Posted on 02/23/2009 2:33:53 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Bill Clinton's election in 1992 gave rise to the American "militia movement": hordes of overwhelmingly white, middle-aged men from suburban and rural areas who convinced themselves they were defending the American way of life from the "liberals" and "leftists" running the country by dressing up in military costumes on weekends, wobbling around together with guns, and play-acting the role of patriot-warriors. Those theater groups -- the cultural precursor to George Bush's prancing 2003 performance dressed in a fighter pilot outfit on Mission Accomplished Day -- spawned the decade of the so-called "Angry White Male," the movement behind the 1994 takeover of the U.S. Congress by Newt Gingrich and his band of federal-government-cursing, pseudo-revolutionary, play-acting tough guys.
What was most remarkable about this allegedly "anti-government" movement was that -- with some isolated and principled exceptions -- it completely vanished upon the election of Republican George Bush, and it stayed invisible even as Bush presided over the most extreme and invasive expansion of federal government power in memory. Even as Bush seized and used all of the powers which that movement claimed in the 1990s to find so tyrannical and unconstitutional -- limitless, unchecked surveillance activities, detention powers with no oversight, expanding federal police powers, secret prison camps, even massively exploding and debt-financed domestic spending -- they meekly submitted to all of it, even enthusiastically cheered it all on.
They're the same people who embraced and justified full-scale, impenetrable federal government secrecy and comprehensive domestic spying databases conducted in the dark and against the law when perpetrated by a Republican President -- but have spent the last week flamboyantly pretending to be scandalized and outraged by the snooping which Bill Moyers did 45 years ago (literally) as part of a Democratic administration. They're the people who relentlessly opposed and impugned Clinton's military deployments and then turned around and insisted that only those who are anti-American would question or oppose Bush's decision to start wars.
They're the same people who believed that Bill Clinton's use of the FISA court to obtain warrants to eavesdrop on Americans was a grave threat to liberty, but believed that George Bush's warrantless eavesdropping on Americans in violation of the law was a profound defense of freedom. In sum, they dressed up in warrior clothing to fight against Bill Clinton's supposed tyranny, and then underwent a major costume change on January 20, 2001, thereafter dressing up in cheerleader costumes to glorify George Bush's far more extreme acquisitions of federal power.
In doing so, they revealed themselves as motivated by no ideological principles or political values of any kind. It was a purely tribalistic movement motivated by fear of losing its cultural and demographic supremacy. In that sense -- the only sense that mattered -- George Bush was one of them, even though, with his actions, he did everything they long claimed to fear and despise. Nonetheless, his mere occupancy of the White House was sufficient to pacify them and convert them almost overnight from limited-government militants into foot soldiers supporting the endless expansion of federal government power.
But now, only four weeks into the presidency of Barack Obama, they are back -- angrier and more chest-beating than ever. Actually, the mere threat of an Obama presidency was enough to revitalize them from their eight-year slumber, awaken them from their camouflaged, well-armed suburban caves. The disturbingly ugly atmosphere that marked virtually every Sarah Palin rally had its roots in this cultural resentment, which is why her fear-mongering cultural warnings about Obama's exotic, threatening otherness -- he's a Muslim-loving, Terrorist-embracing, Rev.-Wright-following Marxist: who is the real Barack Obama? -- resonated so stingingly with the rabid lynch mobs that cheered her on.
With Obama now actually in the Oval Office -- and a financial crisis in full force that is generating the exact type of widespread, intense anxiety that typically inflames these cultural resentments -- their mask is dropping, has dropped, and they've suddenly re-discovered their righteous "principles." The week-long CNBC Revolt of the Traders led by McCain voter Rick Santelli and the fledgling little Tea Party movement promoted by the Michelle Malkins of the world are obvious outgrowths of this 1990s mentality, now fortified by the most powerful fuel: deep economic fear. But as feisty and fire-breathing as those outbursts are, nothing can match -- for pure, illustrative derangement -- the discussion below from Glenn Beck's new Fox show this week, in which he and an array of ex-military and CIA guests ponder (and plot and plan) "war games" for the coming Civil War against Obama-led tyranny. It really has to be seen to be believed.
