Montana governor, legislators condemn plans for white-nationalist march
Montana's top elected officials in both parties have denounced plans for a white-nationalist march in Whitefish, the town that's become home to alt-right movement writer and activist Richard Spencer. It's the latest escalation in a controversy that started when Spencer's mother, who recently opened a business in Whitefish, began getting pressure to denounce her son's beliefs or sell her property.
The letter, co-signed by Gov. Steve Bullock and Sen. Jon Tester, who are Democrats, and Sen. Steve Daines, Rep. Ryan Zinke and Attorney General Tim Fox, all Republicans, attacks any effort by white nationalists to rally in Whitefish.
"We condemn attacks on our religious freedom manifesting in a group of anti-Semites," the elected officials wrote in the letter, released by Tester's office Tuesday morning. "We stand firmly together to send a clear message that ignorance, hatred and threats of violence are unacceptable and have no place in the town of Whitefish, or in any other community in Montana or across this nation. We say to those few who seek to publicize anti-Semitic views that they shall find no safe haven here."
The letter rolls together a number of controversies, only a few of which involve Spencer himself. Since 2014, the outspoken president of the National Policy Institute (a think tank that promotes white-nationalist ideologies, such as the separation of whites from other races) has been persona non grata in some Whitefish businesses. But this month, when interest in the alt-right movement - a term coined by Spencer that encompasses many white-supremacist ideas - was surging, he said his mother was receiving threats.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Montana-condemn-plans-white-nationalist-march-10821241.php
= new reply since forum marked as read
