Is the Republican Party a terrorist organization?
Associate Dean Patrick McCarthy over at San Diego State University thinks that they are. He used his Facebook account to lambaste the Republican Party, calling it an "extremist terrorist organization," and a student-led Republican group reflexively demanded that McCarthy apologize for his comments.
I’m sorry, but what does McCarthy have to apologize for?
Does this student-led Republican group have some sort of evidence that proves that the Republican Party is NOT an extremist terrorist organization?
Consider the following recent activities of Republicans in the United States of America:
Cesar Altieri Sayoc, Jr., a 56-year-old Florida man who lived in a van plastered with pro-Trump decals, was arrested in October after federal authorities tied him to a series of at least 13 mail bombs sent to prominent Democrats, liberal figures and the cable news outlet CNN. Sayoc’s online activity across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube over several years reveal a descent into hyper-partisan, right-wing propaganda thinking, posting stories from far-right websites like Infowars and Breitbart and sharing photos of himself at Trump rallies. Sayoc had a criminal history including fraud, larceny and a 2002 charge for making a bomb threat against a Florida-based utility company.
James Alex Fields, 20, was arrested in Charlottesville, Virginia last year, after driving his car at a high rate of speed into a crowd of counter-protesters who were marching in opposition to a “Unite the Right” gathering of 500 to 1,000 neo-Nazis and other supporters of the so-called “alt-right.” Heather Heyer, 32, was killed and 19 others were wounded. After ramming his car into the crowd, Fields fled from the scene and was apprehended later. Photographs show Fields rallying with the white supremacist group Vanguard America earlier in the day, and video footage shows him with the group chanting, “Fags, go home, you have no testosterone.” Fields has long held Nazi and racist views, according to a high school teacher. A Trump supporter and registered Republican, Fields allegedly expressed support for what he perceived were the president’s views on race and for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Dylann Roof, 21, attended an evening Bible study class in 2015 at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. He opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun, killing nine African-American worshipers, including the Reverend Clementa Pinckney, a state senator. Roof reportedly told people in the church: “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country, and you have to go.” Roof left a manifesto in which he cited the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens for inspiring him. Friends say he had told them he wanted to start a race war.
Robert Lewis Dear Jr., 57, armed with four rifles, opened fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado back in 2015, and terrorized the people of that town for five hours; he intended to light propane tanks that he had brought. Three people died, including a campus police officer from a nearby University of Colorado branch campus, and nine others were wounded, including five police officers. Dear was inspired (at least in part) by Fox news propaganda that falsely claimed that Planned Parenthood was selling fetal tissue and “parts of fetuses” for medical research.
Joseph Benjamin Thomas and Samuel James Johnson of Mendota Heights, Minnesota were indicted in 2012 on federal weapons and drug charges after a probe of their alleged plans to create an “Aryan Liberation Movement” and attack African-Americans, Latinos, Arabs, Persians, Democrats, leftists and government officials. Prosecutors say Thomas planned to attack the Mexican consulate in St. Paul with a truck loaded with flaming barrels of oil and gasoline. Johnson, a former leader of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement with prior convictions for armed crimes, was scouting for a training compound in Illinois or Minnesota and seeking to recruit others into his group.
Scott Roeder murdered Doctor George Tiller in 2009, ambushing Doctor Tiller in his church in Wichita Kansas during church services. Roeder was inspired (at least in part) by right-wing propaganda on Fox “news”, which demonized Doctor Tiller and falsely claimed that he was guilty of “Nazi stuff”.
In addition to overtly murderous Republicans like Cesar Sayoc, James Alex Fields Jr and Scott Roeder, you also have Republicans like Donald Trump, Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity who give aid and comfort to the racists, religious fanatics, white supremacists and other right-wing extremists, and tell them that THEY are the real Americans and the true American patriots!
Republican leaders like Donald Trump, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are out there validating the irrational hatreds and fears of racists and white nationalists and encouraging the idea that racism, bigotry and discrimination are not only acceptable, but PATRIOTIC! Republicans are pushing the idea that racism, bigotry and discrimination are HOW YOU MAKE AMERICA GREAT!!
Ann Coulter, Donald Trump and other Republican leaders have very strong pockets of support among America’s Neo-Nazis, Klansmen and white supremacists. If the Republican Party wanted to disassociate themselves from right-wing terrorists like the Klan, a good first step would be making an unequivocal announcement that the Republican Party neither seeks the support of fascists, racists and right-wing terrorists, nor does it want them in the Republican Party.
Such an announcement is far beyond the abilities of Donald Trump. When Neo-Nazis, Klansmen and white supremacists came to Charlottesville heavily armed, spewing hatred, looking for a fight, and killing innocent people, Trump was unable to condemn the fascists, racists and white supremacists, and instead insisted that some of them were “very fine people”.
And while we have at least one act of right-wing terror here on American soil every month, Trump is helping out the domestic terrorists by cutting millions of dollars from the budget for combating right-wing terror.
So, if the Republican Party isn’t a terrorist organization, why is Trump aiding and abetting right-wing terror?