I would say that there was a lot of craziness in the larger cultural mileu at the time. Things like xfiles, mellenium, art bell talking on the radio every night, movies like wag the dog, conspiracy theory, enemy of the state, FEMA death camps.

I think people were just kinda ginned up about the year 2000 coming around and the idea of conspiracies and yea the militia were obviously trash. So with that going on lets say that

1. Clinton resigns over monica

2. Gore gets in and really really really hits the whole greenhouse thing hard.

3. 9/11 happens a month before the 2000 rlection which he rides into a second term

4.) he uses this as an excuse to really put a huuge tax on gasoline enough to cause domestic disturbance while refusing to militarily respond. Something gets slipped into the homeland security bill about possible confication of guns.

5. Finally we militarily go into afghanistan (or whereever really) and places us troops in blue hats

I think that could lead to some trouble maybe that would bleed out of hillbilly rednecks into mainstream upheaval. It probably wouldnt be mass riots
 
That was one event by a couple of nuts. The vast, vast majority of them were a bunch of clowns "playing soldier". Mostly men who wished they had the guts to join the army.
The chief conspirators, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, met in 1988 at Fort Benning during basic training for the U.S. Army.
There were also those in the militia movement who had the guts to join the army, and had received training and experience there.
The demographics that the militia movement draws from happens to be the same demographics which are disproportionately represented in US Army combat units, so it is hardly surprising that there was a cross over between the two.
There was certainly the capability to carry out more attacks, we are not talking about a mass up rising or something like that but assassination of public figures, bombings, attacks on infrastructure and federal law enforcement, establishment of no go zones could have happened if a trigger point was reached.
The thing is the militia movement as a whole never felt that the trigger point had been reached, and in fact their purpose was to stop that trigger point being reached by existing as a threat.
The FBI certainly believed there was a threat, and was actively trying to infiltrate militia groups.
 

manav95

Banned
Simple: no civil rights successes, no pro feminist bills for gender equality, no mainstream sexual revolution, no obstruction of gun control, no relaxing of anti homosexual laws, no environmentalism, no deregulation. That would lead to a prolonged counter-culture that splits into socialist and libertarian sects. These sects fight each other both electorally and physically, while the bulk of the US becomes communo-nationalist, mixing social conservatism with strong labor unions and New Deal policies. If LBJ can get reelected, along with a term of Humphrey and two terms of Scoop Jackson, you would have an entrenched Democratic majority mobilizing the Silent Majority and being assailed by left and right.
 
The chief conspirators, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, met in 1988 at Fort Benning during basic training for the U.S. Army.
There were also those in the militia movement who had the guts to join the army, and had received training and experience there.
The demographics that the militia movement draws from happens to be the same demographics which are disproportionately represented in US Army combat units, so it is hardly surprising that there was a cross over between the two.
There was certainly the capability to carry out more attacks, we are not talking about a mass up rising or something like that but assassination of public figures, bombings, attacks on infrastructure and federal law enforcement, establishment of no go zones could have happened if a trigger point was reached.
The thing is the militia movement as a whole never felt that the trigger point had been reached, and in fact their purpose was to stop that trigger point being reached by existing as a threat.
The FBI certainly believed there was a threat, and was actively trying to infiltrate militia groups.

The whole thing was a joke. It not only didn't get to the "trigger point" it was never near it and didn't have the numbers to be an actual threat.
 
The whole thing was a joke. It not only didn't get to the "trigger point" it was never near it and didn't have the numbers to be an actual threat.
What was being suggested was that if things were different and a trigger point was reached.
I have to wonder what your definition of a threat is?
I think that such an event would increase instability and political tension as required by the OP.
 
What was being suggested was that if things were different and a trigger point was reached.
I have to wonder what your definition of a threat is?
I think that such an event would increase instability and political tension as required by the OP.

To be a threat they would have to be thousands of Al Qaeda types not a bunch of grown up children and a handful of nuts.
 
Simple: no civil rights successes, no pro feminist bills for gender equality, no mainstream sexual revolution, no obstruction of gun control, no relaxing of anti homosexual laws, no environmentalism, no deregulation. That would lead to a prolonged counter-culture that splits into socialist and libertarian sects. These sects fight each other both electorally and physically, while the bulk of the US becomes communo-nationalist, mixing social conservatism with strong labor unions and New Deal policies. If LBJ can get reelected, along with a term of Humphrey and two terms of Scoop Jackson, you would have an entrenched Democratic majority mobilizing the Silent Majority and being assailed by left and right.

The country was stable for a long time before civil rights. Not in a good way, but the challenge here is chaos. We didn't have a lot of chaos in 1953, for example.
 
To be a threat they would have to be thousands of Al Qaeda types not a bunch of grown up children and a handful of nuts.
Right so I'll have to tell the British that the IRA was no threat then.
Also that 9/11 thing can't have been as big a deal as everyone makes it out to be.

If you think thousands are needed to be a threat then I don't think you understand how terrorism works. To quote Stalin The purpose of a terrorist is to terrorize. Consider 19 people carried out 9/11, two people did the Oklahoma bombing, the DC sniper was two people. Now consider attacks across the USA against Federal Law Enforcement, Politicians, and Infrastructure.
 
Right so I'll have to tell the British that the IRA was no threat then.
Also that 9/11 thing can't have been as big a deal as everyone makes it out to be.

If you think thousands are needed to be a threat then I don't think you understand how terrorism works. To quote Stalin The purpose of a terrorist is to terrorize. Consider 19 people carried out 9/11, two people did the Oklahoma bombing, the DC sniper was two people. Now consider attacks across the USA against Federal Law Enforcement, Politicians, and Infrastructure.

19 people carried it out but hundreds were involved all told out of a group of thousands.
 
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