Editor’s note: John P. Avlon is the author of "Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics" and writes a weekly column for The Daily Beast. Previously, he served as chief speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and was a columnist and associate editor for The New York Sun.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/01/07/wingnuts.malloy.quist.art.jpg caption="On the left, radio host Mike Malloy and on the right, Minnesota congressional candidate Allen Quist."]
By John Avlon, Special to CNN
In the wake of the thwarted Christmas bombing we’re seeing an unwelcome return to hyper-partisans treating terror threats as a political football.
But wingnuts have their unique take on this ugly game and this week we’ve got two outer-limits analysis from the far-right and far-left.
On the right, conservative Minnesota congressional candidate Allen Quist announced that terrorism wasn’t in fact the biggest challenge facing freedom-loving Americans today. No, to him, the biggest challenge to freedom is coming from Democrats like President Obama and Nancy Pelosi, who are “destroying our country.” Here’s the full quote from a campaign stop.
“Our country is being destroyed. I mean, this is – every generation has had to fight the fight for freedom. This is our fight. And this is our time. This is it. Terrorism, yes – but that's not the big battle. The big battle is in D.C., with the radicals. They aren't liberals, they're radicals. Obama, Pelosi, Walz – they're not liberals, they're radicals. They are destroying our country.”
Quist is no political newcomer and this is no slip of the tongue. He’s served in the statehouse and been the GOP convention’s nominee for governor in the 1990s – and now he’s challenging incumbent Democratic congressmen Tim Walz for his seat. We should take Quist at his word: even while Americans are reminded of the non-optional war we are in against radical Islamic terrorism, he genuinely believes that Democrats in general and the president of the United States in particular represent a more clear and present danger to our freedom than terrorists.
This is the type of wingnut conviction that is fueling the more unhinged edge of the protests we are seeing – not just rational protests against overspending and the growth of government – but the belief that the real battle we face is against our fellow Americans. This is dangerous and ugly stuff; it’s a reminder that you reap what you sow.
On the left, radio host Mike Malloy saw in the terrorist plot an anti-Obama conspiracy. Here’s his full quote:
“There are forces at work in this country, and I believe this as surely as I put on my right shoe before my left – that there are forces alive who are very active, very wealthy in this country, at work in this country that want Obama to fail no matter what and the idea of killing 200 to 300 people on a jetliner in order to make the point is nothing.”
Despite full documentation of the suspect’s radicalization at the hand of al Qaeda, Malloy seems to be suggesting that a conservative plot against Obama was either behind the BVD bomber, or that they would have applauded a successful attack. This is outer-limits conspiracy theory that attempts to politicize the attempted attack even more than it has been done to date.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen unhinged commentary from Mike Malloy. In the summer of ’09 he indulged in an extensive on-air fantasy about Glenn Beck committing suicide: “I have a good news to report; Glen Beck appears closer to suicide – I'm hoping that he does it on camera; suicide is rampant in his family, and given his alcoholism and his tendencies towards self-destruction, I am only hoping that when Glen Beck does put a gun to his head and pulls the trigger, that it will be on television, because somebody will capture it on YouTube and it will be the most popular video for months.” Stay classy, Malloy.
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What connects our wingnuts this week is a tendency to try and deflect the clear and present danger of terrorism to conform to their hyper-partisan obsessions. We are already facing a real war against an extremist enemy that tries to divide the world into us against them – we don’t need wingnuts trying to do the same thing here at home. A bit of Cold War wisdom of the Truman and Eisenhower era should apply: partisan politics ought to end at the water’s edge.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Avlon.