Can we finally say the thing we have not said so far?
Last week, a white supremacist shot up a Sikh temple near Milwaukee, killing six people and wounding three. It is considered likely that the shooter mistook the Sikhs, whose men wear beards and turbans, for Muslims. The massacre came a few weeks after a characteristically baseless charge by Michele Bachmann and several other conservative legislators that a Muslim aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has ties to Islamic extremism.
The juxtaposition of those two events is emphatically not meant to suggest Bachmann somehow “caused” the Wisconsin rampage. No, the point is that we are looking for terror in all the wrong places. Or, perhaps more accurately, that we are not looking for it in all the right places.
In the almost 20 years since the first attack by Muslim extremists on the World Trade Center, the following things have happened: the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City leaves 168 dead and 500 injured; one person is killed, over 100 wounded, in a bombing at the Olympics in Atlanta; seven people are arrested for plotting to attack U.S. military bases; Dr. Barnett Slepian is shot and killed in Amherst, N.Y.; five people die in a shooting spree near Pittsburgh; the FBI arrests a man who tried to buy ingredients for sarin, the deadly nerve gas, from an undercover agent; Dr. George Tiller is shot and killed in Wichita, Kan.; a man and his daughter are killed in their home in Arivaca, Ariz.; a man flies a small plane into a building in Austin, killing himself and one other. And now, this.
These incidents and dozens more comprise a list maintained by the Southern Poverty Law Center. What they all have in common is that they spring from motivations (i.e., opposition to taxation, government, immigrants, blacks, gays, abortion and Muslims) that more or less define modern, mainstream, conservatism. So yes, it is time to say the obvious thing no one seems to be saying:
America is under attack by right-wing terrorists.
And here, again, it is necessary to say what the point is not. Namely, it is not that conservatism equals terrorism. These criminals are fanatics, and fanaticism is restricted to no particular ideology. Ironically, that’s an argument to which conservatives often turn deaf ears when it is made on behalf of Muslims, but that doesn’t make it any less true — or applicable here
That said, what’s telling is that we won’t even call this what it is. When the Symbionese Liberation Army and the Weather Underground were committing violence in the 1970s, we were not slow in decrying left-wing terrorism and requiring progressives to disown it. When al-Qaida kills and maims, we are not shy about branding it Islamic terrorism and requiring moderate Muslims to disown it.
For some reason, though, we are reluctant to call right-wing terror by name. And you can forget requiring conservatives to distance themselves from it.
Rather than see a pattern that grows more glaring every day, we see a series of discrete events — this individual tragedy here, that one there, regrettable certainly, but surely not suggestive of any larger picture.
Maybe this is because the perpetrators of these crimes are overwhelmingly white Christian men and thus, invisible in a nation where danger is routinely defined as Them, not Us. Maybe it’s because media have become cowed and self-censoring, reflexively flinching from that which might bring accusations of anti-conservative bias.
Either way, one wonders how we can confront what we won’t even name. These plots hatched in the fetid backwaters of conservative paranoia ought to be called what they are. The blood of victims demands an honest accounting.
We have given them a dishonest silence instead.
Comments
jaywalker 10 months, 1 week ago
"Maybe it’s because media have become cowed and self-censoring, reflexively flinching from that which might bring accusations of anti-conservative bias."
That's a rib tickler there, that is.
"Either way, one wonders how we can confront what we won’t even name."
Like Jimmy the Saint said, give it a name. Can't see that making it any easier to "confront." You're talking about a bunch of anonymous acts of violence by a bunch of whackado's. Unless their profile includes membership in a known hate-group or they've exhibited extreme mental problems that have already involved the police, these people aren't going to be on anyone's radar. Even if they have been on someone's radar, it would seem nearly impossible to keep tabs on them unless there's a proven imminent threat. Horrible situation for sure, but giving it a "name" ain't changin' jack.
snap_pop_no_crackle 10 months, 1 week ago
Does anyone recall if das lennypitts spoke out when Minister King Samir Shabazz was telling his followers to kill some cracker babies?
