Anti-Government Groups, Militias on Rise

The Southern Poverty Law Center issued a report yesterday that notes an alarming increase in so-called "patriot" and right-wing militia groups in the past year. According to the report, in 2012, there were 1,360 so-called "patriot" groups whose core, paranoid belief is that an oppressive U.S. government is taking away their rights, and is aiming for a global "socialist" government. Included in the "patriot" group numbers are 321 militia groups, which are their armed auxiliaries. Since 2009, these groups have grown over 800 percent, with the rise attributable in significant part to the election of President Obama.

Ever since the Oklahoma City bombing, public awareness of the existence of such self-styled right-wing "patriot" groups and militias has risen. They bear watching, since their radical and frankly unhinged views represent a small, but growing, threat to our democracy.

Here's the trend since the 1990's (note the aforementioned spike in 2009):

(click to enlarge)

Hate Groups On Rise

The Southern Poverty Law Center has published a report on the rise of hate organizations and extremist groups, and the statistics for 2011 are sobering. The report counts 1,018 hate groups -- for example, neo-Nazi, skinhead, neo-Confederate, and white nationalist groups -- in the U.S. in 2011. Anti-gay and anti-Muslim groups comprised the largest increases.

Even more shocking are the statistics for right-wing militia/"patriot" groups: there were 149 such groups in 2008, and 1,274 in 2011. The huge increase is attributed to the election of the first African-American President and widespread conspiracy theories about Government seizure of guns, mass internment of citizens, etc. pushed by fringe radicals (and implicitly accepted by far-right Rethuglican politicians like Reps. Crazy Eyes Bachmann and Steve "Man Who Would Be" King). With the rhetoric and positions of the Rethug Presidential candidates moving farther to the right each week, it's only a matter of time when their views overlap those of the most delusional in our society.