The Southern Poverty Law Center, a leftist “civil rights” outfit that has been criticized and ridiculed from across the political spectrum, issued its latest “Intelligence Report” about the supposed threat posed by “Patriot” groups and other right-wing “extremists.” Employing its usual deceptive tactics in a transparent but failed effort to lump Christians and constitutionalists in with racists and terrorists, the SPLC claimed the number of “anti-government extremist” organizations had reached “record” levels — and that the increase was due in large part to the fact that President Obama is half black.
As usual, the increasingly discredited “mainstream” media — recent polls show more than 60 percent of Americans have little to no trust in the establishment press, and ratings continue to plummet — dutifully reported the SPLC rants. However, this year, perhaps alarmed at the dramatic plunge in their audience sizes and credibility, several major media outlets did offer some uncharacteristic balance in their articles while reporting on the SPLC’s latest fear-mongering campaign.
“Capping four years of explosive growth sparked by the election of America’s first black president and anger over the economy, the number of conspiracy-minded antigovernment ‘Patriot’ groups reached an all-time high of 1,360 in 2012, while the number of hard-core hate groups remained above 1,000,” claimed SPLC “Senior Fellow” Mark Potok in a statement about the group’s widely ridiculed findings. “As President Obama enters his second term with an agenda of gun control and immigration reform, the rage on the right is likely to intensify.”
According to Potok, a so-called “Patriot” group “generally believes that the federal government is conspiring to take Americans’ guns and destroy their liberties as it paves the way for a global ‘one-world government.’” Of course, as has been made clear on numerous occasions by top officials, including, for example, state governors and top U.S. lawmakers — even the SPLC admits that despite promising not to focus on firearms, Obama has since launched an attack on gun rights — the federal government really is assaulting fundamental liberties and gun rights. Indeed, it is happening out in the open.
The president and his disgraced attorney general have claimed, for example, that they can legally assassinate U.S. citizens without even charging them with a crime. The administration also purports to be able to use the military to detain Americans indefinitely under the NDAA without access to due process. Indeed, multiple unalienable rights enshrined in the Constitution have come under fierce assault from the Obama administration and its predecessors.
The brazen attack on the Second Amendment being led by Obama and some extremist Democrats, meanwhile, has been in the headlines for months. The president, posing with children as a propaganda stunt, has even been using unconstitutional so-called “executive orders” to advance his attack on gun rights. At the state level, the attack is advancing in some areas as well — this is all common knowledge.
The fact that the United Nations is gradually morphing into a global government is obvious to anyone who cares to investigate, too. As The New American magazine’s Bill Jasper documented extensively in a recent cover story, the UN is on the brink of becoming a full-fledged global government. It already has military forces dubbed “peacekeeping troops,” a global “law-enforcement agency” dubbed “Interpol,” the self-styled “International Criminal Court,” and much more.
Indeed, the UN openly calls for global governance in countless documents and reports. It brazenly demands everything from planetary wealth redistribution and policing to environmental regulations and taxes administered under UN authority. Virtually nobody questions Obama’s fierce loyalty to the international organization’s controversial agenda — in fact, the president has been one of the most vocal and open supporters of the UN to ever hold federal office.
So, in other words, “Patriot” groups, as defined by the SPLC, at least, are organizations concerned about the very real lawless government activities that violate the Constitution, which all elected officials swear an oath to uphold. According to the far-left attack group, the number of such groups increased by a whopping seven percent from 2011 to 2012, with the total figure now estimated by the SPLC at 1,360 — up from 1,274 that were active the year before. For the SPLC, that is cause for alarm.
On closer inspection, however, the organization’s shrill alarmism implodes — almost to the point of absurdity. As CNN suggested in its own alarmist article regurgitating some talking points from the SPLC report, when scrutinized, the supposed “surge” in supposedly dangerous and extremist “Patriot” groups is largely a figment of the far-left group’s imagination. Critics say it would be comical if not for the fact that a few extremists and well-intentioned but otherwise uninformed people still take the SPLC somewhat seriously.
