It's Not Alarmist to Worry About Right-Wing Extremism

The Department of Homeland Security released a report this week that suggested that the United States faces a reemergence of right-wing extremist groups, and that law enforcement officers around the country should be wary that domestic terrorism may become a serious issue in the coming years.  As the report said, "Many right-wing extremists are antagonistic toward the new presidential administration and its perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities, and restrictions on firearms ownership and use."

Unsurprisingly, social conservatives blasted the report, accusing Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano of branding people with traditional values as hate groups.  Janet Crouse of Concerned Women for America went so far as to say the Homeland Security report was a "direct attack on the church."  (Crouse even took it a step further than that, and argued that Jesus Christ died on the cross so that today's Christian soldiers could focus on issues like abortion and homosexuality.)

And the award for most outrageous wingnut of the week goes to....Janet Crouse!

There's a reason that people like Crouse get bent out of shape whenever someone argues that there could be violence committed in the name of right-wing values.  And that reason is because, often times, violence is committed in the name of right-wing values.  Think of the 19-year-old who shot three Pittsburgh-area cops last week because of paranoia over the liberal values of the Obama administration, or the perpetrator who murdered transgender 18-year-old Angie Zapata solely because of her gender identity, or the two men who beat to death Ecuadorian immigrant Jose Sucuzhanay in December 2008 because of his sexual orientation and ethnicity.  All three crimes were committed by individuals who fall a whole lot closer on the political spectrum to Concerned Women for America then they do the Obama administration.

That's not to say that Concerned Women for America is a hate group.  But let's not pretend that when Janet Crouse blasts homosexuality as intrinsically evil, that she's not inspiring hate.  She is.  Let's not pretend that when Rev. Fred Phelps tells people that fags rot in hell, that he's not inspiring hate.  He is. Let's not pretend that when Sally Kern says that homosexuals are a bigger threat to the country than the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11, that she's not inspiring hate.  She is.  Let's not pretend that when Peter LaBarbera says that homosexual behavior is wrong and destructive, that he's not fostering hate.  He is.

Right-wing groups like Concerned Women for America are erroneously trying to use the Homeland Security report to make it sound like the Obama administration is targeting Christians.  That's a fallacy.  What the report does do, however, is uncover the fact that in this country, some scary people use their fundamentalist beliefs about Christianity and/or right-wing values as a justification for violence and violent actions toward a particular group of people.  That's not an alarmist statement; that's a fact.  And it's something that this country owes itself to dialogue about.