Cant_have_it_both_ways 10 months, 1 week ago
Hey Leonard, how about doing a story on Black on Black violence in Chicago. How about the tie ins to the New Black Panther Party?
paulveer 10 months, 1 week ago
Because this one hits too close to home for you?
jafs 10 months, 1 week ago
It seems to me that there are often indications that these folks are likely to become dangerous, and somehow we don't do anything about it until it's too late.
One recent shooter was described after the fact as a "ticking time bomb" by his stepfather.
The movie theater guy had been seen by a psychologist at his school and she was so concerned she notified the school's "threat assessment" organization, or something like that.
If I remember right, there were similar indications about the Virginia Tech shooter.
Why aren't we doing more to prevent these sorts of tragedies, given that there's information available like that?
jaywalker 10 months, 1 week ago
My guess is there are too many of them to monitor, jafs. Have you ever been to NYC? On a given day you can easily come across a number of people acting/speaking nuts that'll make you wanna cross the street. And trying to keep tabs on every single asswipe supremacist in case they pull a temple shooting would require an entire new agency I'd have to think. I imagine it's as much a needle in the haystack as trying to figure who's friendly and who's foe in Iraq or Afghanistan.
jaywalker 10 months, 1 week ago
It's not like "angry young white men" is something new.
jaywalker 10 months, 1 week ago
Puhleeze.......
hedshrinker 10 months, 1 week ago
Well, we've managed to hear fr the usual libertarian and right wing commentators; on the other hand, I think Pitts called it like it is; the nature of most terrorism whether it comes from right, left or other political persuasions is that the actual acts of violence are typically carried out by unhinged, isolated people who have been inspired by the outrageous rhetoric of leaders who then can claim free speech and plausible deniability. Our dilemma is how to create a civil discourse which stops demonizing the Other and creates a safer world which allows for expression of different opinions but focuses on collaboration and community rather than scorched earth/ ethnic cleansing style solutions. Certainly a tall task if the nasty disparaging tone of many commentators on this board is any example, where writers like Pitts routinely are excoriated for supposedly divisive views.
verity 10 months, 1 week ago
Pretty much.
My observation has been that some people just like a fight and they will stir one up whenever possible. Quite a few like that post here and are given what they want so they continue. At least, as far as we know, their violence is only in their heads. It's when that imaginary violence takes material form that these things happen.
paulveer 10 months, 1 week ago
Very well said, thanks.
Liberty275 10 months, 1 week ago
"outrageous rhetoric of leaders who then can claim free speech and plausible deniability"
Anybody have a match and some lighter fluid this guy can take to the constitution?
"Our dilemma is how to create a civil discourse"
Actually, our dilemma is creating discourse. It need not be civil. Not everyone wants to speak platitudes.
"allows for expression of different opinions"
People should be muzzled so the opinion you like can get some traction. How about... no.
"focuses on collaboration and community"
Not everyone wants to focus on collaboration and community because they value their own liberty, privacy and self-reliance.
msezdsit 10 months, 1 week ago
"America is under attack by right-wing terrorists."
While these radical right wing murderers are just that, the somewhat lesser versions are the right wing radicals that are ever so slowly taking over our state government and have literally shut down congress by terrorizing people with their rhetoric and threats. Bachman is a good example and the notion that we could just fly over and shoot immigrants like a wild pig shoot is a local example. They are a coup d'état that is vying to take over our country with their guns safely concealed away just incase they need to use them on you. It will swing back and we will take our country back but it is just a matter of how much damage these radical right wing extremest cause before their carnage is stopped.
Liberty275 10 months, 1 week ago
Do you need to incessantly insult drugs?
notajayhawk 10 months, 1 week ago
And every left-wing idiot will be posting their heartfelt agreement with the most holy reverend Pitts that it's only white middle class Christian conservatives that commit terrorist acts. Thanks for getting the ball rollong, observant.
voevoda 10 months, 1 week ago
And I see that you emulated Leonard Pitts' technique, Liberty_One. A great improvement.
jaywalker 10 months, 1 week ago
I got a good deal at car.net. Very friendly.
jaywalker 10 months, 1 week ago
Love that stuff!
Liberty275 10 months, 1 week ago
I'm not sure you are supposed to capitalize verbs,
Katara 10 months, 1 week ago
Pitt's what takes great glee in incident like this?
