Since the election of Barack Obama, America’s white supremacists have been popping up on right wing blogs and discussion forums more and more frequently. One of the worst recent examples (out of many): Fox News Commenters Respond to Common Story with Deluge of Racism and Hate. You can see thousands of these Neanderthals spewing hatred at all the top right wing websites; Hot Air, Free Republic, Fox Nation, Fox News, townhall.com, etc.

But it’s actually getting even worse. Today at the Daily Beast, Eve Conant has a disturbing article on the increasing number of White Supremacists Running for Political Office in 2012.

Add to the growing list of candidates considering a bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012 America’s most famous white-power advocate: David Duke.

A former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and Republican executive-committee chairman in his district until 2000, Duke has a significant following online. His videos go viral. This month, he’s launching a tour of 25 states to explore how much support he can garner for a potential presidential bid. He hasn’t considered running for serious office since the early ’90s, when he won nearly 40 percent of the vote in his bid for Louisiana governor. But like many “white civil rights advocates,” as he describes himself to The Daily Beast, 2012 is already shaping up to be a pivotal year.

Former (and current) Neo Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members, neo-Confederates, and other representatives of the many wings of the “white nationalist” movement are starting to file paperwork and print campaign literature for offices large and small, pointing to rising unemployment, four years with an African-American president, and rampant illegal immigration as part of a growing mound of evidence that white people need to take a stand.

Most aren’t winning—not yet. But they’re drawing levels of support that surprise and alarm groups that keep tabs on the white-power movement (members prefer the terms “racial realist” or “white nationalist”).