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26 May 2011

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America’s Growing

Anti-government Movements

 

The Second Amendment March in Washington in

April 2010 was a sign of a rapid increase in the

number of groups distrustful of the U.S. government

 

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors hate groups in America, notes that there are now 512 so-called militia or patriot organizations operating in the United States.

 

Writing in the Center’s August 2009 publication The Second Wave, Larry Keller reports: “One federal agency estimates that 50 new militia training groups have sprung up in less than two years. Sales of guns and ammunition have skyrocketed amid fears of new gun control laws, much as they did in the 1990s.”

 

Second Amendment Protest Draws a Crowd

Organizers of an anti-government protest in Washington, D.C. called their demonstration in defence of the Constitution’s Second Amendment “right to bear arms.” The “2As” as they call themselves made it clear their protest was to be a gun-free demonstration in Washington.

 

 

Across the Potomac River, in Virginia, gun laws are more lax than in the capital region. That’s where other protesters held an “Open Carry Rally,” during which members of the crowd displayed everything from handguns to rifles.

 

The strongly anti-government flavour of the rallies is highlighted by the choice of date for holding them; April 19, 2010 is the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing that was carried out by militia members as a protest against government.

 

No Sign Second Amendment to be Repealed

The Washington gathering might have been free of guns but there was plenty of fiery rhetoric.

 

CNN (April 19, 2010) quotes one of the rally’s speakers, Larry Pratt, president of the Gun Owners of America: “We’re in a war. The other side knows they are at war, because they started it. They are coming for our freedom, for our money, for our kids, for our property. They are coming for everything because they are a bunch of socialists.”

 

But, the fact that there is no evidence of such a plan doesn’t seem to deter the followers.

 

Konrad Yakabuski in The Globe and Mail (April 17, 2010) quotes Skip Coryell who organized the Washington rally. He says he believes President Barack Obama intends to repeal the Second Amendment: “The fact that he hasn’t done anything yet doesn’t mean he won’t.”

 

Extreme Right and Conspiracy Theories

Coryell and others on the extreme right of American politics are strong believers in conspiracies to establish some sort of one-world government that will strip them of all their rights.

 

Larry Keller of the SPLC writes about a retired FBI agent speaking to a group of so-called “Patriots.” He told the receptive crowd in Pensacola, Florida that the federal government “has set up 1,000 internment camps across the country and is storing 30,000 guillotines and a half-million caskets in Atlanta.”

 

These are waiting, he said, for the dissidents that are being watched.

 

Angry Rhetoric Inflames Extremists

The numerous right-wing media pundits such as Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter have been busy stirring up resentment towards government ever since Barack Obama became a real threat to win the presidency. Since Mr. Obama’s inauguration, the level of hostility has been ramped up.

 

The media talking heads have been joined by elected representatives. At the Washington rally Republic Representative Paul Broun urged the gun enthusiasts to “declare war against oppression and against socialism, and you are the people to do that.”

 

At a Tea Party rally in Washington (April 15, 2010) Republican congresswoman Michele Bachmann spoke about “this gangster government” and urged citizens to “take out some of these bad guys.”

 

Distrust of Government not New in America

A certain segment of the American right has always been distrustful of government. Historian Richard Hofstadter wrote about it in Harper’s Magazine (November 1964).

 

He noted that Senator Joseph McCarthy attacked the supposed the communist threat in the early 1950s. Then, there is the radical extremism of the John Birch Society, and the right-wing paranoia of the Barry Goldwater presidential candidacy in the 1960s.

 

“American politics,” Hofstadter said, “has often been an arena for angry minds.” He added there is no negotiating with groups such as Oath Keepers, or Tea Partyers.

 

Followers of this ideology do not see social conflict “as something to be mediated and compromised…Since what is at stake is always a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, what is necessary is not compromise but the will to fight things out to the finish.”

 

Image credit

Gage Skidmore

 

Sources

“Gun Rights Advocates Rally in Washington, Virginia.” Ed Hornick, CNN, April 19, 2010.

“Life, Liberty and Distrust of Government.” Konrad Yakabuski, Globe and Mail, April 17, 2010.

“The Second Wave.” Larry Keller, Southern Poverty Law Center, August 2009.

“The Paranoid Style in American Politics” Richard Hofstadter, Harper’s Magazine, November 1964.

“ ‘I’m Exhausted Defending you’: Middle-class Mother Confronts Obama at Meet-the-voters Event.” Daniel Bates, Daily Mail, September 22, 2010.

 

© Canada and the World, May 2011.

All rights reserved

 

LOSING THE FAITHFUL

 

In September 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama held a townhall meeting with American citizens. He received an earful of complaints; typical was this one from Velma Hart:

“I’m a mother. I’m a wife. I’m an American veteran, and I’m one of your middle-class Americans. And quite frankly, I’m exhausted.

 

“Exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for. And deeply disappointed with where we are right now.

 

“I have been told that I voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. I’m one of those people and I’m waiting sir, I’m waiting. I don’t feel it yet....

 

“My husband and I have joked for years that we thought we were well beyond the hot dogs and beans era of our lives, but, quite frankly, it’s starting to knock on our door and ring true that that might be where we’re headed again, and, quite frankly, Mr. President, I need you to answer this honestly. Is this my new reality?”

 

 

 

“…the militia movement is neither generic nor dismissible as a comic subject…[Militia groups]  have embroiled themselves since 1994 in a variety of…bombing plots, conspiracies and serious violations of law. Their extreme anti-government ideology, along with their elaborate conspiracy theories and fascination with weaponry and paramilitary organization, lead many members of militia groups to act out in ways that justify the concerns expressed about them by public officials, law enforcement, and the general public.”

 

Anti-defamation League