‘Image Obsessed’ Fascists
“Patriot Front is an image-obsessed organization that rehabilitated the explicitly fascist agenda of Vanguard America with garish patriotism,” writes the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks activities of hate groups across the U.S. Infighting among American fascists over the effectiveness of their violent tactics led Rousseau to devise a group that would mask its racist beliefs and love affair with Nazism under the guise of patriotic American branding, according to the SPLC. Rather than violence, the group generally prefers acts of criminal vandalism, proof of which it circulates on apps like Telegram and Discord to encourage recruitment. Leaks show the group has even set quotas for its members, requiring them to vandalize a certain number of statues and murals celebrating the accomplishments of civil rights leaders. The group also loves U-Hauls: the Idaho arrests occurred after a single U-Haul disgorged the 30-odd members into the streets of Coeur d’Alene, and the group used similar transportation for a march on the Lincoln Memorial last December that left them stranded.
