The Enemies Within

By CHARLES M. BLOW
NYT

The United States Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis issued a report last week suggesting that current political and economic conditions are energizing right-wing extremist groups, that many of these groups follow extremely conservative ideologies and that some may seek to recruit and “radicalize” veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

True, true and true.

But, conservatives reacted by throwing a knee-jerk hissy fit. They twisted the report’s meaning to imply that they, and more importantly our war heroes, were being vilified by a partisan document.

Their argument seeks to suppress and subjugate two rather unfortunate facts: while only a tiny number of conservatives and veterans are members of hate groups, nearly all hate groups do indeed follow far-right ideology. And they covet members with military experience.

(More here.)