If there were any doubts about danger of far-right extremists in recent years, news this week that authorities disrupted plans by right-wing militia members to kidnap the governor of Michigan over her efforts to control the spread of coronavirus should put them to rest. If the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was the latest instance of domestic terrorism, it’s hardly the first. From church and synagogue shootings to incel rampages to the “Unite the Right” white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 that left a counterprotestor dead, right-wing extremists — egged on by the white nationalist in the White House — are doing their best to bear out the Department of Homeland Security’s assertion that they represent the biggest domestic terrorism threat.
War & Pierce refer to them as “lost children filled with hate” on their sorrowful acoustic-soul single “Amen.” The duo comprises the blues-punk artist Sunny War and latter-day soul singer Chris Pierce. She plays guitar over a programmed beat and organ while Pierce sings in an emotive falsetto, asking, “Can I get an amen?” The pair wrote “Amen” with the producer and composer Jared Faber after the violence in Charlottesville, but it could just as easily apply to the Michigan plot, or white nationalists marching in Portland, Ore., or any of the other displays of racism and bigotry.
The two met in 2014, not long before War released her first album, 2015’s “Worthless.” Her second album, “With the Sun,” came out in 2018. Pierce has released eight albums, and his songs have appeared in film and television, including “True Blood,” “Dawson’s Creek” and “This Is Us.”
It’s no coincidence that white supremacists have been emboldened since 2016. There’s no stuffing that genie back in the bottle, but there is a presidential election in a little more than three weeks, and that’s a start. Find out how and where to vote here.