Posted on 03/31/2010 5:12:31 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The F.B.I.’s raids against members of a Michigan-based Christian militia over the weekend added to concerns about rising far-right activity across the country. Nine members of the group, called the Hutaree, face sedition and weapons charges in a scheme to kill law enforcement officers to incite an antigovernment revolt.
As the government deals with the re-emerging militia movement, what did it learn from the experiences of the 1990s, from the disastrous sieges in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex., in 1993 to its handling of Oklahoma City bombing case?
Jess Walter, author, “Every Knee Shall Bow”
Catherine McNicol Stock, historian, “Rural Radicals”
David H. Bennett, historian, “The Party of Fear”
Kenneth Stern, American Jewish Committee
Robert Churchill, history professor, University of Hartford
Michael Barkun, political scientist, Syracuse University
****
Lessons of Ruby Ridge
Jess Walter is the author of “Every Knee Shall Bow,” a nonfiction book about the Ruby Ridge standoff (re-released in 2002 as “Ruby Ridge”). A National Book Award finalist for fiction in 2006, he is the author of five novels, most recently “The Financial Lives of the Poets.”
The resurgence of radical right-wing extremism in America starts with today’s headlines: economic hardship, overheated political rhetoric, a perception that middle-American values are eroding.
The last such brush fire of extremism was already smoldering in 1992 (as it is now) when federal law enforcement agents doused it with gasoline—a series of missteps and cover-ups during a shootout and standoff that left three dead at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
A year later, 79 people died in a shootout and fire at the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Tex. As the mishandling of these cases came to light, the radical right made unprecedented inroads into the mainstream. (continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com ...
I agree. What a load of horsefoodle.
This is like THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG!
There’s no evidence whatsoever that the Hutaree are “right wing”.
The criminal charges against them could have been lodged against BIll Ayers (Obama’s friend) and the Weather Underground and not missed a beat.
Huge difference. All of the difference in the world. Which is why they are trying to get the authority to shut down the internet in the event of a "national emergency."
Very transparent. The left needs a boogy-man. The MSM is useless and should be ignored.
Hey, Times, Your a waste of trees and you have NO influence anymore. Just more leftie BS.
I’m confused. According to the President’s neighbor Bill Ayers, killing police is a good thing.
But for right now; Keep you head down and your powder dry.
Not all of the essays are by leftards; this one is quite good.
The Movement’s Sharp Divide
Robert H. Churchill is associate professor of history at the University of Hartford. He is the author of “Shaking Their Guns in the Tyrant’s Face: Libertarian Political Violence and the Origins of the Militia Movement.”
In the mid 1990s hundreds of militia groups formed across the nation in response to the state-sponsored political violence on display at Ruby Ridge and Waco.
The movement was from its earliest days divided between two wings. Constitutional militias emphasized public meetings and membership open to all races and faiths. Their members were motivated by a fear of increasing state violence directed at gun owners, and they were primarily libertarian in their politics.
The constitutional militias took significant pains to free themselves from entanglement with the White Supremacist right. A smaller wing of the movement was more millenarian in its world view. Militias in this wing tended to organize underground cells. Many were sectarian in their composition, and there was a greater tolerance for the presence of avowed white supremacists in their ranks.
read the rest at the link in the OP
There's still a lot of folks out there who think the Times & Co. are reliable.
ML/NJ
Most people still follow what ever the evening news tells them. And when you add to that the anti Christian/conservative themes on TV (NCIS Los Angelas last night for instance), it becomes part of the culture.
No German in 1920 thought that the concentration camps would happen at first either, but they mainly followed along.
*ping*
Well, they're supposedly "Christian", white, and possibly...male. None of that would ever be allowed in a Marxist gang.
NYT. No need to read.
The Weather Underground was overwhelmingly white, Christian, and male.
That the nomenklatura feels a need to hustle their own base with these appeals based on their characteristic bigotry might be a tip off about where they are actually losing support.
If McCain is defeated in the AZ GOP Primary... well, let's just say that, in warfare, the ultimate winners adapt to the field as it is and with its changes, not to the field as they would like it to be.
I'm more concerned about rising government activity
Seriously? The white and male parts yes, but I had no idea most of them identified as Christian.
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