Racism and nativism is separate from the political spectrum. Is our children learning this?
Getaroom 10 months, 1 week ago
Wonderful article Pitts, just look at what a flurry it stirred up!! It even aroused Liberty_One to write an astute and intellectual critique of what he thinks you really said, without really saying anything specific! And even better - it was branded propaganda.
Great going Mr. Pitts, you were spot on once again!
When Conservatism joins together with Extremism what do you find - Terrorism perhaps? Looking for terrorists in the form of the Muslim Brotherhood within the Whitehouse, where there are none is at a minimum paranoid and Michele Bachmann fits that to a T! But better to look right into the face of home grown terror, in the form of skin heads in the military. Well, at least they are hiding in plain sight and being trained as professional killers by our own military, where we can keep an eye on them - right? "You betcha", home grown angst right here in America. The hypocrisy is ripe for the picking.
Thanks Leonard, for all the cannon fodder!
jaywalker 10 months, 1 week ago
"When Conservatism joins together with Extremism what do you find - Terrorism perhaps? "
Pretty sure you can combine anything w/ "Extremism" and find "Terrorism."
notaubermime 10 months, 1 week ago
I combined "Extremism" with flour the other day and got yellow cake.
Liberty275 10 months ago
That's just you. On the scale that matters, extremism gets mixed with flour and soon enough we are using our food to power our cars.
headdoctor 10 months, 1 week ago
Intellectual critique? I think pseudo-intellectual would have been a more accurate description.
Yeoman2 10 months, 1 week ago
And some of them are running for office. Some have been elected in Kansas. Nuff said.
KansasConscience 10 months, 1 week ago
Wake up Gotland. Affirmative action works both ways if you're talking simply about race as you do ... often.
Affirmative action covers all minorities, older workers and women. Just let you be denied a job because you're "too old" and see where you go crying.
notajayhawk 10 months, 1 week ago
"Can we finally say the thing we have not said so far?"
You mean that being white, conservative, and/or Christian is akin to being Hitler/Khadaffi/Satan?
Have you ever written a column where you HAVEN'T said that, Lenny?
jaywalker 10 months, 1 week ago
nota!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where the hell have you been?
Fossick 10 months ago
Agreed. If terrorism means anything, it has to mean more than "bad guy from the other side of the political spectrum." It has to mean cases where people were using terror/violence to bring about a political result. Of course, it's the fault of the political right just as much as the political left that the terrorism label is used on people who are not properly terrorists. They do precisely what Pitts does here and have for years.
What Pitts is doing is simply saying "These people are malcontents" and "Conservatives are malcontents," therefore these people are conservatives, which are, coincidentally I'm sure, his political opponents. Plus, he's ignoring a whole bunch of actual terrorism, like ultra-lefty ELF attacks, because that doesn't fit his little fairy tale.
Fossick 10 months ago
Current and past.
meggers 10 months, 1 week ago
The Texas shooter was a Tea Party kind of guy:
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2012/08/the_disturbing_facebook_page_o.php
'And so the year ended, but not before he had liked both Bristol and Sarah Palin, pistol-makers Beretta, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, the Tea Party Patriots, and a group battling for repeal of Obamacare. (He later shifted his presidential allegiance to Michelle Bachmann; coincidentally, the cop he killed shared that last name.'
jayhawklawrence 10 months, 1 week ago
There is too much hate mongering coming from the right wing and too much misinformation. I don't know how they can expect this not to make Americans upset.
That being said, the lock step way that left wing Democrats jump on the anti-gun wagon is very disappointing and I think stupid for a variety of reasons.
Americans are not going to let a government they do not trust come and take their guns away because some mad man went berserk somewhere.
geekin_topekan 10 months, 1 week ago
Another brilliant piece that clearly makes the rightwing uneasy.
The Taliban (Ronnie's investment) stands for no women's rights, dictating who you devote yourself to, anti-freedom FROM religion, zero tolerance for opposing pov's.
