Not again!  Via The Liberty Papers, just weeks after the state of Missouri retracted a similar report, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a report entitled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Environment Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”  The 10-page document warns of the possible resurgence of right-wing extremist groups or individuals in the U.S.  Like the Missouri report, it identifies the history of such extremism in the 1980s and ’90s, compares and contrasts them to today, and identifies certain types of groups as supposedly being the biggest threat.  However, it comes to no conclusions or identifies specific known threats, though it identifies some recent events, such as the shooting of three police officers on April 4th.

Unlike the Missouri report, the origin of which was difficult to identify at best, this ones gets far more specific, and is easier to identify when it was commissioned.  It specifically notes the election of President Barack Obama as a possible reason (along with the recession) for such a resurgence in rightwing extremism.  While it could be argued this was first started in the period between the election and Obama’s inauguration, the vast similarities to the Missouri document seem to suggest otherwise.

The report is likely to cause furor among conservatives (and headaches for the Obama administration) due to some of its contents.  Because what government report targeting a specific segment of society wouldn’t be complete without its share of questionable paragraphs?

Page 2 has a footnote outlining the federal government’s definition of right-wing extremism (emphasis mine):

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and
adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups),
and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or
rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a
single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

Focus on the Family et al., libertarians, and federalists take note.  The federal government thinks you’re an extremist!  While this report didn’t go as far as naming specific political parties and politicians as being favored by rightwing extremists, I believe the definition stated above is just a more subtle way of doing so.

Anyway, there are now two similar reports that have come out in less than a month!  It gives the impression, undeserved or not, that the Obama administration is becoming a left-wing incarnation of the Richard Nixon administration, with lists of political enemies and wiretaps at the headquarters of their opponents.  Remember all that crap from the left over the past eight years that George W. Bush was a fascist dictator who was going to strip us of our civil liberties and throw us in detention centers, impose martial law, and cancel elections?  Well, this is the kind of thing the administration does not need if it wishes to combat similar accusations.  Not to mention that liberals don’t need any more reasons to be called intolerant, speech suppressing authoritarians.

But I may be wrong.  I therefore challenge anyone to show me a similar report produced by the DHS on leftwing extemists.