Scott McLemee

About the author: Scott McLemee is a contributing editor for In These Times, a biweekly liberal publication. McLemee has written about right-wing movements and organizations for the New York Times, Covert Action Quarterly, and Against the Current.

The new militia movement embraces a variety of potentially dangerous beliefs, including white supremacy, antigovernment conservatism, and opposition to abortion and gun control. Militias have been linked to violent antiabortion groups and the 1995 bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building. Despite its paramilitary orientation, the militia movement continues to garner recognition and win support, including that of elected officials.

With more than 40 women's clinics bombed since 1977, right-wing terrorism ought to be a widely acknowledged fact of American political life by now. In fact, information on manufacturing fertilizer bombs—like the one used on April 19, 1995, at the Alfred P...