Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology Volume 27 No. 1, May 1999 57
ORIGINS, ORIENTATIONS AND ETIOLOGIES OF THE U.S. CITIZEN MILITIA MOVEMENT, 1982-1997
Stan C. Weeber, University of North Texas ABSTRACT This paper is a review of what we know about the origins, orientations and etiologies of U.S. citizen militias that formed between 1982 and 1997. Two phases in the evolution of this movement emerge: Phase one (1982-1991) marks the rise and fall of Christian Patriot militias; Phase Two (1992-1997) is characterized by the appearance of Constitutionalist entities. Precursors to Phase One drew heavily upon the classic republican tradition of an unorganized, armed populace. Philosophically these precursors branched out toward both Christian Identity and Constitutionalism. Phase One groups were influenced by the Identity tract The Turner Diaries and by the survivalist Nehemiah Township Charter and Common Law Contract. Phase Two built upon the Constitutionalism of the precursors and was propelled by Pat Robertson's book, a speech by George Bush, and BATF raids at Ruby Ridge and Waco. At its extreme, militia ideology expresses a paranoid view of how the New World Order is preparing for collectivist control. Sociological explanations of militias emphasize the recruitment to activism, how enemies are socially constructed, the paramilitary culture of the postwar U.S., and the role of structural strain. The paper concludes with an exploration of the concepts of hate crime and domestic terrorism as each relates to the U.S. militia phenomenon.
INTRODUCTION Montana, whose public appearance marks a On April 21, 1995, Timothy McVeigh was general dissatisfaction with the encroach linked by the New York Times to a citizen militia ment of the federal government into the lives in northern Michigan. Though McVeigh and of American citizens, and the perceived de accomplice Terry Nichols never formally be cline of Constitutional Republicanism. longed to that militia or to any other one that we A citizen militia is defined in this paper as know of, the public immediately made a strong a private army that meets regularly to practice linkage between the Oklahoma City bombing combat scenarios and to discuss weapons. It suspects and the militias. The militia move may identify targets against which weapons ment subsequently was scrutinized in great could be used. Because this definition is very detail by the press, politicians, law enforce broad, it is best to view citizen militias as ment agencies, legal scholars, political and existing along a continuum in terms of their social scientists, and others. Legitimate con violence, tactics, and ideologies. At one end cerns were raised that the militia movement's are well-organized and criminally effective ter anti-government rhetoric contributed to an rorist groups such as The Order and the CSA. environment of hatred that encouraged the These groups specialize in covert action and bombers to act (Berlet, Lyons 1995; Stern are philosophically compatible with Christian 1996). Researchers found links between mi Identity, neo-Nazism and kindred ideologies. litiamen and various hate groups (Swomley At the other extreme are public entities such as 1997), and militia members contributed to the Michigan Militia, whose orientations are several terrorist incidents after the bombing primarily Constitutionalist. (DeArmond 1996). Despite the profound im For both phases, I examine accounts of the pact of militias upon American society, they militias' activities written by the press and civil have not been the subject of sociological study rights organizations; the verbal statements during the 1990s. and written documents produced by militia This paper is a review of what we know leaders and participants (including Internet about the origins, orientations and etiologies traffic in Phase Two); and the findings of social of the citizen militias in the United States that scientists who have studied the militias and formed between 1982 and 1997. Two phases the people who join them. The purpose here in the evolution of this movement emerged is to critique the current knowledge base from from the review. Phase One, from 1982 to a sociological point of view. I will indicate gaps 1991, marks the rise and fall of Christian in this knowledge base, and suggest how Patriot militias such as the Covenant, Sword, sociological theory might help guide future and Arm of the Lord (CSA), whose paramilitary studies of the U.S. citizen militias. training was a preparation for an apocalyptic Battle of Armageddon. Phase Two, from 1992 ORIGINS to 1997, is characterized by the emergence of The roots of the modern day militia move Constitutionalist entities such as the Militia of ment lie in the revolutionary role of the militia 58 Volume 27 No. 1, May 1999 Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology in Colonial history and the precedents for Constitutionalism was the encouragement militias that appear in the Articles of Confed and support it drew from illegal tax protesters, eration, the Constitution, and subsequent fed the posse movement, the John Birch Society, eral legislation. Militias gained visibility and and the Mormon Church. stature by fighting at Lexington and later help Seminars begun by Marvin Cooley in the ing to repel the British advance on Concord. early 1970s are often cited as the start of the · The value of militias to the developing Repub tax protest movement. Cooley's seminars at. lic was