Before presenting that to you, a few caveats are in order: There is nothing inherently wrong or illegitimate with citizens expressing extreme anger towards the Government and the ruling political class. There isn't even anything wrong or illegitimate with citizens organizing themselves into a movement that -- whether by design or effect -- is threatening to entrenched elites. If anything, we've had too little of that. In fact, it's only a complete lack of fear of a meek, passive and impotent citizenry on the part of political and financial rulers -- a certainty that there will be no consequences no matter what they do -- that could have given rise to the endless corruption, deceit, lawbreaking, destruction, and outright thievery of the last eight years. A political and financial elite that perceives itself as invulnerable from threat or consequence will inevitably vest itself with more power and more riches. That's what we've had and, largely, still have.
But this Rush-Limbaugh/Fox-News/nationalistic movement isn't driven by anything noble or principled or even really anything political. If it were, they would have been extra angry and threatening and rebellious during the Bush years instead of complicit and meek and supportive to the point of cult-like adoration. Instead, they're just basically Republican dead-enders (at least what remains of the regional/extremist GOP), grounded in tribal allegiances that are fueled by their cultural, ethnic and religious identities and by perceived threats to past prerogatives -- now spiced with legitimate economic anxiety and an African-American President who, they were continuously warned for the last two years, is a Marxist, Terrorist-sympathizing black nationalist radical who wants to re-distribute their hard-earned money to welfare queens and illegal immigrants (and is now doing exactly that).
That's the context for this Glenn Beck "War Games" show on Fox News this week -- one promoted, with some mild and obligatory caveats, by Michelle Malkin's Hot Air. In the segment below, he convened a panel that includes former CIA officer Michael Scheuer and Ret. U.S. Army Sgt. Major Tim Strong. They discuss a coming "civil war" led by American "Bubba" militias -- Beck says he "believes we're on this road" -- and they contemplate whether the U.S. military would follow the President's orders to subdue civil unrest or would instead join with "the people" in defense of their Constitutional rights against the Government (they agree that the U.S. military would be with "the people"):
They don't seem very interested in bipartisanship and in transcending ideological divisions.
Immediately prior to that segment, Fox viewers were warned (as usual) that the unruly, uncivilized, violent Muslims are coming, and only Benjamin Netanyahu will be able to subdue them with a massive attack:
In one sense, all of this drooling rage is nothing more than the familiar face of extreme right-wing paranoia, as Richard Hofstadter famously described 45 years ago:
The paranoid spokesman sees the fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic termshe traffics in the birth and death of whole worlds, whole political orders, whole systems of human values. He is always manning the barricades of civilization. He constantly lives at a turning point. Like religious millenialists he expresses the anxiety of those who are living through the last days and he is sometimes disposed to set a date fort the apocalypse. (Time is running out, said Welch in 1951. Evidence is piling up on many sides and from many sources that October 1952 is the fatal month when Stalin will attack.)
But it's now inflamed by declining imperial power, genuine economic crises, an exotic Other occupying the White House, and potent technology harnessed by right-wing corporations such as Fox News to broadcast and disseminate it widely and continuously. At the very least, it's worth taking note of. And I wonder what would happen if MSNBC broadcast a similar discussion of leftists plotting and planning the imminent, violent Socialist Revolution against the U.S. Government.
UPDATE: Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs and "Pajamas Media":
Glenn Beck: The End is Nigh . . . .
Is it irresponsible for Fox News to be airing this over the top, creepy alarmist stuff during a financial crisis? Well, yeah, I think so.
If someone like that -- like this -- thinks that Fox News is being irresponsibly, even dangerously, inflammatory, then that's a pretty compelling sign of how far over the line they actually are.
If mine is the “Wolverines” post, I guess my point is if I could see this stuff coming why do so many of these yahoos come out of the closet now claiming to be surprised?
Only this time there will be violence and blood. I fear for the future.
"The paranoid spokesman sees the fate of conspiracy in apocalyptic terms..."
OFF TOPIC...Here's a very small sampler of what I have looked at ON THE INTERNET recently:
ISRAEL NATIONAL NEWS.com: "NEW U.S. INTEL CHIEF: SUPPORT OF ISRAEL NOT A U.S. INTEREST" by David Lev (SNIPPET: "A flurry of reports over the weekend said that the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, considered a sharp critic of Israel, is to be named to a top intelligence post in the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama.") (February 22, 2009, 1:26 am) (Read More...)
