Threats and Harassment Are a Danger to the Political Fabric

Allowing elected officials and government workers to be intimidated into resigning is how fascism slowly wins

The Boogaloo Boys stand on the steps of the Capitol Building during a rally on October 17, 2020 in Lansing, Michigan. The Boogaloo boys attempted to distance themselves from the Wolverine Watchmen who plotted to kidnap Michigans Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Two of the men arrested in the plot were affiliated with the Boogaloo Boys. (Photo by Seth Herald/Getty Images)

A little more than six months ago, the town of Bennington, Vermont, paid $137,500 to Kiah Morris and apologized publicly for failing to protect her and her family from racist threats and harassment. It took these steps following a report by the town’s human rights commission finding that the Bennington police department had discriminated against them on the basis of her race. Morris was the only Black woman serving in the Vermont statehouse until she resigned in 2018, after years of harassment from local white supremacists.

In Michigan, a self-styled militia called the Wolverine Watchmen was caught last October by federal authorities while it was deep in plans to kidnap the state’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Thirteen men, all white, most in their 20s and 30s were charged, six with federal conspiracy to kidnap, commit domestic terrorism and owning and operating weapons of mass destruction; and eight with state charges related to supplying material support for terrorism, felony gang activity and weapons violations. Nina Burleigh, who is writing a book about the group, details their story here. The kidnapping plot, she notes, was…