You Might Be A “Right-Wing Extremist” If….

This is a truth:  they walk amongst us.  There are nut jobs wandering all over this world.  They hang out in the fringes of every political party; in fact, they hang out in the fringes of any organization.  (Ok, unless you send them to Congress, then they hang out in front of the cameras.)

This is another truth:  we surround them.  The actual number of dangerous nut jobs, though 15 minutes of fame is far more than they deserve, remains small.

With the administration’s steady efforts steering America into fascism, those who did not vote for President Obama and an increasing number of those who did vote for him, are now becoming genuinely concerned.  Promises made are being kept and those who remember that it is the right of every American citizen to speak up about the government’s ignoring of basic rights and freedoms are starting to do just that.

Conveniently then, the Department of Homeland Security has released another report about homeland terrorists.  Only this time, they are examining what they call “right-wing extremists”.  You know, those wack jobs like the KKK, paramilitary groups, and other uber-paranoid lone wolves like the late Timothy McVeigh.

The problem is that they are painting the picture with a brush several sizes too large for the job at hand.  The report is strikingly lacking in details and that does no one any good. 

While the liberals and left-wing nuts are using the mainstream media to castigate those who want less government spending and, indeed, less government in general, chafing at those who want to see the Constitution and Bill of Rights maintained, this report conveniently gives the right-wing nuts an opportunity to point at the left and claim it’s yet another of the left’s attempts to kill free speech and the right to peacefully assemble.

But is it?  Maybe it’s due to my professional background and willingness to dig beyond the surface of most things, but I don’t see the same cause for alarm.  But that doesn’t mean I don’t have serious concerns.

First concern is that the Department can’t seem to pull up any reports about “left-wing extremists”, though, of course, they are quick to claim such investigations are bipartisan and that they do have such reports…somewhere.

Second, the Department just can’t seem to tell anyone exactly when this particular investigation was started, though the report references the election campaign.

Third, the report quotes an FBI report when talking about concerns over extremist groups targeting returning veterans for recruitment.  However, the actual number of such recruitments provided by the FBI is all of 203 over the course of 6 1/2 years (that is about, oh…about .8%; yes, “point eight percent”).

Fourth, and what I consider the most important, is the timing of the release of this report.  While it is dated April 7, 2009 and allegedly sent to law enforcement officials around the country at that time, it only hit the media the day before thousands of Tea Party protests are scheduled to be held around the country.  The day before peaceful assemblies of average Americans who are no longer buying the story that spending more money that we don’t have is the way to get the country out of its enormous, crippling debt and want their “unrepresenting representatives” to know that the nonsense must stop now.

In the same vein as releasing old news about foreign spies looking around the power grid at the same time legislation is introduced to create another huge and far-reaching-into-the-lives-of-private-citizens government program for “cyber security”, this seems to me to be yet another deliberately-orchestrated “fear factor” attempt by the administration to influence public thinking.  The last thing the administration wants is for the majority of Americans to disagree with the dangerous policies being set in motion both home and abroad.  They don’t want anyone questioning their decisions to effectively create a fascist regime out of the Republic of the United States of America.  And what better way to get the average citizen to cower quietly at home than to release a report that plainly speaks about “right wing extremists” being concerned about the economy, about illegal immigration, and about gun control?  That plainly speaks about “right wing extremists” wanting the government to protect and defend the Constitution and the sovereignty of the United States?

Would YOU want to be lumped in with the real right-wingnut wackos because you are concerned about the economy, about illegal immigration, about gun control or the loss of our basic rights and freedoms?  Of course not.  And when you read the report carefully, I don’t believe that is the intent.  It outlines valid concerns that the currently bad, getting-worse-every-day situation in this country could possibly cause some who aren’t wrapped too tight to burst and decide that the real right-wing extremist wack jobs are correct and join up with them.

A valid concern.  But clever in its timing.  Oh, so very clever. 

I say don’t bother with the liberal left’s blatherings about this, and take what the right has to say about it with a grain of salt.  It remains our right to peacefully assemble and to make our voices heard by our government.  But if you don’t like being handed even a hint of a threat, then by all means I would encourage you to do whatever you need to do to attend a Tea Party tomorrow.  Go with head held high and focus on the issues, all of which cross the lines of political party affiliation.  (Like that President Obama just committed the United States to providing an additional $140 billion to the International Monetary Fund without any input from Congress, who has refused doubling the U.S.’s contribution for the last 12 years due to the costs to the American taxpayer and the risk of the loans made from the fund).

It is your right, and I dare say it is your duty, to be concerned and to voice that concern.  But that, my fellow Americans, makes you a patriot.  Not an extremist.