A History of Violence The long, sordid tale of anti-black brutality on the American left
• ReasonDo the noisy protests directed at President Barack Obama's health care plan reveal something uniquely sinister about the American right? A surprising number of liberal pundits seem to think so. "Let's be honest with ourselves," progressive blogger Josh Marshall declared, "the American right has a deep-seated problem with political violence....The ideological pattern is clear going back at least thirty years and arguably far longer." Chip Berlet, a senior researcher at the liberal think tank Political Research Associates, went even further than that, telling New America Media: "For over 100 years—more like 150, you've had these movements, and they came out of the Civil War. It is a backlash against social liberalism and it's rooted in libertarian support for unregulated capitalism and white people holding onto power, and, if they see themselves losing it, trying to get it back." Now, it's certainly true that the United States has
