But the truth is that they are acting on beliefs that large numbers of Americans hold. And the really frightening thing is that little separates these beliefs from the rhetoric of influential talk radio stars whose language is riddled with metaphors of violence and death. I think you should. Disclaimers notwithstanding, the Oklahoma City bombers act as though they believe literally the things that these folks say. Conservatism need not imply this scary stuff.
Most ordinary conservatives are reasonable people.
Nonetheless, the discourse of the current generation of conservative polemicists is antidemocratic and dangerous. This rhetoric is dangerous when it weaves metaphors of violent attack into the most routine utterances. Throughout history this rhetoric of violent attack has been used to justify all kinds of terrible things. Its great virtue for its authors is that these justifications are all deniable. Conservative rhetors will certainly claim that their metaphors are simply metaphors, and they will denounce analyses like this one as defamatory attempts to implicate them in a terrorist conspiracy, or as accusations that they condone violence.