The Next Civil War is About to Begin

Anyone watching the mobs acting out at the various town hall meetings around the country during August, trying their best to drown out the elected officials who were attempting to engage their constituents in rational dialogue about health care reform, were actually witnessing members of far-right groups and extremist organizations with an undeniable hatred of government, of anyone who disagrees with them, and, of course, of President Obama. The same hate-filled fringe was also on display on 9-12 at the lunatics' march on Washington, where Confererate flags, posters of Obama with a Hitler moustache, signs that included all sorts of vile verbiage against Obama, and shrieks of “We Want Our Country Back” echoed across Pennsylvania Avenue.

I watched in near disbelief on Friday, September 11, when Chuck Todd, MSNBC's Chief White House correspondent and Political Director, while sitting in for Chris Matthews on “Hardball”, was interviewing Congressman James Clyburn from South Carolina. Todd said that Obama “obviously has a problem with the south”, and asked Clyburn what “Obama should do about it.” What should be obvious to Todd, and all the rest of the reporters and commentators who appear on and in the various corporate news media, is that it's the south that has a problem with Obama, not the other way around! Todd, and all of his bullshitting brethren, know that a recent poll showed that among self-declared Republicans in the south, 55% either believe that Obama isn't a natural born citizen, or aren't sure. And they know that in another poll several months ago, 11% of the American people still believe he's a Muslim. They also know that two days before the election, 23% of Texans believed the same outrageous lie. Indeed, in nearly all of the south, and with some pockets of lunacy in other parts of the country, these deeply racist and hate-filled individuals and groups now represent a clear and present danger to the United States of America.

We know that gun and ammo purchases since Obama's election have gone through the roof. We know that the Secret Service is dealing with an average of thirty threats a day on the life of the President, four times as many as with any other president. We know that militant militias around the country have seen their ranks swell far beyond the numbers they had in the 1990's, and, unlike the early 1990's, they now have the Internet to use for membership recruitment. And if you want to see an example of the maniacs at play, check out www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7XDVJhNcGw&feature=related.

While the cowardly talking heads and so-called “journalists” on TV continue to try to convince their audiences that the far-right irrationality and extremist behavior we're seeing, replete with swastikas, posters claiming Obama is the reincarnation of Hitler, and gun-toting giddiness, represents “legitimate” anger and is comparable to some mysteriously similar activities on the left which do not exist, they are, in fact, inexcusably enabling the lunatic fringe. But that's the state of “journalism” today; the facts don't matter, but the outrageous behavior that makes for “good pictures” of screaming and hate does. In their alleged desire to be “fair”, the shrunken and tortured excuses for what passes as journalism bears no resemblance whatsoever to the profession practiced by Cronkite, Murrow, and Huntley and Brinkley not too long ago.

The easily connected “dots” that clearly show the racist hatred that still exists in this country, and it's flagrant emergence during the last presidential campaign, has been all but completely ignored by the corporate media. And in doing so, the purveyors of “news” are in fact encouraging the hate-mongers and radical extremists, allowing them to flourish in plain sight.

It wasn't that long ago when President Eisenhower had to order troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to guard nine black students as they entered Central High School. The racial hatred that was clearly exposed in the crowds that lined the streets and steps leading up to the school is now a matter of history, and one of the significant “dots” to remember. Then came the civil rights marches through the south that were met with angry mobs, police dogs, high-pressure fire hoses that knocked people off their feet, and the billy-club beatings of peaceful protestors perpetrated by enthusiastic police. More “dots.” Then, after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the racist-driven political ideology began to take a new political direction and culminated in Richard Nixon's “Southern Strategy” and the mass departure of “Southern Democrats” to the Republican Party, where they still reside though the faces and names have changed. More “dots”. And although there were hate-filled events that occurred in other parts of the country, none of them compared to what was going on in the deep south.

This recollection of history isn't merely to serve as reference points; rather, it is to recognize that the people who demonstrated extremist hatred back then were the parents and grandparents of many of those whose racism is on display today at the tea parties, the incendiary town halls, and Brain Damaged Beck's highly exaggerated 9/12 protest in Washington. It doesn't require a child psychologist to tell us that the imprinting received at home, especially when it includes racism and bigotry, nearly always results in the offspring of bigots believing and practicing the same, or even more intense hatred than the parental poison bestowed upon them.

The droves of hate-filled “birthers”, and others, who carry signs reading “We Want Our Country Back” are begging the question, “Back from whom”? Back from the “socialist”, the “communist”, the “Nazi”, the Muslim who shouldn't be in the White House? Or is it simply “back from the ‘nigger' who isn't supposed to be president'?

Look at the outrageous behavior of so many right-wing parents who wouldn't allow their children to see Obama's recent speech to school kids. They just didn't want their children to see the black man who is our president. That's how much hate they carry.

Now, I want to be clear. Many of the people who are angry about one thing or another these days, are not necessarily driven by racism. But they are in the midst of it. While they might be angered about health care reform because of the disinformation they've heard, they may be nothing more than willing victims of the right-wing propaganda they choose to listen to. They are therefore in a somewhat different category than those who are wishing for Obama's death, but not very far away. In fact, given what we generally know about the number of arrests and active investigations being conducted by the Secret Service, the evidence is overwhelming. We can also safely assume that the far, far right who dream of an assassination have had numerous opportunities to network with others of like mind through the town halls, the 9-12 protest rally in D.C, and via the internet.

Somewhere out there, at this very moment, we can be sure that a number of plans are being plotted. Somewhere out there are groups of crazies who are trying to decide what course of violent action to take.

We don't yet know exactly what forms of violence will emerge first. We don't know if there will be a number of “lone wolf” actions, or if there will be a coordinated series of attacks in the tradition of their hero, Timothy McVeigh. But, given the depth of the racism, and the twisted minds at work, it won't be surprising if a wave of killings of black people sets off the race war that many of these lunatics are hoping for, believing that a race war will trigger a civil war and that that will settle things, once and for all. And in their favor. Indeed, if a war against people of color begins (you can be sure that if the killing starts, it won't be just African Americans who are targeted), the killers fully expect that the militias will flock to the cause, the KKK will join in, and the lunatics with itchy fingers will all take to the streets for the revolution they're all hoping for. They're not terribly concerned about Martial Law, because they're convinced that since so many in our military are from the south and rural areas, they wouldn't fire upon them. Instead, they believe that a large portion of the military would actually join them.

Such insanity might be easily dismissed, were it not for the facts and unbridled extremism before our very eyes. And too many in the media and among “average” people will still dismiss it, preferring instead to believe that it's nothing but a lot of bluster and nothing more. But that is the kind of naivete that endangers our country, and opens the way for a bloody and catastrophic time in America. A time that could well result in the destruction of our republic as we know it, and the end of the “great experiment” known as the United States of America.