If you're wondering how far-right terrorist attacks became as unsurprising a part of American life as mass murders at schools (despite violent crimes overall continuing to decline), this is a big part of the story: U.S. Law Enforcement Failed to See the Threat of White Nationalism. Now They Don’t Know How to Stop It. New York Times 11/03/2018.
The portion featuring former Homeland Security intelligence analyst Daryl Johnson is very revealing. The story he relates about how the Obama Administration backed off on investigating and enforcing the law against violent-focused far-right groups in 2009 under heavy pressure from Republicans isn't new. It was very publicly discussed at the time. You just had to make an effort to listen to journalists and researchers concerned about the problem. Because the mainstream press wasn't giving it more than a fraction of the coverage that they devoted to (often sloppy) reporting about the "Tea Party" antics that year.
By chance, during the neo-Nazi demonstrations in Charlestown in August of last year when the news came in that Heather Heyer had been murdered by one of them, I was in Atlanta listening to a presentation on far-right extremism moderated by David Neiwert of the SPLC that included Johnson and Rabiah Ahmed of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Johnson talked about his 2009 experience and the continuing problem.
With all the incidents since, it's worth recalling that the murderous Charlottesville Nazi crowd were described by the President of the United States as containing "very fine people." He won't be listening to Daryl Johnson's advice.
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