Right Wing Extremism: Alive And Well
(AP)
In April, she got an earful from conservative bloggers and radio pundits after DHS issued a nine-page report, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," which warned of the potential for violence from rightwing fringe groups.
In part, the critics' distemper was connected to language which they said unfairly singled out returning veterans and conservatives. Here's what the report said:
"Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists. DHS/I&A (Office of Intelligence and Analysis) is concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities."
Napolitano soon backtracked from that particular paragraph and sought to defuse the mini-controversy by making the larger point that department's job is to monitor the risks of domestic violent extremism.
"We don't have the luxury of focusing our efforts on one group; we must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or homegrown and regardless of the ideology that motivates its violence," she said.
But in the last month, the nation has been rocked by two instances of violence committed by suspects linked to the sorts of extremist movements to which the report pointed.
Scott Roeder, the man being held in custody for the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller, was a member of the anti-government group, the Montana Freemen, according to an interview his father granted to the Topeka Capital-Journal after the arrest.
And on Wednesday, Stephen Tyrone Johns, who worked as a guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., died after James von Brunn, an 88-year-old white supremacist and military veteran, reportedly opened fire. Police are questioning von Brunn, and his motivations are yet unclear. But on his Web site, van Brunn touts a book he wrote as "a new hard hitting expose of the JEW CONSPIRACY to destroy the White gene-pool."
Connecting the dots is guaranteed to be a contentious, if not fraught exercise. But as the news filtered out, some liberal bloggers did not hesitate to draw conclusions.
Guard Killed In Holocaust Museum Shooting
Shooting Suspect Wrote Of "Holocaust Hoax"
Shooting Highlights Growth Of Hate Groups
Blog: Napolitano Prescient on Extremism
Photos: D.C. Museum Shooting
The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen put it this way:
"The Republican hysteria over the DHS report -- which was, by the way, initiated by a Bush administration official -- was always based more on a partisan scheme than reality, but the incessant complaints look especially misguided today," he wrote.
For Matthew Yglesias, the grisly aftermath of the Tiller and Holocaust Museum shootings left little ambiguity about where to look.
"I hope that everyone who mau-maued the Department of Homeland Security for expressing concern about this kind of thing feel appropriately ashamed of themselves," wrote Yglesias.
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What was the goal of the Author? Did you hope to start a big battle between Liberals and Consevatives? Or, did you hope to make a lot of money from your article? Or, maybe both? Whatever motive you had for writing this article, if one Liberal harms a Christian or Conservative or one Conservative harms a Liberal after having read your article. Their blood is on your hands. Sleep well.
Lloyd, The thing that I noticed about your post was that you provided no verification that what you were saying is true.
I have been a Christian who adheres to the principles of Conservatism for years. I was active in my church and never missed an election. Not only have I never belonged to a right-wing extreme group, no one I have met has either. I have lived in Indiana, North Carolina, Kentucky and Florida and have never run into these "dangerous extremists" Wonder why, since you believe that they are all around us. Please provide all of us with a list of these groups that you have known personally. Please, educated me.
Who do you plan to start reindoctrinating? Obvious extreme groups who practice to overturn the Government? If you can't find them, who then? Will you silence people like Rush, Sean, Glenn, Ann and a multitude of others? Will you "silence" them in anyway necessary? How about everyone you catch in Church? Your associates have already started burning down Churches all over American and at lease one preacher had been shot to death while preaching in his Church. I am not saying that you belong to that brutal group but I want you to see how easy it is to make assumptions and take action based on nothing .
If a person believes in the rights laid out for them in the Constitution, that does not make them an extremist. If they love the Lord, that does not make them murderers. If they want smaller government and love their freedom, that does not make them wing-nuts, nut-jobs, trailer trash, hillbillies or red-necks.
Be sure that you know who you are going to silence. You need the proper validation that this group is indeed extremists (not your neighbors opinion.) And be sure that you don't let politions and the MSM talk you into doing something which you will surely regret and from which they (not you) will benefit.
You seem to be fairminded so if this post doesn't apply to you. I hope that it will be read by both left and right-wing extremists.
What you are doing is criminal and very dangerous. You are engaged in turning one group against another.
Let me point out that there is a contuim of Repub/Cons and Dems/Libs. On one end of the contimuim are Extreme Liberals, on the other end are extreme conservatives. In the middle are the millions of Dems and Cons (Republicans) and Independents who love being American, love their country, Mom and apple pie.
The extremes are talked about and written out as though they run the country, but that is not true. It does serve to Governments purpose to brainwash the Americans and the World that the Extremist have taken over. It is a very sick policy and very dangerous. Lets start thinking logically and let the propaganda go.
