At one point, the men gave the Nazi saluteand chanted for at least a minute: “HeilHeimbach! Heil Heimbach! Heil Heimbach!”

Heimbach, who was standing near the front ofthe crowd, faced them and grinned. “I’mgoing to remember that the rest of my life,” hesaid, with just the right amount of irony.

The men laughed, a low rumble of approvallost beneath the screams of the crowd.

‘He thinks we’re stupid’Pikeville was true Trump country, a rural areawith permissive gun laws and strongconservative values.


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In the political analysis of Trump voters,neo-Nazi advocates like Heimbach and someon the left tend to agree: Trump voters are awhite identity movement, motivated to votefor him at least in part by outright racism, aclaim Trump supporters vehemently reject.

The locals in Pikeville greeted the influx withoutrage and shock. Outside a Pikeville tattooparlor the day before the neo-Nazis werecoming to town, a group of local menexpressed disgust at the agenda and concernthat the event would discourage students ofdifferent races from coming to the localuniversity.

After their shift was over that Friday beforethe rally, Porter and Wooton were not finishedtalking about Heimbach’s breakfast visit totheir diner. They went to a nearby Taco Bell todiscuss him more. Wooton had loved what hewas saying, loved his passion. But hearingthat Heimbach supported a white ethno-state


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immediately ended her interest. Wooton hasbrothers who are mixed-race.

“If they’re saying they want an all-whitecommunity, where would my brother go?” shesaid. She was appalled by the idea ofsegregation: she did want morerepresentation for white Americans, just likethe representation she sees people who areblack or Mexican receive. At the same time,she ultimately wanted political leaders fordifferent racial groups to work together forthe common good.

“That’s taking us a hundred years back,”Porter said. She had told the group that shewas gay, and they had said nothing inresponse. The Traditionalist Worker party,with its endorsement of traditional marriage,its rhetoric about “deviants”, was not going toearn the vote of this white Kentucky woman.Porter’s girlfriend worked for a localprosecutor. She knew that the people charged


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with crimes in their area wereoverwhelmingly white.

Wooton was incredulous that Heimbach couldbe a Holocaust denier. “He’s so smart. He hasto know better than that. There’s televisionfootage of piles of bodies,” she said.

“They have a lot of really good ideas. It’sreally sad that they just bring this racism,” shesaid.

She looked depressed. She had been hopefulthat Heimbach was a politician who couldactually bring help to their area. “He seemsreally really smart. He seems like he knowswhat he’s talking about on a lot of things. Andthis stupid racism that’s going to hold himback from so many things – he could do somany positive things.”

She was distressed. She could not understandit. “Maybe he’s a little mental,” she said. It wasthe only immediate explanation, that he had


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Topics

Race issues

features

“a little mental problem that he can’t get pastthis racist thing”.

Both women were increasingly angry thatHeimbach had chosen to come to Kentucky tospread his message.

“He’s targeting us,” Wooton said, “because hethinks that we’re stupid.”

“And he’s wrong about that,” Porter said.


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