I guess I are a rightwing extremist now. Officially. According to the Dept. of Homeland Security’s recently declassified report on “Rightwing Extremism” the list of scary people just got a lot longer. Look at their description of those who may be rightly classified as “extremists”:
“Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”
I have a few questions for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who recently defended this report on CBS News. Ok, so groups, movements and adherents that reject “federal authority in favor of state and local authority” are now considered “extremists”? Does this include those who hold that the 10th amendment is a good idea? Those who believe the states still have constitutional rights? Who believe that the Federal Gov’t is best when it acts within its constitutional authority? Those sorts of people? Like the Founding Fathers?
Do you actually mean to say that groups and individuals “that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion” are “extremists”? Most of us realize that abortion is not the only legally sanctioned evil there is, but are you really saying that people who are dedicated to seeking an end to legalized abortion can be put on the list? Not just people to kill others (i.e, murderers) but those “dedicated to [lawful] opposition to abortion”? Like people who peacefully protest outside of clinics? All those frightening mothers with children?
Do you intentionally leave off mentioning those dedicated to the violent extermination of all who disagree with them? You mention “white supremacists” and I’m with you there, but what about those who like to blow up big buildings with lots and lots of people in them? And then brag about it and celebrate? Or those radical environmentalists groups who cause thousands of dollars in losses destroying private property? Or those who overtly seek to provoke racial animosity? Of course, you did mention the “white supremacists” but I didn’t see the Nation of Islam listed. Pregnant moms who oppose abortion are “threats” — or, excuse me, DOMESTIC RIGHTWING THREATS TO NATIONAL SECURITY — but Louis Farrakhon is ok?
Is there any evidence that those you warn us against in your report are actually genuine threats to the citizens of our country? No, wait, I see that the report begins by saying “The DHS/Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has no specific information that domestic rightwing* terrorists are currently planning acts of violence.” So, since you admit that you have no evidence, is this merely a grand exercise in demonizing innocent people whose only “crime” is disagreeing with the present administration’s agenda?
Assuming your definition of “right-wing extremists” — those groups and individuals who have a “hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups” — and considering the general (and sometimes pointed) opposition to Christian positions being expressed by the President and the members of his administration, could it be that the largest group of “extremists” are, as they say, right in your own backyard? Like, just down the street? Sometimes the most obvious things are missed when they’re right under your nose.
Just a thought.
THE AVENUE 
It ain’t official until you’re registered.
If you dare to oppose any of the current socialist regime’s utopian schemes you are most definitely a right-wing extremist. You don’t have to advocate anything illegal and you may well only be exercising your First Amendment rights, but that’s enough in the current leftist political climate to brand you as a right-wing extremist. You have to understand these people who are, for all intents and purposes, basically Marxists. Anything they consider as opposition to their programs, no matter how lawful, is listed as extremism. For these people your First Amendment rights consist of being free to say what they want you to say and nothing more. Anything more is extremism. Marxists don’t think like ordinary people, nor do they use language as we use it and you have to understand that when dealing with them.
Al Benson
History repeating itself, Hitler had the same overall agenda and made the same moves as what we’re beginning to see now–with regard to how the government views people, especially those with morals or who otherwise would be a problem to control. They simply want to get rid of the people who wouldn’t blindly object to what the government says.
Pre-WW1 & Pre-WW2 Russia, same thing. This isn’t a new tactic, all through history what’s the best way to set-up and maintain a totalitarian government through the guise of political activism and democracy? Control the people. Cause a mass panic to make sure the mostly-ignorant masses believe that these ‘extremists’ are bad people, and sell them out.
I can tell you from personal experience, most people who work for the government at all levels, typically just do what they’re told and believe it’s for the good of the people–even “Christian” workers–regardless of what’s involved.
Remember, it was the Jews who were shovelling bodies and assisting with deaths of their own race in the death camps. It was the Christian vote who obtained our current Administration.
I ran across a lady here in Sterlington recently who informed me that she had voted for Mr. Obama. She gushed on about how he had really impressed her with all he said and how, when she lived in Illinois, he had impressed her with his line of patter. That’s all it usually takes anymore to fool people. This lady was disabled in the military and so she’s no left-winger but Obama’s approach totally bamboozled her and so she ended up, basically, voting against her own best interests and not realizing it. How many other naive voters did the same thing in the last election–not that we had any real choice between the two major parties, which are both socialist to the core at this point.
Al Benson