Three right wing terrorist murders in two weeks; but maybe more

[Bucky]

My sister, the lawyer, last night was telling me about two cases of two different right wing nuts who've gone violent under the stress of life in the United States--one of whom ended up killing both his estranged wife and himself. Since neither case involves shooting someone in an explicitly political context, they weren't reported as right wing violence, but in both cases the perpetrator was spewing paranoid right wing talking points before launching into their violence.

Still, neither case is counted along with the assassination of the abortion clinic doctor in Kansas, the religious fanatic murdering of an army recruiter in Arkansas, or the freeper supremacist shooting at the Holocaust Museum just one mile from the White House. I wonder how many other acts of violence inspired by right wing lunacy fly beneath the media radar because the fanatic in question acted out his political desperation in a place less defined by politics.

The problem is being called terrorism, but at the heart of the problem is the intentional, socially irresponsible hysteria promoted by conservatives, which then bleeds out into the actions of desperate, marginal people who listen to their hysterics. Violence will always occur along the fringes of a diverse, well armed society. But the voices in the political leadership class, Democratic and Republican, liberal and conservative, influence how everyone in the public, including these marginal stressed out people, sees their options in life. Voices that promote desperation and a siege mentality encourage violence, even if legally they aren't really accountable for it.

The thing we're not hearing in the coverage of the political violence just now bubbling up along the margins of our public life is that it is often the direct result of the hysterics and name calling "loyal opposition" activities of Republicans and conservatives. I put that in quotes because however much the Glen Becks and John Boehner and their peers may profess loyalty to our forms of government, their form of rabble rousing opposition to Democratic policies is decidedly disloyal--a literal betrayal--of the public who listens to their words.

[get the red out]

1. Getting people scared of the "boogy man"

It has benefited the right-wing people who have various levels of power. The right-wing ministers have their people scared into following their directions, as they preach this stuff from the pulpit (like the Minister in Louisville that scheduled the Church service to celebrate July 4th and asked people to bring their guns). It keeps the vile Republican politicians in power, they being completely in the pockets of corporate interests and against anything that is helpful to common people (tea-bagging; protests against "taxes" but the people protesting were getting tax breaks under Obama). And the corporate interests who remain at the top of the food chain through their ownership of the Republican party and through that, the Republican party's branch organization, right-wing religion.

I am hoping people wake up to what hate posing as free speech, being spewed with nothing to counter it over airwaves belonging to huge corporations, is doing to our country. There is no political opposition now, just hate. The decision the Republicans made in 2004 to simply try to please their most loyal base is having serious consequences now. The Republican Party is quickly becoming the party of the skin-heads and dooms-day cultists. I don't think the relationship between the traditional country-club set and the militia is a match made in heaven; sooner or later something has to blow in that organization. Or maybe the country-club guys are all going to call themselves "independents" now, until their less balanced creations cause enough real damage to lives and property to gain permanent residence in a Federal facility.

[cali]

2. The murder of the army recruiter was unconnected to either the American right wing or left wing.

[Kaleva]

6. It was politicaly motivated and he is American citizen

[cali]

17. he was an American citizen who had associated himself with Fundamentalist Islam

[Bucky]

19. sounds right wing to me

Were you thinking this was a left wing gun nut, religious fundamentalist?

[Occam Bandage]

23. It was RW, but unconnected to the American right-wing movement. nt

[KharmaTrain]

3. Tough Times...

Remember, during the Depression was the golden age of the roving vigilante...the Bonnie & Clydes and Dillingers...rouges who took advantage of the poverty of the times to become cult heroes. There a bit of a parallel to what's going on...

It can't be underestimated the fall this country has taken in the past 4 years. Nearly 10% (or let's be honest...nearly 17%) of people are out of work, others have seen their savings and investments vanish...prices continue to rise and times get tougher and tougher. This atmosphere can't help but breed anger and frustration...some that is going to be directed toward other and manifest themselves in different ways.

Overall, we're seeing a rise in murders and violence and much of it goes unreported...they end up as domestic disputes where the stresses of these times are coming out in very ugly ways.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

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[happygoluckytoyou]

4. GOP...sadly going the way of the KKK... to become a small group of sad guys

[Historic NY]

5. Even Faux News is beginning to see.......

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x322963

[Politicalboi]

14. now they are calling for Shep to be fired

http://www.jabberwonk.com/flinker.cfm?cliid=1bx815

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. Like my friend who honestly believes Obama is the Antichrist.

He is scared to death and you can see why - if you really, really believed that it would scare you silly.

[moggie]

12. Some people believed Bush was the Antichrist

Part of the culture shock I experienced as a Brit reading US left-of-centre websites during the Bush era came from realising that some of the people referring to Bush or Cheney as the Antichrist actually meant it literally. I'd originally taken it to be purely figurative, and I'm sure that's how most meant it, but a significant number were deadly serious. And yet... where were all the lefty attempts to kill people connected to the regime? Conspicuously absent.

