Echo: Orcinus on the Minutemen


Dave Neiwert at Orcinus has two great articles about the Minutemen, placing this vigilante militia in a temporal and political context.

The two articles are:

Beyond the Minutemen (link)
Minuteman history (link)

If you're as perturbed as I am about Schwarzenegger's recent immigrant-baiting rhetoric and endorsement of these gun-toting thugs, you should read these articles. Neiwert does a great job of showing the face of the enemy.

Happily, one of the conclusions he makes is that the Minutemen are far smaller than they'd like us to believe. Nonetheless, we have to remain, for lack of a better word — vigilant:
Our officials -- as well as the mavens of the media -- are being grotesquely irresponsible by endorsing these kinds of demagogic displays. But it runs deeper than that.

My greatest concern is that this is, in effect, the first official embrace of right-wing extremist vigilantism by supposedly mainstream authorities on record. That is a benchmark with deeply disturbing ramifications.

This is, after all, an organization that has indicated it intends to expand its purview. And the concept of the Minutemen as a right-wing citizen vigilante force has uses well beyond even border patrols. These endorsements may wind up giving the Minutemen more than their 15 seconds of fame -- and that could be a problem for many years to come.


Big devils start small.

Posted: Wed - May 4, 2005 at 11:29 AM   | Category:     |   |   | |


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