Glenn Melancon/Contributing writer
On April 19, 1995 Timothy McVeigh attacked the United States of America. He murdered 168 Americans. Ten children were among the dead.
At the time of his arrest, McVeigh had excerpts from the Turner Diaries in his car. This 1978 novel by William Luther Pierce depicts a coming race war. White supremacists attacked the United States of American, hoping to cleanse the country of African Americans.
McViegh’s murderous bombing shocked the nation. Americans everywhere joined together to stamp out the militia movement. For several years leading up to 1995, militias spread anti-government hatred and promoted an armed resistance to federal law enforcement agencies.
Unfortunately, this period of calm did not last long. The 9-11 terrorist attacks and hurricane Katrina reinvigorated the National Rifle association. It became the mouth piece for the gun corporations and spread fear and paranoia in order to sell more guns.
The NRA began promoting gun violence as the solution to social problems. Scared of a terrorist? Buy a gun. Scared of a natural disaster? Buy a gun. Scared of crime? Buy a gun. Scared of an immigrant? Buy a gun.
The NRA’s message of fear and paranoia fit in nicely with Australian billionaire, Rupert Murdoch’s agenda shouted on his new cable channel—Fox News. Murdoch favors vast concentrations of wealth and power. He knew that most Americans don’t have either and sold fear and paranoia as a distraction.
At first Fox’s message was relatively mild with men like Lou Dobbs and Bill O’Reilly peddling nostalgia for the 1950s. In the 1950s everyone knew their place. Women stayed at home. Blacks and Hispanics lived on their own side of town. Gays and lesbians lived in the closet.
Since the transition of Donald Trump from charlatan businessman to demagogic politician, the conservative rhetoric has become more vulgar. Trump constantly, and falsely, claimed immigrants were invading the southern border. He smeared them with false accusations of crime and violence.
On Oct. 3, 2019, Donald inspired a 21-year old man from Allen, Texas to travel across the state to El Paso and murder our neighbors.
Patrick Crusius walked into an El Paso Walmart, and, using a semi-automatic rifle, killed 23 humans and injured 23 others. He wanted to stop, “cultural and ethnic replacement” of White Americans by a “Hispanic invasion”.
Unlike Oklahoma City, this terrorist attack didn’t stop Republicans and Fox News. On May 16, 2022, Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney tweeted, “The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-Semitism.”
Cheney was responding to the terrorist attack the day before. Another White Supremacist murdered Americans in Buffalo, New York. Will Fox News and Republicans stop inciting violence this time?