The Oklahoma City Bombing and Right-Wing Extremism

Most Oklahomans remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when a bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995.

Yet time fades memories. How will the bombing be remembered in, say, 50 years from now? Will the downtown memorial still exist in its present form? Many younger Oklahomans, of course, weren’t even alive during the bombing. What will they think about it in years to come? Will they continue to remember and honor the 168 people who died that terrible day fourteen years ago? Will they know the fanatical motivations behind those that planned the bombing?

I began thinking about these questions on this year’s anniversary of the bombing when I read about U.S. Sens. Tom Coburn’s and Jim Inhofe’s overwrought reactions to a new federal report that warns about resurgence in right-wing extremism in this country. (You can read the full report here.)

The senators slammed the report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which also warned that military veterans could be recruited to join right-wing extremist groups. The report mentions the case of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who served in the first Gulf War.

This is what Coburn said about the report, according to a news report:

This carelessly written and poorly reasoned report is offensive to not only our veterans, but to every American who is passionately committed to the ideals of limited government, life and liberty that made our country great.

Note the term “limited government.” What does that mean in this context? Is Coburn speaking in code? This is a report warning about dangerous extremism.

Coburn, Inhofe and five other Republicans wrote a letter complaining the report unfairly targets military veterans and sent it to Janet Napolitano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Napolitano said the report was not meant to offend anyone in the military, but she stood by the report’s findings.

Doesn’t it seem odd the senators representing the state which suffered through the country’s most deadliest act of domestic terrorism would criticize a report that warns against that same extremist ideology that caused so many deaths and injuries in Oklahoma? This contradiction or error, as far as I can tell, has gone unmentioned in the corporate media here. It also raises the question: How will we remember the bombing?

It’s important to remember that McVeigh and his co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, were considered to be sympathetic to the American militia movement, which has been apparently growing after the election of President Barack Obama, fueled by irresponsible fear mongering in the right-wing media. (I believe The Oklahoman has participated in this rhetorical subertfuge.) It’s important to remember, too, that McVeigh also intentionally set off his bomb to coincide with the two-year anniversary of the federal government’s siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. On April 19, 1993, while under the FBI siege, the compound was destroyed by fire. Those are the facts.

The point here is McVeigh, who was executed for his crime, was a deranged, right-wing radical with a fanatical worldview that included indiscriminately killing people to make an antigovernment political statement. The same goes for Nichols, who is serving a life sentence. We can never forget this when we think about that tragic day in Oklahoma. Never. If we do, then history could repeat itself.

Coburn and Inhofe made an historic error by politicizing the report. Lost in their petty complaints and political rhetoric, intended or not, is the human suffering caused by these two right-wing radicals, McVeigh and Nichols. Coburn and Inhofe, in honor of those who died or were injured in the Oklahoma City bombing, should be fighting against the right-wing ideology that resulted in the horrific act, not criticizing those that do so.