Rogue Populism

In a previous post, I discussed the "tyranny of populism" and how its resurfacing in American politics after having lain dormant for decades, was yet another death throe of the right wing.

A commenter found the post and has been exchanging comments with me for the last few days. His (male pronoun being used for the sake of expediency) latest comment got my attention, and while I responded to it in the section, I felt it deserved a more rounded out response in its own post. Take a look at the exchange thus far:



Well now, that's actually rather refreshing. Instead of hiding behind coy gun references, here is a right winger coming out and admitting that violence is an inherent part of their plans. Or, to be fair, part of the ideal plans of this particular right winger.

So, let's break down this guy's strategy one point at a time:

A renewed and strong AMERICAN electorate

The guy seems to think, as usual, that only his brand of politics constitutes Real American© ideals.  He forgets that he is part of a diverse society, which has many different viewpoints, and that his is rather a minority, at the moment.  For example, the current political party breakdown of registered voters has the Democrats way out in front with 72 million.  The Republicans come next with 55 million.  This leaves 44 million "independent" voters, which break down into various 3rd parties, such as the Socialist party, or the Conservative Party, or even the Green Party.  Oh, yeah, then there are the Libertarians.

So, even if the far right wing somehow managed to tie up enough Independents to bring Republican strength in line with Democratic numbers, they still have to convince every single Republican to go along with it.  Given that many Republicans are growing weary of being embarrassed by right wing antics, such as the teabaggers, and Glenn Beck, this in itself presents a monumental task.

augmented by carefully targeted violent responses as a last resort

This is where it gets very interesting.  Without more details, it's hard to know what the commenter is thinking.  Does he mean another Federal building bombing such as what occurred in Oklahoma City?  Is he thinking of a right wing version of 9/11?  Or is this just good, old fashioned, assassination of those his ideology opposes?

There certainly has been an increase in threats since the passage of health care reform legislation.  However, the FBI and Secret Service have been investigating these thoroughly and have even made arrests which demonstrate the lightening fast response they can make to someone posting online threats.

And apart from futile attempts to kill those he disagrees with, what sort of response does he expect from the American public?  Endearment to his cause because he blew up a building or killed a politician?  If so, he needs to examine the public response to the recent arrests of the Hutaree Christian militia group.  They too planned a series of violent acts, targeting police officers, with the intent of triggering a widespread militia revolt against government authorities.  They were discovered and arrested before they could cause any loss of life.

What the commenter apparently fails to realize is that such activities would not only attract intense interest from the relevant authorities, but utterly repulse the American people.  We are not swayed by thugs.  We do not live in fear of rabid dogs, howling at the moon because they lost an election.  We are part of America too and we know how to handle criminals.