Protesters in Lansing during the pandemic in April.
When Mark Detmer, a Howell Republican taking on Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, caught heat for taking a selfie with a member of an extremist, far-right group last week, he was quick to distance himself the situation (verbally, at least).
The Proud Boys member flashing a white nationalist symbol at a meet-up ahead of Operation Gridlock had "photobombed" the group, Detmer said, and was in no way affiliated with his campaign. Detmer claimed he'd never even heard of the Proud Boys — a hate group according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
It appears, however, that the 44-year-old car salesman has since developed an appreciation for the group. The Proud Boys "ARE NOT WHITE SUPREMACISTS NOR RACIST!" but rather "about protecting our freedoms," Detmer writes on Facebook.
The group's members describe themselves as "western chauvinists."
Detmer goes on to list the Proud Boys' tenets, which include closed borders ("we cannot be the world's orphange" ... "Fuck off, we're full."), "venerating the housewife," anti-racial guilt, and anti-racial superiority, which does not eschew white supremacy so much as it recognizes "the progress that has been made in overcoming racial prejudice" and says the West "judges its citizens on their actions, not their attributes."
The post stirred additional controversy, generating nearly 1,000 comments over the course of a week.
"Bollocks. The Proud Boys IS a white supremacist organization," wrote Brian L. Dierberger. "The fact that you refuse to renounce them AND make excuses for associating with them is dishonorable."
"If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, but says it isn't a duck, it's probably a white supremacist," said Dakota Harden.
