Into the Belly of the Beast
Elisabeth Curtis
November 21, 2023
In 1985 a young sociology professor from Idaho State University, Dr. James Aho traveled to northern Idaho, alone and afraid, to conduct the first series of research that would occupy his focus over the next four decades.
Aho had traveled to immerse himself into what he says was then considered the worst terrorist group in America, the Aryan Nations Church, in an effort to understand their world. “I traveled into the belly of the beast,” he says.
In 1985 there were rumors and reports about a group in northern Idaho involved in terrorist activities. Aho defines terrorism as the use of violence to achieve political ends. Aho became curious about this group, obtained a small grant from ISU, and started researching.
From a social science perspective, Aho was interested in explaining causality: how it is that some people join violent movements or organizations? Now we take for granted what we can access online, but at the time in the 1980s, Aho says this was all underground. He took a journalistic approach, immersing himself in the community as a researcher:
“For that you have to immerse yourself in their world. You have to go to speeches, demonstrations, marches, and talk to people at length about how they understand what they’re involved in,” he says. “You have to immerse yourself in their literature. I had to personally meet with people and spend a great deal of time listening to them and talking to them and trying to figure out what the hell’s going on here? I interviewed many people over months when the group was being arrested and prosecuted by the FBI.”
Aho says that doing the research was very emotionally difficult and challenging. “I went up there to northern Idaho, alone, from Pocatello and I didn’t know anybody up there. I had to start with what little I knew from the newspapers.”
Aho says he will never forget his first interview. “At the time I had little kids at home,” he relates. “I knew I had to interview the head of the Church of Jesus Christ Christians (Aryan Nation). So I opened up the Coeur d’Alene yellow pages and they had the Church of Jesus Christ Christians in the yellow pages listed with the other churches.”
“I was terrified but I got the guts to use the telephone in the hotel room. I dialed the number. I heard this sweet voice, the secretary of the church, who answered. I made an appointment to meet with the minister. I met with him the next day. We met in a restaurant and he came with his big, burly bodyguard. He brought a briefcase full of pamphlets and books for my “edification.”
Aho read most of it as part of his research. Over time, Aho met many members of the Aryan Nation at restaurants and interviewed them.
Aho’s research led to the publication of his first book, The Politics of Righteousness: Idaho Christian Patriotism. This book explores how from their home bases in Idaho and neighboring areas of the Northwest, organizations such as the Order, the Aryan Nations Church, the Posse Comitatus, and the Golden Mean Society have drawn national attention and spread the gospel of a "constitutionally pure, Christian homeland." Tthis compelling work presents the first disciplined exploration of the backgrounds and belief systems of the Christian patriot movement. Using information gathered from interviews and direct observation of patriot gatherings, Aho replaces the stereotype of solitary crazies from the fringes of society with more complex and disturbing realities.
The cover of this book features a cross on fire, a well-recognized hate symbol. Aho points to the cover. “I was at that burning of the cross with clansmen and a guy who looked like a Neo-Nazi,” he says. “The Aryan World Congress met annually. They would have workshops, target shooting, lectures, services, all culminating in the cross burning.”
Aho attended these events. He was dealing with a group who committed murder, arson, assassinations, attacks on gay bars, assaults, counterfeiting, suicides… all kinds of criminal activity. “It was emotionally challenging,” Aho says.
Then a new political era emerged when Barack Obama was elected. Aho says that racism, anti-semitism, and conspiracy mongering about Obama exploded.
“I realized this was a new phenomenon that I wanted to study,” he says. “So I spent several years studying the emergence of the right wing.”
The research culminated in a second book, This Thing of Darkness: A Sociology of the Enemy. Aho says he got sick of reading and talking to people and hearing the same refrains about the Jews and the Jewish conspiracy.
“I figured I made a contribution with two books,” he says.
So he took a break.
Then the Trump Era began with the rise of the 2010 Tea Party Movement, Aho says, and he began his latest book. Just released, Maelstrom: Christian Dominionism and Far-Right Insurgence is a book he wrote during the Trump Era.
Aho explains that “Maelstrom” means “Storm,” and carries with it the connotation of the possibility of a new world. “It’s a completely new age we’re in,” Aho says. “We don’t know what’s going to happen to America. There are all kinds of stories, rumors, fears.”
Maelstrom: Christian Dominionism and Far-Right Insurgence illuminates the latest outbreak of right-wing extremism in America. This book reviews the cyclical nature of right-wing resurgences in American history, dismisses the appropriateness of the word “fascism” to explain them, and then describes in depth the goal of “reconstructing” American institutions on the basis of biblical principles. It critiques the popular view that far-right politics is carried by stupid, socially isolated, nuts. To this end, it discusses the logicality of the “big lie” and examines in detail how people are recruited into the far-right, by entertaining the theories of authoritarianism and resource mobilization. Finally, it characterizes how the ends-oriented rationality of far-right activists differs from the mini-max criterion of rationality utilized by the ordinary person. This can motivate them to be violent and can frustrate efforts by the government to control them. Right wing extremist movements.
I asked him how he emerged from so many years of immersion in white supremacist literature and community while remaining immune to the ideology.
“I realize that my viewpoint is just one viewpoint. I come from a particular background and that informs my approach to this subject,” Aho says. “I already had a world-view formed, whereas a lot of people I met at the Aryan World Congress were young,” he says. “Their world views are not fully formed and many have not gone to college. I was raised during WWII and many of my uncles and family members fought against Naziism. My grandfather was a liberal, progressive minister. I was imbued with these ideas from my mother.”
Aho says that the most dangerous individuals in northern Idaho ended up in prison, but there are hundreds of other people who still live there, a lot of different splinter groups, and attempts to take over school boards.
“It’s a scary place to go to even now.”
James Aho is Professor Emeritus at Idaho State University where he has taught for over forty years.