Vigilante nation How state-sponsored terror threatens our democracy

"Legions of citizen culture warriors," from "parents' rights"--obsessed "PTA moms" to "abortion snitches" and "DIY poll watchers," are a modern-day threat to American democracy that has deep roots in the past, according to this eye-opening account. Law scholars Michaels (Constitutional Coup) and Noll attest that American history is full of vigilante behavior, much of it legally sanctioned, and draw links between Jim Crow-era vigilantism and modern-day white nationalist militias patrolling the southern border. They explain how the Supreme Court enshrined vigilantism's semi-legality in a series of late-19th-century decisions that effectively "privatized" anti-Black violence, allowing individual white people to deprive Black Americans of their rights in ways that governments no longer could. Elsewhere the authors track the Republican Party's recent slide toward vigilantism, contrasting the "beatification" of Kyle Rittenhouse following his 2020 slaying of two anti-police protesters with the party's more mixed 1984 reception of "subway vigilante" Bernhard Goetz, who became a right-wing cause célèbre for shooting four Black teens but was denounced by Ronald Reagan. Michaels and Noll conclude by recommending that blue states go on the legal offensive, crafting laws to fight back against red state overreach. Throughout, they make chillingly clear the stakes: "With each passing campaign of harassment... the chances increase that vigilantes... will be on the inside." It's a stark assessment of America's darker political currents. (Oct.)

Examination of an America driven by right-wing anger and revenge. Law professors Michaels and Noll start off with a chilling quote from right-wing political strategist ​​ Steve Bannon, who offered his podcast listeners some advice: "You just have toimpose your will." He was urging his fans to resist the inauguration of Joe Biden as president; that comment was broadcast on Jan. 5, 2021. Bannon, the authors argue, is in the vanguard of a new class of political vigilantes: "loosely connected cadres of right-wing activists, lawyers, thugs, grifters, and plutocrats who rally around a twice impeached president and blame their problems--real and manufactured--on Democrats, minorities, foreigners, scientists, bureaucrats, and educators." The authors trace the origins of what they call "Vigilante Democracy," a system that recruits "citizen culture warriors" to uphold white Christian power, to right-wing media figures like Rush Limbaugh and politicians like Sarah Palin. They also discuss the right's embrace of George Zimmerman, who gunned down an unarmed Black teenager in a gated Florida community, and Kyle Rittenhouse, who after an altercation shot and killed a protestor at a Wisconsin racial justice demonstration. Vigilante Democracy, Michaels and Noll write, "deploys lawyers, gunslingers, thugs, parent associations, snitches, podcasters, influencers, keyboard warriors, and QAnon trolls" to ban books, restrict abortion, and demonize transgender children. The remedy, the authors conclude, lies with blue states playing "constitutional hardball"; they propose a series of laws that the states could pass to combat right-wing extremism. Concerned progressives, who have been beaten down by MAGA adherents but energized by recent liberal electoral victories, will find this interesting and inspiring reading. The examples of vigilantism the authors give won't come as a surprise to anyone who has paid much attention to American political culture, but the book does present a coherent narrative that explains the nation's descent into violence and authoritarianism. Red meat for progressives, tempering its outrage with hopefulness and a plan for moving forward. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.