← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Hilaire Belloc
Thread ID: 10808 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2003-10-29
2003-10-29 03:38 | User Profile
[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031028/us_nm/politics_neonazi_dc_1[/url]
Elderly Neo-Nazi Makes Last Stand in U.S. Town
By Martin Johncox
BOISE, Idaho (Reuters) - At age 85, white supremacist Richard Butler is making what might be one last stand -- he is running for mayor of Hayden, the 9,000-population town where he has long been a flashpoint of controversy.
Butler, the former head of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations, a group whose membership has dwindled to a handful, says now is the time for him to run but his opponents say he will only win a few votes in next Tuesday's election. They say that his anti-Semitic and anti-black views have brought disgrace to the town.
But Butler says, "This is the right time, because a lot of the people moving here are trying to leave the so-called racial diversity of California. We have to return back what made this nation great, and racial separation is one of those things. We're going to try for governor next time."
Butler moved to northern Idaho from California in the early 1970s because Idaho is mostly white and he thought it would make a good place from which to launch a race struggle.
Butler's home, marked by a "Whites Only" sign, barbed wire and occasional cross burnings, drew racist and neo-Nazi pilgrims from around the world, and the town of Hayden became synonymous with the Aryan Nations.
For the many who did not share his philosophy, Butler was a local disgrace. "There's only a few of them in town and they live in the same house, but this one person has brought such a bad reputation to Idaho and northern Idaho. It's a sad thing," said Mayor Ron McIntire, a grocery store owner and Butler's political opponent in the mayoral election.
"I don't think he has any hopes of winning anything. It's just a forum to get all his garbage out again."
Butler handed over the leadership of the Aryan Nations in 2001, a year after he sold his 20-acre (8-hectare) compound to pay a $6.3 million court verdict in favor of a woman and her son attacked by Aryan Nations guards.
White supremacists have had little luck running for office. Several years ago, a Butler supporter ran for mayor of the nearby resort town of Sandpoint. He got just 30 votes.
"There isn't a story here about Butler being competitive in a city election; it just provides another forum and gives him national and international attention," said Jim Weatherby, chairman of the Department of Public Policy and Administration at Boise State University.
"People in elections cast protest votes for a variety of reasons and votes for Butler could be misconstrued as supporting his ideology."
Far-right candidates have had little success nationally. Former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke was elected to the Louisiana legislature in 1989, but lost bids for governor, U.S. Senate and president.
While no one expects Butler to win, human rights groups are urging voters to turn out to reject Butler and his two city council runningmates, each of whom needed five signatures to be eligible candidates.
"You used to need 40 signatures, but state law was changed to only require five, so they signed each other's petitions and found a couple in town who supports them," Mayor McIntire said. "If it weren't for that, they wouldn't even be candidates."
2003-10-29 03:59 | User Profile
Butler is a white separatist. So, all these people are ashamed he is there, but they don't want to admit the reason they are in Idaho is to get away from "diversity".
2003-10-29 04:07 | User Profile
Refugee, the article didn't provide any information as to whether Butler's critics were emigres themselves or Idaho natives.
2003-10-29 17:12 | User Profile
I lived in that neck of the woods for many years. Owned a bar and spent lots of time talking to the locals- as I was a local. There are always a bunch of PCer's who shoot their mouths off to a reporter, but you get the average joe off to the side, and he will tell you how he feels. The majority don't want anything to do with the darker skins. And a lot of the new comers feel the same way. Or so they told me.