Day after day, Republicans, the party that brought us 9/11, subject us to a constant drone of fear mongering over the danger US citizens face from Muslim terrorists. While that threat, albeit overblown, is real, it is probably not the biggest terrorist threat facing the US, and the Republican Party is doing their level best to inspire and exacerbate it.
Fueled by superheated fears generated by economic dislocation, a proliferation of demonizing conspiracy theories, and the reality of an African-American president in Barack Obama, radical hates groups and antigovernment groups grew explosively in 2011, according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center. This year’s report, The Year in Hate and Extremism (pdf), follows past work where the SPLC catalogs the number of ‘hate groups’ and other radical rightwing movements in the US and gauges their motivations and the size of their membership.
"The SPLC counted 1,018 hate groups operating the United States last year, up from 1,002 in 2010. That was the latest in a string of annual increases going all the way back to 2000, when there were 602 hate groups," reads the report. Exploiting the issue of "non-white immigration" by such groups was cited as the driving force behind such growth.
The most stunning growth among all groups came among the rightwing anti-government "Patriot" groups, which the report classifies as those groups which perceive the "federal government as their primary enemy." The "Patriot" groups grew from 149 groups in 2008, skyrocketed to 512 in 2009, jumped to 824 in 2010, and last year continued to surge to 1,274. That’s a 755% growth spurt in just three years… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Common Dreams>
While I certainly do not favor abandoning efforts to protect this nation from Muslim terrorism, which unlike the Republicans, this administration has done well, we need to put more effort into protecting the US from this GOP inspired Teabag Terrorism.
4 Responses to “The Biggest Terrorist Threat”
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Listen to or read the news, and you can feel the rise in the temperature of the rhetoric every day. Just listen to the GOP and be confronted by a psuedo Christianity — Xtianity — that preaches racial hatred, not tolerance; advocates a war on women (barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen); preaches religious hatred rather than tolerance. The GOP advocates economic inequality with unfair taxation and policies that favour millionaires, billionaires and corporations. SCOTUS is stacked with Injustices that will erode personal freedoms with their decisions.
All of these things add fuel to the extremist mind. And as it continues, the extremists become a tinder box ready to explode. This is all about power, raw power, and greed and fear. Everybody has an agenda, and nobody is willing to listen.
It is past time to stop stoking the fires of discontent and work together to build, or should I say rebuild, a nation that is self assured but not cocky; rich in what counts; free of tyrants (corporate, political, religious etc); repectful and responsible.
Hate and fear go together– I tend to think there are no simple answers to what is a very complex problem– We are in the middle , I believe ,of a huge and world wide , paradigm shift– Such a shift is completely out of our control– in fact is a force outside of any control– we look around us at the immediate issues that impact .. but truth is these changes-n demographics , science , technology ,information– are occurring outside of us and we cannot process all that is happening-
We fear what can’t be controlled– and we fight back– but the weapons available to us are primitive and inadequate– retreat into isolation is no longer possible—old methods no longer work- borders are in flux , , Here we live in a country where ‘ white” will very soon be a minority– that is a very scary thing– from a number of levels-; But what I see happening now is a reaction to fear– a fighting back , if you will , against forces that are not- perhaps cannot , be understood–
Lynn Squance is correct I think– I agree–and there is hope—however I also think the near future will be rough– it has been with every world wide paradigm shift- —
“Day after day, Republicans, the party that brought us 9/11, subject us to a constant drone of fear mongering over the danger US citizens face from Muslim terrorists. ”
We will alway be in the Middle East as long as oil is needed…. Fear Not…
The government should STOP all the price gouging going on right now – from over-priced gas to inflated food prices to over-priced farm ground it’s the average person who’s doing the over-paying, while Corporations rake in the billions & take over more land..:(