Across the political spectrum a spouse platforms that label people other extremists although most of the groups and the subculture are small collectively the president suggests some interesting trends in american politics and society. Now some observers are in the fragmentation of the country that while others they are just another example of american pluralism at work so political extremism has a long tradition in the United States thereve been protest movements, dissident movements that have punctuated American History. The colonial rebels wanted government, independence from england. Not long after the revolutionary war in 1787, daniel and farmers in the revolt in springfield massachusetts. For several historians cite the Antimasonic Party of the early 19th century as the first rightwing reactionary movement in america. The antimasons were very suspicious of the freemasons but figured so prominently in the american establishment at that time. A few decades later there was the know nothing movement. This movement arose as a backlash against the influx of Irish Catholic immigration. In the reconstruction afte recoe civil war, domestic terrorism with the ku klux klan and at the close of the 19th century a very robust Leftwing Movement centered on labor Union Activism began to take hold. It is really nothing new. There is still no general consensus on what the term means, so suffice it to say as the term generally has a negative connotation. So extremism can be defined in three ways. In the first case it can be defined statistically with attitudes towards good particular issues arranged on a left right continuum. The left and right labels originated in the National Assembly in 1789 and i in a situation that sat on the left side of the presiding officer and conservatives sat on the right side. So in this scheme of those people that favored the positions on the far left and far right of the continuum would be labeled extremists whereas those people identified with positions would be identified as moderates. Second, extremism cant be defined in terms of style. Extremism cant be defined in stylistic terms such as fanaticism rather than any specific ideological substance. This definition is reminiscent of the notion of the true belief are. That is to say someone who is supposed to be totally consumed by his cause. And finally as the scholar chris hewitt once argued, extremism can be understood as being socially defined. As he noted in any society at any given time, certain social and political views are considered normal and acceptable while others are not so the range of views may be broad and narrow and change over time, said to characterize someone as extremist is considered to be beyond the pale of acceptable discourse. So what constitutes extremism depends on both public and easy to opinions at a particular point in time so therefore the concept of extremism is essentially socially construct constructed. I think the topic of extremism is important today because of several trends going on in america. For instance, the last two president ial elections seem to have a poor rating effect on american politics. Now while Many Americans took pride in the election of barack obama as the nations first black president of the people seem resentful for a variety of reasons. Furthermore, the persistence of the economic downturn has contributed to the sense of national trepidation over the direction of the country. On the political right a variety of activists decrying Big Government have coalesced under the banner of the Tea Party Movement. On the political left, some progressives were disappointed that the Obama Administration continue to prosecute the war in the middle east. They argue that the war on terror distracts the federal government focus on sovereign domestic problems such as unemployment and health care reform. So the growing chasm appears to be growing among the public on a number of important issues including things like the proper role of the government, the multiculturalism, immigration, abortion, religion and the public sphere and the proper position in global affairs. So in such a charged atmosphere, political extremism has the potential to push. Heres an outline of the remaining part of my lecture. The subcultures for rich in America Today including small groups on the political far right, the political far left. There are separatist movements such as black nationalism, there are variants of religious extremism including radical islam for jewish extremism and the Christian Identity Movement. There are single issue movements including echo extremism and radical prolife groups. Not surprisingly, the prison system is an incubator of extremism, and finally, although most extremists are not terrorists, most terrorists have been influenced by extremist subcultures. So i will discuss extremist terrorism as well. In addition i will discuss some signs of convergence and extremist subcultures. In the cases of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and finally in the conclusion i will talk about the implications of the Current Trends and how they relate to political extremism. So my book endeavors to put these variants of extremism in context. First lets look at the extreme right. During the 1990s, the extreme right appears to gain the ground as a social movement, but the movement suffered a series of setbacks in the aftermath of 9 11. Many of the leaders died or were arrested and prosecuted. But the financial crisis in 2008 and the election of barack obama in the same year catalyzed the movement. In 2011, the law center and that is a