Many Americans–-especially Republicans–claim they can’t understand the tragic January 8 shootings in Tuscon that claimed the lives of six people and left 14 others wounded.
Far from being a mystery, that violence is fully understandable. All we need do is accept that Republicans have spent a half-century slandering government and soliciting the support of violent extremists.
On April 19, 1993, David Koresh and 86 Branch Davidians, including up to 24 children, chose death by self-immolation rather than surrender to FBI agents who had besieged their compound in Waco, Texas, for 51 days.
High-ranking Republicans immediately sought to turn the needless mass suicide into a second Alamo. The FBI–normally revered by Republicans when they command the Justice Department–became a target for repeated Congressional hearings and slanderous attacks.
Totally ignored were the four agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who were killed by the Davidians in the initial February 28 attempt to serve arrest and search warrants at the compound for illegal arms and ammunition. Another 20 were wounded.
The clear implication was that the FBI should have allowed the Davidians to go un-arrested for their killings and woundings of sworn Federal law enforcement officers.
Republicans used the Davidians’ self-immolation to solicit support among the heavily-armed, right-wing militia movement.
Said Newt Gingrich, then Speaker of the House: “”We have to understand that there is, in rural America, a genuine– particularly in the West–a genuine fear of the Federal Government and of Washington, D.C., as a place that doesn’t understand their way of life and doesn’t understand their values.”
Two years later, on April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh, a member of the militia movement, detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring 450. It was the deadliest act of terrorism within the United States prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks. His primary motive for doing so was to “avenge” the Davidians who had died in Waco.
Suddenly, Republican leaders found themselves on the defensive. They had spent decades slandering the Federal Government–claiming, for example:
• there was a plot by Democrats to “take away your guns,”
• that flouridation was a Communist plot to “pollute our precious bodily fluids,”
• that Democrats were “Godless” and wanted to enforce athiesm on believing Christians,
• and that Democrats would allow United Nations “black helicopters” to stage a military takeover of the United States.
Now at least three members of one of their core constituency groups–the militia movement–had acted on that rhetoric. Republicans genuinely feared that President Bill Clinton would address the nation and lay blame squarely on those who had spent decades slandering government as a threat to the very liberties of those it was meant to serve.
Instead, Clinton gave a consoling address where he praised the men and women who had died in the blast. The closest he came to naming–and condemning–those truly responsible for the tragedy came near the end of his address:
“There are forces that threaten our common peace, our freedom, our way of life. Let us teach our children that the God of comfort is also the God of righteousness. Those who trouble their own house will inherit the wind. Justice will prevail.
“Let us let our own children know that we will stand against the forces of fear. When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it. In the face of death let us honor life.”
But Clinton never blamed the Republicans for “giving aid and comfort” to the right-wing militia movement whose members carried out this slaughter.
Republicans won the White House in 2000, and again in 2004. But in 2008 the prospect of a black man becoming President frightened and infuriated not only many Republican leaders but their rightist supporters.
At one rally for Republican nominee John McCain, a woman screamed, “Obama! Osama!”–a clear reference to Republican accusations that Barack Obama was a closet Muslim, if not an outright supporter of Islamic terrorism.
Republicans encouraged right-wing groups to spread the word that Obama was not born in Hawaii, but in Kenya. The purpose of this was to strip Obama of legitimacy as a leader.
In 1988, while working as a community organizer in Chicago, Obama was formally baptized as a Christian at the Trinity United Church of Christ. Obama now worships in services at Camp David.
Despite this, Republicans and their right-wing supporters continue to assert that he is a secret Muslim. And this has led increasing numbers of Americans to believe he is.
The number of Americans who say President Obama is a Muslim has nearly doubled since March 2009, according to an August, 2010 poll from Pew. The poll finds that 18% of Americans say the president is a Muslim.
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