On Saturday, I was one of the first to report on the apparent similarity between the message of Norwegian terrorist suspect Anders Behring Breivik, and that of many Tea Party advocates.
At the time, I was mainly referring to a particular attack used in Breivik's video manifesto, on Barack Obama, suggesting he was a Marxist. This struck me as being very similar rhetoric to what I have been reading for a couple of years now from the Tea Party. The ease with which Breivik drifted back and forth between hysteria over Marxists having taking over, and Muslims trying to take over, also seemed quite familiar.
On Sunday, I had the opportunity, or chore, of reading some of Breivik's written manifesto, the 1500-page Templar love-note, and in this I found Breivik's explicit statement regarding his view of the American Tea Party having been an inspiration, and by implication an ally in his global conservative crusade to stop Marxists and Muslims from eradicating Euro-culture, as Breivik understands that.
One of the more interesting elements of Breivik's "struggle", is the fact he felt it necessary to pretend to not be what he was, something the New York Times reported about today, and which I discussed in my Sunday article. For example, Breivik, while he says the Nazis had many good ideas, he was unable to express his approval of them, because of his fear the Marxist-controlled MSM would censor him.
Breivik's linkage of the ideas of the American Tea Party and the National Socialists is not a new suggestion, nor it something we should ignore or dismiss as a crazy rant. It is in fact a disturbingly easy link to make. And not merely, as Ross Douthat says today, in agreement with Breivik on this point, that even crazy people might get some basic things correct (as conservatives see them).