Red, White, And Brownshirt

History teaches us that a political party having its own armed security force is a really, really good predictive sign that said political party is going to descend into bloody fascism with no small amount of both celerity or gusto, particularly when that force is already made of people who gladly extol the "virtues" of using force to resolve political conflicts in the name of "liberty".

I mention this because five weeks ago we had that nasty train stabbing by a white supremacist in Portland, and the response from the GOP there is that maybe hiring armed militia groups would be necessary in order to protect them.

It should then come as no surprise here in the American moment of 2017 that this has now come to pass and right-wing militia groups like Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters will be deputized as the GOP's newest personal private security force in the era of Dear Leader Trump.

The Multnomah County Republican Party voted this week to use far-right milita groups as private security at events.

The resolution is the brainchild of party chairman James Buchal, who last month suggested to The Guardian that the GOP could use Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, two paramilitary groups, as security guards to protect them from antifascist protesters, or antifa.

"Antifa" is the new catch-all bogeyman of the Trump Era, the way "Occupiers" were during the Dubya years.

"We are an all-volunteer organization with no money," Buchal tells WW. "So if we are going to get security services, we are going to get them from volunteers. And people who are going to volunteer to provide security services to Republicans are generally going to be people who share the view that the government has developed an unconstitutional overreach of power."

Buchal says he and the Multnomah County GOP won't be attending tonight's far-right "free speech" protest near the Waterfront Blues Festival, unless he is personally invited. (He hasn't been.)

WW reported last week that Buchal has been fundraising by warning of "threats of Leftist violence" making it difficult for Republicans to hold events in Portland.

His last fundraising letter repeated his plan to hire Oath Keepers as security guards. “Organized bands of masked thugs who call conservatives fascists or Nazis are rising rapidly within the city,” he wrote.

So naturally the logical response to being compared to right-wing white supremacist fascists like the Nazis is to behave exactly like the Nazis did historically., right?

Fun fact, because it keeps coming up: Oregon was founded as a haven for white supremacy and in particular Portland and Multnomah County, Oregon has a rather nasty history of racism. Today Portland remains the least diverse and whitest major city in America.

So of course the rise of the American Brownshirt is happening there

More Republican security forces of armed "volunteers" will follow, I guarantee it.  And when they finally get around to killing someone in that capacity, that's when this country will be truly tested in a way it hasn't in a long time.