Inarticulate Rage and the Rise of New Militias
Ever notice that surfers generally don't join armed militias?
I don't believe that there is a new wave of actual "militia" organizing. It seems too inarticulate for that. But, perhaps, being inarticulate is where a new wave of militia organizing starts. Perhaps it is being created in a void where people cannot express their opposition through a political party. The Republican Party has been good at stoking ignorance and fear lately, not so good at articulating where we need to go and why conservative values matter in a time when conservatism has been discredited by a series of turns of event. There are no leaders left, just unimaginative followers. Pick the ten most senior Republican Senators, and you have a who's who of the also-rans in American political life. I'm loathe to admit it, but there was a time when these people could have been rock stars. Now, they're just stumblebums.
The Los Angeles Times tries to get to the heart of who and what the new militias look like. Perhaps, in the case of the Oath Keepers, and in the context of this one example, the new militias are a bit small and disorganized to really matter. Rand Cardwell is the organizer at the center of this story, and, as an ex-Marine and laid off worker, tries to convince his fellow Americans of a few key points:
The first order of business was a recent report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which called the Oath Keepers -- which claims more than 1,000 members nationwide -- a "particularly worrisome example" of a "virulently antigovernment 'Patriot' movement" that has been reinvigorated, in part, by the fact that the president is black.The center documented angry videos that had been posted on the Oath Keepers website; in one of them, a man called Obama an "enemy of the state."Cardwell betrayed only a hint of the exasperation that this line of criticism stirs in him. Nothing, he said, could be further from the truth. He served side by side in the Corps with African Americans. One of his best friends is a black guy."Our goal," he said, "is to support and defend the Constitution, and that's where it begins and ends at. . . . We're not a hate group. We're not a racist group. We're not calling for armed revolt against the government."Founded this year by Stewart Rhodes, a Yale-educated lawyer and former staffer of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), the group calls itself nonpartisan and features on its website a 1776 quote from George Washington warning of an incipient moment that would determine whether Americans will be "Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed.""Such a time," the site says, "is near at hand again."That kind of sentiment helps explain the disconnect that has come to define popular political discourse in Obama's first tumultuous year.A vociferous group of Americans is warning that the country is not just headed in the wrong direction -- but over a cliff. They are mainstream media commentators, like Fox News' Glenn Beck. They are religious leaders, like "Bible Answer Man" Hank Hanegraaff, who told radio listeners last month that "socialism and fascism" were "slipping quietly through the back door."
Now, if you wanted to raise money by stoking fear, you'd do so with the intent of whipping up as much outrage--and, thusly, donations--as possible. There are several things to keep in mind. First, President Obama's popularity and win at the polls no doubt stoked a lot of resentment, and much of it racial. This created a feeling among those people who voted for and supported Republicans. One day, it's 2004 and you're with the winning team and conservatism is in the ascendancy. The next day, it's 2008 and everything has crashed to the ground. Second, you add on top of that widespread unemployment and the loss of home values and retirement savings. This creates a need to replace or restore the standard of living that has been lost. A savvy person could then take the inarticulate resentment of fellow unemployed neighbors and figure out how to draw in a few bucks organizing groups designed to give these disconnected people a voice. Third, there will always be ignorant morons who want to believe anything. Remember that show The X-Files? It was awful. But, people watched it, even though the entire premise of the show was, we're going to piss you off by treating you as if you're so stupid, you can't figure out that all we want to do is put out show after show that never satisfies your desire to know what's going on, meanwhile, bend over so we can sell you crap.
Add to that another phenomenon that has happened--the demise of social and service clubs. There are definitely fewer and fewer people joining service clubs, like the Kiwanis, the Elks, the Moose, The Eagles, The Lions, the Jaycees, the Sertoma Club, the Shriners, the Knights of Columbus and--who did I leave out? The Bats? The Balls? The What? The American Legion? The VFW? The Little Sisters of the Poor? This cuts people off from being connected to communities. Say you're an out of work fellow, and you go to your VFW Hall, and, while getting drunk, someone mentions, oh, down at so-and-so's, they're hiring. So, you sober up, you put on some deodorant, you find your best T-shirt, and you go down and apply and, just like that, you're in the money. Twitter and Facebook don't really replace the Sertoma Club, to be frank about it. They just waste your time with SPAM and idiots like myself who post blog links to things we write when we're bored watching Peej clean the Czech machine guns.
What I see above is inarticulate rage. It could very well become nasty out there. Violent and hateful, or it could simmer and go on a slow boil. Hucksters, desperate people, no jobs, no connection to communities--these are all things that could create a perfect storm out there for the ignorant to thrive.
