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Bad Reputation

Idaho: We're Not As Bad As You Think

By Joan Opyr, 3-22-06

I subscribe to Harper's Magazine. I find it's more interesting than The Atlantic Monthly, and it's more relevant to my life and my politics than either The Economist or The New Yorker. This month's issue, April 2006, features "The Spirit of Disobedience," by Curtis White; a piece on economic mobility by Colin McAdam; and the transcription of a roundtable discussion entitled "American Coup d'Etat: Military thinkers discuss the unthinkable."

It was in the latter piece that I came across one of those infrequent but jarring references to Idaho that one sometimes finds in a national forum -- a reference that is simultaneously amusing, ridiculous, and vaguely offensive. In January, Richard H. Kohn, the chair of the curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, met at Ruth's Chris Steak House in Arlington, Virginia with a Harper's editor and three other military and academic types. In discussing whether or not a military coup would be possible in the United States, and what would be the minimum number of security forces necessary for maintaining control, Kohn popped out with the following:

"I've raised this point before with military audiences. Do you really think you can control New York City without the cooperation of 40,000 New York police officers? And what about Idaho, with all those militia groups? Do you think you can control Idaho? I'm not even going to talk about Texas."

Do you think you can control Idaho? As a matter of fact, yes, I do. I think Southern and Central Idaho are home to a lot of law-abiding, family-oriented farmers, ranchers, loggers, and (gasp) hippies, techies, and la-di-da academics. As for Northern Idaho, what's to fear? Richard Butler is dead, and the Aryan Nations group he led is now defunct. Bankrupted by a lawsuit, Butler and company lost their Hayden Lake compound six years ago. The infamous seige at Ruby Ridge was fourteen years ago. Randy Weaver is no longer holed up in a gun-filled cabin on a remote hillside; he's out making the rounds on the right-wing celebrity talk show circuit.

Bo Gritz and his Almost Heaven right-wing housing development? Gritz was certainly a nut. He negotiated an end to the Ruby Ridge standoff, taught courses in how to "live off the grid," ran for President in 1992 on the Populist Party ticket, and conducted countless paramilitary training sessions for like-minded loonies, but he lives in Nevada now. I should also say that I've found it hard to take Gritz seriously since the former Green Beret tried to commit suicide by shooting himself in the heart -- and he missed. I'm just a wimpy English major with no military experience whatsoever, and yet I feel certain that I could find my own heart in the dark with a butter knife.

I know Idaho pretty well. I've lived in Moscow since 1993; my partner was born here. I have to wonder if Richard H. Kohn has ever set foot in my adopted home. Are "all those militias" Kohn thinks of when he thinks of Idaho any more representative of this state than serial bomber Eric Rudolph is representative of North Carolina? Rudolph evaded the FBI for five years by hiding out in the Appalachian mountains, aided and abetted by sympathetic North Carolina whack jobs. Under the circumstances, would it not be reasonable for Kohn to ask, "What about North Carolina and all of those anti-government mountain folk? Do you really think you can control North Carolina?"

Raleigh -- only a few miles from high-falutin' Chapel Hill -- is the capital of North Carolina and the city of my birth. A few years ago, I attended my first (and, I hasten to add, only) gun show there. It was held at the state fairgrounds and was very well attended. I waited in line for more than twenty-five minutes to get inside. I'm now ashamed and embarassed that I bothered. It was quite an eye-opener -- Nazi paraphernalia for sale everywhere, along with copies of The Anarchist's Cookbook and other bomb-making classics, all of which I could have done without and, on the whole, would rather not have seen.

Coeur d'Alene, just a few miles to the south of Hayden Lake, is a fast-growing, expensive, glittering resort town. Water-skiing, para-sailing, hiking, jet boating, antique shopping, gourmet dining -- this is what people do in Coeur d'Alene. I think it's fair to say that you're far less likely to meet a right-wing, gun-toting, militia-loving, Nazi jackass in this beautiful city in Northern Idaho than you are at your average white North Carolina family reunion.

Take it from me: I've been to both.