We get 3 hour-long preachers on a.m. radio and 24 hours of propagated TV with an enormous coach potato following (no reading involved). Say it loud over and over, just like N. korea, maybe it will come true. Truth requires no such thing-just why Air America failed. no audience because truth speaks for itself.
voevoda 10 months, 1 week ago
Perhaps you need to study the literature on fascism, tenneseerader, in order to understand how it fits within the political spectrum. Not left-wing, but extreme right wing. Socialists don't advocate "minimal personal liberty" or "government run businesses," tenneseerader. Certainly both those concepts are completely alien to the Democratic Party. Best that you educate yourself about these things before posting, tenneseerader.
pizzapete 10 months, 1 week ago
How soon we forget that the Communist and Socialist Parties were America's allies against the Nazi and Fascist Parties during World War II. Although they were allied with Hitler early on, it was the Communists who were the first to put together an international force to fight Nazi and Fascist fundamentalism in Europe. We shouldn't forget or underestimate the Communist's pivotal role in the ultimate defeat of Hitler and Fascism in Europe.
heygary 10 months, 1 week ago
Pitts is getting entirely too predictable. Time to cut him loose!
Mixolydian 10 months, 1 week ago
Interesting that this article comes out the same day a shooter attacks and wounds a man at the conservative Family Reseach Council shouting his anger over their policies.
meggers 10 months, 1 week ago
Fox News jumped the gun on that one:
'While Fox News claimed “sources” said the gunman “expressed disagreement with the conservative group’s policy positions,” two FBI officials cautioned reporters that early eyewitness accounts are often inaccurate and said it was too early to speak to the suspect’s motivation.'
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/family_research_council_shooting.php?ref=fpb
Fossick 10 months, 1 week ago
Or not: "Corkins had been volunteering for about the past six months at The DC Center for the LGBT Community, said David Mariner, executive director of the community center, which is in Northwest Washington. He usually staffed the center's front desk on Saturdays, and his most recent shift was about two weeks ago." http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/08/chinatown-shooting-leaves-two-wounded-78851.html
Obviously a GOP committeeman driven off the deep end by a campaign map with a target. Or something.
Liberty275 10 months ago
Somebody else will argue your numbers. I'll go elsewhere.
So you have one shooter and the right has 50? The left should take responsibility for groups like ELF and their clones for spiking trees, burning down housing developments and torching car lots. There's a lot more of that than Tiller killing.
While burning a hummer is not as horrible as killing a human, it's still a violation of another person's rights and is just as illegal, and committed in the name of a social or political agenda. That makes them domestic terrorists, or are they freedom fighters?
Fossick 10 months ago
50 shooters? Not only is your comment redundant, it's not even close to accurate. If we take the list of US terrorist attacks since 2008 form the hyper-accurate Wikipedia, the numbers tell a different story:
2008 February: In the first reported incident of animal-rights extremists physically assaulting the family members of animal researchers... that one's left wing.
2008 March 3: Four multimillion-dollar show homes place in Woodinville, Washington, are torched. The Earth Liberation Front is suspected.... Left wing.
2008 March 6: A homemade bomb damaged a Recruiting Office in Times Square... that one's probably lefty.
2008 May 4: Multiple pipe bombs exploded at 1:40 am at the Edward J. Schwartz United States Courthouse in San Diego causing "considerable damage" to the entrance and lobby and sending shrapnel two blocks away, but causing no injuries... could be either.
2008 July 27: Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting... right wing.
2008 August 2, August 3 University of California-Santa Cruz molecular biologist David Feldheim's home was firebombed...FBI is investigating incidents as domestic terrorism related to animal rights groups. Probably lefty.
2009 April 8: According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, intruders left malware in power grids, water, and sewage systems that could be activated at a later date.. could be either.
2009 May 31: Assassination of George Tiller. Righty
2009 May 25: 17-year old Kyle Shaw sets off a crude explosive device at a Starbucks ... Neither
2009 June 1: Arkansas recruiting office shooting: Islamic
2009 June 10: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting: 88-year-old James Wenneker von Brunn, a white supremacist and neo-Nazi... righty.
2010 February 18: 2010 Austin suicide attack: Joseph Stack deliberately flew a small Piper Dakota aircraft into a government building in Austin, Texas, killing himself and an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employee in an attack aimed at the U.S. government. Lefty, despite Pitts' protestations.
