# Oregon vs. Right-Wing Militias, Round 2
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [June 22, 2019, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899 "2019-06-22T18:22:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2019, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/1 "2019-06-22T18:22:30Z")
At least I think this is the 2nd round; I welcome correction if I’ve got that wrong.
For those not following along at home yet: [Militia threat shuts down Oregon Statehouse amid walkout](https://apnews.com/6f244646d3624ad89013d88c539aeabb).
A few days ago some Oregon [del]lawmakers[/del]legislators walked out of the Capitol to prevent a vote on a bill. But they couldn’t just leave the building, or marshals or sheriffs or whatever might have tried to get them to go back to the Capitol Building to vote. So they had to leave the state. Yes, this happens from time to time with various state legislatures.
But this time became different when those who walked started issuing threats:
> [@](#):
>
> Brown hinted that she would be willing to send state troopers to round up Republicans if they walk out in the final days of the regular legislative session, saying in a statement that she is “in close communication with Oregon State Police.” That’s an option Democratic senators and the governor did not use earlier this year, when Senate Republicans first brought the Senate to a standstill by walking out and preventing the necessary quorum.
>
> The governor’s hint that she would consider sending troopers in the event of a second walkout triggered an aggressive response from Boquist, which was captured by a KGW news team at the Capitol.
>
> “This is what I told the superintendent,” Boquist said, referring to OSP Superintendent Travis Hampton. “Send bachelors and come heavily armed. I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It’s just that simple.”
And then this happened:
> [@](#):
>
> “The Oregon State Police has recommended that the Capitol be closed tomorrow due to a possible militia threat,” Carol Currie, spokeswoman for Senate President Peter Courtney, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press late Friday.
>
> The governor’s office also confirmed the threats.
>
> Oregon State Police, in a statement, said it has been “monitoring information throughout the day that indicates the safety of legislators, staff and citizen visitors could be compromised if certain threatened behaviors were realized.”
Oregon, and by extension the United States, has a serious problem with organized groups of people disregarding the law and threatening violence (and committing violence) against lawful officers of the state trying to do their jobs, IMO; YMMV (and I’d be interested to read your posts on this subject if that’s the case).
The thing is: what will Oregon do? What can they do? And what should they do?
I don’t know the answers to these questions, but it seems obvious that they can’t just stop doing things and shut things down all the time whenever a militia threatens or presents themselves; that’s kind of the opposite of what a government should be doing, IMO.
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### Author:  [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/2 "2019-06-22T19:11:42Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#):
>
> . . .
>
> I don’t know the answers to these questions, . . .
As an outsider, I would ask: Isn’t it up to the people of Oregon, the voters? If they share your revulsion, they should vote them out at the first opportunity. Or has gerrymandering made that a naive hope?
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### Author:  [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2019, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/3 "2019-06-22T19:43:41Z")
simple get what passes for a majority impeach them and throw them out make sure they cant get re-elected and elect new ones …
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### Author:  [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2019, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/4 "2019-06-22T19:46:17Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#):
>
> As an outsider, I would ask: Isn’t it up to the people of Oregon, the voters? If they share your revulsion, they should vote them out at the first opportunity. Or has gerrymandering made that a naive hope?
The question is, as it often is, “how much harder should the dems have to work to pass their agenda than republicans”?
Should the democratic party need to hold enough seats to hold quorum? Currently, democrats hold 6/10 seats in the Oregon legislature. For quorum, they need to pick up another two, to hold a 2/3rds majority. Is that a reasonable bar for the democrats to have to clear?
As an outsider, I’m not blind to what is clearly a disgusting perversion of democracy, and just the latest in a long line of such from the republican party. You shouldn’t be either.
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### Author:  [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2019, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/5 "2019-06-22T19:52:18Z")
I’m quite concerned about this. Looks like my state is going to the be the test case for how far Trump/Barr/McConnell will go to hang on to power. In ordinary times, a governor could appeal to the federal government for assistance from the FBI and US federal marshals. But with the trifecta of law breakers in charge, I’m not sure which side they would send them to assist.