shown in the Articles of Confederation, tracted future militiaman Robert Mathews, who where the early Congress was given the au would lead The Order on a terroristic rampage thority to call up the militia to quell invasions a decade later. The posse movement, formed and the power to organize, arm and discipline by William Gale and Mike Beach in the late militias as needed to fulfill this purpose. After 1960s and later known as Posse Comitatus, formulation of the Republic, this authority and recognized the county sheriff as the highest power was forwarded to the Congress in legitimately elected official in the country and Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. The hoped to form local armed units that would be Second Amendment further justified militias, a means to compel government agents to stating that they were necessary to ensure a obey the law of the Constitution. Gordon Kahl "free State". The Amendment has been inter joined the Posse in the early Seventies and his preted by some to mean that an important untimely death in 1983 was a precipitant of republican function of the militia is to safe much militia induced terrorism during the guard against the tyranny of standing armies Eighties. The John Birch Society and the Mor. and government incumbents (Halbrook 1984; man Church influenced the early lives of promi Kates 1983; Williams 1991). nent Constitutionalists Robert DePugh, Rob The Militia Act of 1903 specified that the ert Mathews, and Gordon Kahl. DePugh, for militia consists of au able bodied male citi instance, belonged to the Birch Society in the zens between the ages of 17 and 45. This Act early years of the Minutemen. Mathews was was clarified by the National Defense Act of motivated to attend Cooley's seminars after 1916, which made an important distinction in joining the Mormon Church and the JBS while the ranks of the militia: the organized militia living with his parents in Phoenix (Aho 1990; consists of the National Guard and the Naval Corcoran 1991; Flynn, Gerhardt 1995; George, Militia; the unorganized militia consists of Wilcox 1996; Jones 1968). members of the militia who are not members The second line of thought, Christian Iden of either the National Guard or the Naval Militia. tity, is built around three beliefs (Barkun 1997): This distinction has survived into the contem that white Aryans are descendants of the bib porary era; it appears in Section 10 of the U.S. lical tribes of Israel and thus are on earth to do Code today (Hardy 1985; U.S. Senate 1982). God's work; that Jews are completely uncon Precursors to the Phase One militias drew nected to the Israelites and are actually chil upon the classic republican tradition of an un dren of the Devil, the literal biological offspring organized, armed populace. Militiamen of the of a sexual relationship between Satan and era saw themselves as Patriots protecting Eve in the Garden of Eden; and that the world America from a collectivist takeover (Salsich is on the verge of a final apocalyptic struggle 1961 ). However, beyond these basic similari between good and evil, in which Aryans must ties, early militias branched out philosophi do battle with the Jewish conspiracy-an inter cally along two different lines of thought. Some national conspiracy designed to destroy the were Constitutionalist in outlook while others United States-so that the world can be re were influenced by the Christian Identity reli deem ed. gion. These are best viewed as ideal typical The American version of Identity developed philosophies and not rigid categories. through CAL. Totten, Howard Rand, William Constitutionalists believed in the sanctity Cameron, and, following a period of consoli· of the United States Constitution and con dation from 1936-1946, grew rapidly with the tended that an abstract group is behind a con West Coast preaching of Gerald L.K. Smith. spiracy to destroy America. They were reluc Southern California was the vanguard of the tant to blame a definite ethnic, racial or reli religion as several of Smith's proteges, in gious group, favoring instead categories like cluding William Gale, preached and expanded "Bilderbergers," "Trilateralists," or "Force x· upon the Identity doctrines (Barkun 1997). (Aho 1990). Important in the early growth of Gale founded one of the early Identity Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology Volume 27 No. 1, May 1999 59 militias of the 1960s, the California Rangers. Drawing upon the mostly nonsociological The Attorney General of California referred to literature that is available, it is possible to draw the Rangers as an underground network for out some themes with respect to the origins of the conduct of guerilla warfare (State of Cali the Phase Two militias. Underlying the move fornia 1965). It was Gale who introduced Rich ment is a general dissatisfaction with the en ard Butler to Identity leader Wesley Swift in the croachment of the federal government into the early Sixties. Butler was mesmerized by Swift's lives of American citizens, and the perceived lectures and soon became an Identity be erosion of Constitutional Republicanism. For liever. He rose through the ranks quickly, lead instance, John Trochmann of the Militia of ing a militia called the Christian Defense Montana said that his mission was to make League. When Swift died in 1970, Butler took people aware of the "military takeover" of the over Swift's congregation in Lancaster, Cali U.S. and how constitutional freedoms were