Glen Greenwald: Fox News "war games" the coming civil war

[babylonsister]

Fox News "war games" the coming civil war


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, play-acting-tough-guy, pseudo-revolutionaries.

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.

snip//

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 his 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.

more...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/02/22/militias/

[MineralMan]

1. What? You're expecting the wingnuts to be consistent?

Dreamer...

[panader0]

2. What day of the year is "Mission Accomplished Day" ?

I think it should be observed annually.

[ixion]

3. there were militias before Clinton, but they were "invisible" just as they were under assclown

So I think Greenwald was shooting from the hip here and didn't do his homework.

That said, I've never understood this about militia groups. They seem to have no problem with heavy-handed authoritarianism as long as that hand is a member of the GOP. It makes no sense to me at all. :wtf:

But then, RW whackos are insane, therefore immune from making sense.

[madrchsod]

4. little boys and girls circle jerking to their delusions...

are given a public forum to destroy our country. will they succeeded?

i think that is up to us to make sure they do not.

[Vinnie From Indy]

5. The right wingers in America have been using the Nazis playbook for years

They understand intimately the power of scapegoating and in those types of messages in times of economic stress are readily absorbed by the ignorant.

[tom_paine]

14. Oh my yes, it's coming. But we are CRAZY for even daring to bring it up, Vinnie.

Anyone who has studied history and totalitarianism in the least can see not just a few similarities, but almost ALL similarity between Bushies and Nazis, Bushies and the KKK, Bushies and authoritarians everywhere.

Unlike the 60s, the Nazis have control of the government, even after Obama's ostensible "win".

So, sometime in the future, growing ever closer, in which law enforcement is fully Nazified/Bushified, instead of just partially as it is today, when "Liberals" (Bushies aren't allowed to say K*kes, N*gg*rs, and Qu**rs - THIS time around it's in CODE) complain to law enforcement, it will be more and more likely that the person being complained to is a KKK-Bushie.

You know the rest. But we are CRAZY for bringing it up.

30,000,000 Knoxville Shooter Clones who believe EVERYTHING political he believed in and I mean EVERYTHING, except they have not murderered.

http://web.knoxnews.com/pdf/021009church-manifesto.pdf

All they need now to activate, is the tiniest permission from authority.

As Bushification increases over the next 20 years, they will eventually get it. First tacitly (wink wink) then eventually explicitly.

[spanone]

6. once they incite it, they will be in a perfect position to report on it

[Kansas Wyatt]

7. They are Right Wing Terrorists, yet the alleged "liberal" media never reports on them.

However, during Dear Leader's "watch," the media was constantly reporting on "left wing terrorists."

[KharmaTrain]

8. The Militias Were Around Before Clinton

Anyone remember Ruby Ridge? That happened under Poppy boooosh and so were the early stages of the Dravidians. The vigilantes are always out there...and history has shown that their rise is more a product of the economic times rather than anything political.

I think folks like Glenn, who I have a lot of respect for, need to move into the post-1992 world. Yes, the right wing is still dangerous, but no longer on the rise, but on the defensive. They are caged animals rather than on the loose and you treat them differently. Needless to say, a caged one is better than on the loose, but dangerous nonetheless.

As we head into desperate times, there will be those who will exploit them with promises of prosperity by waving a flag or blaming immigrants or whipping up some kind of strawman or target to blame problems on. We need to keep a close eye on the heated rhetoric on the right, but consider the sources and deal with them accordingly.

While a Santelli can rally a bunch of his drunk, frat boy floor monkeys to cheer him on, that sure doesn't resonate with the fundies or the gun nuts. And what revs up those groups doesn't do it for others. It's a party that has no real focus other than denial and anger...and the more angry they are, the more divided they get.

[Joe Chi Minh]

9. You misss the point. The OP has identified an interesting thread from among

the skein and exposed its hypocritical lunacy very ably.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

10. "but no longer on the rise"

boy i hope you are right, but it does seem the number and intensity of the wingnuts are increasing.

I really really hope you are right.

[KharmaTrain]

11. There Is Definitely A Threat...

I'm concerned when I see the verbosity and hatred in Freeperville and other sites. This isn't something to be dismissed as much as better understood.

The elements that rose in the 90's that Glenn is trying to compare to are not the same threats that I see today. If anything, those threats were more "corporate" than what we are sure to see. The clock is ticking as unemployed people with a lot of anger and little hope make for very fertile ground for hate groups and vigilantes.

[MattBaggins]

12. I actually think a small number of these crackpots will do something stupid.

I wonder what the expressions on their faces will look like when the Military that they are so certain will turn and support them; actually fire some rounds at their stupid asses.

[L0oniX]

15. When our military starts shooting our own people, then I will be justified in my contempt...

for the military. I feel like I am justified already but many others will not see the problem until it is too late. All that military, USA pride blinds people. The military isn't protecting us. they didn't protect us from 911 and now they want more money to solve the problem. I don't know about others but when I pay for a service and it fails and they ask me for more money to fix it ...I get pissed and go to some other service that will do it right the first time, and the same goes for these sociopath wall Street banksters!

[Marr]

13. You know, I don't think I'd ever considered the Bush phenomenon from this angle, but

it really does make a lot of sense. Bush Jr.'s presidency was partially the culmination of that "angry white male" movement, and that's why they supported him no matter what. They cheered his stupid actions because they were also "macho" actions, and they cheered his abuse of power because they assumed he was abusing power on behalf of angry white males.

[BlooInBloo]

16. Money quote...

"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."

[Marr]

17. Did you catch the Beck video he referenced?

I loved the guy who predicted "motorcycle marauders"... like the world is going to be Mad Max.

[BlooInBloo]

18. They get such hardons for that shit.