« Suits, Success, And An Office In The Big House | Main | The St. Jude Institute P.T.A »
May 19, 2005
Domestic Terrorism: Right On
Back when Tom Ridge was in charge of Homeland Security, the Bush Administration used to have this cute little trick of suddenly inventing elevated threats or terrorism any time George W. Bush appeared to be in political trouble. Sure enough, enough of the brain-dead and the spoon-fed would get scared, just as Bush & Rove wanted, and suddenly people would rally around this pathetic, disgraceful excuse of a "president." Problem solved.
Once Bush was reinstalled in office, however, there was no more need to scare the hell out of the American people in order to manipulate the election results -- so Tom Ridge resigned, and there hasn't been a single elevated threat warning since November 10, 2004. (Think I'm exaggerating? Look it up on the Dept. of Homeland Security's site. Apparently, al Qaida must have just miraculously given up trying to harm the US right after election day.)
So now, Bush and company don't have that little manipulative tool anymore. But after the Schiavo debacle, the Republicans' attempt to subvert 200+ years of democratic tradition by ending the filibuster (which they used against Clinton judicial nominees less than a decade ago), and with polls showing rampant dissatisfaction with both Bush and Congress... well, the Republicans needed to do something new to frighten the American people and manipulate them into thinking Republicans aren't so bad. What to do? Easy - continue to demonize the left by suddenly inventing a threat and saying left wing eco-terrorism is now a serious threat in America.
While the right wing has long been so devoid of ideas, value, or anything remotely beneficial to offer the American public that they've been forced to demonize the left as a distraction tactic, this represents a new low. Memo to the public: the only incidents of domestic terrorism in the last decade to claim American lives have been RIGHT WING TERRORISM.
Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people, including 19 children, because he'd been whipped up into a right-wing, anti-government frenzy. Eric Rudolph killed two people at the Atlanta Olympics, killed two people by blowing up abortion clinics, and tried to kill more by bombing gay clubs... because of his right-wing, white supremacist, hate-filled beliefs. James Kopp shot Dr. Barnett Slepian out of a twisted, right-wing belief set that says mudering doctors is acceptable to prevent abortion, because abortion is murder and murder is wrong.
The simple fact is, the only domestic terrorists in this country are the right wing variety. And nothing that George Bush or members of his government can say will ever change that. You want to find domsestic terrorists in this country? Turn right.
