Rhetoric and guns

I guess we shouldn't be surprised, but it is hard to believe that the election of our first African-American president would cause this much open hatred.

By Tom Mockaitis
6:55 PM CDT, March 31, 2010

Sarah Palin's Facebook page features a map of the United States with rifle-scopelike cross hairs on the districts of 20 Democratic members of Congress she wants her followers to take "aim" at in the fall elections.

Some people may be taking her literally. The recent arrest of nine militia members underscores the potential connection between provocative speech and ideologically motivated violence.

The former-Alaska-governor-turned-conservative-icon has denounced violence: "When we take up our arms, we're talking about our vote."

However, Palin and her handlers must understand the lesson taught by King Henry II. Frustrated by Archbishop Thomas Becket's defiance of the royal will, the king, in a drunken rage, blurted out, "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?" A few of his knights took the hint and murdered Becket. Rulers ever since have appreciated the value of the well-placed hint wrapped in a cloak of plausible deniability. Modern media, particularly television and radio, have placed this power in the hands of popular pundits, who (lacking the accountability of being an elected public official) are far more dangerous.

The nexus of fear-mongering, inflammatory rhetoric and political violence has always been present in mass democracy. Hitler and Mussolini both exploited it, as did more than a few Southern governors during the Jim Crow era. Until recently, however, national politics in the U.S. has been relatively free of this volatile mix. The events of 9/11 changed that. With the global war on terror came a wave of intolerance that treated disagreement as unpatriotic, dissent as a threat to good order and even national security. One's political opponents became one's enemies. Those with opposing views were not simply wrong but dangerous, as vividly illustrated by Liz Cheney's attack on Department of Justice lawyers who had previously represented Guantanamo detainees. While most vitriolic on the political right, this intolerance also infected the left.

It should come as no surprise that in this emotionally charged environment extremist groups have flourished. Americans have been so preoccupied with the terrorist threat from Islamic extremists abroad that they have ignored the very real danger of extremists at home. The Southern Poverty Law Center recently released a report documenting a 244 percent increase in militia groups since the election of Barack Obama to the White House. The same period saw an equally dramatic rise in the purchase of firearms and ammunition. Fueled by an explosive mix of fundamentalist theology, fear of government and racism, for example, the Christian Identity patriot militias have been preparing for a coming conflagration brought on by a United Nations takeover of the U.S., the coming of the Antichrist or a race war. The election of the country's first African-American president, an economic crisis and the health care bill appear to have set them off. Obstructionist politicians and the tea party movement have instilled in them the notion that they represent a large segment of angry Americans. Until now, however, these groups have been in survivalist mode, quietly preparing in rural areas for the inevitable conflagration engaging in illegal military training, but otherwise obeying the law.

The Hutaree militia group, which allegedly was planning to conduct a mass casualty terrorist attack on agents of the government, may signal a change from this defensive posture. Unlike the Oklahoma City bombing, this effort was not the work of two unbalanced individuals but a plot allegedly involving a network of terrorists spanning several Midwestern states. Whether their supposed plan to murder a policeman and then attack officers at his funeral is an isolated incident or the harbinger of things to come remains to be seen. At the very least, this episode should serve as a reminder to political pundits that words can be as dangerous as bullets.

Tom Mockaitis is a history professor at DePaul University.

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