Liberal fascism

Check out the new, April 7 assessment from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, titled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," obtained by Reuters and other news media last week.

Actually, what the document finds is just the opposite of what its overblown title suggests: "The DHS/Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has no specific information that domestic rightwing terrorists are currently planning acts of violence," the report admits at the outset.

Nonetheless, such characters need to be watched, the boys in Washington advise.

After all, "Rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues. The economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment," the report continues.

Got that? Although your government can't find any actual evidence that any "rightwing extremists" are planning any violent or criminal acts, government agents are now advised to keep a close eye on them ... just in case.

The report warns that military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with combat skills could be recruitment targets, especially those having trouble finding jobs or fitting back into civilian society.

Also worth keeping an eye on, the report warns, are "those that are mainly anti-government, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority."

Good heavens! Does anyone still harbor such a dangerous notion, in 21st century America? Why, if folks like Tom Jefferson and James Madison were here today, they'd be ... arrested, apparently.

Offering as it does the advantage of some geographic perspective, we find the analysis of James Delingpole, blogging at the Web site http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/james_delingpole, on point.

"Such is the latest wheeze dreamed up by the Obama administration to distract us from the fact that roughly half America now realises the man's New Deal II project is a slow-motion car crash from which in four agonised years time the US will be lucky to escape even half-way recognisable," Mr. Delingpole commented on Wednesday.

The Homeland Security directive is designed "to help police spot the tell-tale signs indicating potentially dangerous right wing extremism," Mr. Delingpole points out. "They include: Being unimpressed by America's first 'African-American' president; Objecting to tax hikes; Disliking big government; Talking concernedly about the state of the economy and job loss, especially in the manufacturing and construction sectors," (and) "Opposition to abortion, gay marriage and gun control.

"No really, I'm not making this up. ...

"Leftie screenwriters, bien-pensant ecclesiastical bloggers, ghastly lefties generally, just love the idea that the greatest danger to the world comes from the extreme right. And it just doesn't. ...

"Burgeoning Liberal Fascism, on the other hand: now there's something we should worry about very much indeed."