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With its recent bumbling, the long-respected U.S. Secret Service is beginning to look like the Keystone Kops. But there鈥檚 nothing funny about the agency鈥檚 security lapses, particularly for the nation鈥檚 first black president, a man who is the target of enormous rage on America鈥檚 radical right.

For those of us who monitor racist and antigovernment extremists, it鈥檚 not surprising that, as The Washington Post reported, President Obama has faced three times as many threats as his predecessors.

After all, ever since he arrived on the scene as a serious presidential contender, he has been portrayed by even 鈥渕ainstream鈥� commentators and politicians on the right as nothing less than an existential threat to America 鈥� a Manchurian candidate who sympathizes with terrorists, a Marxist intent on installing a totalitarian government.

Some of the Republican Party鈥檚 most prominent politicians have engaged in the demonization of Obama as 鈥渢he other.鈥� Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, for example, has said Obama exhibits 鈥淜enyan, anti-colonial behavior.鈥� And former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu has said he wished Obama 鈥渨ould learn how to be an American.鈥�

Nothing in his political record remotely supports the characterization of Obama as anything but a mainstream politician, of course, but the purveyors of extremist propaganda have found a robust market for it on the country鈥檚 reactionary right, including fringe elements of the Tea Party. To this segment of the American public, Obama is more than a left-of-center president. He symbolizes the changing face of America, the growing diversity that will result in non-Hispanic whites losing their majority status around the year 2043 鈥� and with it, perhaps, white hegemony.

This is why we have seen, as illustrated by the persistent claims about the provenance of Obama鈥檚 birth certificate, a stubborn refusal among many on the right to accept his legitimacy as president. And it鈥檚 why we鈥檝e seen the emergence of eliminationist rhetoric, such as when angry opponents shouted 鈥淜ill him!鈥� at a political rally in 2008 and when effigies of Obama appeared hanging from nooses on university campuses that year.

Obama鈥檚 election also ignited volcanic growth in radical-right groups, particularly within the 鈥淧atriot鈥� movement. This collection of armed militias and similar organizations is animated by the belief that the U.S. government is an illegitimate, evil entity and part of a global conspiracy to institute martial law and a socialistic government called the 鈥淣ew World Order.鈥� In 1995, it聽 led to the deadliest act of domestic terrorism on U.S. soil, the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people.

In 2008, the year Obama was elected, there were 149 鈥淧atriot鈥� groups. Today, there are nearly 1,100.

At the same time, numerous studies have documented a significant increase in right-wing domestic terrorist attacks in recent years. These include the 2012 slaughter of six Sikh worshipers at a temple in Wisconsin by a neo-Nazi who apparently believed he was killing Muslims.

Obama has been the target of numerous radical-right plots.

In August 2008, even before he left the Democratic National Convention that nominated him, three white supremacists were arrested with high-powered rifles, disguises and a bulletproof vest as they discussed ways to kill Obama. 聽

Then, just before the election, two members of a racist skinhead group were arrested in Tennessee in a plot to assassinate the Democratic nominee after killing more than 100 people, mostly at an African-American school.

A month after Obama鈥檚 inauguration, a U.S. Marine corporal was indicted for threatening to kill the president after a search of his barracks in North Carolina turned up white supremacist materials and a journal containing his plans.

Two years later, a neo-Nazi in Spokane, Wash., was indicted on terrorism charges in a plot to kill Obama. 鈥淭ake care of business,鈥� he said in a conversation recorded by the FBI. 鈥淕ot to stop Barry Soetoro [Obama] from being re-elected. Absolutely.鈥�

Sadly, there is no shortage of American extremists who wish the president harm. And, as we鈥檝e seen through decades of studying the radical right, many of them are willing to spill blood for their cause. That鈥檚 why the Secret Service鈥檚 recent failings are no laughing matter. And that鈥檚 why political leaders should tone down their rhetoric.聽 聽 聽 聽