**KarlGauss** , I would agree with you that the best remedy would be to vote out the offenders. The problem is, Oregon (and Washington) are literally divided in half: To the west are the “libruls,” to the east are the “militias.” It is a very sharp divide. The people to the east are Trump supporters in far greater numbers than in the west. They _want_ this fight – and I suspect, so does Trump. They are going to continue to vote for these lawless legislators.
I guess we’ll soon learn how far the rule of law has already eroded, and how much further it will be allowed to go. Mr. Boquist and his cohorts are already certainly in violation of their oaths of office, and quite possible also the law. I wonder, does it still matter? Will they be held to account?
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### Author:  [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/6 "2019-06-22T19:59:32Z")
These quorum laws are the problem. Make a quorum 50% and you never have this issue in some states where the minority is leaving the state and dodging the Sergeant at Arms. The Dems have tried this in Texas, IIRC.
But doing things like closing the capitol just emboldens the crazies because you let them know that their threats work. Don’t close the capitol. Call out the national guard.
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### Author:  [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2019, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/7 "2019-06-22T20:34:01Z")
Also, which news outlets predicted this kind of development, and which news outlets spent a whole lot of time bitching about Antifa without mentioning the right’s increasing connection to extremist militias?
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2019, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/8 "2019-06-22T21:57:43Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#):
>
> As an outsider, I would ask: Isn’t it up to the people of Oregon, the voters? If they share your revulsion, they should vote them out at the first opportunity. Or has gerrymandering made that a naive hope?
How does one “vote out” a militia? I’m not clear on how you think that could or would be accomplished.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [June 22, 2019, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/9 "2019-06-22T21:58:48Z")
> [@UltraVires](#):
>
> These quorum laws are the problem. Make a quorum 50% and you never have this issue in some states where the minority is leaving the state and dodging the Sergeant at Arms. The Dems have tried this in Texas, IIRC.
>
> But doing things like closing the capitol just emboldens the crazies because you let them know that their threats work. Don’t close the capitol. Call out the national guard.
The problem isn’t quorum laws; it’s militias threatening the capitol. And it’s elected officials threatening violence to keep from doing their jobs.
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### Author:  [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2019, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/10 "2019-06-23T01:12:24Z")
Well, I think the threat by the Governor to “round 'em up!” was ill-considered, given the fact that the militias have played such a part in Oregon politics. I would have simply kept quiet, then exercised my authority as head of the executive branch if I found an opportunity to arrest two of the missing state senators. Threatening use of police powers never is a particularly cowing tactic where militia types are concerned.
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### Author:  [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2019, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/11 "2019-06-23T01:16:26Z")
Elected officials should be treated the some way as anyone else. If they threaten violence, or commit it, they pay the penalty.
Militias are not duly elected representatives of the people. Consequently, they don’t get to tell the government how to run, or tell any of us what to do. If they are breaking laws, they too need to pay the appropriate penalty for doing so.
Lock 'em up.
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### Author:  [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2019, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/12 "2019-06-23T02:14:27Z")
Glad someone started a thread on this. I do not understand the motives of these right wingers at all.
Oregon was going to pass cap and trade. The right freaked out because, from what I have read, this policy would according to them raise expenses on businesses and more generally for energy/fuel.
Don’t they see there is more to it than that? Climate change is real- are they math denialists? Incapable of following the evidence that points toward climate change? Ready to take the world on a Thelma and Louise cliff drive rather than face reality? Unable to grasp that climate change will result in more of the refugees they hate, and far larger expenses than cap and trade will cause?
That is kind of what it looks like to me, but I doubt those are right. Is there some deep rooted conspiracy theory at work? Is there a huge economic disparity between the two halves of the state? Lead in the water?
I truly don’t understand what people are so afraid of that the Law n Order Republicans are willing to flee and threaten to shoot cops. What’s the bugaboo here?
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### Author:  [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2019, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/13 "2019-06-24T20:58:23Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#):
>
> Elected officials should be treated the some way as anyone else. If they threaten violence, or commit it, they pay the penalty.
