Why not pay these people at least the respect of taking seriously the beliefs they say they have? You might as well say the nazis weren't "really" anti-semitic, but were just using that vocabulary to express their class anger. It might even have been true, sometimes, but so what? They still beat up, stole from and murdered jews. And it was still the job of the left to oppose them. People who have joined militias have made a very strong commitment to a set of repulsive ideas -- they are not like the Baltimore racist mentioned earlier on this list, who turned out just to be afraid of crime.
I don't care if there are a handful of blacks or women involved in the militias. All that shows is that some blacks and some women are REALLY confused. After all Ward Connerly is black.
Alexander Cockburn's love affair with the Militias makes my skin crawl. Is this where the "class, not race or gender" position leads? To romanticizing gun fetishists, religious fanatics, stalkers and killers?
Best, katha