fornia. Later, Butler would leave for northern being eroded, especially the right to keep and Idaho, where he would help to establish a bear arms (Barkun 1997). racially pure area around Hayden Lake and A 1990 speech by George Bush has been serve as a mentor to Robert Mathews of The cited as the beginning of this dissatisfaction Order (Barkun 1997). (Halpern, Levin 1996; Walker 1994). Bush's There are gaps in our knowledge of the speech declared a new order in which all origins of the precursor and Phase One mili countries of the world would compete eco tias. The precise role of Mormonism and the nomically but cooperate in peacekeeping John Birch Society in establishing these pre missions under the authority of the U. N. Other cursors is not known. This is an important observers point to Pat Robertson's The New question because there is a similarity in the World Order (1991) as a key turning point orientations of the precursor militias and those (Church and State 1995). In it, he argues that in Phase Two; and Phases One and Two a tightly knit international cabal that began with appear to be more than anything else an the Illuminati and Freemasons and continued extension of ideas from the precursor militias. with Communism and High Finance, is trying We also are lacking in basic historical re to establish a new order of the human race search on a number of Constitutionalist pre under the domination of Lucifer and his follow cursors such as the Sons of Liberty, the Broth ers. Although there has been a circulation of ers of the Iron Cross; Paul Revere Associated this elite, it is still guided by the same evil Yeomen; Soldiers of the Cross; and the Ameri influences that has guided it for centuries (Aho can Militia Organization (Sargent 1995; Thayer 1990). 1968). Finally, how strong is the influence of Though the underlying dissatisfaction may JBS and Mormonism on Phase One? For in be general, specific events led to militia growth. stance, the influence of Mormonism on Will Militia membership expanded significantly iam Gale is not well understood. Gale's views following the ATF raids at Ruby Ridge, Idaho were similar to Mormonism at points, and and Waco, Texas; and the passage of the Gale resided in Southern California, which Brady Bill and assault weapons legislation had a significant Mormon population (Barkun (George, Wilcox 1996; Halpern, Levin 1996; 1997). Hamm 1997; LaPierre 1995; Reavis 1995; Journalists, extremist watchers, and politi Tabor, Gallagher 1995). To the militias, the cal scientists have lead the way in researching Ruby Ridge and Waco episodes were evi the origins of the Phase Two militias (Bennett dence of impending federal tyranny and of a 1995; Dees 1996; Schneider 1994). Socio federal government that would stop at nothing logical research in this area is almost nil to impose its will upon the people. Personal (exceptions are Hamm [1997] and George, involvement in the two cases led some to form Wilcox [1996)), something that bodes ill for the or expand militias. John Trochmann's involve discipline of sociology (Hartung 1993). Mills ment in the Weaver case led to his creation of (1959) expected sociologists of his time to the Militia of Montana (Hamm 1997; Walter provide leadership in helping common citi 1995); others personally involved in that case zens avoid the traps of daily life. Today militias lent support to a 1992 conference at Estes are such a trap, but sociologists have done Park, Colorado, of persons interested in form little to help transform this private trouble into ing militias (Dees 1996). In Indiana, a then a public issue. A first step would be to look at unknown militia leader, Linda Thompson, was the origins of the most recent movement. so enraged by the Waco standoff that she 60 Volume 27 No. 1, May 1999 Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology produced two films, The Big Lie (1993) and taxation, no governmental laws and only free. Waco II: The Big Lie Continues (1994), that men (i.e. whites) would have personal free. purport to show that ATF agents and Branch doms according to a Common Law that is Davidians were intentionally killed by govern enforced by Posse Comitatus (Aho 1990· ment agents and that the media helped to Barkun 1997; Mullins 1993). ' cover it up. The Brady Bill and assault weap Fearing that an apocalyptic battle with the ons legislation were seen not only as a major forces of evil is imminent, armed townships assault on the constitutional rights to keep such as that near Hayden Lake could be and bear arms, but as a more sinister prepa considered "survivalist· as well. Survivalisrn ration for depriving citizens of other constitu can have many meanings, but to those in the tional rights after they have been disarmed armed camp it represents the anticipation cl (Roland 1994). imminent catastrophe and the belief that, as the self identified remnant of Israel, they mus1 ORIENTATIONS withdraw from an increasingly dangerous The basic distinction between Constitu world until such time as their enemies have tionalist and Identity philosophies noted in the been defeated. The most militarized of all precursor militias is also evident in the orien Christian Identity communal settlements was tations of Phase One. In California, the Phase the Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord One movement was led by William Gale and located in northern Arkansas. The CSA was a was more Constitutionalist than Identity in place to which other rightists went for