Conservative Pundit Points Out The Republican 'Weak Spot' For 2022 Midterms

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Democrats should seek to capitalize on Republicans’ stance (or lack thereof) on tackling domestic terrorism, conservative commentator Charlie Sykes said Thursday.

It’s a “weak spot” for the GOP ahead of the 2022 midterm elections that “ought to be a major issue” brought up by Democrats, the founder of The Bulwark news network told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace.

An overwhelming majority of House Republicans voted this week against legislation that seeks to prevent homegrown extremism, even as attacks and plots from the far-right currently outpace those from any other group.

“This is the party of law and order, this is a party that spent decades stressing that they were strong about terrorism, but who are the terrorists now?” Sykes asked. “What is the threat?”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/conservative-pundit-points-republican-weak-090002608.html

[gratuitous]

1. Domestic terrorism by right wing organizations certainly is one weak spot

Republicans have any number of other weak spots, but the curious thing is how incurious the major media outlets are in reporting on these weak spots. Instead, they seem consumed with the failure of President Biden to manufacture baby formula, or inflation at all time highs (while not mentioning the record profits the oil companies are reporting).

But yeah, domestic terrorism fueled by Republican nitwittery is an important issue.

[empedocles]

4. FWIW - Bulwark is right/central conservative, that eschews party affiliations, etc.

Hits sirectly on a number of trumper's lies.

Will lead some votes.

[Best_man23]

6. This along with the Reich's platitudes toward Putin

Republicants soft on Domestic Terrorism, soft on Vladimir Putin, and anti-women all need to be central themes over the summer and fall leading to the midterms.

[Kid Berwyn]

2. Why We Don't Know Much About Right-Wing Terrorists

Conservatives Fired The Guy Studying Them in 2009



Why Don’t We Know Much About Right-Wing Terrorists?

Conservatives Fired The Guy Studying Them

JAMESON PARKER
AddictingInfo, JUNE 18, 2015 4:41 PM

After a mass shooting at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, left nine people dead and a right-wing white supremacist arrested, the country once again faces the uneasy question of just how many so-called “home-grown” terrorists are out there – heavily armed, ideologically driven, and violent.

It’s a good question, but it may be tough to answer because for reasons that are astoundingly dimwitted, the Department of Homeland Security pushed out the guy who was in charge of watching them, and dismantled his team all the way back in 2009.

The beleaguered hero of this story is Daryl Johnson, a top government counterterrorism analyst working at Homeland Security who spent six years with the agency amassing a wealth of data on far-right extremist groups that posed various degrees of threat to citizens in the United States. In 2009, in the months after President Obama assumed office, he watched as these groups veered even further right, and began to fear that America’s first African-American president could be the catalyst of a major uptick in hate crimes and anti-government attacks.

In a landmark report released just months into Obama’s term, and now looks downright clairvoyant, Johnson made the case that radical Islam is only a small piece of the terrorism pie:

“Do not overlook other types of terrorist groups,” the report warned, noting that five purely domestic groups had considered using weapons of mass destruction in that period. Similar warnings have been issued by the two principal non-government groups that track domestic terrorism: the New York-based Anti-Defamation League and the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center.

An annual tally by the latter group of what it calls “Terror From the Right” listed 13 major incidents and arrests last year, nearly double the annual number in previous years; the group also reported the number of hate groups had topped 1,000 in 2010, for the first time in at least two decades.

In response to that report, Johnson was destroyed. It wasn’t his integrity or claims that got him in trouble, his facts were solid. Instead, it was the inconvenient truth that much of the threat comes from right-wing conservatives, and even more awkwardly, radical right-wing conservatives who say and think a lot of the same things mainstream right-wing conservatives say and think.

CONTINUED w/links...

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/06/18/why-dont-we-know-much-about-right-wing-terrorists-conservatives-fired-the-guy-studying-them/

That was from 2015.

Internet Archive Waybac, if link doesn’t work:

http://web.archive.org/web/20150910045015/http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/06/18/why-dont-we-know-much-about-right-wing-terrorists-conservatives-fired-the-guy-studying-them/

[Baitball Blogger]

3. +1

[calimary]

15. Kicking for this one. Wanna be able to find it later.

[William Seger]

5. Yes, but it should be put in a larger context

I.e., the anti-democracy movement, which includes those who wouldn't try to overturn it by violence, but would rather have democracy commit suicide by voting for Republicans.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. +1. . . nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Domestic terrorism plus women's rights. . . . nt

[Wounded Bear]

9. K & R...nt

[certainot]

10. another weak spot - how can syracuse university keep broadcasting sports on 9 rw radio stations?

some at SU (150 miles from buffalo) are having that discussion.

those stations having making excuses for racism for 30 years and will now once again oppose any gun control

if that goes anywhere other schools doing the same will be shamed into following and there are more than just the 87 schools listed at fakenewsradio.org that support 260 x-limbaugh stations.

when that starts to happen advertisers will head for the hills and the radio ad industry will have to act to force the break up the monopoly or lose many advertisers to other media

[wiggs]

11. Literally every issue and policy area is a weak spot for the gop, it's a matter of messaging and

combatting disinformation, propaganda, and money in politics

[Hugin]

16. +1

They paint the targets on themselves. Constantly.

All except two of them actively supported a coup. Yet, here we are watching their teevee ads for re-election.

[Skittles]

12. they ARE domestic terrorists

WTF do they do that helps America? They don't even BELIEVE in America.

[IronLionZion]

13. Maybe because too many Republicans are on the side of the terrorists

they don't want to lose those voters

[amb123]

14. The party of "fighting terrorism" has become the party OF TERRORISM.

[Takket]

17. hard to campain on putting your voters in prison