There are two trials happening in different parts of the country that ought to give pause to all of those guilt-sodden editors who insist on sending reporters out into the wilds of the middle of the country to see how most of the people who saddled us with this grotesque of a presidency are doing. (I'm looking at you, this morning, Tiger Beat On The Potomac.) These two trials are in sharp counterpoint to the Forgotten American narrative that's become so beloved of many of our coastal elites since the election.

The fact is that, out there in Real America, there are some dangerous goddamn fools with some dangerous goddamn ideas, and those ideas aren't any more connected to reality than are all the dreams that people have about the return of the golden age of coal or the notion that the president* cares so deeply about the concerns of the people of Youngstown that he's willing to upend the economic elites in order to reopen the steel mills. (I'm sure foreclosure king Steve Mnuchin, who will be the Secretary of the Treasury before first light on Tuesday, is keen to help.) Also, guns, too. Lots and lots of guns.

The first trial is taking place in Nevada, and it involves those events that took place when giddy patriots flocked to that state in order to defend the rights of chronic deadbeat and racist kook Cliven Bundy to graze his cattle for free on public lands. (You remember? That time when guys drew down on federal law enforcement and nobody got shot? ) Ol' Clive and his son, Ammon, who later went on to liberate a bird sanctuary in Oregon, and a handful of the faithful are charged with a whole truckload of federal crimes.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal is all over this trial, as you can imagine. Naturally, some of the traveling gunmen insisted on representing themselves, because that's the way you do things in InfoWarsland. This resulted in some unintentional high comedy.

"It was festive. It was flags and cowboys," defendant Todd Engel, an Idaho resident who is representing himself, said in his opening statement. "It doesn't get more down home than that." Jurors' attention was locked on Engel, who was dressed in a plaid, button-down shirt and spoke in a calm, even tone. Engel said he and others arrived on the Interstate 15 overpass and realized federal authorities were not only still assembled in the ditch, but had their rifles raised and aimed at protesters. Engel was photographed in a prone position, pointing a rifle through a crack in the jersey barrier. He said he was down in that position for about 10 minutes to rest his back following a recent surgery.

Yes, when my back gives out, my orthopedist recommends lying down and aiming a sniper rifle at federal agents. Works like a charm.

Meanwhile, down in Tennessee, there's this guy named Robert Doggert who's on trial, charged with amassing a considerable amount of firepower to take action against a New York mosque. Doggert claims to be a minister, and he became convinced that the mosque was about to embark on a nationwide killing spree, including the poisoning of the Delaware River and a massive attack on New York City. From The Chattanooga Times Free Press:

It was just past 11 p.m. at his home on Signal Mountain in Sequatchie County, Tenn. And for at least the third time on April 9, 2015, Doggart was extolling his fear that the residents of Islamberg were either going to poison the Delaware River or launch a full-scale attack on New York City. "That's why I'm going to Hancock, N.Y., tomorrow," Doggart said. "Information, I'm going to take photographs, meet the mayor, meet the police people and all that stuff."

Doggart is completely a creature of the white-supremacist underground that respectable conservatives would rather the Trump people not talk about out loud. He was a fringe congressional candidate, and he believes that the U.S. government is controlled by some shadowy cabal. The Chattanoogan provides a pretty clear picture from the documents already filed in the case.

He said Doggart, a former candidate for Congress in the 4th District, had focused on the Muslim community of Islamberg outside Hancock, N.Y., and tried to recruit "gunners" who would go with him to kill individuals there and destroy several buildings, including a mosque and a school. The prosecutor said the government had tapped Doggart's phone and listened to him discussing the plot with several individuals. He said Doggart also made Facebook posts about the plan. He said Doggart in one call said, "Those guys (have) to be killed. Their buildings need to be burnt down. If we can get in there and do that not losing a man, even the better." The prosecutor said Doggart went to Nashville and showed an individual a map of Islamberg. He said he identified the buildings he wanted destroyed. He said Doggart traveled to Greenville, S.C., and told an individual there his M-4 was "battle tested" at 350 meters, that he would serve as the stand-off gunner during the assault, and that he would shoot the residents of Islamberg during the attack."

(Doggart was lured out of his home in Signal Mountain, Tennessee, by police who said they needed his help in tracking a fictitious van full of fictitious undocumented immigrants. Doggart walked into the local police station and got busted. In an example of how history rhymes sometimes, Signal Mountain was previously famous for being the refuge of Byron DeLaBeckwith, who murdered Medgar Evers. Old DeLay laughed at the world from his perch in Signal Mountain until the Hinds County DAs office in Jackson, Mississippi put him away in 1994.)

There is something more than faintly wrong about the whole salt-of-the-earth genre of journalism that's sprung up since the presidential election revealed to many editors and producers that there is a country between the coasts. I have grown tired of the expeditionary journalism that seeks to explain why so many Americans suffering from serious economic and social dislocation voted for a transparent charlatan who sold them snake oil by the bucketful.

I also am tired of these stories soft-pedaling the fact that a lot of the appeal was pure nativism—racism and xenophobia blended smoothly into a cocktail. (By comparison, imagine a story about a black community that is suffering from serious economic and social dislocation that doesn't mention street crime. You can't, because there aren't any.) There's a lot more going on between the coasts than shuttered stores and giant, blank-staring mils. Journalism does nobody any favors by pretending otherwise.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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