Last month, when Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell blocked passage of a bill to create an independent investigation into the January 6 rightwing insurrection/deadly riot – five dead and 140 police officers injured, outrage over Republicans’ actions centered on Senate rules and the filibuster. The vote was 54 in favor with 35 against passage of the bill but the ‘rules’ required 60 votes.
Republicans had insisted, and still do, that there is nothing to see here, that the rules are the rules, so let’s move on. Are Republicans standing on principled beliefs in ‘the rules’? Hardly. They just don’t want their past and present connections to rightwing extremist groups revealed beyond a shadow of a doubt thereby possibly hampering their anti-democracy moves to hold on to and/or gain power.
Twenty six years ago, June 1995, the Progressive magazine in a featured series of articles showed clearly that there is much to see here, warning that the U.S. should not just move on from the dangers of an ever-growing Militia Nation.
From the lead article:
We have been studying the armed militias with a group of more than 100 analysts and reporters for many months. The issue for us was never if there was going to be violence, but how much violence would be tolerated by society before there was a decision to do something about it. The violence has been against health clinics and reproductive rights activists, environmental activists, people of color, gays and lesbians, and Jews. Threats against government officials have become commonplace, especially in the Pacific Northwest. The Progressive / Militia Nation.
From article two:
The bombing of the [Alfred P. Murrah] federal building in Oklahoma City [on April 19] was no isolated incident. Extremist rightwing groups around the country have been getting bigger and bolder for some time [and] these groups pose a serious threat to our society.
They have been known to force confrontations with local sheriffs and have threatened to lynch any elected official they believe is a traitor. Attorney General Janet Reno, in particular, has been vilified by these people, and her personal security should be sharply increased. The Progressive / Militia Nation: Saying It With A Gun.
From article three:
The American Justice Federation, a rightwing Patriot clearinghouse based in Indianapolis, sent each member of Congress a notice (ominously titled “Ultimatum”) by certified mail, demanding that they abolish the IRS and the Federal Reserve Board and repeal the Brady Bill. If they Failed to do so, they would be “put on trial for treason.”
But the same day those letters went out, the American Justice Federation’s director, Linda Thompson, apparently decided that the mere threat of putting elected officials on”trial’ wasn’t enough. So Thompson – who referred to herself as “Acting Adjutant General of the Unorganized Militia of the U.S. A.” – took to the Internet and began calling for an armed suicide march on the U.S. Capitol, with the goal of literally stringing up the “traitors” under the dome.
At a meeting with [the rightwing group] Michigan Militia, Thompson said, ‘Let’s take guns to Washington D.C., take U.S. Senators and Congressmen into custody, hold them for trial, and, if necessary, execute them.’
Thompson got a favorable response when she raised the possibility of “trying” figures like Lloyd Benson, Janet Reno, and the Clintons. People were standing up, screaming, ‘Let’s kill them, let’s murder them, let’s hang them, let’s lynch them.’ The Progressive / Militia Nation: Leader Of The Fringe.
From article four:
The Republicans who would be President are spewing vitriol so poisonous that even Spiro Agnew might shudder. Emboldened by Republican victories in last fall’s Congressional elections, and drawn by the blood of a wounded Democratic President, the Republican contenders seem to know no limit to their rightwing rhetoric.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt this is the most conservative Republican field of candidates you’ve ever seen,” says Kevin Phillips, the former Nixon Administration aide who has since become one of the nation’s most astute commentators on Republican politics.
In their speeches on the campaign trail and in their conversations with this reporter, the Republican candidates are engaging in a rhetorical jihad. The Progressive / Righter Than Thou.
So, President Biden, with the nearly $1.3 Trillion National Security Budget, what are you going to do about the extremists today, bred within the militia nation, who have been declared by you and others to be the greatest threat to the soul of America. Surely you can take some money and resources from that large pile of U.S. tax-payer dollars. Or will Republican ‘rules’ dictate your actions as well on the real threats to our democracy attacking from within.