training content (Barkun 1997; Seymour 1991 ); but in in guerrilla warfare and related skills. Its Idaho and elsewhere, the predominant strain founder, James Ellison, was convicted of the of thought -and the predominant emphasis of manufacture of automatic weapons and acts Phase One overall-was Christian Identity. of bombing and arson (Barkun 1997; Coates This was due largely to an influential book by 1995; Hamm 1997). William Pierce. Robert Mathews and his militia, The Order, Pierce's The Turner Diaries (1978) is a left a lasting impact upon Phase One and also fictional account of a racist, anti-Semitic un Phase Two. Proceeds from a $3.8 million derground militia that, through a series of bank robbery in Ukiah, California in 1983 were violent acts during the 1990s, gains power in generously shared with militia leaders through America and eventually the world. The book out the country, contributing to the longevity of, describes the bombing of FBI headquarters in Phase One, and many of those same leaders Washington, a mortar attack on the Capital reappeared at the origins of Phase Two. building, the destruction of public utilities and Though the government's Operation Clean communication systems, and the "liberation" Sweep appeared to kill the Phase One move of the nation after atomic bombs have been ment by 1987, leaders continued to write and dropped on the East Coast. In the end, the U.S. speak - thanks to Mathews' largesse - and population is reduced to 50 million Aryans kept the movement alive, at least in an intellec (Southern Poverty Law Center 1995). tual sense (Dees 1996). Pierce's book had been read by many who Mathews was a financier and leader of the attended a 1982 meeting of right-wing organi Phase One movement, although his own mi zations in northern Idaho, the purpose of which litia was an anomaly in many ways. It was one was to sign a document called the Nehemiah of the few to act out upon the blueprint docu Township Charter and Common Law Con mented in The Turner Diaries, and its ex tract. Believing that the "Zionist Occupational tremely violent campaign set it apart from Government· had perverted the Constitution most other militias. Second, it was difficult to and the Declaration of Independence and that pin down Mathews' ideology; he was arguably those two documents were no longer cov both a Constitutionalist and an Identity be enants between God and Man, the Nehemiah liever, but it is more complicated than that. Charter was considered the new covenant. It Mathews' ideology was a private pastiche of would be the Constitution under the new gov elements drawn from numerous sources, ernment that would rule after Armageddon. including an unusual variant of Odinism According to the Charter, Jesus Christ would (Barkun 1997; Flynn, Gerhardt 1995; Hamm lead the new government, whose purpose is 1997; Kaplan 1995). This makes his belief to safeguard and protect the Christian faith. system very difficult to classify. There would be no legislative body, no Militia ideology in the Nineties is Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology Volume 27 No. 1. May 1999 61 multifaceted and complex, and the militia destroying the "Constitutional Republic,• a movement is not monolithic. As of 1996, there republic that existed only very early in U.S. were about 440 militias nationwide with each history, if at all. Militias cite the Constitution and state having at least one militia (Southern the Bill of Rights as being the "true" (organic) Poverty Law Center 1996). The movement Constitution, and provide highly narrow read emphasizes decentralization and self-suffi ings of both documents to show how the ciency. There has been no formal effort to current federal government is illegitimate be organize the various local or regional militias cause its authority is derived from amend into a national organization. Nonetheless, it is ments that subvert the will of the Founding possible to identify some consistencies in Fathers, that is, amendments enacted after militia thinking. the Tenth Amendment (Sherwood 1994). The Christian Identity and Constitutionalism 13th, 14th, 16th, and 19th Amendments are are both present to a degree in Phase Two, the particularly suspect (Halpern, Levin 1996). latter appearing more often than the former. The Tenth Amendment is important to the Phase Two militiamen generally profess a militias because it sets limits upon govern belief in God but are less likely than those in mental power. According to militia leader Phase One to view themselves as Christian Samuel Sherwood, the Amendment proves Patriots, and are more likely to look upon that the power of sovereignty lies with the themselves as modern day Minutemen who people. Sovereign power can be delegated to are prepared to defend the American way of life the federal government so that it can be used against an internationalist/collectivist on to serve the people, but ultimately that sover slaught (Benoit 1995). A preoccupation with eign power is reserved, as the Amendment safeguarding the Constitutional Republic is a reads, "to the states, respectively, or to the basic idea and guiding principle. Extremist people" (Sherwood 1994). watchers report that this most recent variant of Militia ideology in Phase Two draws Constitutionalism bears some resemblance strength from, and also is supportive of, a to the Birchist beliefs of the Constitutionalist number of other right wing causes. Militias movement of the early 1960s, a precursor to