http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/spring/rage-on-the-rightA Report from 2009, following the election of Barack Obama:
Hate groups stayed at record levels — almost 1,000 — despite the total collapse of the second largest neo-Nazi group in America. Furious anti-immigrant vigilante groups soared by nearly 80%, adding some 136 new groups during 2009. And, most remarkably of all, so-called "Patriot" groups — militias and other organizations that see the federal government as part of a plot to impose “one-world government” on liberty-loving Americans — came roaring back after years out of the limelight.
...there are signs of similar violence emanating from the radical right. Since the installation of Barack Obama, right-wing extremists have murdered six law enforcement officers. Racist skinheads and others have been arrested in alleged plots to assassinate the nation’s first black president. One man from Brockton, Mass. — who told police he had learned on white supremacist websites that a genocide was under way against whites — is charged with murdering two black people and planning to kill as many Jews as possible on the day after Obama’s inauguration. Most recently, a rash of individuals with antigovernment, survivalist or racist views have been arrested in a series of bomb cases.
As the movement has exploded, so has the reach of its ideas, aided and abetted by commentators and politicians in the ostensible mainstream. While in the 1990s, the movement got good reviews from a few lawmakers and talk-radio hosts, some of its central ideas today are being plugged by people with far larger audiences like FOX News’ Glenn Beck and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn). Beck, for instance, re-popularized a key Patriot conspiracy theory — the charge that FEMA is secretly running concentration camps — before finally “debunking” it.
This has been posted elsewhere on this site - a list of acts of violence since 2008 associated with extremists reacting to the election of Obama (and a Democratic party-controlled legislature.)
On June 26, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court embraced the National Rifle Association's contention that the Second Amendment provides individuals with the right to take violent action against our government should it become "tyrannical." The following timeline catalogues incidents of insurrectionist violence (or the promotion of such violence) that have occurred since that decision was issued:http://www.csgv.org/issues-and-campaigns/guns-democracy-and-freedom/insurrection-timelineIn the midst of this rise in militia groups, "white-male" anxiety, economic instability, terrible rates of unemployment (which, btw, effect African-Americans at a much greater percentage than angry whites) - media personalities like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh continue to engage in overblown rhetoric meant to stir the pot of hatred - in an already volatile climate.
If someone just wants to look at the economics of it all - well, hey, they're just making money by pandering to the fears of their racist, white supremacist core audience. Okay. But DON'T DARE to say they give a shit about this nation or anyone in it.
If they did care, they would stop the hate speech. But the reality is that they don't care. They don't care about their audience. They ESPECIALLY do not care about the general welfare of this nation. If they want to sell their souls for the almighty dollar, that's their right. But please, don't try to put lipstick on that piggishness.
Now that someone has shot a Democratic politician, the American media talking heads HAVE THE NERVE to claim "both sides" engage in this same level of race-baiting, fear-mongering rhetoric?
Where is the upsurge in "liberal" hate groups? Where is the upsurge in threats to Republican pols from liberals? Where is the surge in, oh, I dunno, poster board and sir marks a lot weaponry?
Where is the HONESTY in media reporting?
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