Shane Burley on Oregon Militias, the GOP, & Beyond

Filed under: Anti-fascist, Interviews, Radio & Podcast, Radio/Podcast, The State, US

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In this episode we again catch up with antifascist author, journalist, and researcher Shane Burley to talk about the evolving situation in Oregon. There, Republican officials have fled the capital in order to stop votes on a proposed cap and trade law (would charge biggest polluters more) and in turn have fled the State. As Rolling Stone reported:

Before leaving Salem, one GOP state senator, Brian Boquist, responded with incendiary rhetoric. On the floor of the chamber, he first threatened the state senate president, Peter Courtney, saying: “If you send the State Police to get me, Hell’s coming to visit you personally.” He later menaced state troopers themselves: “Send bachelors and come heavily armed,” he said on camera. “I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon.”

In response, far-Right militias and other groups have flooded the capital in support and have attempting to open into working relationships with GOP officials – to very mixed results.

 

As the Daily Beast wrote:

Eleven of Oregon’s Senate Republicans fled the state this week to avoid a vote on a bill that would cap greenhouse emissions. The group, believed to be hiding in Idaho, left the state senate with too few lawmakers to hold a vote. Meanwhile, militia announced they would join a two-day “Rally to Take the Capital.” Security concerns prompted Democrats to cancel Saturday’s session.

“Oregon State Police has recommended that the Capitol be closed tomorrow due to a possible militia threat,” a spokesperson for the senate president told the Associated Press on Friday night.

On top of talking about the situation at the capitol in Oregon, we also talk about other examples of far-Right and GOP crossover, the state of the Alt-Right two years after the events in Charlottesville, and what we can expect during Trump’s 2020 campaign.

The Oregon Republican senators who've walked out on #HB2020 and a cap-and-trade vote say they're representing their constituents.

Taken together, their campaigns have been funded by one primary constituent: Corporate America. pic.twitter.com/i29Ul714bB

— Rob Davis (@robwdavis) June 24, 2019

More Info: Shane Burley on Twitter, homepage, previous interview on the IGD podcast.

This post was written by It's Going Down