Oklahoma Tea Party forming militia with legislative help...

[misanthrope]

...Seems Sooner State lawmakers are trying to pave the way for the first legal troops of these wannabe Kluxers.

These cats won't be happy until someone is dead.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[misanthrope]

2. Well, just like the lawsuits in response to HCR...

...the rest of the Red States, especially those that have a romanticized view of the Confederacy, are going to be delighted at this and will quickly follow suit.

[chollybocker]

3. "legislative help" = Republicans.

Just to be perfectly clear.

[misanthrope]

4. Those duly elected Republicans...

...comprise 62 of the 101 House seats and 26 of the 48 Senators.

[RoyGBiv]

6. Oh really?

All of them?

Name them, please, and provide their individual statements backing the idea of a "tea party militia."

Here, I'll help you. One current member of Oklahoma's legislature (Charles Key) has gone on record suggesting that legislation for this idea could be introduced by next year. Another Republican candidate for governor, who will lose badly for all kinds of reasons not the least of which is that he's an insane idiot, has been begging for "tea party" help in his campaign and has stated that the idea of a tea party militia is protected by the Second Amendment.

Beyond that you have the leader of one of the tea party sects in OK bandying about his idea and saying he has "met with" Oklahoma lawmakers to discuss it. You have another tea party nutbag publishing a newsletter about buying guns and bullets, and you have a reporter looking for a really sensational story extracting something supposedly meaningful out of that.

Believe it or not, just because some idiot says it is gonna happen, and just because a few idiot politicians think they can make political hay out of it, this doesn't mean it actually will happen or be in any sense meaningful beyond the 2-3 days it occupies the minds of the perpetually paranoid.

[misanthrope]

7. First of all, thanks for the condescension...

...The previous poster made it sound as if Republican legislators didn't count as legislators at all. I was merely making the point that if that was the way they viewed OK GOP members, then the majority of the House and Senate were illegitimate.

Admittedly, I knew nothing of the individual legislators linked with this. Thanks for filling me in on that count.

Secondly, politicians pander. It's their nature. That also means they tend to sway with public sentiment. I have little doubt that a number of those legislators would, at a minimum, legitimize the Tea Partiers if they felt their political lives were at stake.

I agree that no army is going to result from this. What it will do, though, is embolden these Tea Partiers both in OK and in other states, some of whom can cause havoc all on their own. Maybe not a Civil War type scale, but havoc all the same. Tim McVeigh and Mohammed Atta had no legislative body behind them and they caused plenty of damage. There was also no official state behind the Huttaree and the FBI -- along with the SPLC -- felt they presented sufficient danger.

Things are polarized enough as is. We don't need something like this making people even bolder.

[Rex]

5. This will only end badly. So are we going to have to 'bring the troops home'

to stop drunk, rampaging, neo-nazi, quasi-legal state militias when they get out of control or do we have any sane people in charge of this country anymore? Fucking sakes, I can't believe the bullshit that goes on in America.

We have embraced the Age of Stupid.