澳彩开奖

The highly touted 鈥淏attle of New Orleans鈥� was by all accounts a disappointment. The flaggers鈥� desire to pre-emptively name a 鈥渂attle鈥� where one would not occur, and to nevertheless claim victory is evidence of a strategy at play by the far-right that emerged after 鈥淭he Battle of Berkeley鈥� last month. That same strategy is now in play with many along the racist right, including one of Sunday鈥檚 event attendees, Brad Griffin, who writes under the pen name Hunter Wallace.

Griffin was once a rising star in the League of the South (LOS), though he grew fatigued with the League鈥檚 brand of activism in 2015 and his former mentor Michael Hill, President of the League of the South, this year saying 鈥淚f you spend all your time patrolling a rural area, building a bunker, prepping for the collapse of civilization, saber rattling, all you are doing in succeeding in marginalizing yourself.鈥�

As Griffin was growing apart from the League, another native of the South, Richard Spencer, was gaining notoriety for his promotion of identitarianism, a reactionary right-wing political ideology notable for its adoption of the language of liberalism as a means of disarming opponents.

The appeal of identitarianism to Griffin 鈥� a bookish, overweight forum-dweller with a liberal arts degree who spent years attempting to cut it in a blue-collar movement 鈥� is apparent.

The biggest problem was the divide between Richard Spencer鈥檚 message and the people the League claims to represent: rural southerners. While Spencer was gaining small numbers of followers at colleges on the West Coast and on the Eastern seaboard (north of the Mason-Dixon, of course), his message didn鈥檛 stick in the southeast, and more particularly the racist right of the southeast, notorious for its ambivalence toward academic institutions.

As it turns out the bridge between southerners and identitarianism would come in the form of Donald Trump鈥檚 incendiary pseudo-populism during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump swept the Deep South, confounding Michael Hill and others who believed the bible belt would never follow a philandering New York real-estate mogul.

Griffin was an early (and in the League of the South almost singular) Trump supporter, a stance that earned him a fair share of criticism from League members, particularly Hill, who aimed this barb at Griffin and other League members looking beyond 鈥淪outhern Nationalism鈥� toward the 鈥淎lt-Right鈥�:

鈥淪ome members (and former members) of聽The聽League have eloped with the alt-right, caught up in all聽the聽excitement of Trump's Presidential victory. This is nothing I didn't expect, especially from some of our younger members.

But I warn them to be cautious鈥︹��

Griffin was unswayed by Hill鈥檚 admonition, seeing in the alt-right a larger platform and more opportunity to move beyond the League鈥檚 staid street protests and conferences in a rural outpost.

This has been Griffin鈥檚 goal since the election, and he has furthered it by writing for Richard Spencer鈥檚 alt-right blogging platform, expanding the views on contributors on his own Occidental Dissent, and partnering with the The Right Stuff (TRS) southeastern offshoot, Identity Dixie to host the Atlanta Forum. Griffin鈥檚 vision for 鈥淪outhern Nationalism鈥� lies in shaping it into a component of the existing identitarian movement, not an independent ideology confined to 鈥渞ural Christian Southerners鈥� as Hill would have it.

In New Orleans, Griffin saw an opportunity to promote his project by emulating another Spencer disciple and rising star among the alt-right, Nathan Damigo. Damigo is an ex-con who punched an unarmed woman before fleeing into a crowd at protests last month retroactively dubbed 鈥淭he Battle of Berkeley.鈥� In the aftermath and through a series of tightly edited videos and dubious photoshop jobs, Damigo and others on the 鈥渁lt-right鈥� asserted that Damigo was instead performing honorably as a trained marine veteran by identifying as a 鈥渢hreat鈥� and 鈥渘eutralizing鈥� her.

Griffin, recognizing that such a spectacle would have to be facilitated by recruiting and organizing far-right groups to instigate pitched 鈥渂attles,鈥� recanted his earlier stance on 鈥淟ARPing鈥�:

鈥淚 used to be highly critical of militias and militancy in the movement. Now, I firmly believe聽that a Southern Defense Force [SDF] is justified.鈥�

Griffin stood in the crowd at the SDF鈥檚 Kentucky debut in plain-clothes while Hill and company paraded around in would-be tactical outfits. Although Griffin has expressed a newfound tolerance for militant posturing, he clearly is unwilling to participate in it. The warming of relations between Griffin and Hill should not be mistaken for reconciliation, but Griffin鈥檚 recognition that if he is to carve members out of the dwindling neo-Confederate movement, Hill鈥檚 group is a useful tool.

Griffin, for his part, heavily promoted the 鈥淏attle of New Orleans鈥� well in advance. Never once did Griffin acknowledge that, Johnny Horton ballads aside, the clear distinction between what happened in Berkeley and what he wanted to happen in New Orleans was that Berkely was named a 鈥渂attle鈥� after brawls broke out between Donald Trump supporters and Antifas.

Garon Archer defending his heritage.

There were no identifiable members of Antifa present in the crowd of hundreds who marched from Congo Square to meet the Lee Circle flaggers. Instead hundreds of residents of the City of New Orleans marched to celebrate what they saw as a victory against symbols of oppression. Met with spitting and racial slurs, none of the anti-monument demonstrators attacked the flag-wavers, though as Hill acknowledged in an after-action report, 鈥渢hey outnumbered us 25 to 1.鈥�

The marcher鈥檚 desire to 鈥渄estroy southerners鈥� was on full display when a barricade, toppled by the massive swaying crowd, allowed throngs to pour through. Hundreds poured straight past the barricade blocking the flaggers and up the hill surrounding the monument where they chanted 鈥淭his is what democracy looks like!鈥� and 鈥淣o racists, no KKK, no fascist USA!鈥�

Between the restraint of the crowd and the coordination of the New Orleans Police Department, the only violence at the 鈥淏attle of New Orleans鈥� occurred when a League of the South member punched out a cosplaying Trump supporter from California.聽

Griffin鈥檚 treatment of the incident is ripped cleanly from one man's playbook: Nathan Damigo鈥檚. The entire incident is聽strikingly reminiscent of the treatment afforded Emily Rose Marshall after Damigo flung himself at her in Berkeley. Just as with the creation of the聽鈥淢oldilocks鈥� meme, Griffin quickly touted the 鈥淎lt-C---鈥� as a digital punching bag for the alt right after the 鈥淏attle of New Orleans."

Visible in a shot of the incident from the Times Picayune, Griffin, again clad in street-clothes, films the 鈥淎lt-C---鈥� crumpled on the ground for his audience where one-time LOS Chief-of-Staff Michael Tubbs stood by, dressed for battle but arms crossed. It鈥檚 a fitting image for the future of the League and Griffin鈥檚 relationship to it.