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4. STANDARD OPEN SALON RULES APPLY
5. VIOLATORS WILL BE TOWED 

HYPOTHESIS

Society creates scapegoats as the personification of its hatred, fears and frustrations. In doing so, society projects its frustrations onto others, rather than lashing out at the actual source of its problems. Therefore, sacrificing the scapegoat serves to preserve the status quo, but does not solve society's problems.

Earlier this Spring, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a report called “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”   The report warned about the increase in hate group activity.  The current economic downturn and the election of an African American president have provided recruitment opportunities for White supremacist and radical right-wing groups.  According to DHS, “the consequences of a prolonged economic downturn—including real estate foreclosures, unemployment, and an inability to obtain credit—could create a fertile recruiting environment for rightwing extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and government authorities similar to those in the past.”

We've walked down this troubled road before.  In the 1990s, angst over a recession fed paranoia, and conspiracy theories about the end times, martial law and the suspension of the U.S. Constitution. That environment led to the targeting of government buildings and law enforcement, resulting in the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.  It was the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil before September 11, 2001, in which a bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building by domestic terrorists claimed 168 lives and left over 800 people injured.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, in 2008 there were 926 hate groups in the U.S.— more than a 4 percent increase from 888 groups in 2007, and an over 50 percent increase since 2000, when 602 groups were active.

The DHS report notes that disgruntled veterans from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are recruited by white supremacist groups, exploited for the training and skills they acquire in the military. Remember that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was a veteran of Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991.

These right-wing groups are united by their hatred of immigration and a frustration over perceived government inaction on the issue, and they perpetrate hate crimes against Latinos.  There has been an increase in anti-Latino hate crimes in recent years, and the amassing of weapons by militia members who were plotting to kill Latinos. For example, a Wyoming militia member was arrested in February 2007 after he expressed his plan to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border and kill immigrants who were crossing into the country. And in April 2007, six militia members were arrested for allegedly planning a machine gun assault on Latinos, and for weapons and explosives violations.

And with their hostility towards gun control legislation—including assault weapons bans and proposed universal handgun registration—these groups stockpile weapons and ammunition, and engage in paramilitary training.

This toxic climate also poses a risk to President Obama. The election of the first black president has caused concern among extremists, and has provided a useful recruiting tool for these groups. The Southern Poverty Law Center notes that during the 2008 presidential campaign, then-candidate Obama received more threats than any other candidate in recent memory.  Can we forget the blood-lust at the McCain-Palin rallies, in which crowd participants called Obama a terrorist and a traitor, carried around Obama monkey dolls and called for his death?  And moreover, several white supremacists were arrested for plotting to assassinate him or threatening to do so.

Racially tinged anti-Obama sentiment — which goes far beyond a mere honest disagreement over policy — was on full display among the recent anti-tax “ tea parties” throughout the country.  Conservative politicians have supported these events, in which racists, fringe groups, conspiracy theorists, Secesh, and those who deny that Obama is a U.S. citizen--not to mention other elements of the Republican Party's shrinking base--come out to play.

The DHS report was good, maybe too good, in predicting what was about to happen in America.  Republican lawmakers demanded an apology from DHS secretary Janet Napolitano.  Then there was the assassination of Kansas doctor George Tiller by a gunman with affiliations to the extremist anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.  

Then there was the recent attack on the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC by an 88-year old white supremacist named James von Brunn.  Von Brunn--who served 6½ years for pulling out a sawed-off shotgun at the Federal Reserve headquarters and threatening to set off a bomb and take hostages--killed a security guard in the museum with a rifle (see photo above).  In a note found in his car, Von Brunn, who does not believe Obama is a citizen, said "The Holocaust is a lie. Obama was created by Jews. Obama does what his Jew owners tell him to do."

And  in a story that has received only minimal attention, three members of the Minutemen American Defense (an anti-immigration and self-appointed border patrol group), were charged with murdering a Latino man and his 9-year old daughter, and wounding his wife, in a border town in southern Arizona.  The two men and one woman from this group conducted a home raid on their victims, anticipating that they would find drugs and money to take. 

So, right-wing hate groups, domestic terrorists if you will, are taking advantage of an economic recession, a structural crisis which resulted from years of policies of upward economic redistribution.  They blame the immigrants, the blacks, the Jews, the Muslims, the Arabs, Obama, the so-called abortionist baby killers, and others for their problems and the nation's woes.  Not unlike the Klan during the Jim Crow days, they receive at least tacit approval from conservative politicians.  Fifty years ago there were the Southern Dixiecrats, members of the White Citizens Council who participated in the scapegoating and demonization of African Americans for political gain, but kept their hands clean while their unwashed terrorist brethren burned black churches and lynched civil rights workers.  

Today, we have Republican lawmakers--and their media surrogates at Fox News and right-wing talk radio--who rail against a "socialist" and even "fascist" president who they claim is bringing down the country.  They scapegoat affirmative action, abortion, gays and immigrants, and demonize a Latina U.S. Supreme Court nominee just for the hell of it.  And some demonize the federal government and talk about secession.  And they keep their hands clean, so they think, while their untutored associates take matters into their own hands.

Such are the consequences of a political strategy-- the Southern Strategy-- that demonizes people of color and makes raw racist appeals to the Republican base to win elections for the GOP.  Due to demographic and generational shifts, the base is all that is left now, those people who responded to the scapegoating and demonization in the first place.  And they are becoming increasingly extreme and hateful, and in some cases violent.

Any thoughts?