Norris's Nutty War on President Obama

Chuck Norris claims that thousands of right wing cell groups exist and will rebel against the U.S. government. It's tempting to laugh away his vow to wage war against President Obama as either the crackpot ravings of a washed up Z grade martial arts actor. Or as a cheap promotional stunt to get his mug back in front of the cameras. Norris's bellicose rants against Obama are nothing new and they have gotten wide play in a shrill horde of on line blogs and websites, including the popular right wing sounding board WorldNetDaily.com. Norris will culminate his holy war against Obama with a big recruiting pitch in a live telecast scheduled appropriately for Friday the 13th (March). He'll call on thousands to "surround" Obama and the dark forces that seek to subvert God, country, and liberty.

Unfortunately, Norris will have plenty of recruits. Two weeks before he bellowed his anti-Obama tripe, the Southern Poverty Law Center once more sounded its own warning that hate groups are on the rise. There are now nearly a thousand of them, and they're in just about every state. They aren't just the catalogue of usual suspects -- neo-Confederates, neo-Nazis, Klansman, Aryan nation and skinheads that exclusively roam around the Deep South. They're all over. California leads the pack with nearly 100 identifiable groups. The Center fingered several dozen websites from the explicit Ihateobama.com site to groups with flag draped names like the sovereign citizen's movement.

Then there's the legion of sites that busily spewed anti-Obama venom before the election and haven't missed a beat since.

AntiObama.net, A Clockwork Obama, AgainstObama.com, AudacityOfHypocrisy.com, BlockBarack.com, ChicagoAgainstObama.com, DiscoverObama.com, DontVoteObama.net, DrNObama.com, ExposeObama.com, InvestigateBarackObama.blogspot.com, JewsAgainstObama.com, JustSayNoDeal.com, MeetBarackObama.com, No-bama.blogspot.com, NobamaNetwork.com, NobamaZone.com, NoExperienceNoChange.org, NoQuarterUSA.net, ObamaExposed.blogspot.com, ObamaBlog08.com, Obama-Wire.com, Obamaism.Blogspot.com, ObamaNation.com, ObamaTruth.org, ObamaWho.wordpress.com, ObamaWTF.blogspot.com, Obamology.blogspot.com, SavagePolitics.com, SlickBarry.com, Stop-Obama.org, TheRealBarackObama.wordpress.com, TopShelf51.wordpress.com

The majority of the hate groups and the wacky anti-Obama websites are like Norris just hot air talk and delusional conspiracy stuff. They all hotly deny that they advocate violence. Yet, the number of hate crimes according to FBI statistics, and that's real violent crimes, edged up to over 7000 in 2007. The number of these crimes has been fairly consistent since the FBI began compiling hate crime statistics more than a decade ago. They're just the tip of the hate iceberg. Experts say the number of hate crimes could be ten times higher since most hate crimes go unreported.

But even that in itself might not be cause for alarm since most of the hate groups are well known, tracked, and when their members commit crimes are hit hard with federal prosecutions. It certainly would not be enough to give much credence to Norris's crackpot call. That is if times were better. But when jobs and homes are lost, and there's fear and uncertainty that things could get worse, the ruthless search for scapegoats--illegal immigrants, gays, Jews, blacks, and a history making president--are on with a vengeance. It takes little imagination to see that this could set off one emotionally unscrewed, gun culture obsessed looney. The murderous rampage by Alabama shooter Michael McLendon who was hell bent on wiping out a whole town was ample proof of that.

Norris, and the legion of other right side gassers and bloggers, mask their bigot tinged appeals to the mob with the usual wink and nod patriotic sounding code words, slogans, and phrases. In his WorldNetDaily columns, Norris tosses out gems such as the "second American revolution," "new government," the authority of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence," "threat to religious freedom," and "protect and save free enterprise" in his call for a citizen rising against President Obama.

The acidic dripping slogans just happen to be the same ones that stir the deep fury, hatred and resentment among a handful of the loose hinged malcontents and hate mongers. As has been amply documented, the thick list of fringe and hate groups as well as the hordes of unbalanced violence prone individuals running free in America can fill a telephone book. The long history of hate violence in America further is more than enough to raise the antenna on the danger of violence against prominent political figures.

Obama well knows the horrid violent history of America and the very real danger that violence poses to many Americans and especially a charismatic president who still energizes and excites millions and is determined to deliver on his promise of political change and implicitly racial change. The exact things that drives Norris nuts and many others that are nuts to cheer him.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book is How Obama Won (Middle Passage Press, January 2009).

