Through the Extremist Lens
This study seeks to clarify the relationship between ideology and the growing trend of domestic RW extremist violence in the United States between 2000 and 2020 . Although numerous studies have examined domestic RW extremist violence and domestic RW extremist ideology , none have studied how violent incidents are shaped and driven by ideology . The legacy of this study is to identify which aspects of domestic RW extremist ideology correlate most closely with the number of deaths from extremist violence in the United States in order to better inform efforts at ideological engagement for the purpose of CVE .
Literature Review
The current view of domestic RWE in the United States is not a collection of radical groups as in international terrorism , but a fractured network of interlinking ideologies , borrowing aspects of each other ’ s rhetoric to create a unique , interrelated constellation of views , the majority of which draw from a common background of racist , antisemitic and conspiratorial beliefs . However , each ideology is different , citing their own grievances , target populations , and associated rhetoric . This constellation is further complicated by varying degrees of extremism espoused by different members within each ideology , illustrated by the domestic RW extremist movement ’ s adherence to the leaderless resistance model circulated in the United States by Louis Beam in the 1980s and ‘ 90s . Under this twopart model , non-violent public influencers create and disseminate domestic RW extremist ideological propaganda for consumption by their extremist counterparts while remaining protected from legal recourse by the First Amendment . Those extremists , motivated by propaganda disseminated online and increasingly through social and mainstream media , engage in violent action , carrying out the unstated suggestions of their legally protected counterparts . Recently this model played a key role in former President Trump ’ s reelection strategy . Years of rhetoric sympathetic to domestic RW extremist groups and un-corroborated narratives of election fraud and corruption within the Democratic party fueled a resurgent domestic RW extremist movement , resulting in numerous planned and successful attacks including the Capitol attack of January 6 th , 2021 . However , little is known about the direct relationship between ideology and violence . How is violence influenced by ideology ? How does the attackers ’ ideology affect the number of deaths resulting from domestic RW extremist attacks in the United States between 2000 and 2020 ? Current research on the topic of domestic RWE can be divided succinctly into one of five categories : government perceptions of domestic RWE , mainstream perceptions of domestic RWE , extremism and media , domestic RW extremist ideology , and domestic RW extremist organization .
Government Perceptions of Domestic Right-wing Extremism
Much of the current research on the topic of government perceptions of do-
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