Monday Ménage: Edition American History, Lessons Not Learned

Chip Berlet/Matthew N. Lyons. John Nichols. Ron Nixon.

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 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building [Oklahoma City] on April 19 and the reported involvement of perpetrators linked to armed rightwing militias finally made the danger of these groups evident to all. But the warning signs were there all along. Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons, “Militia Nation”, The Progressive magazine, June 1995.

In the kingdom they once ruled, the Democrats of the U.S. Senate are fast becoming an endangered species. And another electoral disaster like 1994 will rob Senate Democrats of their ability to block even the most destructive codicils of the Contract With America.

If that happens, the “you-ain’t-seen-nothing-yet” fantasy of the Republican right could well become America’s reality. The only obstacle to the Republican juggernaut is the coalition of Democrats and a handful of “moderate” Republicans who are not quite comfortable with gutting environmental protection, throwing poor children into orphanages, and redistributing income to the rich via a sweeping tax cut. John Nichols, “So Long, Senators”, The Progressive magazine, July 1995.

The knock on the door in the summer of 1995 surprised the Rev. James Carter. He wasn’t expecting company. It was a Sunday evening, and he’d planned to catch up on some well-deserved rest. He walked to the door, peeking out the window before answering. The two men outside were dressed in dark suits. “The FBI”, Carter thought to himself, “It’s about time”. As he opened the door and invited the two agents in, he assumed they were there about the church burnings. Four [B]lack churches, including the one where Carter worshiped, Little Zion Baptist, had been burned down days apart just a few weeks before.

Inside, the agents informed Carter that they weren’t there about the church burnings alone. They were there for something else as well – a multicounty voter-fraud investigation that alleged the misuse of absentee ballots by [B]lack voters. The agents began questioning Carter about his role in registering voters.

The investigation was a joint state and federal undertaking spearheaded by Alabama Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, a politician with a history of making racist comments about [B]lacks and launching voter-fraud investigations in predominately [B]lack counties. Ron Nixon, “Turning Back The Clock On Voting Rights”, The Nation, 15 November 1999.