Do you remember when Joe Biden declared Antifa an idea and not an organization? It turns out, Antifa thugs didn’t get his memo. Eight Antifa insurrectionists were recently sentenced to a total of 450 years in prison for their attack on an ICE facility. Here is how ideas operate:
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Trial testimony reflected that, late at night on July 4, 2025, at least eleven of the defendants rioted and attacked the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was using to house illegal aliens awaiting deportation. The defendants dressed in “black bloc”—dark clothing with head and face coverings that concealed their identities—designed to hide each individual’s identity but also to aid and abet those members engaged in illegal acts by making members indistinguishable from one another to law enforcement. Evidence introduced at trial revealed that the defendants brought eleven firearms, body armor, and eleven military-grade first aid kits with tourniquets and other items to treat gunshot wounds to the scene of the attack. Many of these items were introduced by the government as exhibits. Additionally, DNA and fingerprint evidence linked many of the defendants to the items at the scene, and evidence obtained on phone locations supported that those who participated in the attack all turned off their phones or placed them in Faraday bags to prevent tracking on the night of the attack.
They shot a responding local police officer in the neck. Fortunately, he survived. It’s only under Donald Trump that the idea that is Antifa is being prosecuted and jailed. In tweeting about the convictions, Mike Benz made an important, and often overlooked, point:
Graphic: X Post
Benz is invoking not only the Jason Aldean “Try That in a Small Town” song, but the underlying reality. There exist in contemporary America two distinct ethics represented in part by their justice systems. In red state, Flyover Country, life goes on as it always has. Americans mind their own business, raise their families, obey the law, and police enforce it without concern for criminals’ race, gender, or political motivations. This is particularly true in small towns, where citizens commonly back up their small police forces when necessary. They’re all in it together. They appreciate honesty, honor, duty, patriotism, and love of country.
That’s not universally true in blue America, and particularly not in blue cities, which have declared themselves sanctuaries not only for illegal immigrants, but all manner of politically motivated criminals and their crimes. There, insurrectionists and anarchists like Antifa and BLM are seldom arrested, rarely prosecuted, and virtually never convicted.
Occasionally, and often comically, anti-American ideas venture out into red America, expecting their immunity to transfer there. It doesn’t work out as they expect.
One such event happened at the 2020 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. It’s an annual, iconic event. Sturgis is a town in the Northern Black Hills of South Dakota with a 2026 population of 6,899. The Rally celebrates its 88th anniversary in 2026. Every year, hundreds of thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts descend on Sturgis, which is always ready for them. The record year was 2015, when 739,000 attended.
Police officers from around the nation are invited to work the Rally, and unlike what Hollywood would have us believe, bikers are uncommonly polite. Even motorcycle gangs wear clean clothing and display their best manners. Why spend the money to attend and get arrested for acting like an idiot?
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In 2020, a small group of Antifa dimwits, their sunken chests puffed out over their success in causing $2 billion+ “Summer of Love” damage across America with no consequences, took their revolutionary street theater to Sturgis.
If you’ve never been to the Rally, it’s hard to picture the scene. The downtown streets are lined with parked motorcycles—mostly Harleys, of course–at the curbs and in the center of the streets, allowing narrow paths for mobile bikes. Bikers and biker regalia are everywhere. It’s a colorful and peaceful—not fiery but mostly peaceful—scene. Bikers catch up with old friends, meet new ones, attend concerts, races, and tour the Black Hills. Mt. Rushmore is a patriotic favorite.
The Antifa worthies tried their usual attention-getting tactics, and the bikers laughed at them, until one was stupid enough to kick a motorcycle. America’s police immediately surrounded them, hustled them out of the crowd, and out of town to the laughter and jeers of the crowd. Had the police not acted, the Antifa worthies would have been reduced to oil spots on the pavement. They haven’t returned to Sturgis.
One is tempted to hope such America haters would learn their hatred isn’t welcome anywhere in America. But for the moment, we can be certain it’s true in small towns.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, lifelong athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
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