2010 September 1: Discovery Communications headquarters hostage crisis: James J. Lee, ... lefty
2011 January 6: Three packages detonate in the mail rooms of two Maryland state government buildings.. unknown.
2012 August 5 Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting 6 killed... righty
2012, Aug 15, FRC shooting, Lefty.
Looks like the score's pretty even to me.
merrill 10 months, 1 week ago
Former DHS Analyst Daryl Johnson on How He Was Silenced for Warning of Far-Right Militants in U.S.
While many were shocked by the massacre at the Sikh temple, our guest, Daryl Johnson, had warned years ago that such an attack was imminent.
While working as a senior analyst in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2009, Johnson authored a report warning about the increasing dangers of violent right-wing extremism in the United States, sparking a political firestorm in the process.
Under pressure from Republican lawmakers and popular talk show hosts, DHS ultimately repudiated Johnson’s paper. Johnson drew his conclusion on his 15 years of experience studying domestic terrorist groups — particularly white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
"Leading up to this report … we received numerous accolades from law enforcement [and] intelligence officials, talking about the great work we were doing in the fight against domestic terrorism," Johnson says.
"And then in lieu of the political backlash, the Department not only decided to stop all of our work, but they also disbanded the unit, reassigned us to other areas within the office, and then made life increasingly difficult for us."
Johnson, now the owner of a private consultancy firm, has authored a new book, "Right Wing Resurgence: How a Domestic Terrorist Threat is Being Ignored."
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/8/9/former_dhs_analyst_daryl_johnson_on
snap_pop_no_crackle 10 months, 1 week ago
Maybe if the officials over at DHS weren't spending so much time playing grab-#ss, we'd all be safer.
snap_pop_no_crackle 10 months, 1 week ago
Dude, if you use up all the hyperbole now, you won't have any when you might really need it. (from a source)
tomatogrower 10 months, 1 week ago
This white supremacist was said to have complained that white men couldn't get promoted in the army. His problem is he didn't have the skills and education to get promoted, and wanted to blame it on others. I mean, he was stupid enough to think Sikhs and Muslims were the same. Maybe if he had gotten off his lazy behind, gotten an education, taken leadership classes, and sought out mental assistance for his other problems, he might have been a captain by now. But no, it's easier to get drunk and blame your lack of success on muslims and blacks. Wimp.
Liberal 10 months, 1 week ago
What makes them right wing? Who were the hooded men in the south lynching people certainly was not the right wingers, they were all southern democrats.
Most of these nut jobs do not qualify as a terrorist as they have no political aim, they are not part of an organized body and they are acting as individuals. BTW are not the National Socialists, Socialists?....Maybe the name might give a hint to the answer, they are on the left.
KansasConscience 10 months, 1 week ago
True Gotland. You do realize the Southern Democrats morphed into Republicans, AKA Dixiecrats, don't you.
Liberal 10 months, 1 week ago
Who voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
The original House version Democrats 61% Republican 80% Cloture in the Senate Democrats 66% Republican 82% The Senate version Democrats 69% Republican 82% The Senate version, voted on by the House Democrats 63% Republican 80%
Who voted for the Voting Rights Act of 1965?
Senate: Democrats 73% Republicans 94% House: Democrats 78% Republicans 82%
Hmmmm...see a pattern here? Say didn't a Republican sign the emancipation proclamation?
I am so sick of the lies of the left. Example they say they want low cost housing in Lawrence, but what do they do, they put restrictions on people living under one roof. They obstruct any project that comes forward. They attack your freedom with smoking bans, they want to ban soda. They are the racist elitists that think you should not live in their town by saying they want you but making it impossible for you to afford to live there. They have never seen a tax that they didn't like unless it is a sales tax to pay for infrastructure.
The truth is that it was republicans that moved towards freeing the slaves. It was republicans who overwhelmingly voted for the civil rights and voting acts not the democrats.
They can not run on a record so all they do is lie, attack and lie some more. I can not wait until Ryan get's a hold of them. They as they say in the movies "Can't handle the truth".
jonas_opines 10 months, 1 week ago
"They can not run on a record so all they do is lie, attack and lie some more."
