Several years ago the federal government issued reports warning of rightwing extremists.
The 2009 report, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment", defines rightwing extremism as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority and advocate for only a limited state or local authority.
There was also an earlier companion report, "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel since 9/11", that Bush ordered from the FBI and was released in 2008. It focused on the rise in hate groups and white nationalists. Prophetically this report also noted that "lone wolves and small terrorist cells embracing violent rightwing extremist ideology are the most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States.” Are we there yet?
The reports warned that even the mere possibility of firearms restrictions was enough to swell the ranks of rightwing extremist groups and armed anti-government militias. Anti-Semitic tirades were also expected to grow and draw more people into joining up with other extremists to air their perceived grievances. Rightwing extremists justify violence against immigrants and dwell on paranoid conspiracy theories focused on various foreign regimes. Are we there yet?
The conservative media and their comrades in the rightwing blogosphere went nuts when those reports were made public. Republican legislators were is a high dudgeon and eagerly queued up for days to make angry statements that eventually forced Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to issued an apology.
Get that? A woman had to apologize for telling us the truth about rightwing extremists because the Republicans demanded it. In the intervening years the government failed to use that information to stop the spread of Nazis and white supremacists because it was deemed too politically controversial.
Just trying to tie it altogether in my head because those two reports are part of why we are where we are today. Republicans are either too fragile to handle the truth, or they wanted to cover it up... I'm going with the latter.
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