Out of curiosity, who is FOE? I'm not familiar with that acronym, as far as I know.
As for destroying cars and SUVs, left-wing environmental orgs and animal rights orgs have done plenty of that over the years, not to mention torching a ski area in Colorado. They have not targeted human killings, only property destruction, unlike Army of God, but it is certainly the case that there have been terrorist groups on multiple areas of the socio-political spectrum. None of them have amounted to a serious threat against the nation, even in the case of major incidents like the Oklahoma City bombing. The Tea Party has a larger and better sustained following than any of the previously mentioned groups. But, at this point, there is not an identifiable consistent message of directed violence or mayhem outside the political process and definitely not an implementation of such violence. You may be scared of them, and their rhetoric, but that is not the same thing as groups who have moved on from rhetoric to action. We don't need more bogey men, we have plenty. There are any number of reasons to dislike the Tea Party and even to compare them to fundamentalist forces from history. But if you really want to understand them and deal usefully with them in a modern context, it is important to avoid unworthy generalizations and focus on real insight instead of lazy sweeping comparisons. Cheers, Judah On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 12:40 PM, Larry C. Lyons <[email protected]>wrote: > > At the same time this nation has a long history of vigilantism,terrorism > and active rebellion against the government > > . For instance for 20 years before the Civil war there was the Slave > Fugitive Act which allowed for terrorists in the guise of slave catchers to > steal people from the north and sell them into slavery. After the Civil War > there were groups that actively terrorized minority communities. in the > South and in the territories. Also there was the very active lynchings in > the South and midwest through the 1930's. > > > Then during the 1870's through to 1890 there were quite a few cases where > Indian villages and clans were massacred by non government groups. I could > go on but you get the idea. > > More recently there has been various extreme right and left wing groups > that have been actively attacking things that met their ire, for instance a > few years ago an FOE sub group destroyed nearly a 100 cars and SUV's in a > dealer's lot in western Washington. And we all know about groups such as > the Army of God and its campaign against women's health clinics. Moreover > the open carry people as far as I can see is only a few steps away from > violent revolt. Right now there are quite a few people and groups (such as > Larry Klayman and a number of fright wing christianist talk radio hosts) > that are advocating active rebellion against the current administration. > Its been getting to a point where some are wondering whether this nation is > in for a second civil war, it appears that things are that polarized right > now. > > > On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 2:44 PM, Judah McAuley <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > > It could be, Larry, but I like to think otherwise. There is a big > > difference, I think, between grumbling about violent insurrection and > > actually doing it. There is a segment of our society that has a > > fundamentalist world view and shared cultural values (overwhelmingly > white, > > evangelical christian, and conservative) that believes that "our country" > > is being lost. That is powerful and could push things over the edge, but > I > > think that the roots of democracy are still strong and that our shared > > history as a country with significant generational evolution will be > enough > > to prevent that. > > > > Our country has evolved through many socio-political conflicts that has > > deeply divided us. Only once has it come to armed insurrection. Could it > > again? Yes, of course. I'm an optimist, however, and I don't think it > will > > come to that. I see too much positive change and new consensus building > > taking place along side the strife to think that we are yet that broken. > > > > Dissent is good. Hopefully the energy and passion of the Tea Party can > > engage areas where there is common ground to be found, such as > > strengthening and renewing our commitment to civil liberties. The > current > > leadership of the party is opposed to compromise and common ground, true, > > but they've been on a winning streak, so that's not surprising. If we can > > wind up our wars, get the economy moving ahead a bit better, and settle > in > > on some of the major changes that happened around the end of the Bush > > admin/beginning of the Obama admin, perhaps we can end up in a more > > functional place. > > > > Cheers, > > Judah > > > > On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 10:37 AM, Larry C. Lyons <[email protected] > > >wrote: > > > > > > > > Give them time Judah, they will get pretty violent when its obvious how > > > much the country has ignored them for their extreme positions. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:368377 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
