Politics and Government Professor Lane Crothers argues that a recent acquittal of militiaman Ammon Bundy by a sympathetic Oregon jury should frighten all Americans.
In his op-ed in the New York Daily News, published October 28th, Crothers argues that the jury “has decided that because its members do not like the federal government, the politics of personal outrage matter more than the rule of law.” This case, he adds, is particularly disturbing in the context of the recent Trump announcement that he may not accept the results of the election.
Crothers is a professor of politics and government at Illinois State University. He is the author of six books, including Globalization and American Popular Culture, now in its third edition, and Rage on the Right: The American Militia Movement from Ruby Ridge to Homeland Security. From August 2015 to May 2016, he served as the Fulbright Bicentennial Chair in American Studies in the Department of World Cultures at the University of Helsinki in Helsinki, Finland. His work focuses on the ways the values, ideals, and social practices of American political culture shape U.S. policies both in the United States and overseas.