MEMRI.org - Special Dispatch No. 2254: "Egyptian Cleric Zaghloul Al-Naggar: The Arab World Is Ruled By the Scum of the Earth and the Garbage of All Nations; I Am 'Absolutely' Calling to Wage Jihad Against the Jews, Who Are Devils in Human Form" (February 20, 2009) (Read More...)
JIHAD WATCH.org (MIRROR.co.uk): "UK: JIHADIST MURDERER PLOTS POISON TERROR STRIKE FROM PRISON CELL" (SNIPPET: "Bourgass, 33, is already serving life for murdering a police officer.") (February 18, 2009) (Read More...)
TERRORISM-INFO.org.il - INTELLIGENCE AND TERRORISM INFORMATION CENTER (IICC): "During Operation Cast Lead, improvised grenades probably manufactured by Hamas were found inside drug bottles. The drugs were transported to the Gaza Strip from the Ramallah region within the humanitarian aid. Legally, it undermines the protection afforded to medical supplies and humanitarian relief under the laws of armed conflict.") (February 16, 2009) (Read More...)
THE STAR.com: "WAL-MART's GLOW-IN-THE-DARK MYSTERY Retail giant can't account for 15,800 of its exit signs that contain a potentially dangerous radioactive gas" (SNIPPET: "Last month Wal-Mart disclosed that about 15,800 of its exit signs -- a stunning 20 per cent of its total inventory -- are lost, missing, or otherwise unaccounted for at 4,500 facilities in the United States and Puerto Rico.") (February 15, 2009) (Read More...)
COPENHAGEN POST.dk: "TERRORIST THREAT MAY COME FROM WITHIN" (SNIPPET: "A US report has concluded that Muslim residents in Europe who train as terrorists in Pakistan are the most likely agents of terror for the continent. Al-Qaeda is preparing for a new attack in Europe and Denmark is at the top of its list, according to the head of US National Intelligence, Dennis C. Blair.") (February 13, 2009) (Read More...)
DNI.gov - Testimonies: "ANNUAL THREAT ASSESSMENT OF THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY FOR THE SENATE SELECT COMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE Dennis C. Blair Director of National Intelligence UNCLASSIFIED STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD" (February 12, 2009) (pdf) (Read More...)
DALLAS NEWS.com: Dallas - "DRUG CARTEL RUMORS KEEP N. TEXAS AUTHORITIES ON ALERT" (SNIPPET: "The Gulf Cartel in Mexico has now been deemed the biggest terroristic threat in the United States, including in North Texas.") (February 13, 2009, 03:07 am CST) (Read More...)
ABC NEWS.com - The Blotter: "KIDNAPPING CAPITAL OF THE U.S.A." (SNIPPET: "In what officials caution is now a dangerous and even deadly crime wave, Phoenix, Arizona has become the kidnapping capital of America, with more incidents than any other city in the world outside of Mexico City and over 370 cases last year alone.") (February 11, 2009) (Read More...)
MSNBC.msn.com (AP): Washington - "US SENATE CONFIRMS EX-CLINTON AIDE AS CIA DIRECTOR" (SNIPPET: "Panetta's nomination sailed through the chamber by a voice vote. The former Democratic congressman from California has no direct intelligence-gathering or analysis experience.") (Updated February 12, 2009, 5:34 pm PT) (Read More...)
COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG.org: "INTEL COMMITTEE CHAIR: U.S. DRONES 'FLOWN OUT OF A PAKISTANI BASE'" by James Gordon Meek (SNIPPET: "The Senate Intelligence Committee's new chairman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), raised a few eyebrows on Thursday during a hearing by bringing up the diplomatically sensitive matter of Pakistan's cooperation with U.S. missile strikes on its soil.") (February 13, 2009, 06:29 pm) (Read More...)
FreeRepublic.com - Discussion Forum (AP via YAHOO News): Washington - "69 COMPUTERS MISSING FROM NUCLEAR WEAPONS LAB" (SNIPPET: "The Los Alamos nuclear weapons laboratory in New Mexico is missing 69 computers, including at least a dozen that were stolen last year, a lab spokesman said.") (February 11, 2009) (Read More...)
