Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty
In normal times, choosing a candidate to fill a voluntary mosquito control position on a local government board would not attract much attention. But these are not normal times in Shasta County, a rural northern California county whose Board of Supervisors is in the grip of a far-right majority determined to radically change local politics.
Since gaining the balance of power, three far-right board members, who are linked to local ultraconservative groups, including a secessionist movement and a militia, have approved a set of proposals aimed at shaking off state control and making Shasta County a blueprint for ultraconservative values.
This mostly rural county, home to 182,000 people, long a red bastion in a blue state, has now become a focal point for burgeoning right-wing movements across the country that aim to “take back control” of local government.