Monitoring Organization based in montgomery alabama, announced that the number of socalled hate groups have reached over a thousand. Furthermore the number petri attended militia groups talked 800. These were the largest figures ever recorded since the Southern Property Law Center began accounting such groups into the 1980s. The extreme right exhibits the affection with the government, the federal government in particular. People in this movement often have a conspiratorial worldview. They tend to look beneath the surface of american politics and find what works and the subverting society. Finally the extreme right often espouses the element of racism and entice them into some. In the recent years, they saw an opportunity to ride to the populace weighs in the form of 13 party. Although less radical, the Tea Party Movement echoes some of the same themes as the far right. For example, the teeth Party Movement is also very critical and suspicious of the federal government. Many people who identify with the tea party voiced concern over immigration policy. However, the public representative of the tea party do not use the racialist and extremist rhetoric that is common in the subculture. Nevertheless, there is a persistent recession that is broad a substantial increase in unemployment and a decline in the Life Opportunities for many people who are formerly part of the middle class. Whats more, uneasiness over immigration could galvanize support for both the nationalistic patriots segments to the far right in the forms of other issues that typically designate for the conservative voters such as welfare and multiculturalism, so in short the issues that give rise to the extreme right will become or pronounced in the century. And so as a consequence, the movement could gain traction despite the formidable opposition against it. Although the demographic profiles of members of the far right and the tea party are similar in some respects, there is much that divides the movement over ideology. In order to be viable in the long term, the Tea Party Really must coalesce around a unified platform and a set of principles that can be presented to the American Public. And so, whether the tea party can connect with a large segment of americas increasing nonwhite population will in large measure determine its electoral viability. So, if the tea party fails in this respect, it could coalesce with the extreme right and be in a more radical direction. They analyzed the antiglobalization and the new anarchists movement. The anarchists seek to create a globalization to replace the capitalistic economy with more that is more a dallasarea based on the precepts. Now initially after the cold war, far left groups lost to the ideology and collapse of the soviet union other than that era, but despite the setbacks the far left managed to reinvent itself. So the antiglobalization movement designates the sections of the disaffected young people around the world. These anarchists have disrupted many cities that have hosted meetings and conferences by the organizations for example back in the fall of 1999, there was a disparate collection of protesters interrupting the trade Organization Meeting that was taking place in seattle. Through the protest committees new anarchists seek to hasten the demise of the capitalism which the leave is in a state of the crisis. And although these groups have not been responsible for the fatalities into the department of Homeland Security has identified these new anarchists groups as a serious potential threat because of the potential to disrupt the major cities. Moving onto the black nationalism, there are several variants of the black nationalism today including groups like the nation of islam, and the new black Panther Party. At times the nationalist movement has been repressed as witnessed by the fbi operations back in the 1960s and early 70s. It was an illegal and secret fbi program that sought to disrupt and neutralize various dissident groups in america. But its mentioning that on occasion, the representatives of the black nationalist movement have garnered grassroots support in washington, d. C. Back to 1995. Bearing malloy had one of the the black Panther Party for selfdefense. This group was founded in 1990 and malik is the leader of the group. The black Panther Party holds the racist, conspiratorial antisemitic. On occasion the members of the groups have supported the islamic causes as well as members of the group protested as the Danish Embassy back in 2006 during the controversy surrounding the khartoum of the prophet mohammed that appears in the danish newspaper around that time. The group also offered support to the alleged 20th 9 11 hijacker. So this increasingly radical foster has alienated the new group from some of the activists of the original black Panther Party. Its worth mentioning that explicit black racial advocacy has significant support in america both in the mainstream and on the fringe. Public figures, politicians, wellrespected Interest Groups such as the association for the advancement of colored people often endorse the principles of black solidarity and empowerment but you do onl hes really withe rhetoric of conspiracies and racial antagonism. For example, barack obama expressed ambivalent feelings on the black nationalism and in his autobiography dreams of my father. In the book, he condoned black nationalism black solidarity, selfreliance and responsibility. But on the other hand, he sought a kind of disentangled message with white people. Donald took a close look at chicago nationalism in the United States. This