FAA.gov - Press Release: Washington, D.C. - "FAA NOTIFIES EMPLOYEES OF PERSONAL IDENTITY BREACH" (SNIPPET: "Two of the 48 files on the breached computer server contained personal information about more than 45,000 FAA employees and retirees who were on the FAA's rolls as of the first week of February 2006.") (February 9, 2009) (Read More...)
English.VietnamNet.vn: "STATUE OF PRESIDENT HO INAUGURATED IN MEXICO" (SNIPPET: "Mexico City's Governor Marcelo Ebrard said that victories of the Vietnamese people in the past not only helped change Vietnam, but also the situation of the mankind. Like Vietnam, Mexico gained victories in struggles against French and US invaders.") (January 18, 2009, 10:37 GMT+7) (Read More...)
SUNDAY MERCURY.net: "BIRMINGHAM IS HOME TO AL QAIDA LINKED TERROR SUSPECTS" by Ben Goldby (SNIPPET: "Abd'rabbah Ghuma, 51, Abdulbaqi Mohammed Khaled, 51, and Mohammed Benhammedi, 42, also appear on a United Nation's list of Al Qaida and Taliban associates.") (February 8, 2009) (Read More...)
YNET NEWS.com: "ISRAELIS RECEIVE THREATENING EMAIL FROM HAMAS" by Erez Ronen (SNIPPET: "This is not the first time Hamas or people on its behalf use electronic means in order to threaten Israelis.") (February 7, 2009, 8:51 pm) (Read More...)
TOWNHALL.com: "WOULD YOU TURN YOUR CHEEK TO A TERRORIST?" by David R. Stokes (SNIPPET: "At a time when this country needs to be vigilant and focused on a very real enemy -- one determined to end our way of life as we know it -- Mr. Obama has blurred the issue. He is moving us away from a war mindset to something more surgical and limited. This should be no surprise to observant Americans. After all, he didn't really have much to say on the issue during his campaign. To minimize or marginalize danger is to ignore it. And to ignore danger is how to quickly become blind and vulnerable.") (February 8, 2009) (Read More...)
DEFENSElink.mil (AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE): Washington - "BIDEN CALLS FOR ALLIED COOPERATION TO MEET MUTUAL CHALLENGES" (SNIPPET: "Iran has acted in ways that are not conducive to peace in the region or to the prosperity of its people. Its illicit nuclear program is but one manifestation," he said.") (February 7, 2009) (Read More...)
NEWS.com.au - HERALD SUN: "VICTORIA'S BUSHFIRE ARSONISTS HUNTED BY POLICE" (SNIPPET: "Anyone with any information should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000") (Updated February 12, 2009, 9:22 pm) (Read More...)
NEWS.com.au (Australia): "BRUSHFIRES IN VICTORIA KILL 50, DEATH TOLL WILL RISE" (SNIPPET: "640 houses have been destroyed. While firebugs are being blamed for several blazes ravaging Victoria, the Country Fire Authority has confirmed that several fires are being deliberately relit by arsonists.") (February 8, 2009, 3:35 pm) (Read More...)
JIHAD WATCH.org (CNN, February 5, 2009): Washington - "YEMEN ON HIGH ALERT FOR JIHADIST ATTACK" (SNIPPET: "Over the last several weeks a growing number of al Qaeda operatives have entered Yemen from Saudi Arabia and have established a renewed network that potentially threatens U.S. and Saudi targets in the region, both U.S. and Yemeni officials have told CNN.") (February 6, 2009) (Read More...)
JIHAD WATCH.org (TELEGRAPH.co.uk): "CIA: "The British Pakistani community is recognised as probably al-Qaeda's best mechanism for launching an attack against North America"" (SNIPPET: "American spy chiefs have told the President that the CIA has launched a vast spying operation in the UK to prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attacks being launched from Britain. They believe that a British-born Pakistani extremist entering the US under the visa waiver programme is the most likely source of another terrorist spectacular on American soil.") (February 7, 2009) (Read More...)
YNET NEWS.com (REUTERS): "PAKISTANI COURT DECLARES NUCLEAR SCIENTIST FREE" (SNIPPET: "Khan, lionised by many Pakistanis as the father of the country's atomic bomb, was pardoned but placed under house arrest in 2004 by the then president, Pervez Musharraf, soon after he made a televised confession to selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya.") (Published February 6, 2009, 11:34) (Read More...)