I suppose they're just following your example. Since that post was pretty much just misrepresentation and attacks.
Liberal 10 months, 1 week ago
Wrong jonas, those are from the actual vote in '64 and '65. And you can watch the actions of the left here in Lawrence and I would like you to see how any policy that has been supported by the progressives has caused more prosperity, more jobs, or lower cost housing. Everything they have done has had the opposite affect.
Living Wage - How many employees have actually benefited from the living wage ordinance. tick. tick. tick. Exactly zero but it did have a chilling effect for companies looking to relocate here and furthered the idea that Lawrence is a difficult place to do business.
Let's look at the Wal-Mart fight have you heard of any problems other than Demon hunters at the new Wal-Mart? Exactly, there have been no traffic problems, what did the policies of the progressive cause, Less tax dollars coming into Lawrence from property taxes, huge legal bills that the city had to pay etc...
Limiting growth has the exact opposite affect on housing. Less supply means higher prices, Making it difficult to conduct business here shifts the tax burden to homeowners making housing more expensive. On an on it goes. There was no misrepresentation and I did not attack, I responded.
Facts are difficult things, sorry you don't like them. Maybe it is time to face reality.
jonas_opines 10 months, 1 week ago
I'm perfectly comfortable with facts. Such as the fact that the Republican base shifted immensely after the Civil Rights movements, one might say in response the Civil Rights movement. This has been well documented, and brought up in these threads many, many times, each time that some fool has come around trying to lay claim to the actions of sweeping, shifting demographics and their representatives, to prove how great the name Republican is.
I assume that the rest of that stuff you decided to bring up because, since I criticized you, that I must be a liberal that believes in the greatness of all of that stuff. Trouble is, I don't. Don't agree with a living wage, don't agree with the City's fight against Wal-Mart, or pretty much anything else that they've done. Thankfully, it ain't my problem anymore, which is why I don't tend to comment that often on local politics.
I would agree, Democrats have trouble running on their record. Trouble is, Republicans can't really do that either. I'm guessing that's why you're trying to take credit for actions of Republicans past rather than Republicans present, and spending the rest of your time attacking Democrats.
Much like them, it merely makes you look foolish.
Liberal 10 months, 1 week ago
Again the proof is in the pudding listen to the Obama campaign tell me what record they are running on....They are running as far away from their record as possible, they clearly know what happened in 2010, they know what happened in Wisconsin.
And they are in a state of panic.
I can not wait for the debates.
tuschkahouma 10 months, 1 week ago
I love american dunces who calle themselves liberals sarcastically. You are oblivious to the fact that when said Civil Rights Act was signed in 1964 that white southern racist males left the Democratic Party in droves and waited for George Wallace and later Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to tie together religion, fascism, and patriotism to create the tea partiers and the current gop in the south still carrying on the states rights mantra of their racist Dixiecrat past leading back to Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, and George Wallace. Fox network must leave out the important parts to defend their nonsense. I grew up in MS and LA in the 1970's. I've seen these people in the flesh.
Liberal 10 months, 1 week ago
I love faux Native Americans who lie to themselves about what really happened. Who deny the heritage and beliefs of their father.
It was democrats who were repressing people, it is democrats who are still oppressing people. Native Americans of all people should know what liberalism does to a society Look at what is happening in South Dakota, Look at the native people of Alaska. Getting handouts instead of a hand up has served Native people well. The same way that it served the soviets and any other welfare state. The Klansmen were democrats and rewriting of history will change that....I provided the voting percentages and it is what it is. A true picture of what was happening at the time. Republicans have supported civil rights more than the Democrats ever did. Proof is in the pudding (votes)
The policies of the democrats have caused more people to remain in poverty and it keeps them there so that they can control those votes with their hand outs. With the liberal programs, poverty has increased, education levels have decreased, we have less freedom, prices are rising, energy costs are going even higher, jobs are leaving, incomes are lower. No amount of lies will change the truth. Keep being a slave, keep living for the government check. It certainly has served you well.
Liberal 10 months, 1 week ago
tuschy says "I love american dunces who calle themselves liberals sarcastically."