Right wing extremism is definitely alive and well. It is also growing at an alarming rate. It is no surprise, then, that the none-too-liberal Janet Napolitano is using her authority as head of DHS to attempt to get an assessment of how widespread and dangerous this faction is. If it turns out to be as bad as some of us contributing on this thread believe it already to be, then all those measures devised and implemented by the Bush Administration, including the "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive" His Bushness issued in May of 2007 can be applied here. The Supreme court bought in on all of it and it is now begining to look like we may actually have a real justification to put these measures to use. I wouldn't think of applying something as constitutionally questionable and morally ambiguous as the National Security Directive under any other circumstances but it's long past time to shut these neo-Fascist maniacs down hard and permanently.
But before we go too far down that road, I have a little information to share:
We have a neighbor, lives three or four houses down the street from me. He's an electrician by trade and works hard and dilligently. Supports a wife and thre children. He is also superficially the exemplar of every right-wing nastiness you can think of and lots that you don't. Yet he is firm and fair with his children and has raised them very well. He is a passionate opponent of gay rights but when he caught some deliquent defacing a sign on my front yard that supported a ballot measure supoporting g@y marriage, he ripped the kid a new a--hole, made him replace the sign and demanded he apologize to me. He has a definite nineteenth century attitude towards people of color but when a black apprentice was harrassed by another white journeyman, he threatened to have the white-boy fired. If you are familiar with union shops then you know that is an all but impossible task - yet he was willing to try. The man is well meaning and patriotic - and I mean that in every possible positive connotation. We don't visit much but when we do we have a good time. In spite of his politics, I like the guy.
I mention all this to point out that with few exceptions the right-wing underbelly of America are not necessarily one dimensional cartoon villians. Many are - too many, and they need to be dealt with in the harshes possible terms. But we also need to avoid over generalizing. Recognize the threat many pose but taking an overly broad brush approach to the problem puts us in danger of being the very thing we hate about our rightist whacks.
Posted by gvmelibertyorgvmedeath
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There's the convoluted "thinking" of a highly-partisan placater of rightwing extremism, since disagreeing with anyone over POLITICAL POLICIES has NOTHING to do with RACISM, only political ideology.
You would have learned that in polysci 101.
Posted by gvmelibertyorgvmedeath
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More absolute PROOF of absurdity from an uneducated placater of rightwing extremism, railing against colleges and universities of higher learning.
I'm sure you'd advocate a solid diet of foxnewsus propagandus as well as conservitard talk radio of the likes of racists rush and savage to get your kind of "truth."
When a college professor gets you to THINK on your own for a change and not go along with group "think", it certainly isn't brainwashing as you wrongly stated, since there's many ways at looking at the same problem -- not just one.
Rightwing extremism is alive and well in America!
Posted by gvmelibertyorgvmedeath
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No doubt, and your constant gibberish condoning rightwing extremism proves it!
And "vast majority" is very misleading - he was not "overwhelmingly" elected and his approval ratings drop daily!
Posted by cottonn
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Whatever.......but after your little rant attacking my "left wing'd socialistic rhetoric," one must ask what exactly it was that forced you to say it was "SOCIALISTIC," or even "LEFT WING'D?"
That's exactly what I hear from the multi-millionaire talking heads on the foxnewsus propagandus network as well as rush, calling anyone with opposing viewpoints names just like you did. President Obama is no more a "socialist" than either you or me, and has actually moved quite more to the center-right since taking the oath of office than those on the left would like. Just because I didn't like anything that the WARmongering $5 Trillion bush mistake did, certainly doesn't make me "left wing" or even a Dem since I don't belong to any party.
Unfortunately, the south has given rise to much hatred in this country since before even the Civil WAR, and there are still some displaying the "stars and bars," wearing the KKK sheets, and spewing racial hatred in the most biased ways as they continue their fight forever. Maybe not you, but I lived in the south long enough to see much hatred and WHITE SUPREMACY in action, and rightwad extremist groups are growing in numbers and epithets are spewed against every racial group in America. YOU can keep your eyes closed, or your head in the sand, but it is still happening and growing even stronger ever since America elected its first black president in 2008.
Sorry, but I certainly beg to disagree with you totally, since Barack Obama was elected by a vast majority of 10 million votes more than mcpain, and an electoral college landslide of OVER two to one in a severely divided country. That's a VAST MAJORITY in 21st century America, since Clinton didn't even win a majority in 1992 and bush lost the popular vote by 500K, and was installed by a right-wing SCOTUS -- hardly elected!
Right wing extremism is alive and well in America!
You are right you are confused ,and ignorance breeds hate.
You can read Sangers own words for yourself. Google "The Birth Control Review", Sangers newsletter. She and Hitler corisponded on a regular basis. She encouraged him regurarly on his eugenics "research and "medical research" he did on those in his camps. This is a matter of public record. Again, like I told actornaught, facts are no longer taught in the schools so you have to do research on your own.
I hate no one. I have taught my children to hate no one. I, on the other hand have been accused of hating by the "tollerent" who don't even know me.