Jeff Guinn is the author of “Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and a Legacy of Rage,” from which this op-ed is adapted.
Thirty years ago on a barren hill in McLennan County, Tex., just outside Waco, a 51-day standoff between the FBI and a religious group known as the Branch Davidians concluded in a conflagration that killed most of the Davidians besieged in their Mount Carmel base, including more than 20 children.
Outrage ensued. In particular, fatal decisions made by key FBI agents — and by leaders of the earlier bloody engagement between the Davidians and agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms that initiated the siege — were interpreted by a substantial number of Americans as evidence of collaborative federal malfeasance rather than egregious individual ineptitude.
In the three decades since, this belief has festered into persistent right-wing rage. Horrific episodes such as the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol are, in great part, directly linked to Waco. As one step toward moving past the internecine divide that plagues us today, it is critical to understand how events from 1993 continue being used to inflame anti-government paranoia.
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In the months immediately following the Mount Carmel tragedy, a McLennan County deputy complained that “Waco has drawn every nut from all over the world before, during, and after the siege, and they’re still coming.” Waco-obsessed “nuts” were considered relatively harmless until April 19, 1995, when militant Timothy McVeigh commemorated the Mount Carmel tragedy’s second anniversary by blowing up a federal building in Oklahoma City. The death toll was 168, including 19 children. McVeigh, who had spent some of the Mount Carmel siege in Waco hawking anti-government bumper stickers, said after his arrest: “I didn’t define the rules of engagement in this conflict. … You put back in [the government’s] faces exactly what they’re giving out.”
Despite their immutable belief that the government deliberately set out to destroy them, surviving Branch Davidians unanimously deplored any form of retaliatory violence. One, Clive Doyle, described the Oklahoma City bombing as “a terrible shame. … People have likened Waco to the Alamo, and said it was a wake-up call for Americans about their government, but wise people don’t go out and rectify that with terrorist acts.” But the wishes of the Branch Davidians had no influence on self-appointed avengers claiming to act on their behalf.
Armed militias proliferated in the United States, and many members referred to Waco as their inspiration. Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Center on Extremism, said “the [influence] of Waco for the far right in the U.S. was the most important outcome of Waco.”
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By 1999, research by the Southern Poverty Law Center indicated that the number of organized militias in the United States had reached 217. That dwindled to 131 during George W. Bush’s two terms as president, when Republican Party leaders had adopted the dissidents’ revulsion with the federal government as their own.
Share this articleShareBut Waco-related resentment still simmered. It was in evidence on April 19, 2000, at the seventh annual memorial program at Mount Carmel. Branch Davidian supporters had raised money to construct a small sanctuary on the site. The service was led by Alex Jones, who had recently founded Infowars. Jones declared: “Never again. No more Wacos in America. The next time a Waco cranks up, if I can get there, we’re not going to be building a church.”
Additionally goaded by the burgeoning influence of the internet — at any hour of every day, it was now possible to watch, hear or read lurid descriptions of alleged federal criminality ranging from basic corruption to exotic perversions — the number of militia and organized anti-government groups skyrocketed in 2009, after Barack Obama became president. According to Southern Poverty Law Center research, it rose to 542 by year’s end and peaked at 1,360 in 2012.
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Anti-government paranoia was often encouraged by right-wing officials. During the summer of 2015, the U.S. Army scheduled two months of training exercises in some southwestern states. Conspiracy theories abounded: The military was going to confiscate citizens’ guns, and arrest Obama’s political foes and place them in concentration camps; Obama would subsequently suspend the Constitution and remain in office indefinitely. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) ordered the state’s National Guard to shadow all Army activities within his state’s borders to assure Texans that “their safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed.” An article in the New York Times traced the paranoia directly back to 1993: “The specter of Waco has not faded.”
The focus of American militias changed soon afterward. A 2020 analysis by the ADL noted that during the 2016 presidential campaign, “the greater part of the militia movement became [Donald] Trump supporters, viewing Trump as an anti-establishment outsider candidate.” New enemies were needed. According to the ADL, “the first substitute enemy to emerge were the left-wing protesters who took to the streets immediately following Trump’s inauguration.” Next came antifa, “state-level gun control measures, state-level pandemic-related restrictions and Black Lives Matter protests.”
A February report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office said the number of open FBI domestic terrorism investigations more than quadrupled from 1,981 in fiscal year 2013 to 9,049 in fiscal year 2021.
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Throughout, “Waco is the one [cause] that has continued,” says Southern Poverty Law Center analyst Rachel Carroll Rivas. A matter of great concern is the growing number of average citizens — people who aren’t in militias — who are now caught up in the anti-government paranoia Waco has spawned. Rivas concludes: “How do regular people get pulled in? That’s why Waco is notable in this moment.”
What can be done? For those still open to accepting facts, here is a critical one to consider: Both ATF and the FBI learned from their fatal errors in Waco, and the proof is that in the 30 years since, there have been occasional sieges of property held by anti-government or religious groups, and none have resulted in anything remotely approaching the disaster at Mount Carmel. Objectively studying history affords us all an opportunity to learn from past tragedies rather than misrepresenting them as something even more sinister.
Of course, there will always be those who cling to conspiracy theories as the basis of true patriotism. Trump’s recent decision to hold his first 2024 presidential campaign rally in Waco was a clear signal to his anti-government worshipers.
Before his death in 2000, McLennan County sheriff Jack Harwell offered a succinct analysis that still pertains: “I don’t think that Waco has become a symbol. It’s become an excuse for these people to do some things they wanted to do anyway.”
Thirty years after Mount Carmel burned, that remains Waco’s legacy of rage.
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