When Extremist Views Become Extremist Actions

So, it was probably a lone gunman.

James W. von Brunn -- an 88-year-old white supremacist, an anti-Semite – is suspected of carrying a rifle into the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and shooting.

He was wounded, but not before he killed guard Stephen T. Johns, authorities say. Johns, who had worked at the museum for six years, is being hailed as a hero.

And von Brunn? If he did this crime, he may have acted alone, but when it comes to his twisted ideas, he has plenty of company. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), "Von Brunn has a long history of associations with prominent neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers."

What's frightening is that his conspiracy theories blaming Jews and the "Negro" and the Federal Reserve are so ordinary, so unsurprising. It is tempting to see von Brunn's very age as a sign that his words and deeds signal the last gasp of the extremist fringe.

But a report on the NBC evening news said that the opposite may be true. Hate groups are on the rise, according to Mark Potok of the SPLC. In the story, he tied this "to the recession, the election of the nation's first black president, and the immigration debate." Von Brunn is predictably said to be a member of the "birther" movement that insists President Obama is not a U.S. citizen and has no right to be president.

In April, the Department of Homeland Security issued a report: "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." It was criticized as ignoring the real threat of international terrorism and focusing on conservative groups in the U.S.

Now, it seems prescient.