Revolution on the Right -- our Duty to Oppose

The recent violent events in Las Vegas included the murdering of two police officers having lunch and one innocent shopper at Walmart.  It was perpetrated by two right wing extremist anti-government fanatics in a vicious act of revolutionary racist white supremist gun violence adding to the horrific NRA-inspired gun violence across our nation that we have witnessed so many times.

Did you know in Indiana a law was actually, if one can believe it, passed by the Indiana Republican legislature and signed by its cowardly Republican governor (to even his own dismay) giving citizens the right to shoot police officers if they deem them a threat?  Yes, as Jack Parr would have said "I kid you not."  The governor did, in fact, sign the monstrous bill.

The "Patriot," Tea Party, and an array of other right wing extremist heretofore fringe groups have now found a home within the legitimate Republican Party one of the only two Parties that provide a path to elected power and leadership in this nation.  The Republican Party has opened a Pandora's box. It has unleashed heretofore minorities on its periphery and now has accepted them within their ranks to gain money and power. These previously fringe groups are eating the mainstream Republican Party alive.

The Republican Party is NOT most definitely the Party of Lincoln nor is it the one that we knew even during the Eisenhower years.  As a matter of fact both Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan, too, would not be welcome in the Republican Party of our day because they were not ideologically right wing pure enough.  There is no leadership within the Republican Party that can contain the cancer that has invaded its ranks, spread throughout its body and threatens to extinguish the life of this nation.

Therefore, we on the other side of the political spectrum and those of us in the middle must choose the only Party -- the Democratic Party -- that offers some sanity, compassion, diversity and hope for our poor, our elderly, our sick and our disabled.  It offers a path to citizenship for millions, it offers relief for students and help for our children.  It offers economic sanity for our nation's economic health as well.  We must resist this menace before it eradicates our republic and promotes yet another civil war in our nation.  Yes, it COULD happen again but we must not let it.

Therefore, I urge you to read the letter pasted below sent to me from the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization dedicated to the monitoring of domestic terrorists and to legally fighting their threat.  The letter explains in more detail the right wing violence that recently occurred.  Please read it, support this organization and, if you can, give to it.  It is a force for good.  And then in all elections across the country VOTE for and support progressives and Democrats in November.  The very life of our republic is at stake!

June 09, 2014 We’ve confirmed that the man and woman who ambushed and killed two police officers in Las Vegas yesterday before murdering a bystander were active in the antigovernment “Patriot” movement. Jerad and Amanda Miller walked into a pizza shop and shot two officers at point-blank range, then murdered a man at a nearby Walmart before killing themselves after a brief shootout with police. Witnesses said the Millers shouted “this is a revolution” during the killing spree and draped the officers’ bodies in a swastika and the Gadsden flag – a Revolutionary War-era symbol used widely within the Patriot movement and by many Tea Party factions. Earlier this year, Jerad Miller posted on Facebook a photo of himself with Richard Mack, a radical former Arizona sheriff and icon of the Patriot movement who encourages law enforcement officers to join his group and to disobey gun laws. Amanda Miller once wrote on Facebook that “one day all hell will break lose and I’ll be standing in the middle of it with a shot gun in one hand and a pistol in the other.” I’m deeply alarmed about the rise in far-right extremism and the violence that accompanies it. We’ve seen numerous violent attacks and terrorist plots in recent years. In fact, yesterday’s shooting was the second act of domestic terrorism by anti-government extremists in the past four days. On Friday, an extremist attacked a suburban Atlanta courthouse with guns and explosives, apparently intent on taking hostages. He wounded a deputy before being shot and killed.  These attacks do not occur in a vacuum. They are the predictable result of a toxic climate of racism and far-right anti-government extremism that encourages and emboldens potential terrorists. We’ve documented a dramatic resurgence of militias and like-minded Patriot groups – a more than 600 percent increase – since 2008, the year President Obama was elected as our first African-American president. As you may know, we’ve been urging the federal government to take the threat of far-right terrorism much more seriously – just as we did six months before the Oklahoma City bombing. And last week, Attorney General Eric Holder responded by announcing the revitalization of a high-level task force to coordinate the government’s efforts. With your support, we’re not only exposing the extremist rhetoric that seeps into the mainstream but also providing key intelligence and training to help law enforcement combat extremist violence. Thank you for supporting our work. It’s more critical than ever.     Sincerely, Richard Cohen President, Southern Poverty Law Center Make a contribution to support our work fighting hate, teaching tolerance, and seeking justice.  Like our page on Facebook.  Follow SPLC on Twitter. Take advantage of corporate matching gift opportunities. Contact your employer's HR department to see if they will match your contributions to the SPLC. Contact us online. We welcome your feedback. 400 Washington Ave. Montgomery, AL 36104

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