The Washington Post Magazine - USA (2022-05-29)

THE WASHINGTON POST MAGAZINE 13

along the north spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It did not

take long to learn that Tom was an active member of the local

Republican Party, that I had unknowingly driven by his

property multiple times and that we attended the same high

school.

How had Caldwell crossed a line from political activist to

allegedly advocating for violence against the government and its

elected representatives? And beyond the Caldwells, I wondered

if extremism had grown in Clarke County since I’d left nearly 20

years ago, or if the presence of some Clarke residents at the

Capitol was the natural culmination of decades of distorted

history and long-simmering anti-government sentiment. I knew

from my childhood that Clarke still honored Confederate history,

that the militia movement had a presence, and that conspiracy

theories had taken root in households. But I didn’t know how or

Initially reluctant to speak publicly in the weeks after his
arrest, Tom and his wife have since talked to conservative news
outlets and appeared on Fox News’s Tucker Carlson show, where
Tom, dressed in a black suit, called the charges against him “total
claptrap.” In the Caldwells’ media appearances as well as a
website they launched to raise money for their hefty legal fees,
Tom presents himself as a Christian, a disabled veteran and a
lifelong resident of idyllic Clarke County, with strong ties to the
community.
I am from that community, and after Caldwell’s arrest made
headlines, my cellphone lit up with messages from home.
“Ahhhhh of course we knew it could be anyone in Clarke county
but did I expect it to be this organized and big?” wrote a member
of our high school graduating class on a WhatsApp group.
“No!!!!” Clarke County has only about 14,000 residents living

Farmland just outside

of Berryville, Va. The

town is in Clarke

County, which has

only about 14,

residents living along

the north spine of the

Blue Ridge

Mountains.