re: What was the country’s reaction to the 1993 Waco siege when that was going on?

I remember it well. The siege, along with the Gulf War, were covered in real time -- which were the first time we'd seen that kind of coverage.

When it came to cults, people remembered the mass suicide at Jonestown. Koresh looked like he might be another Jim Jones, so the general feeling was that the ATF was right to be there.

However, that was when it was just a waiting game. The news was very confusing as to how the actual shoot out and fire started. Afterwards, the sense was that the ATF screwed the pooch -- but there was also a sense that the Branch Davidians were some dangerous crazies who were suicidal, armed to the hilt, and child molesters to boot.

At that time, the country was more unified. Rush and GG Liddy were in their prime, but Fox News wasn't created until 3 years later and there was no social media, so the schism in the conservative movement had not yet happened. Waco was red meat to Rush and, especially, Liddy, so it did create some energy and accelerated the growth of the tea party/freedom caucus movement.

Few realized that at the time. I don't think it played a huge part in the 1994 congressional elections -- although i could be wrong -- but we definitely saw the beginning of an uncompromising confidence and certainty on the right with Newt Gingrich and the Contract with America.

As for McVey, he can rot in hell.

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I agree they could’ve/should’ve apprehended him at any time prior to the siege/assault but painting Koresh as some folksy and unusual pastor is bizarrely disingenuous.

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You recall things I don't.

The governments overreaction should have put people in high places in Federal Prison.

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In 1993 people weren't inundated with information like we are now. You mostly just knew what was reported on the nightly news or in the newspaper.

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But it wasn't just the network news, the coverage of him being a sexual deviant was on all the talk shows from Inside Edition, 60 minutes, Oprah, Nightline, Dateline, Geralod, Entertainment Tonight... I was at LSU at the time and the coverage of the story was everywhere, but it was same thing over and over.

We also had the world trade bombing in 1993

Everyone trusted the government and the news. The Davidians were bad people and needed to be exterminated.

This is why when Demolition Man starts off with 1997 Los Angeles being a war zone it seemed believable.

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There were issues with the Davidians but the ATF tucked up by trying to make a media event out of the raid. They should have grabbed Koresh off site and done a surround and call out of the Compound.

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that's kind of the whole point, I don't think many are trying to portray them as a fun loving, misunderstood hunting club KOA but the whole thing could have been "defused" without incident numerous times, the Feds got the show they wanted, our government murdered many innocent non-combatant citizens that day, premeditateively, and intentionally

As a kid I remember all the talk of him doing bad things to kids and really pushing that narrative. It was all over the news and I remember feeling like the government did the right thing trying to get those kids out.

It wasn’t until I researched it many years later that I found out the reason it happened was over modifying guns and nothing to do with him and the kids. Propaganda at its finest.

I don’t disagree he did a lot of the things to the kids that he was accused of and all the shite he did with the new light shite. However it had nothing to do with the governments legal case on him.