Is the fuse lit on right-wing extremism?

Conservatives are howling about a new Homeland Security report that details newly elevated concerns about right-wing terrorists operating within the US.

They’re convinced that the Obama administration is unfairly targeting conservatives (and Republicans) who have legitimate concerns about the Democrat’s policies.

But arch-conservative Glenn Beck has acknowledged on Fox News that tensions are so inflamed among people and groups on the Right that he worries about an attack.

When I first saw this [the shootings in Binghamton, NY] and I saw that there was a shooter at a place where immigrants met, I can’t lie to you. I immediately said, oh, dear God, don’t let it be somebody who’s like, Oh, these illegals, they’re…

I fear what will happen. We have a giant fuse just burning in this country and we have to do everything we can, not to deny that reality, or deny what’s caused that fuse to be lit…but actually talk about the bomb on the other end and actually cut the fuse, not ignore the fuse.

Yikes. The truth is that a lot of rhetoric on the Right has been troubling since President Obama was elected.

Mainstream pundits on Fox and other national networks have portrayed the Democrat as a Stalin or a Hitler or an Anti-Christ.

I’m a pretty moderate guy. But if you convince me that our country is being led by Josef Stalin or Adolph Hitler (or the Beast!) then armed insurrection would become a moral duty.

Now, historically — with some notable exceptions — conservative activist movements have been extraordinarily peaceful and non-violent.

I can’t say this clearly enough: Despite the sometimes jarring rhetoric, conservatives have focused on winning victories at the ballot box and in the courts.

But we now have a Republican governor in Texas talking openly of secession.

We have GOP leaders arguing (with very few facts) that they’re losing elections because of ACORN-style fraud and corruption — not because voters have rejected their policies.

We have pundits like Beck insisting that Americans have been “disenfranchised” — even though we held a peaceful transition of power, via the ballot box, only a few months ago.

This doesn’t bode well for the country or the GOP.

When Democrats lost control of their “lefty loony fringe” in the 1960s and 1970s, it led to a long period in the wilderness.

If conservatives tolerate the rise of their version of the Weathermen or the Black Panthers, their marginalization will surely be profound.

A lot of conservatives understand this.

“Republican leaders should have put a hundred miles between themselves and [Fox News pundit] Glenn Beck, the first day he began dwelling lovingly on the possibility of right-wing armed violence in the United States,” wrote David Frum, a former assistant to President George W. Bush.

Indeed. The question then is simple: Why haven’t they?