Tag Archives: Breaking News

From the whacko domestic terrorists to the pundits that spurred them on, recent events that have painted a picture of just how radical the Right Wing has become.

When I said a few months back that the Right Wing had lost its mind, I had no idea that they had lost all sense of reality as well. There has been a recent string of domestic terror attacks in this country directed towards African-Americans, Jews and the Pro-Choice movement. One example, is the shooting in Binghamton, New York a few months back. Another example, is the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller by an anti-abortion activist and most recently, the shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum that left an elderly security guard dead.

These events are obviously not typical for the Right, and were carried out by nut-jobs who would have latched on to some conspiracy theory no matter what it was. Yet, these guys appear to have been egged on by right wing pundits like Bill O’Reilly, who’s slogan “George Tiller the Baby Killer” and repeated broadcasts directed towards the man, added gasoline to the fire. The Pro-Life movement as well surely contributed, with their endless vigils outside Tiller’s clinic and repeated attempts to glue the doors shut as well as a series of other acts of violence including an incident that left George Tiller shot in both arms. Many in the Anti-Abortion movement (Pro-Life seems to have no meaning now) have distanced themselves from the murder of Tiller, including O’Reilly who tried to claim he was a victim of a Left Wing smear campaign (so self-centered, a man died for God’s sake). Others praised the incident as a “miracle” and have even used the tragedy to score cheap political points.

Now that the Tiller family has announced that they will be closing the clinic the whack jobs will start to come out of the wall. How much you want to bet, that the shooter, Scott Roeder, will be elevated to saint hood by the Anti-Abortion movement. Even as this man warns of more domestic terror attacks, the Right seems cautiously joyous at the death of Tiller, a man who served his country and was gunned down in his own church. Seems pretty hypocritical doesn’t it?

In regards to the most recent shooting, at the Holocaust Museum, there is widespread evidence that the killer, James von Brunn was a Right-Wing extremist. His website culminated an almost Extreme Right-Wing Manifesto. He apparently has lived a life of mistreatment he believes to be at the hands of the Jews. He denies the Hollocaust and believes that Obama was “created by Jews”. There is evidence of a strong pro-gun stance as well. The note left in his car before the shooting said “if you want my weapons, this is how you’ll get them.” There were also plans for numerous other attacks he had planned, including one on an unknown member of Congress.

A man this extreme, of course cannot be part of the Right, claims Rush Limbaugh, who went so far as to call the man a Leftist. Unfortunately for Limbaugh, von Brunn had a list of “character shapers”, all of them on the radical right. There are even quotes to support his affiliations: “[Right-Wing] websites illuminate the problems that Aryans face. Each day new alarms are sounded, adding more fuel to the raging fire.” He also remarked hatred of Marxists, Leftists and Jews. Sounds like a Liberal to me? If you ever wanted proof that Rush is living in a netherworld between fantasy and down right self-absorbed insanity, now you have it! In other words, he’s either a moron, or he’s openly lying to and deceiving his loyal audience of suckers.

Remember a month or so back when the Department of Homeland Security warned of eminent domestic terrorism from Right-Wing extremists? The pundits at Fox News and other like-minded loud mouths seized the opportunity to accuse Obama of manufacturing a plan to destroy the Republican Party. They look pretty stupid today don’t they? Their hot air spewing ways now seem exposed for what they actually are: opportunistic charlatanism.

Nobel Prize Winner and Soapblox favorite, Paul Krugman, wrote recently in the NY Times, that he believes the recent domestic terrorism is directly linked to the Right Wing media saying “supposedly respectable news organizations and political figures are giving aid and comfort to dangerous extremism.” I couldn’t agree more. The past 30 years witnessed a Republican Party that used hatred to cling to political power. Hatred of other races (Blacks, Jews, Latinos, Homosexuals) and fear of a secular liberal government that supposedly wants to take your guns and kids away, all culminated in the Conservative social philosophy. Meanwhile they pushed a free market policy that made the rich richer, while the poor rank and file Republicans were blinded by the rage and fear. The later pundits of the 90s and 2000s used this old code and amped it up a few notches. This whipped their listeners into a frenzy, which translated into higher ratings and political influence.

The problem with using hate is that it leads to violence. It has led many so-called Christians to support a pointless war in Iraq and anti-abortion activists to bomb clinics and murder doctors. Thou shall not kill? It’s ok if it’s in the name of God. Seems a bit like the radical rhetoric of the Muslim extremists doesn’t it?

Like an angry mob, the Right Wing has shot itself in the foot. The whackos came out of the woodworks and in turn, have turned the political center away from their cause. It harkens back to the Left Wing movements of the sixties, with its rhetoric of revolution, allowed the development of crazies like Charles Manson, the S.L.A. and the Weather Underground to taint the movement as a whole. This leads me to believe that we are indeed in the midst of a great political realignment that will stand for a generation.

Today we stand between tragedy and hope. The horrifying events of the past few months may be the harbinger of things to come. It may be a time of great uncertainty and instability, of domestic terrorism and war. Or it may be a time when America once again found its true potential and turned its back on the politics of hatred and fear, leaving the radical nuts to wander off into the wilderness, festering in the coldness of their misguided hearts. While this great nation as a whole heads away from the fringes of the Right, towards the greener pastures of hope and prosperity