In reaction to this week's domestic terrorist who flew a small plane into an IRS office, rightwing onlookers were quick to point out that he did not subscribe to many of the standard right wing doctrines and therefore he must have been a Liberal, or of mixed and nonspecific ideology.
Joseph Stack's ideology was certainly outside the conservative norm, that's for sure.
He was so far outside of the conservative norm that he was on the rightwing fringe where you can't even use terms like "conservative" or "republican.". Seeing his actions through the lens of a reactionary extremest, you don't get a picture of a politically confused zealot but one of a very focused ideology. What this guy was, was anti-government, anti-establishment.
The first thing that conservative defenders will point to is Stack having called GW Bush a "puppet." This assumes that calling George Bush a "puppet" is the same as having a far-left ideology. By that logic DailyKos harbors a significant closet conservative contingent who have criticized Obama. Pointing out Bush's lack of leadership and corporate favoritism for the industries that he and Dick Cheney formerly worked in is really an example of how Stack was opposed to "the man."
He called the Catholic church "corrupt." I think it's wrong to conclude that everyone who is against the Catholic church must be a Liberal based on the assumptions that the left is anti-Christian (as proven by the "war on Christmas" and other falsehoods) and anyone who is anti-church is anti-Christian. Some on the furthest right fringe are extremely anti-Catholic. The notion that the power of the individual has been usurped by large institutions is not incongruous for someone who would call the church corrupt.
Another one of the conservative defenders' defining Democratic qualities is displeasure with "the joke we call the American medical system." While it's true that most who would support Single Payer would agree that our system is a joke, it's wrong to assume that everyone who is frustrated with our dysfunctional "system" comes from the left. In fact, our health care "system" is a shining example of bureaucracy, red tape, and lack of transparency. How is this out of line with furthest right wing ideology?
The one thing all of these comments have in common is a hatred of institutions, which falls squarely in line with Tea Party ideology. Stack was the epitome of Tea party activist.
It's hard to put labels and definitions on political views, but you can distill the difference between left and right with this generalization: The Left is in favor of legislating at the Federal level, and the right is in favor of a limited Federal government with responsibilities distributed among the states.
Joseph Stack adhered to the extremes of rightwing ideology. Big government is the last thing that Stack would have endorsed. And yet the conservative commentators are saying that somehow Stack's ideology is anything but that of the fringiest rightwing nutcase.