American Right Wing Terror

All of us at Planned Parenthood of Kansas & Mid-Missouri are horrified, angry and deeply saddened at the murder of Dr. George Tiller this morning. Our hearts and our prayers go out to Dr. Tiller’s wife, his children and other family members, to his brave and dedicated staff and to the thousands of women who have benefited from Dr. Tiller’s compassionate and dedicated care.

Planned Parenthood Mourns Dr. George Tiller, Statement by Peter B. Brownlie. President/CEO

The right wing has endorsed violence against Dr. Tiller and others like him for two decades or more. It’s not simply fringe elements either. Fox News has for years hyped the idea of “Tiller the Baby Killer.”

It works too: Tiller had been attacked several times before. In fact, this sort of right wing terror has made abortion increasingly unavailable. Yet his assassination is being called “a murder” as if it weren’t politically motivated.

It seems very obviously part of the crazed right wing response to the Obama administration. The right is most dangerous when it senses its own irrelevance. It starts making wilder and wilder claims, hinting at the necessity of violence.

It’s just a show for most people; entertaining, but no more real than anything else on television or radio. There are always a few, though, who buy the performance completely. That’s the danger.