For something appearing in The Washington Post, it’s not as overtly hostile as we may have expected. That’s a reaction I’ve seen expressed by colleagues discussing “Primed to Fight the Government,” a profile on the Oregon patriot movement “demanding that the federal government adhere to the Constitution and stop what they see as systematic abuse of land rights, gun rights, freedom of speech and other liberties.”
Who would have a problem with that? And it’s the embedded abusive “officials” who are attacking the government, not citizens insisting that delegated powers not be exceeded, and that authority not be usurped.
“Law enforcement officials call them dangerous, delusional and sometimes violent, and say that their numbers are growing amid a wave of anger at the government that has been gaining strength since 2008, a surge that coincided with the election of the first black U.S. president and a crippling economic recession,” the write-up offers, steering readers to several misdirected conclusions.
First, it’s not all LE officials, but essentially those dependent on political favor for their positions of power and privilege. Left unacknowledged is the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which sides with the patriots. And the bit about “the first black president” is just another way of implying those who object to the fundamental collectivist transformation of the Republic are racists.
