America Corrupted By Its Extremists

The election of Barack Obama was supposed to be the symbol of a new America, liberated from the conservatism and religious fundamentalism that marked George W. Bush’s two terms. Unfortunately, things are not that simple.

Because even if, this time, the progressive side scored the votes, the Americans themselves haven’t changed. And for the most conservative fringe of the population, the arrival of a black president, a Democrat, with a Muslim branch of his family, is going really very badly. If the election of George W. Bush was marked by demonstrations, that of Barack “Hussein” Obama has already been marked by hate and violence. The revival of American Democrats has indeed prompted an unprecedented resurgence of extremists of all kinds, and in particular on the Internet. Anti-abortionists, religious fundamentalists, racists, Islamophobes … they seem, in turn, to have understood that the Internet could be an impressive mobilization tool. A mobilization that, unfortunately, is starting to materialize in real life.

Thus, while “pro-life” videos proliferate on the web and militants invite themselves to Barack Obama’s meetings, on May 31st, George Tiller, a Kansas doctor and abortion activist, was gunned down in a church by an anti-abortion militant.

Certain religious conservatives publicly saluted the murder, notably the pastor Wiley Drake, who a few days afterwards boasted to the media of having prayed for the death of Dr. Tiller before adding that he was also praying for the death of Barack Obama.

On June 10th, James Von Brunn, an 88-year-old right-wing extremist who was very active on American neo-Nazi sites, entered the Holocaust Museum in Washington armed with a rifle and opened fire, killing a guard before being shot himself. In the last emails he sent, he declared: “It’s time to kill all the Jews.”

Certainly, we’re still far from a coup d’etat. But this turmoil on the extreme right is worth worrying about. Even the very conservative channel Fox News seems to be scared by what it nevertheless helped feed. On June 10th, just after the Washington shootout, one could thus witness an extraordinary outburst from journalist Shepard Smith, who called the hateful emails with which the channel has been inundated since the presidential election campaign “frightening.” Ironic, when one knows that Fox constantly relayed the rumors about Barack Obama’s “muslim” origins…