35+ years of constant talk-radio harping, reflected in the rest of the conservative-controlled mainstream media and by Republican Senators and Representatives up and down the political foodchain has resulted in this:Anti-government extremist groups on rise in US: study Surprise.
CHICAGO – Membership in anti-government extremist groups continues to explode in the United States amid frustration over the lagging economy and the "mainstreaming of conspiracy theories," a study released Wednesday found.
After nearly tripling in 2009 in the wake of the election of the nation's first black president, anti-government 'patriot' groups and militias grew another 61 percent in 2010 to 824, the report by the Southern Poverty Law Center found.
Hate groups up 7.5 %: there are apparently more than a thousand of these socially-responsible racists, and nativist extremists - also racists - are up 22%.
Of course, most of this is Obama's fault - being successful and black and winning the presidency has clearly set the wackjobs streaming from the woodwork, out into the bright, Republican, light of day.
Republicans have taken a number of issues from these nutbags and made them policy in several state, Arizona most notably, with that fascist immigration law. While ther report suggests this co-opting of extremist perspective into the republica mianstream may help 'deflate' these groups,
The threat of violence is quite real, the report noted.
In an 11-day period in January, a neo-Nazi was arrested headed for the Arizona border with a dozen homemade grenades, police averted an attack on a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Spokane, Washington after discovering a bomb in a backpack, and a man with a long history of anti-government activities was arrested outside a packed mosque in Michigan and charged with possessing explosives with unlawful intent.
I wonder if there are more legal consequences for possession of explosives or marijuana... I digress.
Clearly these people are dangerous, and clearly they are being systematically courted and encouraged by all things rightwing, from GOP elites to loudmouthed radio gasbags.
A beuatiful recent example in the form of a quote from The Grim Weeper - John Boehner which is part and parcel of the issue:
Governors are trying to find ways to balance their budgets, which they’re required to do. In some of these states you’ve got collective bargaining laws that are so weighted in favor of the public employees that there’s almost no bargaining. We’ve given them a machine gun and put it right at the heads of the local officials and they really have their hands tied.
The constant violent rhetoric, unabated since the Arizona Massacre, is at the core of this and the Wackjobs are feeling more and more encouraged to show their true colors.