The rise of militias: Patriot candidates are now getting elected in Oregon

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

The rise of militias: Patriot candidates are now getting elected in Oregon

Like Trump, the Patriot Movement’s surge is due partly to fear and the perceived indifference of political leaders to places that didn’t recover from the 2008 crash

Jason Wilson in Josephine County, Oregon
@jason_a_w
Tuesday 10 May 2016 06.00 EDT

Joseph Rice’s manner is a long way from militia stereotypes. The Patriot Movement leader does not present as a crazed gun nut, nor as a blowhard white supremacist. He’s genial, folksy, and matter-of-fact in laying out his views. But talk to him for long enough, and time and again the Patriot Movement leader returns to what really drives him: land.

Rice is running for Josephine county commissioner in south-west Oregon, and believes that the federal government’s current role in land management is illegitimate and even tyrannical.

His campaign is well-advertised around the county and appears well-organised. His growing experience in organising Patriot groups and community watch organisations has polished his skills in retail politics. He’s clearly done a lot of work to make himself politically palatable to conservative rural voters.

He has positions on education (kids should finish high school), legalised marijuana (it presents an economic opportunity) and Donald Trump (“people are tired of career politicians, and they know the country’s in trouble”).




Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/10/patriot-movement-oregon-militias-donald-trump-election-2016

[sense]

1. He may be running,

but getting elected is another matter.

[MBS]

2. This sentence summarizes the entire national election

Like Trump, the Patriot Movement’s surge is due partly to fear and the perceived indifference of political leaders to places that didn’t recover from the 2008 crash

[maxsolomon]

4. i was listening to Warren Olney on NPR the other night

And his guest was making a salient point: the places that have been "left behind by the recovery" have actually been dominating our politics for the last 50 years due to their outsized political representation. Gerrymandering, & Senate over-representation of rural states have resulted in policies that rural communities care about being forced on urban populations.

For instance, preventing any meaningful policies that address gun violence in cities, because hunters or rural homeowners don't like it.

The spaces of Oregon are not nearly as wide open as they once were.

[tonyt53]

3. I guess people never learned about "range wars" while in school

That is what this is all about. Those militias, and like the supporters of Cliven Bundy, all want to revert to the days of cattle barons having their own private armies to keep others from passing through or grazing on land that they decided to call their own.

[CanonRay]

5. They are sure not getting elected to any state-wide offices.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Media, incl UK media, must NOT play the terrorists' game of styling themselves "patriots". . . nt

[0rganism]

7. Oregon has a pretty harsh geographic and urban-rural political divide

it doesn't surprise me at all that Mr. Rice is doing well in Josephine county. Grant's Pass is hardly a bastion of liberalism, and that's about as dense as the population gets there. really, outside of the greater Portland area, Eugene, and the coast, support for progressive causes drops off quite a bit, and as you go south from Eugene or east from Hood River you're heading into some real deliverance territory and i hope your car with the Obama sticker doesn't break down. there are some pockets of liberals scattered around southern Oregon, but they are few and far between.

southern and eastern Oregon have a strong tendency to roll conservative, and not moderate either -- full on Glen Beck style reactionary wacko. 100% nutcase repub. aka "Patriots".