So Who is John L. Perry?

Yesterday, an article by one John L. Perry appeared very briefly on the Newsmax web page purporting to advocate a military coup against the Obama administration.  Tom Maguire called "the silliest thing I read today, or maybe this year."  The article was very quickly taken down, but in the meantime lefties were up in arms hollering treason. 

SoCal Voice ranted, John L. Perry should be arrested and convicted for advocating overthrow of Government.

On Tuesday, September 29th, GOP wingnut John L. Perry wrote a piece on Newsmax advocating for a violent military coup to “resolve the Obama problem.”

Under the headline Pulled NewsMax Article: Right Wing Fantasy Gone Mad, The Daily Banter raved,

The pulled NewsMax article imagining a military coup in the United States really is a riot to read. While it is of course utterly offensive and would have probably led to the writers death in most other countries, it provides a fascinating insight into the mind of a socially dysfunctional fantasist.

At his blog Dissenting Justice Professor Darren Hutchinson wrote, Rightwingnut John Perry Fantasizes About a "Military Coup" to Eliminate President Obama. The professor also offered a link to Perry's Newsmax bio as if to prove it.  Imagine my surprise at finding this:

Perry also has had a distinguished career in public policy. He served President Lyndon B. Johnson as deputy under secretary of commerce and was a White House speech writer and race-relations trouble-shooter for President Johnson.

In the Jimmy Carter administration, he was executive assistant to the under secretary of Housing and Urban Development and was interim director of public information for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

[...]

Perry was also assistant to the president of the National Association of Broadcasters, a member of the top-management team and director of public relations for the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tenn., and an academic fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, Calif.

My emphasis above.  Turns out John L. Perry was a member of the Johnson administration, the Carter administration, and the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.  Right wing?  GOP?  Wikipedia had this to say about the Center:

The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, California was an important think tank from 1959 to 1977, declining in influence thereafter. The Center held discussions in a variety of areas that it hoped would influence public deliberation. It attained some controversy with its conference of student radical leaders in 1967, and with a suggested new United States Constitution proposed by Fellow Rexford G. Tugwell.

And just how right wing is a think tank that entertained a theory that the U.S. needs a new Constitution? 

With the popularity of Obama's health care plan sinking like a rock, lefties are in a panic.  They've long since passed the point where anyone who opposes anything Obama is labeled racist, or unpatriotic, or both.  They blame talk radio for stirring up the opposition, and they've been looking at ways to shut it down. 

In John L. Perry I believe we have a lefty who's found his chance to make a difference.  There's no military coup or any other kind of coup going on, and certainly "no right: wing coup.  Our bloodless coups are scheduled ever four years.  We call them elections.  But aside from 2006 and 2008, lefties haven't been doing all that well.  It's Rush Limbaugh's fault. 

So along comes John L. Perry with his wild speculation on the chances for a military coup.  I suspect he's doing his part to build the case for curbing talk radio.  In the interest of national security, of course

Comments

[Chris]

Perry switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican during the Reagan years, is a former editor at Newsmax and has done a conservative column there nearly weekly for the past ten years.

Nice try, but fail.

[Tom Bowler]

If you have a link to any resource that bears you out on this you ought to provide it. A Federal Election Commission search shows several people named John Perry, but the one that would most seem to fit his Newsmax bio (old enough to have done time in the Johnson and Carter administrations) is retired and living in Arlington, VA. His recent contributions went to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, DNC Services Corporation/Democratic National Committee, James H. Webb, and Barack Obama.

[Bill in Knoxville]

I read Perry's article and thought that might be an acceptable way to handle our "Obama problem," and believe me, we DO have an Obama problem. If it's not checked, it is going to turn into an "American problem"...as in becoming a Third World socialist nation deep in poverty and with a KGB-syle internal police force. If the military would step up and tell President Moonbeam to cease and desist in destroying America, I believe millions of Americans would stand beside them. Including me.

[Tom Bowler]

I didn't bother to read his article, but in any case I do not agree with you, Bill. Any such action from the military would be a disaster and an end to America as we know it. Have a little faith and a little patience. We have elections, and we have the ingenuity and the resilience of the American people. Military coups are a always a left wing solution, anyway.

[Marion Morrison]

"Lefties" in "a panic" after a wingnut columnist advocates military overthrow? Who is in "a panic" here, folks.

Personally I've been wondering how far the fanatical right will go to voice their frustrations over a democratic president and congress - a fragment of generations of protracted frustration. I'm thinking John L Perry is only a harbinger, and eventually the hard right will shoot itself in the foot one too many times...

[Tom Bowler]

Yes, lefties are in a panic. Lefty ideas don't fly all that well for a reason. They're lousy ideas. That's why racism comes into the discussion when the majority of Americans oppose nationalizing health insurance. How far will the far right go? As far as the voting booth, and I have no doubt that it will be plenty far enough.

[Lance Hayes]

Oh boo hoo. Professor Hutchinson cited to Perry's link so that people could know who the obscure journalist is. And as someone else said, he is a rightwingnut. If someone like Michael Moore advocated a military coup, conservatives would have a meltdown. What hypocrisy.

[Tom Bowler]

Lance, the point of the post is to question Mr. Perry's rightwingnut credentials. Johnson administration? Carter administrtation? Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions?

[Kristo Miettinen]

Just to reinforce the point, and refute your first commenter's claim of Perry switching parties in the Reagan years, Perry's column of 12/26/2000 has an explicit disclosure that, at least to that point, Perry was a lifelong Democrat.

[Tom Bowler]

Do you happen to have a link to that article, Kristo?

[Alice]

If Rush Limbaugh declared himself to be a democrat too would you take him seriously or just wait for the punchline? This guy may call himself a democrat but you are fruit loops if after reading ANY of his articles, or any articles on Newsmax in general, you still think they project ANY of the basic ideals of the democratic party . It's like me trying to argue that Michael Moore is a Republican simply because he says so.

[Tom Bowler]

Gee, Alice. I didn't know the Democrat party had ideals, other than a lust for power that predominates over everything else. It wasn't always that way. Once upon a time Democrats were champions of liberty and defenders of America, although you'd hardly know it today. Today's Democrat has other ideals.

But there used to be Democrats like Scoop Jackson. Or, how about Zell Miller? Perry could very well have been a Democrat in the mold of Jackson or Miller. Or am I a fruit loop for suggesting it?