The Attack on American Renaissance

Martha MacCallum, FOX News Chanell

Richard Spencer and Jared Taylor are both to be commended for setting us straight about the non-relation between Arizona killer Jared Loughner and American Renaissance. Despite a damning report from Homeland Security linking Loughner to this publication, no evidence showing such a connection could be produced. Moreover the description of the AR “organization,” (it is actually a newsletter whose editorial board holds annual conferences) as anti-Semitic was denied almost as soon as the report was issued. Leftist, predominantly Jewish groups such as ADL and the SPLC came to Jared Taylor’s defense against the rumor that he was running a neo-Nazi hate group.

Homeland Security went wrong, when it described Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona congresswoman whom Loughner shot as “the first Jewish female elected to such a high-position in the US government.” Although the report was correct that the social liberal and pro-immigrationist Giffords held views that were the “opposite” of those of AR, the congresswoman, notes Jared Taylor, has come after multiple Jewish, female predecessors in Congress. These others, not surprisingly, have been even more liberal than Rep. Giffords.

Despite the empty charges brought against AR, a publication to which Loughner did not subscribe, the war against the newsletter continues to be waged, thanks to the neoconservative camp. FOX went into high gear at 8:00 AM Sunday morning, reporting that an extremist organization that hates Jews, Blacks and Israel was somehow involved in Loughner’s crimes. The young woman who made this assertion claims never to have heard of American Renaissance, but assured her listeners that she and her fellow-investigative reporters were doing “research.” From her remarks it seemed that she and FOX were about to reveal something big about a rightwing-extremist “hate group.”

Several hours later Juan Williams and Jim Rosen appeared on FOX to indicate that the “report from an undisclosed source at Homeland Security” had not panned out. There was no evidence that Loughner had acted on the basis of ideas he had picked up from AR. Except for its appearance somewhere on a blog, there was no provable connection between the killer and this previously unknown publication. But FOX never went as far as some leftist organizations, which defended Jared against the charge of being anti-Semitic. The impression one took away from FOX’s revised account was that although Jared and his associates were unpalatable, it was not possible to trace the crimes that had just taken place in Arizona to their influence.

This morning we were back at square one in the neoconservative press. Its flagship publication, the New York Post, reported on page 5 Homeland Security’s already discredited charges, putting them however in quotations perhaps to avoid a libel suit. We were then told that Jared Taylor “vehemently denied any association with Loughner,” although there is no way from looking at the Post’s news story that one would not believe that such an association was entirely possible. No mention was made of the disconfirming evidence that had poured in after the report was aired on FOX. The Post was spreading the poison attributed to “a report from FOX,” but tried to cover itself by presenting yesterday’s report in quotations.

There are two explanations for what has happened here, a simple explanation and a more perceptive one that Richard Spencer has come up with.

One, the neocon infrastructure is indirectly under attack from the liberal Left, which is trying to implicate Sarah P. in the supposedly rightwing hysteria that led to Loughner’s horrible crimes. The head honchos at FOX are trying to save their usable politicians against this savage assault and are understandably diverting attention, from GOP personalities toward “extremist” sources. We are made to believe that these other sources on the far right might have contributed to Loughner’s muddy thinking, together with selected readings from Hitler and Marx. By transferring their cooties to those on their right, FOX and the rest of the neocon establishment are shielding their own kind against further negative fallout. The attempt to avoid such fallout also explains the maudlin repeated expressions of affection that GOP politicians have been issuing around the clock about Rep. Giffords. Never mind that before the election she and the Tea Party candidate in the Arizona First District had been in an acrimonious battle and that furthermore the GOP made strenuous efforts to get Giffords defeated.

The other explanation, which does not rule out the first but seems entirely convincing, is that the violent acts committed by Loughner are allowing the neocons to tar the non-authorized Right with a Nazi brush. It should be no secret that the neoconservatives have never been able to stifle their opposition on the right entirely. Their pesky opponents stay around, no matter how hard the neocons and their drudges pummel or ignore them. Wouldn’t it be nice if those on top could drive away the lingering opposition to their rule that persists on the right? And that could be done by exposing AmRen as the true culprit in Loughner’s crimes, while placing in the public mind a link between the non-neocon Right and mass murder. And it would be even better from this standpoint if one could get the FBI, Homeland Security, and other government surveillance organizations to go after “rightwing extremism,” that is, that part of the Right that the neocons have not been able to dominate and adapt to their use.

Allow me to add that I think this is exactly what is happening when the neocons continue to push the lie that AmRen incited Loughner. The attackers add hypocrisy to knavery when they complain that the Left is making unjustified accusations against their party and friends. Exactly what are they doing when they smear the non-authorized Right? And it makes no difference to me whether or not I agree with Jared’s entire race realist thinking. The ones who are coming after him have gone after lots of other “unpatriotic” dissenters in the past. People in the same foxhole can’t afford to quibble, and especially when the same enemy has targeted them all.

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Paul E. Gottfried

Paul Gottfried has spent the last thirty years writing books and generating hostility among authorized media-approved conservatives. His most recent work is his autobiography Encounters; and he is currently preparing a long study of Leo Strauss and his disciples. His works sell better in Rumanian, Spanish,Russian and German translations than they do in the original English, and particularly in the Beltway. Until his retirement two years hence, he will continue to be Raffensperger Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, PA.