Stuck in the Middle with You.

Did you know that there are extremists on both the right and left of the political spectrum? No, really. Because it seems that some people don't acknowledge extremes. Thus the uproar over the past few weeks about a report from homeland security that suggests (I'm paraphrasing) the current political and domestic atmosphere may encourage activities, including violence, by right wing extremists or terrorists.

Now, for the average citizen who leans right politically, or even adopts the label, right-wing, this should be neither cause for alarm nor surprise. But yet, some seem to have had that reaction.

Bob Bennett (R), from Utah, wrote to HS secretary Janet Napolitano saying,

"Do you truly believe that our returning war heroes, and all citizens who are gun owners, are not only unpatriotic, but threats to the state?"

Did the report make this claim? Here's the offending part of the report.

"The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today,"

In other words, after Gulf War I, a very small percent of returning vets who possibly had psychological or other problems joined extremists groups. Of course, people from all walks of life with similar problems join radical groups. Why would homeland security focus on vets? Just a guess, but I'd say it was because they have MILITARY TRAINING. Call me crazy, but I think our military is the best trained, most lethal force in the world. If my beer-swilling overweight racist neighbor living on disability joins a radical organization, I don't worry too much. But a former SEAL sniper, or military demolitions expert, etc... who joins such a group causes me a bit of alarm. Not because they are more or less likely to harbor violent intent, but because they are much more capable of successfully acting out any violent intentions that may develop. Case in point, Timothy McVeigh who is sighted in the report. McVeigh is not singled out as an example of the character of vets. He is singled out as an example of the capabilities and threat posed by a combination of extreme ideology and military training.

Abortion clinics have been bombed. Timothy McVeigh did exist. Jim Adkisson and Richard Poplawski were real people who killed real people. These people do not represent that average conservative. They do no represent the average right wing American. I have several conservative friends. They do not act like these people. My conservative friends have a name for right-wingers like these guys...what do they call them? Oh yeah- EXTREMISTS. Just like the report said.

How is this so difficult. Either people like Pat Robertson (who is having a fit about this, even questioning the sexual orientation of those composing the report) have such profound ignorance that they don't know these people really exist. Or perhaps they just want something to bitch about and hope that the average conservative American will jump on the bandwagon- once again proving my hypothesis that modern conservative rhetoric depends heavily on the listener being ignorant and not thinking about it.

The final possibility which I hope is not the case, is that these people complaining honestly can't distinguish between their own views and the views of extremists- in which case the report really was about them.

I'll leave with a story about protests against some left-wing extremists. I'm talking about animal rights extremists. There was a counter protest, creatively named Pro-Test, on Earth Day in support of scientists who do conduct research on animals. It had a great turnout- far more than the animal rights wingnuts. Good for them. Read more about it at Scienceblogs.