Why You Ought to Support Orcinus

There are two main reasons that monitoring the activities of the extremist Right in America -- which is the main task at hand for this blog, and for my work as a journalist in general -- is pretty much the direct opposite of a lucrative beat for a professional journalist:

1) There has been tremendous pushback from conservatives against this kind of reporting in general, and particularly against law-enforcement intelligence that makes use of it, as part of an insistent campaign to whitewash the existence of these groups and their profound impact on the body politic out of the national dialogue. They object to any attempt to point out the cooperation and collusion between extremists and mainstream conservatives as a "smear".

2) Liberals and progressives in general agree and comply. Many liberals, particularly mainstream Democrats, shy away from any confrontation with the extremist elements on either side, and particularly the conservative side of the aisle, and prefer not to raise the issue in their polite attempts at debate with the Right, believing in their hearts that such civility will be reciprocated even when it is not. It's considered gauche to even raise the subject, since many of them concur with conservatives that such talk is simply a form of reverse McCarthyism. Heaven knows that mainstream Republicans have nothing to do with such nutcases and do nothing to empower them, right? 

I grew up in conservative southern Idaho and still know how to talk the talk and walk the walk, but I long ago shed my naivete about the nature of the political beast I write about. I know from long experience that "reaching out to the other side of the aisle," when that other side is populated almost entirely with venomous Limbaughites to whom compromise means defeat, only means that you will be retrieving a bloody stump.

And I have watched, over many years, as crazy ideas that originated with the most vile and vicious hatemongers were dressed up in mainstream clothing and trotted out for popular consumption as a normative "new" idea (what I have long called the transmission belt). I have witnessed these ideas steadily migrating right into the mainstream, thanks to people like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Ron Paul -- and also thanks to blinkered progressives who consider the provenance of this insanity an irrelevance.

I happen to know that this information is vital and important, and will be considered so one day again -- probably not too long from now -- to both liberals and conservatives in the mainstream. Because right-wing extremists attack the interests of all of us, and they damage the fabric of American democracy in their every activity. Eventually, the toll they take becomes unmistakable.

That's why I have made this my beat. It's why I have revived this blog. Very few people are listening right now. If you too believe this is important, do what you can to help out.

P.S. Be sure to check out my appearance at Truthout.org:

An Autopsy of the Minuteman Movement: Q&A WithInvestigative Journalist David Neiwert