Today marks the 15th anniversary of the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City -- the worst single act of domestic terrorism in our nation's history and a grim reminder of the fruits of right-wing radicalism.
Although Timothy McVeigh and confederates Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier were not card-carrying members of militias, they unquestionably were deeply influenced by the ideas of these paramilitary groups and the larger antigovernment "Patriot" movement. Their murder of 168 people, including 19 children in a day-care center, was in many ways the culmination of the movement's blind anger and conspiracy theories about evil elitists in the government intent on suppressing American freedoms and forcing the nation into a socialistic "New World Order." They also believed they were exacting vengeance on the government for its role in the deaths exactly two years earlier of nearly 80 Branch Davidian religious cultists.
The anniversary comes as the nation witnesses a dramatic resurgence of militias and other Patriot groups -- a comeback driven by widespread populist anger at racial changes in the population, soaring public debt and the terrible economy, the bailouts of bankers and other elites, and an array of initiatives by the Obama Administration that are seen as "socialist" or even "fascist." The return of the Patriots was first documented last August in a Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) report entitled "The Second Wave: Return of the Militias" and quantified and analyzed in SPLC's March report, "Rage on the Right." Last week, the SPLC released another report profiling 40 key leaders of the resurgent Patriots and their enablers -- people like U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who has suggested that Obama is building political reeducation camps for our children, and Fox News host Glenn Beck, who helped refloat conspiracy theories about secret government concentration camps and has called Obama an anti-white racist who is comparable to Hitler. Along with these profiles, we are releasing a timeline of the Patriot movement detailing its origins, its heyday in the 1990s and current resurgence, and its long history of violence.
The Patriot comeback already has been accompanied by political crime, most dramatically seen in recent days with the arrests of nine Midwestern members of the so-called Hutaree Militia. This self-described group of "Christian" warriors, which equated a world government with the coming of the Antichrist, is accused of plotting to murder a police officer and then use bombs and missiles to kill hundreds more drawn to the funeral in a bid to set off a national insurrection. A few days before those arrests, Mike Vanderboegh, a long-time Alabama militiaman and a current leader of the Patriot group Three Percenters, called on followers to smash windows at Democratic Party offices as a protest against health care reform. In the next 48 hours, a rash of window-breaking and other criminal attacks, including a gas line cut at what was thought to be a congressman's house, occurred across America. These attacks were just the latest in a long string of actions -- detailed in SPLC's "Terror From the Right" -- that are linked to Patriot beliefs since the 1995 bombing.
The motives of those who carry out attacks like these and even Oklahoma City are difficult for most mainstream Americans to fathom. This Monday, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow will present an insightful two-hour documentary, "The McVeigh Tapes: Confessions of an American Terrorist," that helps to answer questions about McVeigh's motivations and those of others like him. The film draws extensively on audiotapes of the two reporters who interviewed McVeigh at length before his execution and features computer-generated recreations of the interviews and the bombing. It also includes interviews with many people involved in the case, including myself. I speak in the documentary based on my experiences as a reporter, covering the bombing and McVeigh's subsequent trial, and my SPLC work monitoring the radical right.
The appearance of the Patriot movement in the 1990s was driven by anger at the federal government, which was then in the hands of another relatively liberal Democratic administration, particularly with regard to such things as land use and environmental regulation; gun control measures imposed by that administration; and more proximate events like the deadly 1992 standoff in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, between federal agents and white supremacist Randy Weaver, and the standoff the following year between federal agents and Davidian cultists in Waco, Texas. Ironically, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing actually helped swell the movement because many Americans came to believe Patriot conspiracy theories about the Clinton Administration bombing its own building in order to so frighten Americans that they would accept draconian anti-terrorism legislation. Later in the 1990s, however, the Patriot movement began to shrink because of revulsion over terrorist plots, a long string of arrests for weapons and other violations, and a loss of energy among adherents. Ultimately, after militia leaders wrongly predicted social collapse at the turn of the millennium (the so-called "Y2K" scare), the movement seemed to fade away.
Today, resurgent anger at the federal government has again caught fire, fueled by an array of factors. The face of the federal government, which is the primary enemy of the Patriot movement, is now a black one -- a fact that has exacerbated rage and fear among many whites who resent ongoing racial changes in the American population. The economy, and the deep misery it has brought to millions of the unemployed, has sparked fury that is in many cases being directed at the government. And a large number of ostensibly mainstream politicians and media commentators, apparently willing to pander shamelessly to the extreme right in a bid for votes or ratings, have recklessly and violently demonized enemies like "liberals" and Latino immigrants and helped to push utterly false conspiracy theories into the mainstream. Together, these factors and others have created a kind of perfect storm favoring the growth of groups on the radical right. Evidence suggesting the rapid spread of these ideas and conspiracy theories can be found in the Tea Parties, many of whose members have adopted them. In many ways, anger at the government seems more entrenched and widespread now than it was during the run-up to the Oklahoma City bombing.
Whether the current Patriot resurgence will lead to another tragedy on the scale of Oklahoma City is impossible to predict. What seems certain, however, is that the antigovernment Patriots and the rest of the radical right are likely to push the nation even further away from any kind of constructive political dialogue. That is the last thing we need as we face a critical moment in steering our country's future course.
McVeigh was only tangentially related to them, as Mr. Potok points out. But it's the same anger against the government that fueled McVeigh to do what he did that fuels these Patriot groups.
