Us versus Them – the Gun has left the Holster

Any who ever who played pickup basketball games in college or at the local YMCA can relate to the term “skins versus shirts”. For the uninitiated, the calculation was simple, one team had their shirts on the opposition went shirtless. It was a simple way to define “us versus them”. Us versus them playing out in a five on five hoops game is for all practical purposes a harmless manifestation of human classification that has operated for time immemorial. That classification of good guys versus bad guys can take on a variety of hues, agendas, size and scope. In our Westerns movies , the “us” wore the white hats; the bad guys – “the them” – had the black hats. In the 30’s Nazi Germany showed the world how “us versus them” can function at its most anti human level as they used it as a horrific justification to murder six million Jews. In America the Nation of Islam used the history of slavery, and injustice to create an “us verse them” pro black American template and in doing so built a powerful organization by framing white people ostensibly as devils.

“Us versus them” can also be a survival mechanism, as understanding with clarity, who your enemies are, is a useful stratagem. Yet even in the South during slavery, those like Harriet Tubman whose navigation of the Underground Railroad depended on the help of with abolitionists, understood that while white slavery is the enemy – every white person is not - thus redefining “us versus them” with a sense of nuance and perspective. Finally nationalism is “us versus them” writ large for example I recall in 1972 when the United States lost the Gold Medal Game to the Soviet Union in the Berlin Olympics, I was mortified, and how we all cheered in 1980 during the “Miracle on Ice as the United States defeated the Soviet Union in Hockey. Nationalism also serves to motivate a nation at war, therefore in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor and the World Trade Center attacks, Presidents Roosevelt and Bush respectively were able to rally a heaving and grieving nation to a war time posture primary by framing those tragedies in a nationalistic “us versus” them point of view.

When I think of tragic shootings that took place last weekend in Arizona, I am reminded of “us verses them”, but I am concerned that while much of the focus on toning down political discourse is appropriate, we may be blind to the reality that the violent gun may have forever left its holster, and America may be in for a period of violence unseen in this country in generations. In the immediate aftermath of the shootings, both the political right and political left backed into their respective corners with the left on the attack mode and the right for one of the few times in the last few years on the defensive. As one who leans toward the progressive end of the political spectrum, it felt good to see the left with their fangs out, but only for a moment. Because as the media strove to push their own partisan button they are doing America an utter and total disserve by ignoring the obvious.

While the information about the alleged shooter Jared Loughner is still evolving, one thing seems to be clear and was pointed out on NBC News by former FBI profiler Clift van Zandt. This shooting did not seem to be motivated by the rantings Glen Beck or Sarah Palin blogs and Tweets. Jared Loughner rather fits the profile of an anti government, long wolf loser with pent up anger/obsession with Congresswoman Giffords whose below the radar seethings eventually erupted last Saturday. Understanding this profile as well as the current climate in this country will prove critical if we as a country are to truly understand this event. If we only see this event through the lens of political discourse and talking head vitriol, we are missing a dangerous point.


In her eloquent blog on Open Salon Greer McVey pointed out a Homeland Security report in early 2009 that said that “long wolf extremism” is on the rise. A report that was attacked by the right, including now Speaker of the House John Boehner, and regrettably the Obama Administration backed down from its own findings. The report’s finding included:

“Threats from white supremacist and violent antigovernment groups
During 2009 have been largely rhetorical and have not indicated plans to carry
out violent acts. Nevertheless, the consequences of a prolonged economic
downturn—including real estate foreclosures, unemployment, and an inability
to obtain credit—could create a fertile recruiting environment for rightwing
extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and
government authorities similar to those in the past.
Rightwing extremists have capitalized on the election of the first
African American president, and are focusing their efforts to recruit new
members, mobilize existing supporters, and broaden their scope and appeal
through propaganda, but they have not yet turned to attack planning.”


Furthermore in a chilling report titled Rage on the Right, the Southern Poverty Law Center offered a concurring assessment by saying:

“Since the installation of Barack Obama, right-wing extremists have murdered six law enforcement officers. Racist skinheads and others have been arrested in alleged plots to assassinate the nation’s first black president. One man from Brockton, Mass. — who told police he had learned on white supremacist websites that a genocide was under way against whites — is charged with murdering two black people and planning to kill as many Jews as possible on the day after Obama’s inauguration. Most recently, a rash of individuals with antigovernment, survivalist or racist views have been arrested in a series of bomb cases

It gets worse - Washington insider Ronald Kessler reported in his recent book The Presidents secret service Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect that death threats against President Obama have increased 400 percent over his predecessor George W. Bush. And we all recall the Facebook page that asked should Barack Obama be killed. This is “Us versus them” in its most dangerous manifestation. As a nation grieves over the shootings in Arizona, the national media seems to be obsessed with making conservative politicians and talking heads repudiate any comments made in the past that may suggest violence – all well and good. While that may satiate the pristine inside the beltway commentators, I am certain that if for example Sarah Palin made a follow up speech with a clear and forceful statement and apologizing for her role in turning up the volume, it will be too little and too late. The underlying forces that give rise to hate groups are too hardwired and ingrained into their psychotic anti government DNA to be set aside by a single speech. These hate groups are trapped in an “ugly us versus them” mentality that is ticking American time bomb. They don’t need the vitriol of conservative talk show hosts to set them off, their own psychosis, hatred; and fears - both real and imagined will eventually spark them into action. My fear is that these attacks will grow in volume and voracity, and because of the rapid news cycle, each event will create new internet heroes, give rise to wannabees and will spur on more deadly events. “Us versus them” - unfortunately, this is not shirts versus skins, this the United States of America versus itself