>
> Militias are not duly elected representatives of the people. Consequently, they don’t get to tell the government how to run, or tell any of us what to do. If they are breaking laws, they too need to pay the appropriate penalty for doing so.
>
> Lock 'em up.
This. If I threatened to shoot state troopers, I imagine there would be consequences as a result of my threats. An elected official who makes that threat should face the repercussions as well.
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2019, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/14 "2019-06-24T21:19:17Z")
The real problem here isn’t the militias themselves - it’s the Republican Party of Oregon [endorsing their behavior](https://twitter.com/Oregon_GOP/status/1142619631095439360), celebrating the fact that armed militia intimidated legislators of the opposing party.
This is a total repudiation of democracy as anything more than a tool that’s useful as long as it works in their favor. (Losing at the ballot box? Time to bring out the guns.) It should be condemned by anyone who believes in democracy.
BTW, I called the Republican National Committee to see if they were condemning this action. No, they weren’t - they weren’t going to say anything about it at all because each state’s GOP organization is independent of the national organization, and they were referring any questions about it to the Oregon GOP.
Bet that wouldn’t be their reaction if a state GOP condemned the treatment of children at the border. But that aside, nothing was preventing them from taking a stand on this action by a state organization sharing the GOP label. No, I think it’s fair to say the RNC has effectively condoned this action through their silence.
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2019, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/15 "2019-06-24T21:20:17Z")
> [@raventhief](#):
>
> This. If I threatened to shoot state troopers, I imagine there would be consequences as a result of my threats. An elected official who makes that threat should face the repercussions as well.
And they’re all Blue Lives Matter, until…
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2019, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/16 "2019-06-24T21:47:43Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#):
>
> The problem isn’t quorum laws; it’s militias threatening the capitol. And it’s elected officials threatening violence to keep from doing their jobs.
Then your Op is very confusing. It was mostly about quorums, and little about militia.
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### Author:  [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2019, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/17 "2019-06-24T21:50:11Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#):
>
> As an outsider, I would ask: Isn’t it up to the people of Oregon, the voters? If they share your revulsion, they should vote them out at the first opportunity. Or has gerrymandering made that a naive hope?
It’s not exactly Gerrymandered it’s just geography. You have the cities Portland, Eugene, and to a lesser extent Salem which are bastions of bleeding heart, tree hugging, save the gay whales liberalism, that would be right at home in San Francisco. But outside those cities especially on the Eastern part of the state you have political thought that matches the don’t tread on me, get the gum’ment out of my medicare, attitude of Idaho and Montana. More people live in the cities than in the rural regions so these conservatives are basically shut out of state government, and have built up a lot of resentment over Portland telling them what they can and can’t do.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/18 "2019-06-24T22:16:51Z")
[5 days now](https://apnews.com/77d573653ab7434b9e31b2b2ed3f359e).
> [@](#):
>
> Senate Republican leaders and the Democratic president are negotiating, the governor’s office said. Republican Senate leader Herman Baertschiger said in a statement that he’s in contact with the chamber’s leaders but that “no deal with the Democrats has been made.”
>
> The discussion has quickly morphed into something far beyond climate change.
I can’t wait to hear about how this all the fault of Democrats. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2019, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/19 "2019-06-24T22:26:53Z")
So… is there a warrant out for the arrest of the senator who threatened the police yet?
If not, _why the fuck not_?
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2019, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oregon-vs-right-wing-militias-round-2/835899/20 "2019-06-24T23:33:28Z")
[Negotiations are over](https://apnews.com/77d573653ab7434b9e31b2b2ed3f359e).
> [@](#):
>
> Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said Monday she won’t negotiate with Republicans who walked out to thwart landmark climate legislation, at least not until they return to the Capitol.
> [@](#):
>
> Brown blasted Baertschiger in an interview with The Associated Press, saying she refuses to negotiate with the Senate Minority Leader until he returns to the building.
>
> “If he wants to negotiate with the governor of the state of Oregon, he needs to be in the building,” she said. “Or at least be in the state of Oregon.”
>
> A spokeswoman for Baertschiger said he was unavailable to comment beyond the statement.
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