You'd think someone would have noticed this back when Dinesh D'Souza wrote an entire book describing the American right's values as essentially more attuned to those of Islamic fundamentalists than their fellow Americans.
More recently, there was Ann Coulter "joking" that she could "understand" murderous domestic terrorists:
- "Those few abortionists were shot, or, depending on your point of view, had a procedure with a rifle performed on them. I'm not justifying it, but I do understand how it happened.... The number of deaths attributed to Roe v. Wade about 40 million aborted babies and seven abortion clinic workers; 40 million to seven is also a pretty good measure of how the political debate is going."
Of course, this isn't the first time that Coulter, like others on the right, has "joked" about her warm and fuzzy feelings about right-wing domestic terrorists:
- "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."
No one seems to have noticed that, among the premises underpinning this "joke," was the understanding that McVeigh was on Coulter's side -- and in effect speaking for her through action. Ah well. Guess we were too busy laughing uproariously.
And now we have Outer Wingnuttia -- aka the right-wing blogosphere -- giving voice to their wish that Al Qaeda had carried out its reported plans to assassinate Jimmy Carter, as Glenn Greenwald explains:
- Michelle Malkin's Hot Air expressed this confusion: "[Mohammed] confessed to 29 plots in all, including the Richard Reid shoebomb plot and planned assassinations of the pope and . . . Jimmy Carter?" These extremists come to believe their twisted rhetoric that Democrats are on the side of Al Qaeda and so they literally can't understand why Mohammed would want to assassinate his own allies like President Carter.
But commenters at Little Green Footballs have not only expressed surprise, but outright support, for Mohammed's assassination plot against a former U.S. President. They are out in droves expressing sorrow that Al Qaeda did not have the opportunity to carry out its plot.
It's become more than apparent that the nutcases who increasingly are becoming the voice of American conservatism have a special, er, "understanding" when it comes to terrorism: If it helps their side, it's good. And sometimes even when it's bad, it's good.
That might help explain why figures like Malkin so readily dismissed any kind of culpability in the most recent instance of right-wing domestic terrorism -- Chad Castagana, the mouth frother churned up by Coulter, Malkin, et. al., who sent packages of fake anthrax to a number of leading liberal figures. Not only was Castagana's a clear-cut case of piggybacking from another right-wing terror attack (namely, the 2001 anthrax killer), but it became evident from examining the available info that either Castagana was more active than his indictment indicated, or there were more of these characters out there.
Well, today we got a definitive answer: there are indeed more of these characters out there.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. Mar 15, 2007 (AP)— The campaign headquarters of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards reopened Thursday after authorities determined the white substance found in an envelope wasn't dangerous, campaign officials said.
Edwards said a letter in the envelope contained "some negative comments" and powder spilled out of the envelope, but he didn't elaborate on what the letter said or its possible source.
I'm looking forward to hearing someone like Coulter or Rush Limbaugh explain how they "understand" why someone would target liberals like Edwards. After all, as Coulter once said, we should "appreciate the benefits of local fascism." Especially when it comes to "faggots."
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