I believe I come from a somewhat unique point of view; My father was a soldier, then a police officer, and now a government administrator. My mother has had any number of roles, few of them careers in any way shape or form. However as she has gotten older she has become much more of a journalist and activist, in her close associations with the local SEIU (union).
Bearing those things in mind you also have to include the following. My childhood was spent largely in one of the reddest states ever (I remember the Bush Sr. Election when I was in Jr. High), then moved to one of the bluest states ever (California) at the age of 15. I will put it out there right now that I am a progressive, and as such my opinions will be colored by that.
Firstly I will say that the idea of militias are very much in keeping with what our forefathers had in mind. And so in principal I am not opposed to their formation. But the application is where things start to diverge. One of the fundamental problems is where this sense of 'self defense' comes from. The essential belief that their 'way' is under attack is a fallacy at the heart of it, especially since (at least with the current crop of militias) the most vocal opponents of social entitlements are in fact receiving unemployment or disability insurance themselves. The hypocrisy is staggering to behold.
The other problem I have is that these people see themselves as islands, and that everyone has a right to be an individual. This is something I can in concept agree with but where it breaks for me is this: EVERYTHING YOU DO AFFECTS SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE. No one is excluded. And, when following that logic you cannot make decisions based solely on your own (selfish) point of view with no consideration for your fellow man. This is isolationist, and is exactly the kind of thinking that has led to wars, famine, disease, depravity and destruction. Not understanding the interconnectedness of all things may well be the most sacrilegious thing I can think of in fact. Even 'removing' yourself from society does not exclude you from this interaction entirely. Your consumption of food, energy and resources continues to go on, either eating stored food, bought food, or killing animals and eating plants somewhere has an affect on someone, even if it's not obvious to you.
At any rate, I am also not surprised that the overwhelming majority of this is from the extreme conservative perspective. Conservatism in thought strikes me as a fundamental thinking pattern, a thinking pattern based on scarcity. So this is why it is not surprising to see so many poor involved in the conservative movement where on the surface the poor should constantly be backing progressive, social expansion movements. Because the poor are, well, poor, they are coming from a mindset of scarcity which will in turn, make them want to defend what little they have. Even though the status quo is crappy for them, they feel like change will only be for the worse. Not to mention that conservative politicians figured this out pretty early into the birth of the middle class and have always played on the fears of the working man. 'Redistribution of wealth' is the constant refrain, when in fact, especially now, those working class people that have had their income ripped from their hands by irresponsible corporate behavior couple with a lack of oversight from the government. So exactly who's wealth is being redistributed? mine? I work. I pay taxes. I have had a whole whopping 3 weeks of disability (State Disability I might add), as my benefits.
I am middle-class. And I pay for those people out of work right now. And you know what, I don't mind. Do you know why? Because I feel like it's the only way I can help out right now, and I badly want to. I am generally a very caring person but I am also very absent-minded and kind of lazy about stuff like that.
The good things about militias are that they are very community oriented. They want to assist in taking care of the town's business, they want to help the community. As the conservative movement has pointed out, the line between helping the community, and becoming a politically motivated group is a very very fine line however. It boggles my mind that the conservative movement would get so upset at Acorn, who tries to help people re-educate and improve their lives and yet completely sidestep Community Organizers like the Hutaree, who also helped the community in search and rescue operations, but have also been busily recruiting with the full intent of violently opposing the government.
This is going to result in a cop getting shot simply because he is trying to do his job.
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