Classical liberalism places a particular emphasis on the sovereignty of the individual, with private property and bodily integrity seen as essential rights. This forms the philosophical basis for laissez-faire public policy.
Classical liberals agreed with Thomas Hobbes that government had been created by individuals to protect themselves from one another. They thought that individuals should be free to pursue their self-interest without control or restraint by society. Individuals should be free to obtain work from the highest-paying employers, while the profit motive would ensure that products that people desired were produced at prices they would pay. In a free market, both labour and capital would receive the greatest possible reward, while production would be organised efficiently to meet consumer demand.
Democrats have stolen the name liberal and mutated it into the abomination that is stands for today.
I am a proud liberal and their is no sarcasm in my voice. You may be well read in treaties but apparently know nothing about liberalism and the founding of our country, and yes I mean your country Tusch, you are an American citizen as much as I am, like it or not and it matters little if you don't like it, your hatred for the United States is clear, even though it has brought more prosperity to more people in the world than any other country in history.
Millions see the opportunity here, but you live in a world of self-hatred for being born and raised a Methodist. You are obviously intelligent it is too bad it has gone to waste. You could be helping lift native people up, bringing people together but NO, you are divisive and full of hatred for your own people and you try and keep that hatred alive, living in the past instead of building for a better future like so many have done in this land of opportunity and freedom.
Sad.
Liberty275 10 months ago
Turn-of-the-century-before-last liberals were what are now libertarians. We were liberal when it meant something other than "Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?".
verity 10 months, 1 week ago
I love it when I actually understand what you're saying.
Fossick 10 months, 1 week ago
"a man flies a small plane into a building in Austin..."
Leaving a suicide note that ends, "The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed." Obviously right-wing terrorism.
Oh, Leonard. Find a way for today's FRC shooting to be the act of a Tea Party leader and we shall all sleep soundly in the throes of progressive bliss.
camper 10 months, 1 week ago
We used to say "never again" when studying 20th century history. When I look at the right wing today I say to myself "This can happen again, right here, not overseas".
Liberty275 10 months, 1 week ago
Bad timing Leonard.
"(AP) WASHINGTON - A man suspected of shooting and wounding a security guard in the lobby of a Christian lobbying group had been volunteering at a community center for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people."
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57493780/cops-lgbt-volunteer-shoots-conservative-groups-guard/
Is he a left-wing terrorist or a freedom fighter?
vertigo 10 months, 1 week ago
Was he discriminating against or fighting against discrimination?
Fossick 10 months, 1 week ago
He was shooting at civilians.
vertigo 10 months ago
Sure he was, now ask yourself. In his eyes, were the civilians working to oppress him or were they neutral to his cause?
I'm not justifying his actions, nor am I saying what he did was right. But sometimes you can only get bullied (if that's how he was perceiving their actions) for so long before you strike back. Throw in some underlying mental issues and you get a scenario in which rational thought escapes the person and they commit a heinous act out of what they perceive as revenge for actions against them.
Fossick 10 months ago
I don't disagree with a word of yours. But if I understand Liberty275 correctly, the question is how this guy will fit into Leonard's fairy tale. Will he, like the IRS suicide pilot, be posthumously turned into a conservative? Or will he be proclaimed "not a terrorist"? Or will he be ignored? My money's on the latter. Your mileage may vary.
Liberty275 10 months ago
If he walked into a planned parenthood office and started shooting, would he be a domestic terrorist or a freedom fighter?
If he walked into a planned parenthood office and started shooting, would your answer had been as long?
On the honor system here, did you consider underlying mental issues the wrongs (equating, for a moment, one's opinion of killing human fetuses with another perception of not supporting gay marriage) perceived by the guy that shot Tiller? I bet you were a little more certain and a little less given to eloquent cynicism.
Both are domestic terrorists if the currently accused is found guilty.
vertigo 10 months ago
Was he aborted? Was he forced to have an abortion?
You're comparing ice cream to Tuesday.
Fossick 10 months, 1 week ago
Apparently we all need another good talking-to from the New York Times.
