I think what disturbs me most about this piece (rather, the Glenn Beck program discussed in this piece) is not the simple-minded assertion that somehow James von Brunn is a “leftist,” but that the media continues to insist on the absolutely false dichotomy of a binary world in which one can only take political action from a position of either the left or the right.
The truth and America’s political reality are far weirder. If you investigate some of von Brunn’s writings, and try to develop some reasonable assertions from the rantings of an apparently unreasonable man, you will find that, for example, he feels an affinity for the “libertarianism” espoused by noted kook, John “The Birdman” Bryant (see the links page from his now-defunct “Holy Western Empire” web site here; one would assume he’s linking to Bryant’s site because he sees something he likes there), and that according to the Arsenal of Hypocrisy, von Brunn also believes that “the JEWS” control the Catholic Church). Neither of these positions aligns in any way, shape, or form with a neat categorization of von Brunn’s philosophy as either liberal or conservative. And don’t let the “libertarian” tag fool you - check out The Birdman’s site and you will see that his variety of Libertarianism ain’t no Ron Paul.
If we are to believe the evidence gleaned from his web site and anecdotal quotes provided by those who knew him from his hometown in Easton, MD, James von Brunn acted from a place of sociopathy, not one of deeply held, neatly classified political philosophy. He is not a leftist. He may be a neo-Nazi, but that likewise doesn’t cleanly and neatly make him a rightist. The sum total of his writings can only lead one to believe one thing: he’s a nut.
If only the pundits on either side of the conversation would wrap their heads around a world that is far more gray area - in all its rich, beautiful, puzzling, confounding, and sometimes frightening shades - we could stop this ludicrous and positively damaging desire to color the world with two colors of crayon and recognize it as the far more nuanced, interesting, terrifyingly complex place that it really is.
