Glen Beck's Vampire Dog Whistle

by: Mike Caulfield

Tue Apr 07, 2009 at 18:34:17 PM EDT

And here's the rant:

I could be wrong, but to me this is either a dog whistle call to militias, who will be familiar with the vile work, which is sold at gun shows and white separatist gatherings. Or it is an attempt to mainstream it's ideas and rhetoric. I'm not sure which is worse.

What is the book about? Well, Public Eye, a group that researches right wing hate groups, gets it about right. It's about preparation, sort of:

McLamb's primary training manual, Operation Vampire Killer 2000, is a 75-page booklet designed to "enlighten" active duty officers in the way of the conspiracy. The booklet is widely distributed at militia meetings and gun shows. Literally hundreds of copies have been delivered to police departments and law enforcement personnel by militia activists nationwide. In Washington State, we know of at least four counties where the booklet has been distributed: Stevens, Pierce, Whatcom, and King.

Like many activists in the militia movement and in the paramilitary right, certain of McLamb's ideas could well be characterized as racist. For example, McLamb has stated that "The globalists. . .[are] promoting interracial marriage" and "You can be white, you can not have interracial marriage, in working to save America, you don't have to do that type of a thing." Both McLamb and Gritz play prominent roles in the frequent "Preparedness Expos" held throughout the nation in such places as Florida, Los Angeles and San Jose, California, Utah, and Arizona. These gatherings attract hundreds--sometimes thousands--of right-wing extremists, militia supporters, white supremacists, Christian Identity followers, conspiracy theorists, and military surplus vendors.

It is worth noting that it was at gun shows and meetings such as these, for example, that Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh could often be found, thumbing his well-worn copy of the Turner Diaries, the fictional account of neo-Nazi revolution. Playing on themes that have been developed over the years in the so-called Christian Patriot movement, both McLamb and Gritz tell audiences at these events that they need to prepare for the "coming storm," and encourage participants to recruit law enforcement officers and military personnel into the movement. Both have encouraged the formation of citizen militias.

The other day Glen Beck was insulted his name was linked to the cop-killer that people like him agitated into a state of fear about his guns.

I wish his sins were that small. In invoking the Vampire Killer metaphor he has gone much further than that.