Holocaust Museum Shooting: What Makes Someone 'Rightwing'?

Start Thinking Right ^ | June 10, 2009 | Michael Eden

[Michael Eden]

Today, an 89-year old documented nut entered the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. I have no idea what the politics of Stephen Tyrone Jones were, but the man serving as a guard died a hero: he died standing in the way of this evil man and the innocent and unarmed people he would have murdered.

A question immediately comes to mind: what side of the bowl did this nut inhabit? Obviously he was a nut. But was he a rightwing nut or a leftwing nut?

What the left want us to believe is that James von Brunn is a rightwing extremist. Why? Because he was an anti-Semite, and therefore a racist. And racists are rightwing.

This view became official government policy under the Obama administration. Consider how the Department of Homeland Security under Janet Napolitano defined "rightwing extremism" versus "leftwing extremism," according to the Associated Press:

In the report, right-wing extremism was defined as hate-motivated groups and movements, such as hatred of certain religions, racial or ethnic groups. "It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration," the report said. [...]

The department's definition of left-wing extremism in the March 26 report includes a reference to violence, stating these groups that embrace anticapitalist, communist or socialist beliefs seek "to bring about change through violent revolution rather than through established political processes."

So, based on that, where do you pidgeon-hole an Anti-Semitic racist like von Brunn? Read both definitions and it's a no-brainer. "Hatred of certain religions, racial, or ethnic groups." Check, check, and check. James von Brunn is a rightwing extremist. Just ask Janet Napolitano.

Only that's completely asinine.

An article by Michelle Malkin shows just how profoundly dishonest and biased the "assessment" by the Obama DHS truly is.

Let's start with Antisemitism and polling data from a December 2008 Rasmussen survey:

Sixty-two percent (62%) of Republicans back Israel’s decision to take military action against the Palestinians, but only half as many Democrats (31%) agree. A majority of Democrats (55%) say Israel should have tried to find a diplomatic solution first, a view shared by just 27% of Republicans.

While 75% of Republicans say Israel is an ally of the United States, just 55% of Democrats agree. Seven percent (7%) of Democrats say Israel is an enemy of America, but only one percent (1%) of Republicans say the same. For 21% of Republicans, Israel is somewhere in between, and 28% of Democrats agree.

And this difference in views toward Israel and Jews is fairly established and consistent, as a Gallup survey from April 2002 shows:

The [04/17/2002 Gallup] survey of 1,009 adults conducted on April 5-7 found that 67 percent of Republicans side with Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, compared to 45% of Democrats. Support for the Palestinians is at 8% among Republicans, versus 21% among Democrats.

How can Republicans/conservatives be overwhelmingly more supportive of Israel than Democrats/liberals, and yet at the same time overwhelmingly more Anti-Semitic than Democrats/liberals? How does that even begin to make sense? As a conservative evangelical Christian, I support Israel precisely because it is a Jewish state. I pray for the shalom of Jerusalem according to Psalm 122:6. I believe in something called "evil" and realize that the history of Israel and of Jews reveals that they have been victims of it FAR MORE than perpetrators of it. I constantly refer to the "Judeo-Christian worldview" that respects and cherishes the influence of Judaism on my Christian faith.

Frontpage Magazine has an article that reveals why those on the left - who deny most of why I support Israel - end up embracing racist and Anti-Semitic views.

Let me say more. When Republican George Bush was president, fully 88% of Israeli Jews believed the president was "pro-Israel"; today under Democrat president Barack Obama, only 31% of Israeli Jews think so.

The profoundly Anti-Semitic Nation of Islam has long and strong ties to the Democratic Party, and to Barack Obama personally via his 23 year relationship with Jeremiah Wright and Trinity United Church and via his participation with the Million Man March. THIS VERY DAY, Jeremiah Wright said he's denied access to Obama. Why? Quote: "Rev. Jeremiah Wright says Jews are keeping him from talking to President Obama."

One article reads: "THE Rev Jesse Jackson and several other black American leaders are calling for a halt to the anti-Semitic rants of members of the black Muslim group Nation of Islam, led by Louis Farrakhan." And yet that itself is laughable; Jesse Jackson is a man who HIMSELF has displayed deep Antisemitism. He has been documented calling Jews "Hymies" and New York "Hymietown."

How DARE anyone on the left accuse the right of being Anti-Semitic. HOW DARE THEY!!!

And if Democrats want to label Republicans as "racist," perhaps they should either abolish the "Congressional Black Caucas" or find where Republicans are hiding their equivalent "Congressional White Caucus." And you might either denounce Congressional Black Caucus member Bobby Rush or find similar racist statements coming from Republicans. Show us where Republican leaders openly demanded that a Caucasian receive a US Senate seat.

An article on Examiner.com shows that von Brunn was more more leftwing than rightwing. Among other things, he despised George Bush, believed 9/11 was a Bush conspiracy, and railed against "neo-cons."

Holocaust Museum shooter von Brunn a 9/11 'truther' who hated 'neo-cons', Bush, McCain

The man accused of opening fire at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC on June 10, James W. von Brunn, left a trail of unhinged writings around the internet.

The anti-semitism of von Brunn is the first thing one notices when visiting these bizarre websites. However, like those of most "white supremacists", many of von Brunn's political views track "Left" rather than "Right." Clearly, a re-evaluation of these obsolete definitions is long overdue.

For example, he unleashed his hatred of both Presidents Bush and other "neo-conservatives" in online essays. As even some "progressives" such as the influential Adbusters magazine publicly admit, "neoconservative" is often used as a derogatory code word for "Jews". As well, even a cursory glance at "white supremacist" writings reveals a hatred of, say, big corporations that is virtually indistinguishable from that of anti-globalization activists.