oppose the Federal Reserve and the tax sys Phase One (Schmuck, Chesler 1963; Stern tem, are protective of property rights, believe in 1996). "judicial purity" (e.g., juries should not allow To militia leaders of Phase Two, a new judges to instruct them, since jury members world government-the New World Order-is have power to determine points of law and being formed by the World Bank, the Interna evidence), and object to the bullying of the tional Monetary Fund and multinational corpo politically unorthodox by police agencies (Dal rations, and will be administered through the las Morning News 1994; Helvarg 1995; Wills United Nations. The various recent interna 1995). Further, militias object to government tional trade agreements are cited as proof of interference in education, abortion policy and the global conspiracy. Once the new govern the environment, and believe that it is time to ment is in place, its agents, including the roll back the clock on these issues. Obviously, President of the U.S., will impose martial law, militias are supported on some of these is suspend the U.S. Constitution, institute totali sues by mainstream conservatives (Halpern, tarian rule, and seize all weapons from indi Levin 1996; Schneider 1994). viduals (Kovaleski 1995). Under collectivist At it's extreme, however, militia ideology control, governmental control over the lives of expresses a paranoid view of how the New citizens will be complete and the government World Order is preparing for collectivist con will crush all who resist. Fear of collectivism is trol. Excerpts from militia leaders' speeches the militias' "call to arms," and devotees think and from militia literature tell of black helicop that they must bear arms and train to resist an ters conducting surveillance on Americans impending takeover (Cockburn 1995; Halpern, across the country (Keith 1994), and of people Levin 1996; McFadden 1995; Schneider 1994 ). having microchips implanted under their skin As noted by Robertson (1991 ), the New so that the New World Order can monitor and World Order is elite driven. Subgroups within control their activities (Koernke 1993). Con the militia movement may disagree on the centration camps are also being set up to in particulars of who belongs to this elite (or its tern dissenters, including militia activists. origin), but there is little disagreement about These supposed concentration camps are what the new order is doing to America: it is being established by FEMA, the federal 62 Volume 27 No. 1, May 1999 Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology emergency management agency (Halpern, resistance is becoming the tactic of choice ol Levin 1996). the Phase Two militias (Southern Poverty Law Militias sometimes respond to such per Center 1996). ceived (though unrealistic) threats with terror More work needs to be done on the links ism or with preparations for terrorism. One between the Constitutionalism of the early example is the Blue Ridge Hunt Club, a Vir 1960s and that of Phase Two. To what extent ginia militia. Members of this group were does the modern movement draw upon that found stockpiling weapons, and one of them ideology? Is the New World Order simply the had a computer disk that contained a draft of reincarnation of the Communist threat? Now the group's newsletter stating that the group that Communism is defeated, have the mili. planned to carry out terrorist actions against tias looked inward to find a new enemy (Aho infrastructure facilities and to eliminate its 1994)? enemies. There have also been examples of confrontations between militiamen and indi ETIOLOGIES vidual law enforcement officers that have been Attempts to explain the rise of the militia more spontaneous and that have resulted in movement have been oriented toward the violence (Halpern, Levin 1996). Phase One militias. The four explanatory The militia movement has also helped models discussed below could be consid. precipitate the movement to set up local judi ered ones that require further (retrospective) ciaries based upon Common Law. Borrowing testing in Phase One, and initial testing for from the Nehemiah Charter and similar com Phase Two. pacts, common law advocates state that they At the conclusion of his field study of the do not recognize the jurisdiction or constitu Idaho Christian Patriots, Aho (1990) outlined tionality of the federal court system. They often the process of recruitment to right wing ex. make the claim that the Constitution of the U.S. tremist groups. Based on his interviews wiU was suspended by the government years ago 530 patriots and an accumulation of second. and was never restored, and that the legiti ary materials, that process is as follows. The macy of their own bogus, ad hoc courts derives potential recruit is first raised in a conservative from the Bible, the Magna Carta, the Declara or fundamentalist church and is socialized to tion of Independence, and the Bill of Rights a conservative or fundamentalist outlook (Halpern, Levin 1996). Some members of this During this training the individual becomes movement have established self-styled courts aware of the conflict between religious stan and have tried to file official looking but bogus dards and the world, and decides to become documents with court clerks and other govern an active seeker of change in the world. mental officials (Skiba 1995). In extreme cases The key moment in the recruitment pro, some of these courts reportedly have charged cess occurs