[JDPriestly]

25. I thought of the antichrist bit as a funny sort of joke.

That antichrist business has been bantered about for over a thousand years. No intelligent person could possibly take it seriously. But that's the problem. We are dealing with people who can't criticize their own thinking. They don't think for themselves. They just repeat what they hear. They have little if any analytical ability. It's unfortunate, but some people just never learned critical thinking skills. And that deficit is worsened by the fact that resort to being people of "faith," true believers in something, whatever it is that they choose on some irrational basis. It's OK to "believe" things you can't prove as long as you are honest about the facts that a) you can't prove those beliefs (you choose to believe them because they are useful to you) b) you could be wrong, very wrong. In addition, it's OK to "believe" things as long as within your mind, you reserve the option of changing your belief if facts suggest that you should. Extremists do not condition their "beliefs" on these facts. They "believe" without conditions. That's what gets people into trouble.

[bdamomma]

8. these actions should be taken seriously and these people

and organizations that they below to should be investigated. And those who are initiating their hate speeches or propaganda like FOX news or right wing radio shows should realize they are fueling the fires.

[leftyladyfrommo]

9. Oh, yea. These guys really belive this stuff

and think they are helping the world by doing the awful things they do.

They should alwarys be taken seriously. They can be really dangerous. They have proven that over and over again. Just look at Oklahoma City.

[SteppingRazor]

10. Don't forget about the recent rash of cop killings by right-wingers:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-sweeney/how-many-more-cops-must-d_b_191894.html

[defendandprotect]

11. Absolutely, and long has the corporate-press ignored the political violence America

has suffered over decades -- from JFK coup on people's government to

election 2000 and election 2004.

The only way that the right can rise to power is thru political violence ...

we saw that with Hitler and we've seen it repeated in America. We've watched

our CIA use political violence all over the globe to knock off leaders they

thought too "liberal" -- and without doubt, the CIA has brought those tactics

home.

Additionally, the CIA was financing the campaigns of American Senators/

Reps -- from Gerald Ford to Strom Thurmond -- and more.

If we are to survive we need a total and complete house cleaning -- and it begins

with ending campaign fund BRIBERY.

[Politicalboi]

13. But only one is named a terrorist

http://www.jabberwonk.com/flinker.cfm?cliid=o3vtt

The guy who shot the soldiers is the "terrorist" because he's Muslim.

[jeremyfive]

16. And These Far Right Lunatics Want More Guns!

Isn't America sufficiently terrorized by these lunatics already? We see what they need guns for--to terrorize the nation.

If the Repugnant Party loses, their thugs shoot up the nation.

[zion1501]

18. What a moron, he targeted FOX News

"(I)nvestigators found a notebook with information about six to nine locations in the D.C. area, including the National Holocaust Museum. Other locations on the list included the U.S. Capitol, the White House, the Washington Post, and a FOX News location."

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/national/090610Shots_Fired_AT_Holocaust_Museum

What a moron, he targeted FOX News. Isn't he suppose to be a right wing terrorist? Maybe not.

[unpossibles]

22. concern noted

nice try. He is a nut and targeted some right wing people as well as left wing. He hated the NeoCons, and possibly FOX's support of the NeoCons, because they supported Israel. He was also a white supremacist and a rabid nationalist and is "right wing" regardless of whatever other things he was.

Political alignment is not always cut and dried and can be confusing: there are right wing and/or conservative people who are Democrats, mainly because as a nation we tend to be skewed to the right when compared to the rest of the world. In other words, despite the statements that someone like Obama or Kerry is "teh most leftist liberal person evar!" the reality is they are far more centrist than liberal. I see someone like Kucinich as being more outright liberal than the vast majority of Democratic politicians, so the media's hyperbole is meaningless.

Anyway, my only point is that this guy was definitely anti-government, and that the rabid right wing are often not fans of other parts of the right wing, just as there is division on the left and in the middle.

Welcome to DU, btw.

[anonymous171]

24. No, just no. nt

[Jade Fox]

20. They're like addicts deprived of their drug.....

As long as Bush/Cheney were in power the Right-wing crazies didn't have to face any sort of reality. Now all they have left is their wacky fantasies in a world that has decided to give the power back to those with a measurable amount of sanity.

With Limbaugh etc. en-flaming the Right-wing true believers, I think we will see more violence. The good news is these people will be exposed for what they are: sick and monstrous. (Don't think Fox News/Hannity/O'Reilly aren't pretty nervous right now. They know they are culpable). The bad news: more people will die.

[oxbow]

21. You should keep on those stories (or at least someone should). It's lookin like a trend now...

The relationships between the belief systems of these guys and their idols is scarily easy to document.

[Ztarbod]

26. Seems to me that both left and right promote hysteria

Unfortunately, statements like "the problem is the intentional, socially irresponsible hysteria promoted by conservatives" ignores reality and simply caters to lunatics. This statement has no basis in fact, or at least no facts are presented to support such a conclusion.

Both liberals and conservatives have the appearance of promoting hysteria in the quest for power.(just my opinion because I am not going to take the time to dig out the facts, it just isn't worth it)

[Hannah Bell]

28. kinda negates the rest of your post, then. your factless opinion isn't worth more than the factless

statement you decry.


"you don't have any facts! (neither do i...)"

[threadkillaz]

27. Von Brunn was a registered Democrat in Maryland

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&safe=off&q=von%20brunn%20registered%20democrat&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn

[ColbertWatcher]

29. Joe Lieberman was one in Connecticut. n/t