and yet still for privately operated armed forces operated by MAGA Republicans to be a terrifyingly significant development
MAGA people having the ability to enact violence is terrifying, period.
But they already have that- as police, as governors, as other agents of the State. That is much more terrifying than a bunch of assholes in lifted pickups, because I can legally shoot those assholes if they come for my trans nephew, but I can’t if they do it as the police when Red states criminalize being LGBT+, or when they start arresting people for having or seeking abortions.
And to be clear, this Republican is not talking about operating a private militia in the way you seem to be implying, his entire plan is to deputize them under the (already MAGA) Nassau County Sheriff Anthony LaRocco. Literally making them cops. The article is likening it to a private militia, because that’s what MAGA cops are.
I think the fundamental difference is that you seem to think the US government isn’t still the slave-holding, genocidal government that it was when it was founded. I do.