New York Times: The Government and the Militia Movement (Here it comes!)

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

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)

Here's what I posted on the NYT blog: In some ways, we are in a societal situation analogous to that near the beginning of the Clinton administration when it began an overzealous campaign against militia groups and revoked the Posse Comitatus Act, employing military hardware against civilians in actions that resulted in the deaths of nearly a hundred men, women and children at the Branch Davidian compound at Waco.
The Clinton Administration's actions at Waco was a primary inciting cause for Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City two years later.
Now, it seems Democrats have forgotten the lessons of history and are once again lunging at the leash to make martyrs of what they please to regard as extremists. The signs are there with the MSM and the 0bama Administration actively working to stereotype and marginalize entire classes of society who share little except a willingness to publicly dissent from aspects of the Federal Government with which they disagree.

The responsible course for the MSM and the Federal Government is clear: put away the pitchforks and torches and do nothing to inflame the situation - cease all efforts to mischaracterize and marginalize the attitudes and beliefs of groups such as Tea Partiers and Militias forthwith. If such efforts continue, then it is reasonable to believe that those in power in Washington and the MSM outlets actually want to encourage and incite new incidents such as Waco and Oklahoma City for political reasons which would make the political forces behind such actions unworthy of their offices.

Most of the indicted militia members accused of being anti-government extremists have active voting records, a check with area voter registration offices showed yesterday. One is a registered Democrat, and the party affiliations of the rest could not be determined. Jacob J. Ward, 33, of Huron, Ohio, voted as a Democrat in the 2004 and 2008 primary elections, and in 10 other elections since 2000. Voters' political affiliations in Ohio are determined by which party's ballot they request during even-year primary elections.

Democrat militia

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