Don’t ever think Neo-Nazis and white supremacists aren’t equal opportunity racists. Although Senator Barack Obama is the target of much of their wrath, suddenly Senator John McCain finds himself in their crosshairs. It’s not that hate groups now have a problem with the Irish; they can’t stand the Republican candidate’s moderate views on Latino immigration. “For several years, immigration has been the freak-out issue for hate groups, “ says Heidi Beirich, Director of Research at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “What they fear most is that whites, who currently make up two-thirds of the population, will become the minority.”

Extremists posting on Internet forums accuse McCain of failing to protect the white cause, dubbing him a “race traitor.” Recently the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) posted a cartoon taken from a white supremacist Web site that depicts McCain in a sombrero and waving a Mexican flag, while lifting a border fence to let undocumented immigrants slip into the United States. "Juan McCain, amigo of illegals," declares the text.

Many haters lump McCain and his opponent Obama together, finding them equally abominable. Groups from Neo-confederates to Neo-Nazis believe both McCain and Obama represent the Neo-Con agenda, which they associate with Jews. Likewise, the two are accused of being twin puppets of Israel . In another cartoon on the ADL Web site, both candidates are on bended knee, wearing yamakas and kissing the buttocks of a gross caricature of a Jew. The image originally appeared on a favorite forum among white supremacists and anti-Semites, Stormfront.org, the motto of which is "white pride world wide." Such groups pride themselves on existing far from the political mainstream, where they see little difference between the Democrats and Republicans, referring to the parties collectively as “Republicrats.”

Still, it is Obama who remains the big draw for many new recruits to the white movement. The historical significance of an African-American running for president has heralded a return to traditional supremacists values. “After 9/11 we saw a spike in crimes against Muslims and a slew of anti-Israeli conspiracy theories, then the lash out against immigrants. For a while, blacks were put on the back burner,” Beirich says. “But when Obama announced his bid, hate groups responded in force. Some were demoralized, with a woe-is-me attitude, ‘look how bad off the white race is,” and a few anonymous posters on the Internet said they’d kill him. But many were thrilled, seeing the threat of an Obama presidency as a means to rally the troops and recruit newcomers in a way that wasn't possible last election.”

Chats on extremist Web sites spout old, familiar themes of black sexual deviancy, criminology, racist stereotypes, all with heavy use of the “N” word. Posts say Obama will not survive his run for the presidency or proclaim the need for a holy war against blacks. Overthow.com, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported, displayed a mocked-up magazine cover showing Obama before a crowd, a rifle’s crosshairs superimposed on his face with the headline: “Kill This NIGGER?”

“Those on the extreme fringe exhort violence, knowing how to not get in trouble for it.” says Deborah Lauter, director of the ADL’s Civil Rights Division. “American courts protect hate speech if it’s a blanket statement and not a direct threat against an individual. Most of these haters know where to draw the line,”

Thus the question mark in “Kill this Nigger?” keeps it from being considered a blanket statement. Lauter and others worry such words can lead to action. “It may not be the person participating in web chatter but someone reading it and influenced enough to act,” Lauter says. “ It used to be not socially acceptable to spew hate in the public square. When the Klan was literally unmasked, when it became illegal to wear white hoods in public, it silenced them to a degree. Now they can hide behind the Internet and can fill people’s brains with a kind of hate they might never have been exposed to before.”

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