In a typically observant and thought-provoking piece yesterday, Glen Greenwald called out the American Right for their cowardly surrender to terrorism. The piece focused on the right’s disapproval and resistance to the concept that terrorists detained by us can be effectively given due process and tried in standard American courts.

After quoting Boehner’s recent public objection to federal trial of KSM in New York, Greenwald writes:

This is literally true: the Right’s reaction to yesterday’s announcement — we’re too afraid to allow trials and due process in our country — is the textbook definition of "surrendering to terrorists." It’s the same fear they’ve been spewing for years. As always, the Right’s tough-guy leaders wallow in a combination of pitiful fear and cynical manipulation of the fear of their followers. Indeed, it’s hard to find any group of people on the globe who exude this sort of weakness and fear more than the American Right.

Cynical manipulation? Absolutely. Ever since 9/11, we have had years of unsubstantiated or downright fake threats, intended to frighten the American people. Yellow-cake uranium, threats of mushroom clouds and non-existant weapons of mass destruction have now morphed into "the government is going to kill your granny with their federal death panels". The list of efforts at cynical manipulation by the Right is a long one and I will not inventory all of it here, aside to say that their most recent fear-inducing offering is that we can’t afford to give people due-process in this country. Thus Greenwald’s broadside of yesterday.

But I may disagree with Greenwald as to motive on the part of the Right’s leadership. He appears to at least allow the possibility that the Right’s leadership–people like Boehner–are actually motivated by fear. I simply don’t see that. When conservative leaders like John Cornyn, or Boehner, John Kyl or Pete Hoekstra speak from the floor of the House or Senate, I have never seen one slight inkling that they themselves are fearful. I don’t see it in their mannerisms, their language, or their behavior.

I think this is an important distinction to make, as people who are truly afraid can be expected to make poor decisions and unwise statements, but they can do so honestly, because fear is an honest emotion. It is at least an honest mistake to make a bad choice because fear is impacting one’s thinking. In my view, by leaving open the possibility that GOP leaders are actually themselves fearful, Greenwald leaves open the possibility that all the nonesense we’ve heard from the leadership of the Right, or much of it, has some shred of honesty to it, because these guys are truly scared and aren’t thinking straight. Being permanently scared for eight years after 9/11 may not be a very admirable trait, but at least it’s an honest one.

But I’ll repeat–I don’t think that GOP leaders are actually afraid (John Boehner isn’t yellow, he’s clearly orange). And if that is true, and conservative leadership are no more than cynical manipulators of fear. The conclusion is inescapable: just as terrorists utilize violent acts to manipulate fear in civilian populations for political ends, the rhetoric of the conservative right has exactly the same motivation and impact. One strategy uses violence. The other, rhetoric. But the product of both strategies–control through fear–is the same. This places the leadership of the conservative right in very close quarters with those they claim to oppose.