The Quiet Part Out Loud: How Outside Radical Activist Organizations Have Been Infiltrating Local Politics

BCRP 9th of August 2025

Ashland, Kentucky Source

Time and again, whenever individuals or organizations from outside our region claim to be acting in our best interest, we’ve learned to be wary. More often than not, their arrival is followed not by help, but by harm—communities become divided, institutions are weakened, and long-standing values are undermined. In recent years, politically motivated operatives representing national activist networks—many with no real connection to our towns or our way of life—have arrived with the stated goal of fundamentally transforming rural America.

What they are pushing is not reform, but a carefully planned political agenda designed to sow division, dismantle trust, and reengineer our civic life. They foster suspicion between neighbors, chip away at our sense of community, and erode confidence in our churches, civic organizations, and local governments. We’ve already seen how these efforts manufacture artificial “crises” that pit citizens against one another and promote values and policies that are wholly foreign to the traditions and shared beliefs that have long held our communities together.

At the core of this effort lies a conflict between two world-views. On one side stands the tradition of democratic self-governance—government of the people, by the people, rooted in the rule of law and the separation of powers. On the other is a radicalized ideology that prioritizes group identity over individual liberty, uses personal attacks and emotional manipulation, and seeks increasing control over every aspect of daily life. If this movement continues unchecked, we risk waking up one day in a place where local citizens no longer feel they belong or have a voice.

Many of the organizations involved in this campaign present themselves as grassroots or community-focused, but they are often extensions of well-funded, nationally coordinated movements. Their literature and mission statements make clear their desire to dismantle traditional faith-based influence, restructure local governance, and use race, class, and gender politics as vehicles for sweeping social change. Faith communities in particular are often singled out as obstacles to their goals and targeted for discrediting.

These groups have historically relied on large sums of federal money to build and expand their operations—especially from programs like the Department of Justice’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) grant programs and USAID-funded partnerships. Under the Trump administration, however, these funding streams have seen substantial cuts or strategic redirection. These changes have had a notable effect on progressive activist organizations, especially those operating in rural communities. As a result:

• Many progressive-aligned nonprofits lost major funding sources that supported their organizing, training, and staffing.

• Numerous programs have been canceled or significantly scaled back, including those targeting school boards, local housing policy, and so-called “anti-bias” initiatives in small towns.

• Federal (tax-payer) funding for "community organizers" annual salaries has been lost, slowing the spread of these groups into conservative communities.

• Access to international solidarity networks (funded through USAID) was disrupted, weakening the cross-border ideological pipelines that once emboldened and connected these domestic activists.

One particularly troubling method involves manipulating vulnerable populations—such as the steady stream of homeless from out-of-state arriving in our Kentucky communities—to create a sense of crisis. Whether though negative public messaging or staging emotionally charged events, these groups seek to pressure local officials and voters into accepting radical policy shifts. Under the banner of “compassion,” they often mask their true objective: gaining control of the public narrative, then control of public institutions.

Across Eastern KY and all over rural Appalachia , the same script is being played out: introduce a problem, discredit traditional authorities, stir public emotion, and insert activist-led solutions with long-term political consequences. The playbook draws heavily from radical organizing play books that openly advocate using disruption, ridicule, and relentless pressure to destabilize established norms.

Unfortunately, many community members—driven by goodwill or a desire to help—unknowingly support these efforts. Some become involved in organizations without realizing their national affiliations or political objectives. Others donate to what appear to be charitable causes, only to learn later that they were funding activism. Even local leaders, often operating in good faith, are sometimes misled into backing programs that subtly undermine the very community cohesion they're trying to maintain.

Historically, the people of our region have been exploited under different guises. Today, the extraction isn’t by industry, but by outside community organizers who erode our institutional trust, local autonomy, and cultural identity. Activist networks see our towns not as communities to be understood, but as cultural regions to be reshaped in their image— until recently through the use of taxpayer dollars and policy pressure from far outside our city limits.

We must not allow this to continue unchecked. This shouldn't be a partisan issue. It is about local control versus outside interference. It’s about preserving our ability to solve problems in ways that reflect who we are—not who someone else thinks we should become.

We are a people who understand hardship, who take care of our own, and who believe in neighborly responsibility. We don’t need to be told how to care for the vulnerable by people who neither know us nor share our values. And yet, if we aren’t vigilant, we risk becoming strangers in our own hometowns.

If we want to keep our way of life and preserve our values, we must stay informed. We must ask hard questions about the funding behind local initiatives. We must be aware of who is shaping our school curriculums, managing our nonprofits, and framing our local news. And above all, we must remain engaged—not divided by false narratives designed to splinter our communities from within.

The quiet part is now being said out loud. The tools and funding once used to change our communities are being taken away—but that won’t stop the effort unless we stand firm. The time to to get involved is now—before it’s too late.