Back in April, conservatives were all up in arms over a report from the Department of Homeland Security warning of the possible rise of rightwing violence in the wake of a worsening recession and the election of the nation's first black President. The word "conservative" never appeared in the report, but conservatives were certain it was aimed at them.
Suddenly, now that the shooting has begun to grab major mindshare, they've changed their minds. The murderer of Dr. George Tiller was a lone nut, not one of them. And Bill O'Reilly's incessant haranguing of "Tiller the baby-killer" had nothing to do with Tiller's murder. What's more, James W. Von Brunn, the Holocaust Museum killer, why, he's a leftist!
Gosh, it seems that the DHS report wasn't about conservatives after all! But are the conservatives now apologizing to Janet Napolitano? Don't hold your breath.
Perhaps the best place to turn to understand what's happening--not just the outbreak of violence, but the intimate relationship it has to the actually existing rightwing movement in America, is David Neiwert's new book, The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right. One way or another, David's been on this beat since the 1990s, covering the "Patriot" movement in the Northwest first as journalist, then as author, and writing a number of seminal diary series, including the 2003 Koufax winner, Rush, Newspeak and Fascism: An Exegesis (pdf) and the 2004 Koufax winner, "The Rise of Pseudo Fascism" (pdf), both of which contribute substantially to the content of The Eliminationists.
David's the founder of the blog Orcinus, and is currently managing editor at Crooks and Liars, where he had an excellent post yesterday, "How on-target was Homeland Security's right-wing extremism bulletin? Very", which covers a lot of ground (typically for him), including an extensive quotation from The Eliminationistts (mostly finished by last October), from which the following is but a tiny snippet:
President Obama has called on leaders of both sides of the debate on whether women should have the right to legal abortion to come together to find "common ground."
But it is cold-blooded, vicious actions like today's assassination that make it hard for those of us in the pro-choice community to find common ground with those on the other side. It is lawless, violent behavior like this that makes us fear for our lives and our families. When they sit down across from us, they have no reason to believe that we come to the table with violent intentions. Today is a brutal reminder that we are not privileged to have the same sense of security.
It's not just violence, though. The violence is natural end of the logic of coercion, and coercion is precisely what anti-choice activists are all about. It's not just mere happenstance that violence comes from the anti-choice side, and not the other way around. This is the very essence of the issue: coercion vs. choice.
The murder of Dr. George Tiller is evidence of the re-emergence of violent rightwing extremism, which many observers expected in the wake of Bush & Cheney's exit from the White House. Indeed, a report released in April, Rightwing Extremism: Current. Economic and Political Climate Fueling. Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment (pdf), was subject to rightwing backlash, precisely because it accurately focused attention on the potential for increased rightwing terrorism at this time. While it didn't focus specifically on anti-abortion activists, it has been ten years since the last abortion provider was murdered. While the numbers of violent rightwing activists can be measured in the thousands, they are representative of a much larger segment of the population, measuring in the millions. However, this still represents only a relatively small political fringe in the total electorate, as can be seen by this chart, showing that total opposition to all abortions encompasses roughly one in 11 Americans, and one in seven Republicans:
(Source: General Social Survey. Interactively generated by author, May 31, 2009, Sun 03:04 PM PDT. Filtered for years 2000-2008.)
Abthreat is a combined scale, measuring attitudes toward abortion in case of rape, threat to the health of the mother, or significant birth defect.
Dr. Tiller was one of the few late-term abortion providers in the country. He had previously been shot, his clinic burnt down, harassed by ideological anti-abortion attorney generals, and threatened with death countless times. We've written about his many trials and tribulations here numerous times. Still, Dr. Tiller continued to provide abortions to women who desperately needed them, to save their own lives or health, or due to tragic fetal deformities. He put the health of women above his own life.
And now he is dead.
There is no word on whether or not there is a suspect in custody as of yet. I'll update as soon as I know. I've only just heard. And I'm in total shock. This is the first time an abortion provider has been murdered in over a decade. I have friends who work in abortion clinics. This is terrosism. And right now, I just don't have the words.
Suspect arrested in connection with slaying of abortion provider George Tiller
BY STAN FINGER AND JOE RODRIGUEZ
The Wichita Eagle
The suspect in this morning's fatal shooting of George Tiller is in custody, according to emergency dispatchers.
Authorities have yet to release more information about the arrest. Wichita police have scheduled a 4 p.m. news conference to discuss the case.
Tiller, 67, was shot just after 10 a.m. in the lobby of Reformation Lutheran Church at 7601 E. 13th, where he was a member of the congregation. Witnesses, a city official and a police source confirmed Tiller was the victim.
Police had said they were looking for white male who was driving a 1990s powder blue Ford Taurus with Kansas license plate 225 BAB. The vehicle is registered to an owner in Merriam, which is in the Kansas City area.
Clearly, the resurgence of rightwing violence was expected by many observers once Republicans lost power. But that does not lessen the horror of this tragic murder.