Liberty275 10 months, 1 week ago
Pot, castro, chavez, hussein, il, etc. Socialism is mankind's enemy. Socialism is the enemy.
snap_pop_no_crackle 10 months, 1 week ago
We can be glad that most of the terrorists on the sinister side of the aisle in America seem to be as incompetent as Bill Ayers buddies.
vertigo 10 months ago
Swift Boat Veterans Part II
Liberty275 10 months ago
People getting free stuff don't care where it comes from.
Liberty275 10 months ago
"What does that even mean?"
Buy a dictionary.
"That the war contractors don't care where their free money comes from?"
Don't care? They buy politicians to award it to them. They not only care, they pay MSRP.
beatrice 10 months ago
Oops, from the headline I just figured this was another story about Romney / Ryan.
Never mind.
werekoala 10 months ago
I doubt anyone will hear me at this point, but you Usual Suspects are exhaustively proving Mr. Pitts' point.
Surely, in your own personal lives, you sometimes have to work things out with another person with whom you very much disagree. And for the sake of your families, I hope you at least occasionally can settle differences without raised voices and hysteria.
No one (who is taken seriously) seriously suggests muzzling public discourse. That is a cure far worse than the disease.
But one's environment definitely influences one's behavior. We all know that a kid who grows up watching his dad beat his mom is much more likely to get in fights himself.
Deranged people will always exist, and there is sadly little a free society can do to restrain people who are "creepy" but have not yet done anything wrong. And most mentally ill people are no threat to anyone but themselves.
That said, we have to realize that inflamed rhetoric has an effect, and while shouting about traitors and sleeper cells and the impending death of America might be box office gold, it does have a real world effect, especially on suggestible minds.
So if we want our society to endure and outlast ourselves, we have to act like goddamn adults. That doesn't mean platitudes and fuzzy feelings, it means civility and an underlying bond between us. I may not approve of my brother's decision, but he is not my enemy, he is still family. In the same way, you and I may disagree on the appropriate top marginal tax rate, but that doesn't mean one of us is Hitler, we are still Americans.
The difficulty is that this is not something that can be solved with new laws or tax cuts. Fringe fanatics will only grow more shrill and get more air time, until we, the people, get sick of their apocalyptic rhetoric and get down to the business of solving our nation's problems.
It takes each of us saying, "hey, talking heads, take it down a notch." We have to demand adult speech from our leaders instead of childish platitudes. The irony is that Mr. Pitts is being attacked for calling for increased personal responsibility, generally thought to be a conservative value.
So it goes...
Liberal 10 months ago
"The irony is that Mr. Pitts is being attacked for calling for increased personal responsibility, generally thought to be a conservative value."
First of all he is not calling for increased personal responsibility, he is attacking white male Christians. He is calling a crime a terrorist act....who is inflaming this situation? This is pure propaganda designed to make a segment of society look like they are causing these attacks. Why don't we blame hollywood that keeps pumping out violent trash? We would except they donate too much money to democratic causes. But the truth of the matter is that Hollywood is not any more to blame then Judas Priest causing someones suicide.
All but OKC were individual acts and if Mr. Pitts were actually asking for people to have more personal responsibility than he would be attacking the individuals who did the acts.
It is funny that the left will call American nut jobs terrorists but will not call actual terrorists terrorists.
So it goes...
werekoala 10 months ago
By definition, all terrorism is a crime (unjust damage to life or property).
The difference is, a mugger only cares about his victims, and whether they have money. A terrorist cares more about the effects of his actions on people other than his victim. If you burn dog poo in a bag on someone's porch, you're just harming them. If you burn a cross in a black family's yard, you are intimidating not just them, but every other black family in the area. See the difference?
And the point that you are soooo insistent on ignoring is that, while crazy people always exist, crazy rhetoric from leaders who damn well ought to know better can precipitate crazy acts of terrorism.
Columbine was two kids angry at the world who wanted to go out in style. No helping that, and also no agenda. The cold-blooded murder of Dr. Tiller was an act of a madman, but one who had been inflamed by right-wing media. If you at all pride yourself on an ability to face hard truths without flinching, you have to own that.
snap_pop_no_crackle 10 months ago
The folks on the sinister side of the aisle are trying everything to stave off the preference cascade.
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