While earlier iterations of Klan activism had or sought a more cooperative relationship to one or more levels of government, be they local or, in the case of the second revival Klan harassing Quakers to make them purchase war bonds, even federal, the post-Vietnam Klan groups sought a more adversarial relationship — even as some among them, like David Duke, sought political office. Belew established linkages and a history that connects older forms of white power ideology in the United States, like the Klan and its revivals, and newer, like sects among the militia movement. 

The GOP would cut its throat if it denounced its racists and racism, and really meant it. The shouts, taunts, spitting, catcalls, Obama as Joker posters, n-word slurs, Confederate and Texas Lone Star flag waving by some Tea Party activists, and the deafening silence from GOP leaders during Obama’s early years in office, was and still very much is an indispensable political necessity for the party.