when the individual for the first' government officials with treason or other time has access to the radical opportunify crimes, and have even threatened the death structure through associations with a famify penalty (Estrada 1997). member, friend, co-worker, cellmate, lover or Some of the terrorism may be engaged in other person in the radical movement. After, as part of "leaderless resistance," a strategy accepting the invitation to affiliate with the righl· in which militiamen organize into small cells wing group, the recruit increasingly isolates, of from three to five individuals, and strike at himself or herself from the conventional com, targets of their own choosing at times of their munity. This might involve taking children out) own choosing (Beam 1992; Halpern, Levin of public schools, accepting a socially or physi 1996; Ridgeway, Zeskind 1995). This is very cally isolated job, moving to a rural area similar to the tactics of Robert DePugh's Min renouncing conventional politics, or joining ar, utemen of the early 1960s (George, Wilcox exclusive sect. In the process he or she may 1996). The presumed benefits are that these be disowned by friends and family. The com small cells will be much less prone to detec bined effect of all the isolating actions is that tion or infiltration by law enforcement and the believer is propelled into a deeper commit· others, and that it will be very difficult to show ment to the movement. that movement leaders are legally respon While this is a grounded explanation of how sible for crimes committed by their followers. people come to join extremist movements, n Some fear that due to social control following does not explain how one proceeds from the the Oklahoma City bombing, leaderless point of "joining" to the point of becoming a Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology Volume 27 No. 1, May 1999 63 paramilitarist, or to the point of engaging in the 1970s in the form of the Black Liberation terrorism. Not all of the militia become terror Army, the Symbionese Liberation Army, and ists. As Aho (1990) observed, there is a divi the Republic of New Africa. sion of heroic labor among the faithful: some The third model, discussed by Aho (1994), pray; some petition; some are civilly disobedi might be called the "paramilitary culture" ex ent; some write. Others-about 15 percent planation. This historically-specific theory re take up arms and perform more unpleasant lates to American experience in Vietnam and tasks of Christian Patriotism. how the war was "brought home" afterward In a later work, Aho (1994) embraces an al (Gibson 1994). America's defeat in Vietnam in ternate model, social constructionism, to ex 1975 created a profound cultural crisis in the plain how enemies are socially constructed; U.S. Not only did it break a long tradition of this better explains the mobilization toward military victories, but defeat was at the hands violence. According to this view, the first need of a third world Asian country that, by the of any warrior is to have an enemy. Without an technical and economic standards of the enemy there is nothing against which to fight, American war managers, should have been nothing from which to save the world, and conquered easily. nothing to give meaning to life. If an enemy is To make the defeat sensible to their audi not ontologically present in the nature of things, ences, American cultural elites mythically re then one must be manufactured. invented the war. According to this revision of Drawing upon Berger and Luckmann history, our men were fully capable of winning, (1967), Aho proffers that insofar as things in buttheywere betrayed by corrupt and cowardly themselves can never be directly known, we politicians, restrained from using their full should redirect our attention to phenomenol might, and thus were not permitted to suc ogy- to our experience of things. Phenomenol ceed. Hence, in the post-Vietnam era only ogy helps to describe in detail the contents of paramilitary heroes, acting alone or in tightly the world as presented to differently situated knit groups can achieve success over the people, and then helps to analyze how that enemy. To be effective against the enemy, world has come to be or how it has become whether it be Asian, Arab, or homegrown, constructed. Our experience of the world is heroes must be SWAT trained and work co built up stepwise through reification or objec vertly outside regular bureaucratic channels. tification. This process, as it relates to the con Thus the spate of movies such as Rambo, struction of enemies, takes place in five ac Delta Force, and Iron Eagle; TV shows such tions. Naming involves a mistaken character as A-Team and Magnum P.I.; and in print ization of an enemy as an instance of an ab genre, Soldier of Fortune and Tom Clancy's stract category. Legitimation is the validation Patriot Games. Aho believes the romance of of this mistaken identification. Mythmaking is military argot, dress, demeanor and policy-in the retrospective mythologizing of the mis short, paramilitarism-is a partial explanation taken identity. Sedimentation is the embed of why citizen militias came into being in the ding of the legendary tale in the memory of the United States after 1975. He knows from his next generation. Ritual is the dramatization of field work that several of these units were the myth's principal themes. The taking of "ap founded and staffed by Vietnam veterans bitter propriate· action toward an enemy