I often visit an internet group dedicated to supporting Barack Obama, and the other day I saw there a request for help. Under the title "Fear mongering again" the poster wrote, "I have someone in my family who listens to right-wing talk shows...and is convinced that Obama is planning a civilian military that will kill and control us. I can't reason with this person as he says he's heard Obama say it himself. Does anyone have any info that I can send to set this person's mind at ease or where this stuff is coming from?"
I don't have an argument to offer her with which to win over someone this delusional. Here is why that sort of attitude worries me, though.
All over the country there have been reports of gun sales "shooting through the roof," as more than one reporter who thought she was clever wrote. Who's buying all those guns? Are they deer hunters whose guns are worn out, so they need another? People who want to protect their homes against burglars? I think not, especially when many of the news articles particularly mention sales of assault rifles. Are the people buying them just folks who are anxious that their Second Amendment right, as they understand them, are about to be taken away? Some of them are, and although they don't think the way I do, they do have a right to exercise those rights if they are doing it legally.
My concern is that there are other elements involved. There are people out there far to the right of Limbaugh and his ilk, people like that family member who think Obama will introduce some kind of military dictatorship. As someone wrote in another thread on that message board, "Living in the most backward, redneck area of Florida, you should see the letters to the editor in the local conservative rag, they flat out say that he'll be a socialist dictator, and that they are stockpiling guns and ammo." At least a few are surely would-be Timothy McVeighs and Randy Weavers, people who are prepared not only to defend themselves against the attacks they expect but to initiate violence in the hope of precipitating all-out war, most likely in the name of the Prince of Peace. At least some of those guns are being stockpiled by people like that.
Many people are concerned for Obama's safety. Nobody seems to want to talk about that much, but it's on many people's minds.That could turn out to be just one worry among many. There exists the potential for a wave of domestic terrorism.
What can be done to prevent that? Of course, much of the responsibility to detect attempts to subvert the government lies with the FBI. I hope and expect that Obama and Eric Holder will be able to do much to restore the integrity, morale and professionalism of an agency that has been misused by the Bush administration and widely abused for its failures for the last seven years. They're not going to be asking for or taking my advice, though.
A more helpful question, then, is what can you and I do? We can work to ensure the success of the Obama agenda. Nothing will do more to increase and to energize the extreme right than further collapse of the economy. Economic setbacks have always been blamed by some working class whites on blacks, Jews and immigrants. Widespread unemployment will be fertile ground for growing 21st Century Klansmen, especially in that belt from southwest Pennsylvania into Texas that shifted more Republican this year than in 2004, which is pretty much what has been called the Bible Belt, too. Nothing will isolate and enervate the extreme right more effectively than quick action to restore prosperity as soon as possible. I intend to urge my representative and my senators to help President Obama (saying that still thrills me!) in every way they can to turn this still deteriorating financial situation back in the right direction. It won't be accomplished this year, but it has to begin January 21st.
