It Took A Lot to Unleash Them, But There They Are

Somewhat more than two decades ago, I was traveling through northeast Wisconsin when I had to pull off to a filling station. I entered the bathroom and saw it on the counter.

It was a racist screed against Hispanics. I don't think I have it anymore; if I do, it's buried amidst other neglected debris that I've yet to go through (again). It isn't worth the trouble. But I remember it. The tone was awful.

It was fall, and of course it was hunting season. So it was a Guide to Hunting Hispanics, filled with predictable stereotypes about 'how to find them.'

The group that sponsored this trash was the Posse Comitatus. Think they're still around?

The Southern Poverty Law Center does. It keeps a dismal account of right-wing hate groups and militias and publishes it in its yearly Intelligence Report. At last count, there were at least a thousand of them.

So I really am quite amazed that one of them has been caught trying to kidnap, and possibly assassinate, Michigan's governor, Gretchen Whitmer, after taking her to Wisconsin and having some kind of "trial." Amazed that this is the first recorded attempt to do something like this.

Because they've been encouraged--encouraged by not being discouraged--by 45, who knows very well what he's doing. He's digging up the groundwork for someone, not specifically planned but appreciated nonetheless, to rise up and protect him if he chooses not to leave the White House upon what looks like is going to be his defeat next month.

"Stand down and stand by" are code words, of course. They mean whatever these groups want them to mean. "Stand by" means, clearly, that they need not worry; they'll get support from him. What he should be doing is calming the rest of us down by condemning their very existence.

It wasn't too late for that, right up through the debate with Joe Biden, but he refused the chance that Chris Wallace gave him. Charlottesville could have been written off as a mistake, but we now know it wasn't. The right-wing militias now think they have permission to exist, to continue to arm, to disrupt lawful gatherings, to show themselves as strong and tough and weaponful. He's never wanted to criticize them anyway.

Actually, they're weak and would be so if they simply showed up and discussed who they are: purveyors of a philosophy that's way, way out of the mainstream. They really don't know what they want--some kind of libertarianism that, in the end, they can't even define. They're pretty much against everything except themselves.

If they merely wanted to be left alone, I'm pretty sure the rest of us would let them have at it. But that's not enough. They have to dominate something, to show off their power, to make people afraid. It's not enough for them to gather in their little conclaves. Someone has to notice.

Covid is the perfect circumstance for them to display their attitudes. Government has to issue declarations of mask-wearing and social distancing in order for the rest of us to at least function out there in the world. To them, at least what they claim, it is an unconstitutional violation of their freedoms.

I wonder what they would have done during World War II, when there was rationing of many things, especially food. Would they have bought using the black market? Or would they have operated them?

But that would have required sharing and/or at least feeling that people were in this together. And their identities as individuals, I guess, are being taken away.

No, they're not. At least, not completely. But we all have to give up something or this pestilence will endure much longer than it has a right to.

If they quote the Declaration of Independence's famous phrase, "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," in justifying their aggressive, selfish positions, I can take that phrase and prioritize it: Preserve life first, because the next two won't happen or least won't matter without it. If you have to reduce the latter two for a while, that's nobody's fault (if you want to blame China for all the good it does, go ahead) and, in the long run, nobody wants that. They will be restored much faster if we all adhere to common sense guidelines. Take responsibility, put masks on and watch the numbers fall.

They're missing that with very narrow hindsight. With 45, their champion and permission-giver, about to go down, I anticipate that some panicking will take place. Other governors, mayors, and maybe even a Speaker of the House and/or a presidential candidate had better be on their watch. We haven't heard the last of this by any means.

Timothy McVeigh was executed for bombing the Oklahoma City federal building. That doesn't mean he hasn't been idolized by twisted others.

Cliven Bundy defied the government in Nevada six years ago, and his followers brandished weapons. Though he was taken to court, he gained plenty of publicity. It could have served as a springboard to more defiance, not less. A show of force is always preferable, since the eventual law enforcement to stop it--arraignment, grand jury indictment, and trial--takes months, if not years. The connection of the wrongdoing with the penalty is always strained.

Remember that an FBI informant had penetrated the plotters in Michigan. Without that, undoubtedly an attempt would have been made to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer. Unquestionably, there would have been a standoff. Who knows what would have happened?

There's no way of knowing whether FBI informants have penetrated other plots or other groups: I'm guessing that they have done so in a few cases. But not in all of them. It's a big country. As noted above, there are more than a thousand hate groups.

Will they now back off? Or will they double down and make sure they're not being spied upon in preparation for more madness? Will they go to a county in which there is a "constitutional sheriff" who considers himself the law, and the only law, within it, allowing such an insurgence its temporary, but bothersome, validity?

Will some of these groups unite and solidify? I can't imagine none of that happening. If so, we have a big, big problem on our hands. Above all, that will be part of 45's legacy--the cultivation of anarchism wearing the phony mask of libertarian politics. They're just bullies.

Regardless, that's some of the sad litter we will have left on the side of the road. As more of it is created, it leaves more of it to be cleaned up. If it's allowed to sit there, it invites others to leave theirs, too.

Be well. Be careful. Wear a mask. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.

Mister Mark