The cacophony of gibes and unfounded claims is loudest, however, on rightwing TV and radio. Fox News presenter Glenn Beck has claimed Obama dislikes white people.
“This guy is, I believe, a racist,” Beck said.
Beck has also discussed allegations that Obama is setting up a network of secret internment camps and joked about poisoning Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi. Meanwhile Rush Limbaugh, whose weekly radio show is listened to by millions of Americans, has compared the Democrats to the Nazi Party. Perhaps taking him at his word, some healthcare protesters have carried signs featuring swastikas and Obama with a “Hitler” moustache.
It is in the so-called “birther” movement that the radical right has gained the most traction. The myth, which has been debunked, holds that Obama was not born in the US. Numerous Republican politicians have floated the idea based on the false allegation that Obama cannot provide a birth certificate.
The theme has been picked up by the media, including mainstream outlets such as CNN. Experts say such rhetoric inflames individuals who might already be planning acts of violence and gives them a sense of legitimacy.
“It is a climate where extremists in society will start to believe their views are mainstream,” Corcoran said.
The SPLC report warns that the militia movement in the US had a long history of smaller attacks in the 1990s, leading up to the terrorist bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh in 1995. It believes the same pattern could be about to repeat itself and points to numerous incidents in recent years.
Last week, William Kostric, a gun-rights advocate, turned up at an Obama town hall meeting in New Hampshire with a loaded handgun strapped to his leg.
Some were more worried, however, by the sign that Kostric carried that referred to a Thomas Jefferson quote about refreshing the “tree of liberty” with the blood of patriots.
That was the same quote on a T-shirt McVeigh was wearing when he was arrested.
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