Hatred roils right-wing extremists

Perhaps we should take another look at that Homeland Security report warning of the dangers of domestic terrorism.

LA TIMES

In 1865, with the Confederacy in extremisin extremis, Jefferson Davis bludgeoned appalled rebel lawmakers into accepting Robert E. Lee's request to recruit black troops into Northern Virginia's depleted army ranks. One outraged Southern diarist accused Lee and Davis of surrendering "the crown jewel of our independence." A die-hard legislator argued that if blacks were allowed to fight alongside white soldiers, "then everything for which we have fought has been a lie."

A similar wave of revulsion and denial is currently roiling the netherworld of America's extreme right wing. We're not talking here about mere conservative Republicans. This is the lunatic right, for whom the election of Barack Obama was much more than a political defeat: It was a racial and existential nightmare. If he can succeed, if no catastrophe or deprivation of rights ensues, then these people have feared and plotted and hated in vain.

The United States' extreme right wing inhabits a shadow world, and the delusional nature of its core beliefs -- anti-Semitism, white supremacy and a rat's nest of economic and constitutional conspiracy theories -- makes tracing causality within its ranks a dicey proposition. Still, it's clear that something is stirring this peculiarly American cesspool in ways that haven't occurred since the mid-1990s, when an upsurge in activity among so-called militia groups culminated in the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, the deadliest terrorist incident on American soil until 9/11.

Rumors that the new Obama administration secretly planned to seize people's firearms surged through the Internet, which nowadays links extremists like a kind of fevered nervous system, and fueled a run on gun stores that stock assault weapons. In April, incidents of violence began to crop up: Three Pittsburgh police officers were killed by a 23-year-old man who feared his guns were about to be seized. The alleged killer frequented white-supremacist websites and frequently railed to his friends about "Jewish control" of the banks and media. Shortly afterward, a Florida National Guard soldier shot two deputy sheriffs to death, allegedly because he was "severely disturbed" by Obama's election. He too was a frequent reader of far-right-wing websites..........