What the Planned Parenthood attacks can teach us about fighting terrorism

Nobody went into hysterics over white Christian terrorism. That's a good thing.

Planned Parenthood shooting suspect Robert Dear
(Image credit: Daniel Owen/The Gazette via AP)

The terrorist attack at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, reportedly carried out by a white man named Robert Dear, is notable for how it has partially inverted the traditional political response. In contrast to an instance of jihadist terror, this time it's liberals, not conservatives, finding instances of inflammatory rhetoric that might have provided a seedbed for the attacker's motivations.

The respective responses are nowhere near identical, of course. But the attack does provide an interesting chance to illustrate the deficiencies of what has become the default approach to jihadist terrorism, and how it might be improved.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.