As for the Tea Parties, I have to wonder if their anger towards the government is any different. So far, they haven't been able to define that anger properly given how disperate they are. But if their reasons don't stand up to scrutiny, then how are we not to conclude that it is blanket anti-government rage? The same rage that sparks these Patriot groups or worse yet, terrorist bombings?
So to Tea Party apologists, it's up to YOU to craft your message. Neither I, nor Mr. Potok can do it for you.
This just shows that in their effort to tie talk radio and,recently the teaparties to radical violence the left will distort facts and present them as truths.
It was the actions of the Clinton administration that instigated McVay's actions not listening to the radio,and besides there is no proof that he ever even heard of Rush Limbaugh.
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2) Mr. Weaver resisted arrest and failed to come to a hearing. He basically kept his family hostage as a barricade to prevent from being arrested.
While celebrating people who think they are above the law might be OK in your book, it absolutely NO comparison to the tragedy of the Oklahoma City bombing. The people in that building were innocent.
Such a pretty hate machine all oiled, wired and ready to go at the drop of a hat. To the apologists writing of 'neo-racists'; you know your position is on dangerous grounds when you have to close your eyes to muster a defense like that. Elections only matter when our guy wins, everytime a D gets in it's because 'real 'Mericans' stayed home. Let's rally together so we can make the government small enough to regulate who can get married, and what a women is allowed to do with her body. Let's make this government small enough to be locked into perpetual war. But we shouldn't over do it, the government should be large enough to pay for my medicare, social secutity, and disability, after all if we just had a flat tax (with enough loopholes for the rich in place) and cut the welfare rolls we could pay for all that stuff. I sure hope we can put another good 'Merican in office next time, you know, somebody good as Bush was, like Sarah. Gotta go iron my clothes for tonights rally, should I go with the brown shirt or the the white robes? If it helps my Obama as a witchdoctor sign is red.
So once again, a liberal has nothing to debate so they resort to labeling and name calling.
Hmmm, I have yet to see a white or brown robe at any of these rallies, maybe you are seeing something else, something you WANT to see but just isn't there?
And really? You are all upset about a poster with Obama as a witchdoctor or joker, really? After all of the signs I know you saw about Bush and the burning of Bush and the promoting of killing Bush? You really are upset about a witchdoctor poster of your beloved Leader? Gimme a break. So transparent, manufactured outrage.
McVeigh was not a Tea Party participant nor is he one of their heroes. Tim McVeigh had more in common with a psychopath than SEIU members, beating up a Tea Party attendee.
Tea Party folks promote the ballot box, not truck bombs. They promote a stop to out of control spending, not blowing up government agencies.
There is a big difference between peaceful assemblies on April 15th and the cold blooded murder 15 years ago on April 19th.
Let's hope you are right.
But normal, everyday American citizens protesting is violent, angry, scary, racist and on and on.
It's the zenith of hypocrisy and most everyone sees through it....except liberals.
Prove your slanderous claims. You cannot, because you are lying.
But Wright, on a weekly basis incited race baiting and rising up against the white man, blah, blah, blah. Do you not think that that kind of rhetoric just adds to racial tension? Nah, of course you don't. And Farakan, let's not even get started since he wants all Jews dead much like Mahmoud does.
So, please, enough with your outrage.
We aren't the hypocrites you're making us out to be. You on the other hand seem to be projecting your excusing of the anti-government types onto us.
1) Im sure Mr Mcveigh was guilty of the Ryder Truck bombing.
2) Im not sure you will find a expert who will agree that the power from the ANFO bomb was enough to cause damage.
3) You will find facts, eyewitness reports and even infromation from other reports of unexploded bombs.
4) you will find evidence, eyewitnesss reports of bomb detonating prior to the truck explosion, including scientific evidence.
5) You will find evidence of senior CIA and others explaining that this was not the result of the truck bomb alone.
6) You will find evidence of Bomb disposal being around the location prior to the explosion (eyewitness reports)
7) You will find evidence that Officer Terrance Yeakley knew something was wrong with the official story.....he paid with his life.
How are you not able to use the internet to find this stuff out......your pescribed laziness in my view offends the very substance of what Officer Terrance Yeakey and other stand for...
PLease try a make an effort next time....consider the making of you wonderment as a Grade F
If you want to look at who is stirring the pot and formenting hate, look at the Right wing hate spewers spoken of in the article.
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/02-03-04/discussion.cgi.58.html
The problem is though, thats simply not true.And the lefts reaction to the Tea Party people proves it.Somehow the demonization of the Tea Party is accurate and correct from the left while the demonization of anything left, from the right is inaccurate and wrong.And since the left is demonizing the Tea Party is that exactly what the left accuses the right of doing?
Mr. Potok includes the cutting of the gas lines as right-wing violence with nobody arrested for that incident? I guess Mr. Potok believes it's guilty until proven innocent.Did Mr. Potok walk back any comments or findings on accusations of alleged spitting and racial epitaphs that were levied on the Tea Party and shown to be mostly without merit?
Mr. Potok should start up a sister orginization.He could call it the "Northern Elitist Law Center", it could concern itself with left-wing violence and racism.Seems only fair.
http://www.apfn.net/Messageboard/01-11-04/discussion.cgi.29.html
http://vnnforum.com/showpost.php?p=709223&postcount=1
Just because opposition to the Bama agenda is at a fever pitch does not mean violence is pending, That is only an offensive wishful streatch by yourself and other NeoRacist such as Potuk used to discredit any dissent.
Sadly, sometimes they did. Many, like Potuk, on the left are what I call NeoRacist. You must prove your goodness and plead for redemption of forefathers sins, if you are a non-minority.