Border Storm-The Minutemen Become the Heroes of the Right

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http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/6/750504/-Border-Storm-The-Minutemen-Become-the-Heroes-of-the-Right

by LongIslandWins

Border Storm-The Minutemen Become the Heroes of the Right

Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 10:43:29 AM PDT

This post by Pat Young is the first installment of a three-part series on the origins and development of the Minuteman movement, and is cross-posted from Long Island Wins:

If you first heard of the Minutemen when Shawna Forde, the head of Minuteman American Defense, was arrested two weeks ago for murder, you may have had trouble understanding the battles within the anti-immigrant movement over her that have at times spilled over onto our website, Long Island Wins. I thought I would prepare a little primer on the Minuteman movement, as well as its relationship with other anti-immigrant organizations, so that you can understand the way its history of violent division is now being played out against a backdrop of murderous violence.

The Minuteman movement took conservative America by storm just four years ago. It was born in a media deluge and midwifed by an anti-immigrant echo chamber at FOX News, Lou Dobbs Tonight, and The Washington Times. It was quickly endorsed by Republican elected officials and pundits.

Apart from the Right to Life movement, conservative activists have not had a lot of the same opportunities at popular participation in political action that those on the Left have. So, when Minutemen in military-style attire, carrying heavy weaponry, began appearing on television in 2005, they seemed to touch the John Wayne in the heart of many on the American Right. They carried the message that ordinary Americans with guns could do what Washington had failed to accomplish; halt the "Browning of America".