Fair Point?

As I've mentioned, right-wingers, fed as usual by Fox "news" hackery, are panty-twisted over the New Black Panthers. Obsessed, some might say. I find it strange, given the singularity of the group (it has eight members. Eight.) But, as a recent article suggests, is this the equivalent of left-wing excitement over the militia movement on the right?

The New Black Panther Party plays the same role for the right that Hutaree-style militants play for the left: They're a tiny, uninfluential group whose importance is magnified to keep the base excited. Left and right wind up worrying more about each other than they care about the institutions that actually govern the country. It's great if your goal is maintaining movement identity, but not if you're more interested in changing policy than collecting scalps.

It strikes me as a fair question. In a recent post I focused on the lies regarding the timing of the DOJ's actions. But the point about equivalence to liberal concerns about militias hadn't occurred to me. Is it the same thing; are both sides making mountains out of milquetoast? The short answer is, I'm not sure.

Which won't keep me from venturing an opinion: I don't think it's the same.

The NBBP exists, all right, and it seems like a group of not-so-nice (if ineffectual, but for their constant invitations to appear on Fox "news") people. On the other hand, I don't know of any Democratic politicians who encourage their activities; nor can I think of any other similar groups. On the right, however, there are plenty of militias and militia-lovers, and calls for violence -- ranging from subtle to entirely overt. "Second Amendment solutions", promoted by a Republican candidate for Senate, comes easily to mind. As do armed teabaggers proudly posing at their political parties, marching mindlessly. On the other hand, even if there are more militias around the country than there are NBBPs, it's true, I think, that they don't represent much of a threat.

Not yet, anyway.

But whereas militias, per se, might just be a few crackpots, the numbers of in-your-face-posturing, gun-carrying, liberals-hate-America-claiming, whatever-it-takes-talking, paranoid-angry-know-nothing people on the right so far outnumber the threatening people on the left that I can't see the equivalence.

Finally, and maybe most importantly, there's this: the faux outrage is simply a ginned-up controversy, a nearly-nothing, blatantly hyped as a way to do political damage.

So, I guess I am sure. It's wrong.