What We Talk About When We Talk About Incitement

This weekend a Christian militia group called Hutaree was raided by the FBI in three states, planning to attack police and start a revolution; they “are Christian ‘soldiers’ who are arming themselves and training in anticipation of the coming of the Anti-Christ.”
I propose that the Republicans, fanning the flames of religious paranoia amongst a significant portion of the population, are at least partially to blame for outbursts such as this.

• The Bible is “America’s favorite Book” according to a recent poll.
• According to a Rassmussen poll, 54% of Americans believe the Bible is literally the word of god; the number is 74% for weekly church goers; 85% for Evangelical Christians. According to a Gallup poll, 78% believe the Bible is true.
• 79% of Evangelicals believe torture can be justified, more than any other group in America, according to a Pew research poll.
• 24% of weekly church goes believe in evolution, almost 50% lower than the national average, according to a recent Gallup poll.
• According to a poll by TIME, 59% of Americans believe the events in Revelation are going to come true.
• According to a recent Harris poll, 24% of Republicans think Obama is or may be the Antichrist, that he is an anti-American (41%) socialist (67%) Muslim (57%) who wants a one world government (51%) is imitating Hitler (38%), and wants the terrorists to win (22%).
• House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) says , Obama’s health plan is “Armageddon.”
• Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) says, “I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue… we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us, having a revolution every now and then is a good thing, and the people — we the people — are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country.”
• Congressman Phil Gingrey (R-GA) says, protesters against the government “should” bring firearms to protests and town hall meetings.
• Congressman Gregg Harper (R-MS) says, “We hunt liberal, tree-hugging Democrats, although it does seem like a waste of good ammunition.”
• Florida Republican Congressional Candidate Robert Lowry made a media event of firing live ammunition at targets emblazoned with the name of his democratic opponent.
• RNC funded Newsmax recently ran a column stating, ” "A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama's radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible."
• Jim Inhofe (R-OK) suggests, "We're almost reaching a revolution in this country."

In summary, speaking to a base that a) believes Revelations is literally true, b) is afraid that the end times is around the corner, c)believes the Obama is the Antichrist, the GOP is invoking Armageddon and steeping it's message of dissent in violence. In this context, we should not be surprised that THIS WEEK, a group of Fundamentalists are waging war on the government, believing to do so is to do battle with the Antichrist. And that, my friends, was incited by the GOP.