DAILY STAR.co.uk: "'We will kill MPs in their own homes'" (SNIPPET: "The plot was found on a password-protected internet message board on a site which has carried an interview with Osama bin Laden's No 2 Ayman al Zawahiri, 57. A user named Paganslayer asks what the mood is for another round of deadly attacks on the continent. There follows a warped discussion about the 7/7 London bombings, which killed 52 innocent people.") (February 5, 2009) (Read More...)
FOX NEWS.com: Seoul, South Korea - "NORTH KOREA TO 'TEST MISSILE CAPABLE OF STRIKING U.S.'" (SNIPPET: "The sinister object has been identified as a Taepodong-2, an intercontinental missile with a range of more than 4000 miles, capable of crossing the Pacific and striking targets in Hawaii or Alaska.") (February 2, 2009) (Read More...)
FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS.org: "THE SECOND GREATEST THREAT TO AMERICA" by Lee Ellis (SNIPPET: "Decapitation has also become a favorite tactic of warring drug gangs that have contended for control over smuggling routes.") (February 2, 2009) (Read More...)
LONG WAR JOURNAL.org - blog: "SAUDI ARABIA'S MOST-WANTED" by Thomas Joscelyn (SNIPPET: "But, the unclassified files created by the U.S. government at Guantanamo contain dozens of details concerning the al Qaeda network operating inside Iran. The Long War Journal reviewed the files and identified more than 50 current and former Guantanamo detainees who had some association with Iran. Most of these transited al Qaeda's facilitation points in eastern Iran. In addition to Tehran, the eastern Iranian cities of Mashhad, Zahedan and Tayyebat were regularly identified as al Qaeda transit points in the unclassified Guantanamo files.") (February 4, 2009, 7:00 am)
YNET NEWS.com (REUTERS): "SAUDI ISSUES WANTED LIST OF 83 MILITANTS OVERSEAS" (SNIPPET: "Saudi television read the names and showed photographs of the wanted men, all Saudis except for two Yemenis, who it said had "adopted the straying ideology", a reference to al-Qaeda. The announcement followed a move last month by al-Qaeda's wing in neighbouring Yemen to name two Saudis released from the US military prison camp in Guantanamo as commanders.") (Published February 2, 2009, 23:36) (Read More...)
NYPOST.com: "OBAMA: SURE, GITMO DETAINEES COULD ATTACK US" (SNIPPET: ""Can we guarantee that they're not going to try to participate in another attack? No," Obama said in an NBC interview that aired today. "But what I can guarantee is that if we don't uphold our Constitution and our values, that over time that will make us less safe. And that will be a recruitment tool for organizations like al-Qaeda."") (Posted February 2, 2009) (Read More...)
FreeRepublic.com - Discussion Forum (MEMRI: The Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor): "ALERTS, PLANNING & TRAINING" (SNIPPET: "Islamist Forum Member Suggests Using Dogs Instead of Suicide Bombers A recent message on the Islamist forum Ma'arik Al-Salafiyya suggested using dogs instead of suicide bombers to carry out attacks on U.S.... January 28, 2009") (January 28, 2009) (Read More...)
Talk about a BLATANT attempt to link the tea party to the militia movements .... good God could this be any more like propaganda?
There was a saying in the Soviet Union - "I pretend to work and they pretend to pay me."
Dam..now it will take 2 of us to stop um..
We fart, they tremble.
Who is John Glat indeed.
Your post is on the spot. Reducing ones profile as much as possible, be ready to barter when the bank holidays come, be ready to be self sufficent as much as possible, give the lefties no room to steal ANYMORE. This whole thing can and should collapse, that will loose them their power. And THAT is ALL they care about.
Has Fox been airing a lot of Obamas speeches about the economy lately.
Lol. Actually, 'partner' is becoming a more PC ('gender neutral') term for spouse. I have read in more than a few places where the husband and wife refer to each other as 'my partner' instead of 'my husband' or 'my wife'.
Have you heard the "we are pregnant" phrase ?
-PJ
Is EVERYBODY at Salon.com gay?
No the night janitor is straight.
Glenn is a nice guy, when he meets new “friends” at a bar he always offers to push in their stool for them.
Well, I imagine I know who wears the penis in that relationship...
Now you are making the assumption that he, is the stoolpusher.
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