The Far Greater Threat of Domestic Terror

After obsessing for the past year, or more, about whether or not the Obama administration will ever bring itself to utter the words "Islamic Terror" or "Radical Islam" one can only wonder when conservatives will wake up to the greater threat, that once again, is seen to be emanating from the far right. To wit: "In a survey we conducted with the Police Executive Research Forum last year of 382 law enforcement agencies, 74 percent reported anti-government extremism as one of the top three terrorist threats in their jurisdiction; 39 percent listed extremism connected with Al Qaeda or like-minded terrorist organizations. And only 3 percent identified the threat from Muslim extremists as severe, compared with 7 percent for anti-government and other forms of extremism."

The recent racially driven terror shootings in Charleston once again bring to the fore the threat that I detailed below in "Coming Unhinged on the Far Right". The Charleston tragedy shows that the underlying issues outlined in 2010 are still salient, relevant and no less dangerous today.

What is most interesting in the aftermath of Charleston is that even though folks on the far right, like Bill O'Rielly, admit that it was an act of terror, they cannot resist using the tragedy to promote an ongoing anti-progressive political agenda. The aftermath of the Charleston terror attack is seen by the talking heads on the far right as an opportunity for the “America haters” and “race hustlers” to launch a new round of attacks against our country. They ignore the fact that many of the alleged “America haters” and “race hustlers are merely pointing out the enduring shortcomings of race in American society and all the problems resulting there from.

A question that every American should be asking is why there are so many on the right who cannot, or will not address the issue of domestic right wing terror head on and chose instead, to try to force fit tragedy into their ongoing anti-progressive agenda and diatribe? Does anyone think that that approach is going to yield a useful outcome?

Steven J. Gulitti

6/23/2015

Sources:

 The Growing Right-Wing Terror Threat; http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/opinion/the-other-terror-threat.html?_r=0

Charleston shooting puts focus on the rising fringe http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/245623-charleston-shooting-puts-focus-on-the-rising-fringe

Coming Unhinged on the Far Right; http://bluemassgroup.com/2010/03/coming-unhinged-on-the-far-right/

From Ferguson to Charleston and Beyond, Anguish About Race Keeps Building; http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/us/from-ferguson-to-charleston-and-beyond-anguish-about-race-keeps-building.html?_r=1