Have you heard of Orange County? It\u2019s where the good Republicans go before they die.<\/p>\n
It should come as no surprise that Orange County, a beloved county for the grandfather of modern American conservatism, Ronald Reagan, would be the fertile landscape for far-right ideology and white supremacy. Reaganomics aside, the O.C. has long since held a special if not slightly off-putting place, of oceanfront leisure, modern luxury and all-American family entertainment \u2014 famed by hit shows (\u201cThe Real Housewives of Orange County,\u201d \u201cThe O.C.\u201d and \u201cLaguna Beach,\u201d among others). Even crime in Orange County has been sensationalized and glamorized, with themes veneered by opulence, secrecy and illusions of suburban perfection. To Eric Lichtblau, the Pulitzer Prize winner<\/a> and former Los Angeles Times reporter, the real story is far-right terrorism \u2014 and its unspoken grip on the county\u2019s story.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the reasons I decided to focus on Orange County is that it\u2019s not the norm \u2014 not what you think of as the Deep South. It\u2019s Disneyland. It\u2019s California,\u201d Lichtblau says. \u201cThese are people who are trying to take back America from the shores of Orange County because it\u2019s gotten too brown in their view.\u201d<\/p>\n His newest investigative book, \u201cAmerican Reich<\/a>,\u201d focuses on the 2018 murder of gay Jewish teenager Blaze Bernstein as a lens to examine Orange County and how the hate-driven murder at the hands of a former classmate connects to a national web of white supremacy and terrorism.<\/p>\n I grew up a few miles away from Bernstein, attending a performing arts school similar to his \u2014 and Sam Woodward\u2019s. I remember the early discovery of the murder where Woodward became a suspect, followed by the news that the case was being investigated as a hate crime. The murder followed the news cycle for years to come, but in its coverage, there was a lack of continuity in seeing how this event fit into a broader pattern and history ingrained in Orange County. There was a bar down the street from me where an Iranian American man was stabbed just for not being white. The seaside park of Marblehead, where friends and I visited for homecoming photos during sunset, was reported as a morning meet-up spot for neo-Nazis in skeleton masks training for \u201cwhite unity\u201d combat. These were just some of the myriad events Lichtblau explores as symptoms of something more unsettling than one-offs.<\/p>\n Samuel Lincoln Woodward, of Newport Beach, speaks with his attorney during his 2018 arraignment on murder charges in the death of Blaze Bernstein.<\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Lichtblau began the book in 2020, in the midst of COVID. He wanted to find a place emblematic of the national epidemic that he, like many others, was witnessing \u2014 some of the highest record of anti-Asian attacks, assaults on Black, Latino and LGBTQ+ communities, and rising extremist rhetoric and actions. <\/p>\n \u201cOrange County kind of fit a lot of those boxes,\u201d Lichtblau says. \u201cThe horrible tragedy with Blaze Bernstein being killed by one of his high school classmates \u2014 who had been radicalized \u2014 reflected a growing brazenness of the white supremacy movement we\u2019ve seen as a whole in America in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n Bernstein\u2019s death had been only two years prior. The Ivy League student had agreed to meet former classmate Woodward one evening during winter break. The two had never been close; Woodward had been a lone wolf during his brief time at the Orange County School of the Arts, before transferring due to the school\u2019s liberalness. On two separate occasions over the years, Woodward had reached out to Bernstein under the pretense of grappling with his own sexuality. Bernstein had no idea he was being baited, or that his former classmate was part of a sprawling underground network of far-right extremists \u2014 connected to mass shooters, longtime Charles Manson followers, neo-Nazi camps, and online chains where members bonded over a shared fantasy of harming minorities and starting a white revolution.<\/p>\n \u201cBut how is this happening in 2025?\u201d <\/p>\n These networks didn\u2019t appear out of nowhere. They had long been planted in Orange County\u2019s soil, leading back to the early 1900s when the county was home to sprawling orange groves.<\/p>\n Mexican laborers, who formed the backbone of the orange-grove economy (second to oil and generating wealth that even rivaled the Gold Rush<\/a>), were met with violence when the unionized laborers wanted to strike for better conditions. The Orange County sheriff, also an orange grower, issued an order. \u201cSHOOT TO KILL, SAYS SHERIFF,\u201d the banner headline in the Santa Ana Register read. Chinese immigrants also faced violence. They had played a large role in building the county\u2019s state of governance, but were blamed for a case of leprosy, and at the suggestion of a councilman, had their community of Chinatown torched while the white residents watched.<\/p>\n Gideon Bernstein and Jeanne Pepper Bernstein, center, parents of Blaze Bernstein, speak during a news conference after a 2018 sentencing for Samuel Woodward at Orange County Superior Court. <\/p>\n (Jeff Gritchen\/Pool \/ Orange County Register)<\/p>\n Leading up to the new millennium brought an onslaught of white power rock coming out of the county\u2019s music scene. Members with shaved heads and Nazi memorabilia would dance to rage-fueled declarations of white supremacy, clashing, if not worse, with non-white members of the community while listening to lyrics like, \u201cWhen the last white moves out of O.C., the American flag will leave with me\u2026 We\u2019ll die for a land that\u2019s yours and mine\u201d (from the band Youngland).<\/p>\n A veteran and member of one of Orange County\u2019s white power bands, Wade Michael Page, later murdered six congregants at at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in 2012.<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s come and gone,\u201d says Lichtblau, who noticed these currents shifting in the early 2000s \u2014 and over the years, when Reagandland broke in certain parts to become purple. Even with sights of blue amid red, Trump on the landscape brought a new wave \u2014 one that Lichtblau explains was fueled by \u201cclaiming their country back\u201d and \u201ccapturing the moment that Trump released.\u201d<\/p>\n It can be hard to fathom the reality: that the Orange County of white supremacy exists alongside an Orange County shaped both economically and culturally by its immigrant communities, where since 2004, the majority<\/a> of its residents are people of color. Then again, to anyone who has spent considerable time there, you\u2019ll notice the strange cognitive dissonance among its cultural landscape.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a peculiar sight to see a MAGA stand selling nativist slogans on a Spanish-named street, or Confederate flags in the back of pickup trucks pulling into the parking lots of neighborhood taquerias or Vietnamese pho shops for a meal. Or some of the families who have lived in the county for generations still employing Latino workers, yet inside their living rooms Fox News will be playing alarmist rhetoric about \u201cLatinos,\u201d alongside Reagan-era memorabilia proudly displayed alongside framed Bible verses. This split reality \u2014 a multicultural community and one of the far-right \u2014 oddly fills the framework of a county born from a split with its neighbor, L.A., only to develop an aggressive identity against said neighbor\u2019s perceived liberalness.<\/p>\n It\u2019s this cultural rejection that led to \u201cthe orange curtain\u201d or the \u201cOrange County bubble,\u201d which suggest these racially-charged ideologies stay contained or, exhaustingly, echo within the county\u2019s sphere. On the contrary, Lichtblau has seen how these white suburban views spill outward. Look no further than the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6,<\/a> also the book\u2019s release date.<\/p>\n![\"Samuel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767629288_81_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Gideon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767629289_997_.jpeg\")
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