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I discovered that Oregon State Rep. Mike Nearman was a leader in a white supremacist group in 2018, and aside from a few liberal outlets hungry for clicks, nobody really listened. Now he’s the guy who opened the door for bloodthirsty right-wing militants to enter the Capitol.
He was Vice President of Oregonians for Immigration Reform (OIR), a group heralding legitimacy despite being branded a hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center. Here’s their report on this group: https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/04/19/meet-oregon%E2%80%99s-anti-immigrant-hate-group-oregonians-immigration-reform-ofir
They’ve been allowed to table the Oregon State Fair for multiple years, peddling white supremacist propaganda from their paternal org FAIR (a hate group), with no blowback from the state government. FAIR was founded by John Tanton, the father of the modern anti-immigrant movement
The OIR website was originally hosted by New Nation News, awhite supremacist website and an early incarnation of Stormfront. OIR was granted legitimacy was in spite of this, much like John Tanton’s other projects within the US with explicit white supremacist extremist connections
Now you have the Respected Legislator opening the door for the violent right-wing extremists chanting for blood at the Capitol steps. OIR might have taken action to separate themselves from the neo-Nazis, but they were always on the same team. This could have been avoided.
