From overseas press

Newsweek: extremists are on the rise in US

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-04-14 15:23

Extremist activists have never been real threats in American history. However, according to a report in the current edition of Newsweek, "politics seem more intense than usual, and the domestic extremist threat seems more real" in the US.

Lately, partisan disputes, which are rarely pretty, "have taken a particularly ugly, menacing turn," said Newsweek.

The article quoted Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance W. Gainer as saying, "serious threats to members of Congress had nearly tripled, from 15 in the last three months of 2009 to 42 in the first quarter of 2010, with most of them coming in March during the height of the health-care debate."

"Last week the FBI arrested individuals for making death threats against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington for their votes on health-care reform," the article revealed.

"Economic distress and social change make for fear, and fear makes for anger, now and always," the report analyzed, while citing Columbia University historian and expert Alan Brinkley that "there was a lot of hatred in the 1930s, but the current surge of fear and loathing toward Obama is scary." He thought racist sentiment is a motivating element behind the surface hate.

Another impulse is the Internet, said the report, the Internet has made it easy to express and release hatred, it can also breed twisted minds with instigating speeches and practical tips, like how to make a bomb, "the Internet offers a dark social network for militiamen and real soldiers," said the article.

The report also mentioned the effect of conspiracy theories pushed by talk-radio hosts, such as Rush Limbaugh who talks about the Democrats planning to "kill you" with health-care reform and suggests that the H1N1 vaccine was "developed to kill people". According to Newsweek, Limbaugh uses martial language to rouse the faithful: "The enemy camp is the White House right now."