Hi Everyone,
Today's post will be about a topic I have touched on in a few other posts. I'm talking now of Domestic Terrorism. Remember how, in the late '60's and early '70's, radical left-wing groups became increasingly violent, and how they bombed buildings, universities and such? Well, today, the people doing most of the bombings, murders and so forth are radical right-wing groups. I didn't really want to get into a left-right sparring match on this blog. The blog is supposed to be issues-based rather than person- or group-based.
However, I feel this is worth noting, since there is a route one side of the debate has gone that the other side has not. This route entails commiting acts of violence in the service of an extremist ideology. Quite simply, this constitutes domestic terrorism. So before you react, favorably or not, listen to this full
reeder's analysis of what's been going on.
Let me say this upfront. Just being on the right is not what makes these perpetrators, which I will identify shortly, terrorists. It is not even holding ideas that are truthfully, illogical and hateful, that makes them terrorists. No. It is the action on such ideas that makes them terrorists. In America, it is not (or at least should not be) illegal to have certain ideas, however wrong or hateful. The point is that when one acts on the ideas, they will be prosecuted accordingly, and people will reject those ideas. This is what is so ingenious about the American system, but I digress.
Anyway, what are these incidents I refer to? There was the murder if Dr. Tiller two weeks ago. There was a man in Pittsburgh back in March who shot three police officers because he thought the government was coming to get his guns. Another man in Florida shot police officers for the same reason. A man up in Maine was arrested with dirty bomb materials. He was planning to assassinate the President. Another man was seen at a bank in St. George, Utah, saying that he "better get his money back" or he would kill the President. Just this week, a man walked in to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, with a rifle. He killed a guard who ultimately stopped him from going into the museum and killing others. Our thoughts and prayers are obviously with the deceased guard, Stephen Tyrone Johns.
Remember that Homeland Security report back in April that pointed to a rising tide in right-wing extremist terrorism? The republican and conservative camps were outraged. They saw a personal, political vendetta in the report. It was quite ironic that people who were the biggest supporters of the previous Administration's PATRIOT Act, who told us that "you don't need to worry if you don't have anything to hide," who shouted down any protest as "treason," as "aiding and abetting the terrorists," now protesting the findings of that same agency they helped create as "a DHS hit job." Oh ,the irony is so heavy. Shep Smith of Fox News, who has the uncomfortable habit of sometimes telling the truth (a habit that can get you fired from Fox News),
is concerned about the backlash against legitimate counterterror efforts.The report was only talking about radical groups, the people that would kill other people, attack establishments. People that would "target their own country." Now, we must ask, why would the conservative establishment, the Michelle Malkins and the Rush Limbaughs and such, be protesting the government trying to protect the people from terrorists. Isn't this what the conservatives were so concerned with? I mean, it's not like the people on the right would ever aid and abet the enemy.
This resurgence of anti-government extremism and terrorism is not a new phenomenon. In the early 1990's, there were a series of attacks against government agents and establishments. The Ruby Ridge standoff in Idaho in 1992, where ATF agents faced off against members of the Aryan Nation. The Waco Siege against the Branch Davidian cult in 1993. This series ultimately culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing of April 19, 1995, in which 169 men, women and children were killed. This was the most deadly attack on the US after 9/11. So this isn't new, and it can have very serious consequences.
The reason I bring this up is not so much because of the actions themselves. There have been rogue, violent acts by all ideologies. What makes it especially worthy of concern is what is going on in the media. The level of rhetoric against the government, against President Obama, against that doctor, George Tiller, by the right wing media outlets, Fox News and talk radio, has reached a tone of sheer alarmism.
These spokespeople, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck most notably, say things that aren't true in order to gin up highly emotional reactions in their followers. Rather than look at the issue, the candidate, and state whom or what they support and back it up with facts, they shout things that aren't true, guaranteed to gin up reactions of hatred against their targets. While they seldom say directly (although G. Gordon Liddy said of ATF agents "Kill the sons of bitches!") go out, attack or kill this person or these people, they seldom back off of their incendiary rhetoric. In fact, Rush Limbaugh claimed that the Holocaust Museum gunman was somehow "a leftist." This is the same man who believed that Obama is not an American citizen, and that he was created by "jew owners." So they refuse to back off of this rhetoric. If anything, they have been upping this level of reactionary talk ever since Barack Obama just announced. After he was elected, they have risen, or should I say sunk, to a new level.
