Extremism on the Right

A number of people have commented at the In Box that they think I’m exaggerating concerns that the Right in America is flirting with dangerous extremism.

To further this discussion, I want to urge you to read a prominent essay published today by Newsmax.com.

This is one of the most influential news and information sites read by movement conservatives.

The article, by regular commentator John Perry, suggests that a time is fast approaching when the U.S. military should stage a coup to displace our democratically elected president.

There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America’s military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the “Obama problem.” Don’t dismiss it as unrealistic.

Mr. Perry argues that Barack Obama, who has filled his cabinet with former Wall Street executives, and placed Republicans in charge of the Defense Department and the Army, is a Marxist.

(Our own former Republican congressman, John McHugh, accepted Mr. Obama’s appointment to serve as Army Secretary earlier this month.)

Mr. Perry then goes on to fantasize about a fast-approaching future in which our elected Commander In Chief — chosen less than a year ago — will be made into a figurehead by a military junta.

Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars…the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making.

Mr. Perry argues that this kind of event — literally, the destruction by force of our most sacred democratic and legal principles — is not only desirable but necessary.

Unthinkable? Then think up an alternative, non-violent solution to the Obama problem. Just don’t shrug and say, “We can always worry about that later.”

Mr. Perry is not writing parody or humor. He is articulating a real and present sentiment among some on the Right.

Every decent American knows that we don’t need an alternative, non-violent way to change leadership.

This is a nation of laws. We have elections. Mr. Obama won the last election by a sizable margin just ten months ago.

People who oppose his agenda should organize and attempt to defeat the Democrats peacefully at the ballot box.

Two important points:

1. Yes, there have been times in the past when Democrats and progressives were called upon to repudiate extremism in their own ranks, and on the margins of their movement.

2. And yes, only a very small percentage of conservatives are purveying this sort of bile.

But this is the time when every decent conservative should repudiate fully and unreservedly this kind of unpatriotic, dangerous, and malignant language.

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