At the Atlantic, Max Fisher writes about the tendency of pundits to politicize tragic shooting incidents. It’s a good and timely commentary, although it overlooks what I think is the larger, more significant point about contemporary U.S. politics.
More about that in a bit. First, here’s what Fisher has to say:
The cycle is becoming familiar. An act of violence by a crazed attacker is briefly mourned before commentators, hunting out any possible political motivation in the attack, use it a rhetorical bludgeon. Liberals claim the attacker is a radical conservative and conservative claim he is a radical liberal, as happened almost immediately following Joseph Stack’s suicide flight into an IRS office. Any political affiliations or loyalties that can be tied to the attacker are questioned as potential threats. This patten of violence followed by politicization has occurred many times.
The same story is playing out again today, after John Patrick Bedell opened fire on two security guards at the Pentagon. Officials quickly attempted to play down any indication of terrorism or political motivation. He “had issues” and “there is no indication at this point that there is any domestic or international terrorist nexus,” police said. But that hasn’t stopped pundits from using Bedell, who died following the firefight, as a tool to advance political aims:
Bedell Is Conservative
Think Progress’ Alex Seitz-Wald calls the shooter a “Right-Wing, Anti-Government Terrorist”, writing, “In podcasts, Bedell propagated his conspiracy theories, which eerily reflect fringe right-wing rhetoric.”
Bedell Is Libertarian or a Tea Partier
Gawker’s Adrian Chen writes, “Almost every trace Bedell left on the Internet from that point on displays an obsession with information—storing, retrieving, and revealing it—coupled with boilerplate Libertarian and 9/11 conspiracy theory bullshit.” However, “if any motivation is to be applied to his actions outside of pure insanity, simply writing him off as a brain-washed Glenn Beck zombie “teabagger” or an imbecile anti-government activist can’t capture the incomprehensible complexity of his ideas and the singular weirdness going on in his brain.”
Bedell Is Liberal
‘Anti-Bush’ Conservative blogger Patterico’s Pontifications insists, “Internet research shows that the guy was a 9/11 Truther and an anti-Bush nut case.”
I noticed the same bizarre kabuki dance play out in the aftermath James von Brunn’s shooting spree in the Holocaust Museum last June. The initial commentary portrayed him as a mentally unbalanced, neo-Nazi/white supremacist.
But the story couldn’t just end there. Instead, the pundit battle began: He was a 9/11 Truther who hated Bush, McCain and neocons—so he was a “liberal.” He was a “Birther,” which means he was a “conservative.” He was an outgrowth of the right-wing militia movement. No, wait—he was a “Christian-hating socialist.” Wrong! He was a Tea Partier!
Of course, part of this reflects a political culture that seeks to exploit any opportunity to score rhetorical points. But, lost amidst the finger-pointing is the recognition of how much traditional ideological labels no longer apply.
We tend to think of the political spectrum as a straight line, extending from Left-to-Right. In practice, however that spectrum is a curve—the farther towards the extremes you move, the closer that Right and Left come together. It initially became apparent to me during the Balkan Wars in the 1990s, when anti-war and anti-imperialist progressives found common cause with isolationist conservatives. The same goes for the anti-globalization movement, which brought together the anti-capitalist Left and the populist, protect-American-sovereignty Right.
And, of course, the far-Left and the far-Right find themselves on common ground in their opposition to Israel. Hence, we find self-described progressives such as Glenn Greenwald and Philip Weiss publishing anti-Israel diatribes in American Conservative magazine, published by paleocon-in-chief, Patrick Buchanan.
And, at the farthest extremes of the political spectrum, paranoia reigns supreme, as both the far-far-Left and far-far-Right find solace in every conspiracy theory imaginable—Truthers, “Zionist Occupied America,” One World Government.
I don’t think mainstream political commentators have quite grasped this yet. But, those of us who monitor anti-semitism and anti-Zionism have long been accustomed to recognizing the emergence of the “Red-Brown Alliance,” and how hatred of Israel makes for strange bedfellows. As usual, we’re the canaries in the coalmine.