This recent trend hasn't just included irresponsible talk radio shock jockies, or even irresponsible TV shills posing as journalists. Mainstream politicians have gotten in on this bad game. A collection of politicians on the right have been spreading falsehoods about Barack Obama, in particular, in order to foster fear and hatred among their constituents. They talk in extrememly polarizing terms to gin up emotional fire in their followers against their opponents. Rather than go through their ideas logically and come up with other ideas, they go straight to bullying people into submitting or making them into enemies not just of them, but of this country. They seek to deprive those who don't agree with them of that which they have always been granted.
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska are the most devout practitioners of this kind of politics. Remember Palin's "pro-America" remarks? Bachmann took it one step further. She said she would be interested to see an "expose" of who in the Congress was "pro-America or anti-America," and she implied that Barack Obama might be one of those Senators. Several people at the Governor's rallies last year shouted things like "terrorist," "traitor," "kill him." She said nothing, did nothing, apparently having few qualms about having ginned up violent rage against then-Senator Obama. The irony is that for all their lip service of this country's ideals, these two practice the very kind of divisive power brokering that represents the greatest threat to American ideals.
I recognize that free speech needs to be safeguarded in these cases. As I said at the top of the post, the true genious of the system is that when hateful ideas are brought to the surface, they are, in the end, rejected. My free speech rights were safe, well, relatively safe, when I criticized the previous Administration, so if someone has legitimate criticism of this Administration, it needs to be allowed. But when you have people on the radio, on the TV, and in public offices, saying these things about the legally elected President of the United States, and other law-abiding citizens of the United States, and these things happen, there needs to be responsibility.
Last year, a man walked into a Unitarian Church in Tennessee and shot several people because he wanted to "kill liberals." Several books by Sean Hannity and Bernard Goldberg were found in his possession later. He said he had wanted to kill the 100 people whom Goldberg said were screwing up America. Imagine the outrage all over the conservative media if it had been a democrat who had said he wanted to kill conservatives.
I realize, of course, that these radio, TV hosts and politicians, cannot be held responsible for every loon supporter out there who wished, or committed violence against an opponent. But when there is such a demonstrable pattern of reactionary attack, threats of violence, and acts of violence, and nothing is said or done to distance mainstream conservatives from this kind of lynch-mob mindset, but instead the opponents are blamed, something needs to be done. Somebody in the mainstream conservative establishment needs to stand up and say "No more of this. We're not going to take part in the politics of hate and violence." Someone there needs to step up and take charge of this before it gets out of hand, before someone else gets hurt or killed.
One last thing I would like to leave you with. The reason that Barack Obama is so successful is not because his predecessor was so unpopular. It was not because people were, for some reason, finally "ready" for a black President. It was because of his approach and communication. The crux of his message was that, for all of our differences, we were living in the "United States of America." For all of the demographic, cultural, political differences that the media played up, we were all in this together. This is everyone's country, this is everyone's future at stake. Obama had these ideas he communicated with the country, and the classy, intelligent way in which he communicated these ideas to the country were what made his campaign so successful, and what is serving him so well in the presidency.
If someone has a vision, regardless of ideology, the best thing is to think through it, how would it apply to you, how would it apply to others, and then communicate it to others. Engage other ideas, go through them logically, then determine why, on that basis, your ideas are the best. President Obama has proven again and again that he is in a class by itself when it comes to this. If conservatives have legitimate positions, perhaps they can take a page from Obama's book. But the way those on the right are going now, kicking out the Colin Powells, even the McCains, as Limbaugh wants to do, is truly a dark road that leads nowhere. But what everybody needs is for someone in that camp to step up and take responsibility, and stem this troubling tide. The nation awaits.
This is the Daily Reeder, Over&out.
