New York Times Columnist Refuses To Brand Joseph Stack A Terrorist, OK With ‘Conservative’

by Frances Martel | 2:57 pm, February 24th, 2010

» 7 comments

Joseph Stack, the pilot responsible for crashing a plane into the Austin IRS building, is simply too good of an albatross not to hang on someone’s neck. As accurately predicted here on Mediaite, he has already been branded both a liberal and a conservative, a terrorist and a domestic extremist, and every possible politically charged label in between. Stack’s ideologically convoluted suicide manifesto created more questions than it answered, leaving more opportunity for exploitation, and this morning, the New York Times took the bait, asking about Stack, “The First Tea-Party Terrorist?”

Columnist on the NYT “Opinionator” blog Robert Wright today took on the task of accommodating the pilot into the wide world of political labels, and while the piece is not as offensive to the Tea Party movement as the title threatens it could be (in part thanks to a cluster of post-script disclaimers), Wright’s fundamental misunderstanding of the American right prohibits it from articulating a coherent point, or completely addressing his initial point that evidence for Stack being a left of center does not imply he is also not a Tea Party ideologist. “I’m not sure how purely conservative the Tea Party movement is anyway,” Wright comments. “Yes, it mobilized against a liberal health care bill and the stimulus package, but it also opposes corporate bailouts.”

It is a strange argument to claim that the fact the Tea Party movement does not support excess government spending somehow makes them liberal. Wright is still defining conservatism as Republicanism, when the label Republican has been reappropriated to the liberal spending policies of the Bush era. Even today the RNC is having an issue or two with administrative splurging. Thus, to Wright, “conservatives” are in favor of dumping large amounts of tax money on problems and hoping they go away, whether the problem be the economy, the education system, or foreign policy (if we count the invasion of Iraq as “throwing military spending” onto the Al-Qaeda problem). This core misunderstanding skews the entire piece, as Wright continues to explain, perplexed, that some Tea Partiers are engaging in a “left-wing critique of military engagement.” That “left-wing” critique of military engagement is not so much left-wing as it is a libertarian insistence on keeping to ourselves as a nation unless national security is significantly jeopardized. One can only assume that Wright is confusing this with the neo-conservative desire to impose American values on nations across the world, much more akin to the paternalistic philosophies commonly found on the left than the lassaiz-faire attitude of the right.

He concludes that, “in the end, the core unifying theme of the Tea Partiers is populist rage, and this is the core theme in Stack’s ramblings, whether the rage is directed at corporate titans (“plunderers”), the government (“totalitarian”) or individual politicians (“liars”).” Once again, the idea that those three entites are separate in the mind of a fiscal and political conservative betrays a desire to fuse the American right into a Republican party that operates much further left of center than the people if often represents. The piece isn’t a hatchet job (in fact, Wright concludes that a moratorium on the world “terrorist” might be more productive that trying to stick the label on anyone), but it will make more than a few true conservatives upset at being so misunderstood.

Austin plane attack, conservatives, Democrats, IRS, Joseph Stack, libertarians, New York Times, New York Times op-ed, Opinionator, Republicans, Robert Wright, Tea Party, Terrorism

http://www.nukethefridge.com MartiniShark

For openers, the distinction rests between lowering government spending (a largely conservative conceit) and giving corporate bailouts to Big Business (a longtime liberal complaint).

To call Stack a conservative is applying a liberal brush (both definitions) to paint him. In his manifesto Stack was incensed at George Bush and he also delivered venom towards the Catholic Church. You would be hard-pressed to make the man fit comfortably into either Left or Right conventions, but someone martyring themself violently for the sake of a cause does sound a lot like a terrorist.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Jones/1384303476 Chris Jones

I’m a right-wing tea bagger of the highest order and I have no problem saying Joseph Stack is a terrorist. What he did was domestic terrorism pure and simple. His motivations are irrelevant. Any merit his grievances may have had were instantly eclipsed and erased the second he decided to attempt mass murder on innocent people. There is one innocent person who’s now dead and several more with horrific burns who will be scarred for life because of this maniac. Those on the right who say I disagree with what he did, BUT he was angry, BUT he was pushed too far, BUT the IRS is evil, blah, blah, are extremely misguided. There is absolutely ZERO justification for what Joseph Stack did. I don’t give a damn about his financial situation or anything else. He’s a terrorist killer and a disgrace.

As for his political leanings. I read his writings and I don’t think you can pin him on the right or the left. He hated the IRS and the government in general, but also hated Capitalism and corporations. He repeatedly contracted his positions and beliefs, so I don’t really know what he was other than a crazy murdering asshole.
Christine

As far as I can tell, the Tea Party or Parties?? are against bailouts altogether, whereas the Left wants bailouts for “Main Street not Wall Street”. Joe Stack kept going on about how our government and tax code favor the rich while leaving the poor to die. He was anti corporations and anti capitalism. I couldn’t see anything about him that was right-wing except not liking the government but his reasons were entirely different than right-wingers. He hated the IRS, as do most, but he was being audited supposedly so he had personal reasons for that. I’m no expert, but Stack certainly used a tactic of terrorists.

Everytime there is a horrifying act the Left IMMEDIATELY attempts to blame the Right. Whether is was the KY census worker “murder” (suicide) or that Van Brunn guy that attacked the Holocaust musuem and who had rantings all over the map, hating every conceivable group including Christians, neo-cons, Bush, McCain, the National Review, and Fox News. The Left can’t seem to help themselves. It’s disgusting. And makes me disdainful of people in general. Who’s worse Joe Stack or the POS that rush out to smear people that had nothing to do w/ it? I guess Stack b/c he actually killed someone but these smear merchant scumbags want to ruin lives.
fydsyd

Osama bin Laden took credit for the 19 Al Qaeda operatives’ act on 9/11.

Is someone from the Tea Party going to take credit for what Stack did?

Is there a movement he’s leading that hates the IRS -and- the Catholic Church? Terrorists intend to terrorize. Stack was an angry loner, frustrated that he could get no answers from the monolithic government that we dare not question. Apparently, Sam Byck was a terrorist too, right?

“Who’s worse Joe Stack or the POS that rush out to smear people that had nothing to do w/ it?”
Amen, brother. AMEN.

Hating the IRS, the largest domestic terrorist organization in the country, makes the REST of us all terrorists. The Left certainly does have a very twisted “logic.”
Socalgal

Joe Stack hated everyone and everything period. His biggest beeforamma was being taxed. Well who LIKES being taxed?

Oh wait I forgot… Liberals love taxes, when it comes in the form of their entitlements. So that means Stack must be a rightwing nut. But wait, he also hated Jesus, and Libs hate Jesus therefore he must be an unhinged leftwit. Don’t Muslims hate Jesus too? Stack was a Muslim? Settled. Terrorist. The end.
PureFreedom

SoCalGal, You forgot Stack hated Bush also… so with him hating Jesus, Bush and the IRS what do you have?

I guess the Loony left NYT journalist need to jump to their safe bet, they use all the time , if they cant win an argument …..Use RACE.
Stack was white so he must be Conservative.
http://thedailybarb.com Burnnotice

Domestic terrorist works for me. He was a Musician also. Most musicians are liberal. So left wing nut case that tries to scam the Government by claiming tax free status also works for me…