America ’s Violent Extremists: Past Tragedies, Future Threats

Patrick G. EddingtonTwenty ‐​eight years ago today, two Army veterans utilized a truck bomb in Oklahoma City to kill 168 people, including 19 children. It was the high watermark of right ‐​wing violent extremist activity in the 20th century, justified by its key perpetrator, Timothy McVeigh, as a reaction to alleged and actual state ‐​sponsored violence against other Americans.McVeigh had been inspired by a small but influential white supremacist novel calledTheTurner Diaries which espoused a “leaderless resistance” concept. The author, William Luther Pierce III, wrote it under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald and went on to found the white supremacistNational Alliance.After federal agents used lethal force in incidents involving white separatists Randy Weaver and his family atRuby Ridge, Idaho (in 1992) and the Branch Davidian cult inWaco, Texas (in 1993), Pierce ’s novel became McVeigh’s blueprint for action.Pierce and his novel influenced every major white supremacist activist of the 1980s and 1990s, as chronicled by authors such asKathleen Belew and organizations likethe Southern Poverty Law Center. Individuals or groups inspired by Pierce ’s work would go on to commit a range of crimes, including murder.But if McVeigh and those with similar views thought his mass murder in Oklahoma City would spark the revolution against the “System” (i.e., the federal government) as described inThe Turner Diaries, he and they were epically mis...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs