Those Evil People

5/1/20 NPR:

The potato giveaway was as close to a feel-good story as you get these days.

A farmer in rural Idaho had thousands of potatoes he couldn't sell because of the pandemic's disruptions to the supply chain. So, volunteers — including a guy with a dump truck — hauled them to nearby small towns where they were left in giant piles for residents to help themselves.

The farmer's crop didn't go to waste, families got free food, and the inspiring story was shared widely, even reaching Rachel Maddow this week on MSNBC. "There's a lot wrong in the world that we cannot fix yet, but people are really trying every day, every way," Maddow said....

The group's leader, Eric Parker, notoriously trained a rifle on U.S. agents during the 2014 Bunkerville standoff in Nevada. After two federal trials that portrayed Parker as a domestic terrorist, prosecutors couldn't win felony convictions. In the end, Parker pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor. Today, he's running for the Idaho state senate as a Republican.

"The reason so many pounds of potatoes were saved was our member and his dump truck," Parker said by phone. "We're not looking necessarily for a pat on the back but, you know, it would've been nice to mention."

The awkwardness over credit for the potato drop shows the uneasy place of militias in civic and community life, especially during the coronavirus pandemic. Extremism watchdog groups say the crisis exposes the dual face of the self-described Patriot movement: one day members are do-gooders, the next, they're toting guns at a state capitol in violation of stay-at-home orders they deem unconstitutional.

That you might believe differently from the left about the government's efforts and do good is just unacceptable.