produces over their alleged betrayal by the government the enemy's "evil" and equally appropriate re in Southeast Asia. sponse-paranoia, distrust, savagery. In this The final model, rejected by Aho (1990), is way "the prophecy concerning (the enemy's) the "structural strain" argument. Following diabolism is uncannily fulfilled, the truth of the Bell (1963), this position states that postwar myth sustained" (Aho 1994). In other words, American prosperity was the root condition for when the warrior strikes out at the enemy, the conservative expression (see discussion in enemy's response reinforces the evil image Wolfe 1981 ). Prosperity, especially if accom of the enemy that the warrior has constructed. panied by inflation, gives rise to right wing This model adequately explains the con discontent. It brings in its wake new social struction of enemies, but does little to shed groups, new social strains and new social light on the particular kinds of enemy construc anxieties. Modernism, a by-product of pros tion that is done in the contemporary citizen perity, results in the economy becoming more militias. Aho's model would apply to the mili efficient due to concentration. Foreign policy tias but also, equally, to left-wing terrorism of becomes premised on globalism; political 64 Volume 27 No. 1, May 1999 Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology
expression becomes more urbane. Hence growing, and there was an erosion of earning the social sources of the radical right could be power in the farming-manufacturing sector found among those groups left behind in the and the service sector. Thus middle and work triumph of modernity: small and medium sized ing class whites indeed felt a real decline in businessmen losing out to monopolies; farm their earning power. The combination of per. ers and managers displaced by new tech ceived and actual dispossession could have nologies; isolationists and traditional military aided the recruitment of right wing extremists officers upset with economies and strategies during the 1980s. The above discussion sug. beyond their intellectual grasp. Bell (1963) gests that the structural strain argument con. called the radical right "the dispossessed" tinues to be viable despite its apparent inabil who were frustrated, "unable to understand let ity to explain the data we currently have on the alone command the mass society that is the Phase One militias. polity today." An alternative way of conceptualizing mili Upset and Raub's (1978) elaboration on tias is to frame them within the context of the this general theme was that right-wing move concepts of hate crime and domestic terror ments are primarily preservative and back ism. Developing a theory of hate crime or lash in nature (see discussion in Aho [1990]). domestic terrorism is well beyond the scope Right wingers want to retrieve the past, a past of this paper. However, the relationship be sometimes imagined to be better than it really tween the militias and the two concepts is was. The right wing attracts those whose logical, given that at least a portion of militia status in the world is threatened with displace activities qualify as one or the other and, some ment. Those whose class position and power times, as both. This effort is hindered by the in society are threatened dramatize their su fact that both concepts suffer from a lack of periority through their lifestyle because they theoretical specification. have little else with which to draw attention to According to the Hate Crime Statistics Act themselves. Inflicting their morality on others of 1990, hate crimes were defined as crimes is a way for right wingers to shore up their that manifest evidence of prejudice based on sagging esteem. race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, To Upset and Raub, extremists are ordi and crimes where the offenders' actions were nary people caught up in certain kinds of motivated, in whole or in part, by bias (Hamrn stress, particularly the stress of losing their 1996). States' interpretations of what consti position in the world. The disconcerting ele tutes hate crime varied widely; for example, ments of right wing ideology--among other thirty-one states recognize cross burning as a things, its "paranoid" preoccupation with con hate crime and twenty states do not. Twelve spiracy and with internal and external en states considered paramilitary training and emies (Hofstadter 1979)--are less neurotic fomenting racial violence as part of their stat symptoms than they are the "cultural bag utes. In these states, an active militia that gage" that any American group must adopt if engages in paramilitary training violates the its commodity is to be marketed successfully. hate crime statute by its mere existence (Hamrn That baggage can have a dynamic of its own, 1996). but to rightists it is secondary to the underlying Another concern is the degree to which the social strains and the stresses that accom militias encourage others, usually the most pany those strains. radical fringes outside the militias, to engage Much of Aho's field data contradict the struc in hate crime. Just as Tom Metzger's White tural strain argument. The Patriots were de Aryan Resistance urged skinheads to engage mographically similar to average Idahoans. in preemptive strikes against perceived en Objective evidence of marginality or dispos emies and then claim "self defense" (Hamrn session was lacking. Weinberg (1993) put 1993; Levin, McDevitt 1993), militia rhetoric forth two explanations for this anomaly. First, may become the motivator for militia "outsid relative dispossession may be at work, i.e., the ers" to "strike out.