Comments

[JaneK13]

I don't know anything about "hate" groups and I don't consider myself a "nut." I'm just a common sense American who's been around a long time. Like Chuck Norris, I disagree with the way Pres Obama is leading the country. I am convinced he's in over his head, but we hired this inexperienced young fella and we have to live with it for four years. However, I do believe many common sense Americans like me will have their say at the ballot box next November. And that's as it should be.

[Obamalicious]

I don't know anything about these alleged ha.te groups listed, but you have to admit, there are a lot of people that are unhappy with our government.

[S1m0n]

A lot less than there used to be, only a short while ago..

[arvay]

Norris is a legend in his own mind, one of those actors who's apparently mixed up his various glorified stuntman "roles" with reality.

The guy may have read the "Turner Diaries" and inspired by its wacky vision, fancies himself the instigator of the great white re-surge that will once an for all defeat all those commiepinko dark people who threaten the advanced ideas and great culture-- like creationism, one-cell human beings and faux Asian (oops, not white!) martial arts -- that he exemplifies. . .

We've seen Timothy McVeigh, and he's no Timothy McVeigh -- just a scrawny cut-rate Rambo, a hillbilly palooka for those lonesome nights around the campfire.

[Obamalicious]

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/21018/

[Obamalicious]

http://www.taxdayteaparty.com/

[plaidsportcoat]

Thanks for this. We need to be educating the heck out of each other about how to expose that fake patriot language big time. Conservatives use the Bernays techniques of mass manipulation all the time. We need to always have on the tip of our tongues the ready replies, the ready retorts, that instantly cast another light on the lies. Things like, "Hey That's fake patriotism, bud. That's actually anti-american, bud." etcetera. We need to be posting lists of replies to each one of these lies and emailing them to each other, and posting them at city hall along with those ten commandments, so when we run into the loud, violence-inclined gun-owning bigoted anti-freedom fake patriots on the bus, in the grocery store, at the faculty meeting, etc. we have the handy list of retorts. It helps when people don't just hear the lie, but the antidote too - all at the same time. It's an instant philosophical argument stated in a one liner. We need that.

[Obamalicious]

There is plenty of peaceful dissent out there. Look at the "Tea Party" people....

[Obamalicious]

I don't know about the websites listed in this article, but I do know there is a ground swell about people that believe our government is getting out of control. I wouldn't call that type of resistance hate for anyone, merely dissent against growing government.

[research]

I hope the secret service and the FBI are investigating these organizations at least as aggressively as they did the peace movement hippies.

[hollace]

Who is Chuck norris?

[BARRISTER]

A Nation in turmoil, when in times of Economic crisis we allow non-entities like Chuckie et al. to drive the debate.

[jackM50]

I disagree that all or even most anti-Obama rhetoric and hatred, is racial. I would say to all of the folks commenting here, who remind Norris and his cronies that it is not the '60's anymore, that they are riht about that. It's not the '60's when there was a simple black verses white or young verses old paradigm. We liberals should not delude ourselves into thinking that everyone who is anti-Obama is a racist simpleton. There are many people who are seriously far right-wing conservatives who have come to that place due to a variety of social and political factors, much of it based on fear and misplaced, rabid patriotism. The fundamental glue that holds these folks together is ultra-patriotism and nationalism, mixed with a healthy dose of fundamentalist Christian religous fervor.

These ultra conservative Americans are being told that President Obama is intent on undermining American values, laws, and national soverignity to replace it with liberalism, socialism and atheism. If you think these people are being whipped into a fervor by Norris, and Glenn Beck due to the President's color, you are sadly uninformed about what the far-right is really doing.

[prtypoison]

What these groups fail to realize is that its not the 60s anymore. They are the minority and that is why they are acting out. They have no power, most of these people smile laugh in the face of other races and people they don't like at work and anonymously spew hate on their computers at night.

[prtypoison]

It's just racism plain and simple. Why do they want to blame what happen in Alabama on liberals. The man who went on a rampage killed his family and other people he new, he had a list. What these groups fail to realize is that its not the 60s anymore, blacks, jews, gays, latinos and whites against racism have guns too. They are the minority and that is why they are acting out. They have no power, most of these people smile laugh in the face of other races and people they don't like at work and anonymously spew hate on their computers at night.

[littleolwinemakerme]

The fact that Mike Huckabee embraced Norris so closely as one of his backers shows what kind of christian Huckabee is deep inside!

[prtypoison]

It's just racism plain and simple. What these groups fail to realize is that its not the 60s anymore. They are the minority and that is why they are acting out. They have no power, most of these people smile laugh in the face of other races and people they don't like at work and anonymously spew hate on their computers at night.