Consider just one of the SPLC-designated “Patriot” groups cited by CNN, the North Carolina-based “Granny Warriors.” The founder of the organization, Linda Hunnicutt, said she was proud to be on the SPLC list because it increases her organization’s notoriety, but she also pointed out the obvious: “Granny Warriors,” a coalition of patriotic grandmothers who support liberty, is really pretty harmless.
“I am deadly!” Hunnicutt joked in an interview with CNN. She added that, while her organization is no friend of the out-of-control federal government — indeed, Granny Warriors just want the feds to leave people alone — she wishes no harm on anyone. “I’m 74 years old. I have COPD. I have congestive heart failure,” explained the elderly “Patriot,” a potential menace according to the SPLC. “I’m sewing a quilt.”
Hunnicutt did, however, criticize the current U.S. government — apparently something the SPLC considers a faux-pas. “All these people that want to bomb places and kill children, come on,” she said of the politicians in Washington, D.C., who seem determined to defy the Constitution. “Who would be in sympathy with them?”
Still, when Hunnicutt found out that “Granny Warriors” had made the SPLC cut, she said she was thankful for the increased publicity. It did, however, make her wonder: “Is this all they have to do?” Countless other activists and organizations singled out by the SPLC have wondered the same thing, but still wear the SPLC “Patriot” label with pride.
Another “Patriot” group singled out by the SPLC in its report is known as the Oath Keepers, an organization of law enforcement and military personnel who pledge to stand by the oath they swore to the Constitution — a requirement for all military officers, politicians, and police. Why promising to obey a solemn, sworn, mandatory oath to uphold and defend the Supreme Law of the Land would be considered “extreme” remains unclear — unless, of course, the SPLC believes the Constitution and sworn oaths are to be disregarded.
The “Intelligence Report” statement issued by Potok goes on to quote a variety of groups and individuals who have issued warnings about Obama’s plans on everything from gun control to expanding the size and scope of the federal government even farther outside the bounds of constitutional limitations. As is typical with the largely discredited organization’s hysteria, the report is filled with wild accusations, essentially trying to label everyone to the right of Obama as potentially dangerous “far-right” extremists or members of the “radical” right-wing in need of discipline or perhaps “re-education.”
The SPLC does make some of its own views clear, however, demonstrating its ideological bias very openly. Its report claimed, for example, that the “rapidly increasing acceptance” of “same-sex marriage” was an example of “broad social progress.” The deeply controversial view that government should redefine the institution of marriage to include homosexual partnerships has led the SPLC to label a wide array of mainstream Christian and conservative organizations as so-called “hate” groups.
Today, most serious analysts recognize the SPLC smear tactics for what they are. However, some members of the establishment press and far-left fringe elements have seized on the SPLC’s characterizations as proof of “hate” — even recently. The consequences of the malicious hate-mongering on the part of the SPLC, though, can have potentially deadly consequences, as was illustrated last August.
One important fact was omitted from most press of the recent reports about the SPLC’s latest ramblings and fear mongering about “hate” and “extremism.” As most conservatives know by now, the deranged homosexual activist who shot up the conservative-leaning Family Research Council (FRC) last year has publicly admitted he was influenced by SPLC propaganda, which maliciously labeled the FRC — along with numerous other mainstream Christian and pro-family organizations — as a “hate” group.
“Let me be clear that [attempted mass-murderer] Floyd Corkins was responsible for firing the shot yesterday,” said FRC President Perkins after the shooting, which injured a security guard who promptly subdued the unhinged individual before he could go on his intended killing spree. “But Corkins was given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center that have been reckless in labeling organizations hate groups because they disagree with them on public policy.”
Instead of apologizing or reining in its wild and potentially dangerous rhetoric, the SPLC used its latest “findings” to demand federal investigations into the supposed surge in organizations and activists concerned about the direction America is heading. Fortunately for conservatives, libertarians, Christians, constitutionalists, and other targets of SPLC hate-mongering, however, the ultra-leftist attack group is becoming increasingly discredited and irrelevant with every new rant it issues.
Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, politics, and more. He can be reached at [email protected].
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