James von Brunn's advocacy of 9/11 conspiracy theories also gives him an additional commonality with individuals on the far-left.

None of this will surprise readers of Jonah Goldberg's bestseller Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Change , which clearly demonstrates that "fascism" of the kind advocated by the British National Party (BNP) and the likes of James W. von Brunn is just as likely to reflect "leftwing" views as "rightwing" ones.

In fact, antisemitism is something the New Left and the "Far Right" have had in common since the 1980s, which is why so many former leftists like David Horowitz defected from one side to the other during the Reagan era and beyond. It also helps explain the otherwise baffling alliance between the Left and radical Islam.

That this shooting occurred shortly after President Obama's former mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, blamed "the Jews" for his lack of access to his former parishioner is a troubling confluence of events as well.

I'm not going to answer the question posed by my title: "What Makes Someone 'Rightwing'? But I'll say ONE thing for certain.

It's most definitely NOT "racism" or "Antisemitism." There's just way too much of that crap going on on the part of the leftwing to possibly attribute it exclusively to the right.

[cranked]

Excellent read.

[mnehring]

He hated and ranted about Israel, Bush, ‘neocons’, and Zionism. He said Christians ruined the Roman empire, he was a 9/11 truther...

He sounds more like Rosie O’Donnell’.

[Bosco]

White supremacists are fascists/socialists - on the spectrum of no government (anarchy) to total government, they are ground zero for total government.

Closer to 0bama than any patriotic American I know of.

[mnehring]

The Right Racism Myth

[SoCalPol]

Also the same blather you see on the L Ron Paul and Chuck Baldwin forums, etc.

[Michael Eden]

Good points. Wish I’d had that bit about Christians and the Roman Empire. I didn’t want to go to any of the sites and read what this puke actually said.

I didn’t say much about white supremacist, but Hitler, the quintessential “white supremacist,” was a leftist national socialist who pursued policies FAR MORE like Obama than Bush.

If you watch the mainline media (which I did before I had cable), it was just a matter of course to hear over and over again various iterations of conservatives being racists.

It’s time to put that shoe on the left foot.

[madison10]

He’s just a radical, you know, like Bill Ayers.

[NonValueAdded]

Thanks for writing this. We cannot let the left define terms for us.

[Michael Eden]

"Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man's genetic lineage—the notion that a man's intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors."- Ayn Rand

I read that quote at the top of the article, and IMMEDIATELY thought about Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood. This woman - heralded and cherished by liberals/progressives today - believed that black people were essentially a disease to the American gene pool. And so she started clinics in poor/minority areas to weed out the unfit. Darwinism in action. Let's make the species better by weeding out the inferiors.

Nobody, but nobody, is or ever has been more racist than the left.

[Michael Eden]

Thanks for writing this. We cannot let the left define terms for us.

Thank YOU. That means a lot to me.

My goal in blogging is to not just SAY something, but document why what I'm saying is true. I get in arguments at my office or my gym from time to time; it's always nice to be able to bring in an article that documents you're right and they're wrong.

[Costumed Vigilante]

He hated and ranted about Israel, Bush, ‘neocons’, and Zionism. He said Christians ruined the Roman empire, he was a 9/11 truther...

He sounds more like Rosie O’Donnell’.

Or "Rev." Wright...

[kenth]

Here’s the government/media/leftist rule:

If they’re violent, they’re right wing extremists.

[parsifal]

Brunn was obviously a right wing nut. Right wing is the nazi-like-facist side. Commie-socialists are the left wing. Brunn was more of a nazi than commie.

I’m not real sure who first set this out, but if the universe is curved stuff is right, then left and right will meet somewhere sometime but that depends on whether the cat lives or dies.

parsy, who is an expert on this kind of fuzzy stuff.

[Michael Eden]

And when the leftwing IS violent, it’s justified by the noble cause.

It’s okay to kill in the name of saving trees; but only a monster would hurt anyone to stop 49 million abortions.

Bill Ayers was one of those despicable leftists who went to all lengths to protested the Vietnam War and achieve a complete American withdrawal. And then when the North Vietnamese and Cambodians murdered 3 million people they just shrugged their shoulders and walked away.

[Michael Eden]

Brunn was obviously a right wing nut. Right wing is the nazi-like-facist side. Commie-socialists are the left wing. Brunn was more of a nazi than commie.

A bit of historical correction.

Nazi means "National Socialist German Workers' Party."

The Nazis were socialists. Just like the Marxists.

The ONLY difference: Marxism was class-based socialism; fascism was national-based socialism.

The Nazis were on the right side of the FAR LEFT. But they were nevertheless leftists.

If anyone wants to call the Nazis "conservative," they must explain at length just what it was they were trying to "conserve."

[Michael Eden]

Oh, one other thing is that Brunn is being described as “rightwing” because of his racism.

What I try to document in my article is that that contention is simply absurd.

[ViLaLuz]

I’d like to see some links to examples of that blather on the forums you mention.

[parsifal]

Yeah, but Brunn was a frustrated artist like Hitler. I think rights wing nuts try to conserve the living room (FWIW Hitler was just obsessed with living rooms. I think he maybe didn’t have one when he grew up. (Maybe just a parlor, and I am not sure that counts.)) Anyway, left wing nuts are obsessed with bedrooms. That is why they are all in favor of gay rights and wierd sex. So, the lefties try to conserve bedrooms.

Me, I live in Arkansas and have a mobile home so one room is like another.

I have never been sure what the wings were wings of and it looks to me like communism and facsism are both just excuses for big gov’t power. Rather than try to re-define wings, I think conservatives really need to try to figure out what conservatism is.

parsy, who kind of thinks the templars are behind everything

[SoCalPol]

just google their links.
Many of their sites have liniks that really take you
into beyond the fringe