Patriots, Politics, and the Oklahoma City Bombing

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Series title......Page 5
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Dedication......Page 9
Contents......Page 11
List of Figures and Tables......Page 12
Preface and Acknowledgments......Page 13
1 Codicil to a Patriot Profile......Page 19
Plan of the Book......Page 37
2 Patriots, Political Process, and Social Movements......Page 41
Political Process......Page 43
Opportunity/Threat......Page 44
Threat/Opportunity Spiral......Page 52
Social Appropriation/Mobilizing Structures......Page 56
Framing and Social Construction......Page 58
A Broader Research Program for Social Movements......Page 60
3 The Historical Context of Patriot Insurgency......Page 62
Cold War Threat, Political Opportunity, and Race Politics......Page 63
Black Insurgency and White Supremacist Construction of Threat, 1955–1960......Page 69
The John Birch Society: A Patriotic Organization......Page 72
Robert DePugh and the Minutemen: Patriots and Paramilitarism......Page 76
William Potter Gale and Posse Comitatus: Movement Origins......Page 80
4 The Farm Crisis, Threat Attribution, and Patriot Mobilization......Page 88
Third-Party Challengers and Mobilization......Page 95
Innovative Collective Action in the American Agricultural Movement......Page 96
Social Appropriation of AAM......Page 98
Gordon Kahl: The First Patriot Martyr......Page 102
The “War in ’84”......Page 104
Patriot Plan to Bomb the Murrah Federal Building......Page 108
A Second Wave of Patriot Violence......Page 111
5 State Mobilization: BUILDING A TRAJECTORY OF CONTENTION......Page 115
The Military and the War on Drugs......Page 119
Militarization of American Police......Page 123
Post–Cold War Militarization and Intensification......Page 126
From Drug Control to Gun Control......Page 131
6 The Gun Rights Network and Nascent Patriots: RISE OF A THREAT SPIRAL......Page 132
The Politics of Gun Control......Page 133
Third-Party Attribution of Threat: Handgun Control, Inc.......Page 137
Polarization and Radicalization of Gun Rights Groups......Page 140
Larry Pratt, Gun Owners of America, and the Call for Militias......Page 142
Constructing State Disarmament and Gun Raids......Page 144
Framing Gun Raids and the McVeigh List......Page 147
Ruby Ridge......Page 157
Construction of an Intrinsic Narrative: Weaver as “Another Bob Mathews”......Page 160
Operation Northern Exposure......Page 162
The Standoff......Page 163
Estes Park: Patriot Frame Alignment and Innovation......Page 167
Waco......Page 170
Construction of an Intrinsic Narrative: Davidians a “Dangerous, Extremist Organization”......Page 173
Operation Trojan Horse......Page 178
The Standoff and FBI/HRT Assault......Page 180
8 Patriot Insurgency and the Oklahoma City Bombing......Page 184
Mobilization of Citizen Militias......Page 186
Gun Show Subculture and McVeigh’s Insurgent Consciousness......Page 193
Configuring the Insurgent Network in the Oklahoma City Bombing......Page 199
A Final Comment about the Insurgency in Oklahoma......Page 209
9 After Oklahoma City: PATRIOT DEMOBILIZATION AND DECLINE......Page 212
State Mobilization......Page 213
Third-Party Interest Groups and the State......Page 217
Movement Demobilization and Splintering......Page 220
Social Movement Scholarship and Right-Wing Movements......Page 232
References......Page 237
Index......Page 251