Conservative Ideals

NewsweekWriter Nina "Kneepads" Burleigh would have her readers believe that today's Republican Party is ideological soulmates with Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber.

Here's how she began her click-baity June 1 piece, "How Timothy McVeigh's Ideals Entered the Mainstream":

Republican presidential candidates gathered last month at the Oklahoma City Cox Conference Center, just a few blocks from the site of what was the Alfred R. Murrah Federal Building. Two decades ago, anti-government militia sympathizer Timothy McVeigh blew it up in what he called an act of war against the U.S. government. It was the worst crime of domestically bred terrorism in American history. McVeigh was executed in 2001, but since then, some of his militia ideals have gone mainstream and even been introduced as laws in many states, including Oklahoma.

Legislators in dozens of states have submitted proposals to nullify or block federal laws — a longtime goal of militias. These have included exempting states from federal gun laws and educational standards, as well as, of course, Obamacare. That doesn’t make these anti-federal statutes part of McVeigh’s madness, but Republican politicians now often echo conspiracy theories once relegated to troglodyte pamphlets. And several states have passed laws making gold a currency — a step toward returning to the gold standard — even though currency is a federal responsibility.