• According to this line of feeling of dispossession by whites compared thought, a "Patriot" may see it his or her duty to to the socioeconomic gains made by minori strike out at the New World Order, then pro ties during the 1980s. Second, because of claim that it was being done to "defend" America structural change in the economy, actual dis against the collectivist onslaught. Underlying possession occurred. The earnings gap the act, of course, is an intense hatred of the between the top and bottom earners was federal government-- inflamed by militia free Inquiry in Creative Sociology Volume 27 No. 1, May 1999 65 rhetoric-that is believed to be part of the NWO Beam L 1992 Leaderless resistance Seditionist con-spiracy. This dynamic played a role in the February Bell D 1963 The Radical Right Garden City: Doubleday Okla-homa City bombing case. Apparently and Company forced out of the Michigan Militia because of Bennett D 1995 The Party of Fear NY: Vantage their radi-calism-but still incited by the group's Books rhetoric -McVeigh and Nichols decided that Benoit G 1995 From the editor New American Feb ruary 6 3 the time for talk was over and that action or Berger P. T Luckmann 1967 The Social Construc "propaganda of the deed" was essential. tion of Reality Garden City: Doubleday-Anchor Framing the militias within the context of Berlet C, M Lyons 1995 Militia nation Progressive domestic terrorism is even more difficult. There June 22- 25 Church and State 1995 Militia movement growing in is a Jack of consensus in the research com dozens of states, new reports indicate. March munity over the definition of domestic terror 18-19 ism, and, as Hamm ( 1996) notes, there are Coates J 1995 Armed and Dangerous NY: Hill & actually no laws against it - no federal or state Wang Cockburn A 1995 Beat the devil Nation July 17 /24 80- statutes outlawing terrorism on American soil. 81 Hence, when terrorists are arrested they must Corcoran J 1991 Bitter Harvest NY: Viking be charged with other crimes. McVeigh, for Dallas Morning News 1994 Texas militias sound instance, was charged under 18 USC 844 with alarm on dangers to freedom. November 28 18A DeArmond P 1996 Christian patriots at war with the •malicious danger and destroying by means state
Kovaleski S 1995 'One world' conspiracies prompt Southern Poverty Law Center 1995 Paranoia as . Montana militia's call to arms Washington Post Patriotism Montgomery: Southern Poverty Law April 29 1 and 13 Center LaPierre W 1995 Guns, Crime and Freedom NY: --~ 1996 False Patriots Montgomery: South. HarperPerennial em Poverty Law Center Levin J, J McDevitt 1993 Hate Crimes NY: Plenum State of California 1965 Paramilitary Organizations Press in California Sacramento: Office of the Attomey Upset S, E Raub 1978 The Politics of Unreason General Chicago: U Chicago Press Stem K 1996 A Force Upon The Plain NY: Simon and McFadden R 1995 Links in blast: armed 'militia' and Schuster a key date New York Times April 22 1 and 8 Swomley J 1995 Armed and dangerous: the threat Mills CW 1959 The Sociological Imagination NY: of the 'patriot militias' Humanist November/De Oxford University Press cember 8-11 Mullins W 1993 Hate crime and the far right: uncon Tabor J, E Gallagher 1995 Why Waco? Berkeley: u ventional terrorism. 121-169 in K Tunnell ed California Press Political Crime in Contemporary America NY: Thayer G 1968 The Farther Shores of Politics Garland London: Penguin Books Pierce W 1978 The Turner Diaries Washington: Thompson L 1993 Waco, The Big Ue Indianapolis: National Alliance American Justice Federation Reavis D 1995 The Ashes of Waco NY: Simon and 1994 Waco II, The Big Ue Continues Schuster -...-,n-d""ia_n_a-polis: American Justice Federation Ridgeway J, L Zeskind 1995 Revolution usa Village US Senate 1982 The Right to Keep and Bear Arms i Voice May 2 23-26 Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Commit Robertson P 1991 The New World Order Dallas: tee on the Judiciary, 97th Congress, 2nd Session Word Publishing Washington: USGPO Roland J 1994 Constitutional militias forming across Walker S 1994 'Militias' forming across US to protest nation. Arlington: Texas Militia Correspondence gun control laws Christian Science Monitor Committee February 22 October 17 1 and 14 Salsich P 1961 The armed superpatriots in the Walter J 1995 Every Knee Shall Bow NY: Harper midwest Nation Nov 11 372-374 Paperbacks Sargent L 1995 Extremism in America NY: New Weinberg L 1993 The american radical right: exit, York U Press voice, and violence. 185-203 in P Merkl, L Weinberg Schmuck R, M Chesler 1963 On super-patriotism: a eds Encounters With the Contemporary Radical definition and analysis J Social Issues 19 31-50 Right Boulder: Westview Press Schneider K 1994 Fearing a conspiracy, some heed Williams D 1991 Civic republicanism and the citizen a call to arms New York Times November 14 1 militia: the terrifying second amendment Yale Law and 14 J 101 551-615 Seymour C 1991 Committee of the States Mariposa: Wills G 1995 The new revolutionaries New York Rev Camden Place Books August 10 50-55 Sherwood S 1994 Establishing an Independent Wolfe A 1981 Sociology, liberalism and the radical Militia in the United States Blackfoot: Founders right New Left Rev 128 3-27 1 Press Skiba K 1995 Extremists take up the gavel Milwaukee J Sentinel October 29 1 and 14