movement seeks to implement the mission in the american southwest. They call this aspirational homeland. It is envisioned to be a Spanish Speaking chicano nation. So the political identity for the members of this movement is narrowly defined by race, ethnicity and language. Now at first blush, creating a aztlan nation on american territory might seem rather farfetched. However, the rapidly changing demographic profile of the southwest embleton to be chicano separatist to believe the cultural unification in mexico is inevitable. It hopes to accomplish this through extensive Democratic Change produced by both legal and illegal immigration. And it is hoped that this Large Population of undocumented immigrants will eventually maintain legal status and become a very powerful voting bloc. At chicano activists are also encouraged by the high birthrate of their newly arrived constituents with a political majority be chicano separatist movement cody eventually secure and independent states through the electoral process. And by doing so, they would be no need for armed conflict. So currently the movement minimizes the role of violence and bringing about the goal of the separate aztlan nation composed almost exclusively of latinos. But the establishment of such an entity presupposes ethnic cleansing at large. So the popularity of the multiculturalism among the american elite has really provided cover for the chicano separatist. There are aspirations that might normally be rejected as a chauvinistic and exclusionary. It is primarily through the southwest chicano separatism has gained quite a bit of support. Not only among the scholars and students and the Chicago Studies Department but among non academics as well. Jean and brenda lutz examined extremism in the United States. Historically the activity centered more on fund raising rather than on terrorism prior to 9 11 there were only a few incidents of terrorism by islamist extremism in america. The first Major Incident was the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. The mastermind of that attack later transpired that he was affiliated with al qaeda. Because of americas poor borders, they were able to establish the presence in america and it is of course coleman aided in the 9 11 terrorist attacks of new york city and washington, d. C. In the aftermath of 9 11 there was quite a bit of fear that sleeper cells might spring into action. And although they later transpired to be overblown, there have been a number of plots that have been uncovered. And some of the deadly attacks to date have come from solitary individuals who have self identified with the global jihad. In november of 2009 the major nidal hassan wounded 31 people. Months later attempted to detonate a bomb in times square in new york city. To be expected, the u. S. Authorities are concerned about radical islam in america and in march of 2011, the Congress Held hearings called by the representative peter king on the topic. Another worrisome prospect is that islamic terrorists might strike jewish targets in america because much of the jewish diaspora support israel and attack jewish targets outside of israel. James and brenda also looked at the jewish extremism in america. Now, when compared to other countries in which the diaspora has decided antisemitism has been comparatively low. Nevertheless the antisemitism have punctuated American History. Antisemitism was most pronounced in the early part of the 20th century when the jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe settled in some american cities. The mainstream organizations have defended jewish rights but there have been some jewish extremism that has been active as well. The best known is the Jewish Defense league that was created in 1968 in response to the conflict in new york city involving the Public Schools at a time many of the teachers were jewish and many of the people were african american. At that tim the time there was n between the two communities. However the rise of the extremism in the United States has been largely linked to events overseas. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Jewish Defense league targeted representatives of the soviet union because of the failure of the country to allow its jewish citizens to emigrate. The Jewish Defense league also targeted arab american groups, antisemitic groups and holocaust revisionists. There was also an offshoot Organization Called the Jewish Defense organization. The defense groups are overshadowed by the mainstream organizations such as the antidefamation league, the congress and the American Jewish committee. These mainstream groups are very wellfunded. They enjoy substantial support not only from the Jewish Community but also leading politicians and civic leaders. But despite their efforts, antijewish sentiments still persist in some quarters today. For example, on the extreme right of the jews are often implicated in a sinister conspiracy to defile the white race allegedly by promoting the multiculturalism and not white immigration into america. On the political left, some activists decry the actions against the palestinians. Within organized Divestment Campaign against israel. In addition some muslims criticize what they believe is the u. S. Governments unfair policies that support israel at the expense of the palestinians. Now by contrast the christian right has been one of the most consistently pro israel blocks. But there are some segments of christianity of america that have an antijewish animists. I examined the Christian Identity Movement. This is a religious sector that has gained