SPLC Hate Group Count Tops 1,000 as Radical Right Expansion Continues
Posted in 'Patriot' Groups, Editor's Pick, Hate Groups, Nativist
Extremist by Mark Potok on February 23, 2011
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Editor's Note: The Southern Poverty Law Center is today releasing its
annual count of groups on the American radical right and analysis.
What follows is the main essay from the new issue of the Intelligence
Report, the SPLC's investigative magazine. In the story, you'll find
links to our new hate group map and additional lists of antigovernment
"Patriot" groups and nativist vigilante organizations. The issue also
contains my editorial and stories on Cliff Kincaid, a homophobic
propagandist at the far-right Accuracy in Media group; the adoption of
an Oklahoma law forbidding the use of Shariah law; a racist group's
funding of two Mississippi private academies; a white supremacist's
new novel targeting the SPLC; the National Center for Constitutional
Studies and its extremist version of American history; candidates with
extreme-right ideas who ran in last year's elections; an interview
with a former "esoteric Nazi," and more. The new issue's table of
contents is here.
For the second year in a row, the radical right in America expanded
explosively in 2010, driven by resentment over the changing racial
demographics of the country, frustration over the government's
handling of the economy, and the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories
and other demonizing propaganda aimed at various minorities. For many
on the radical right, anger is focusing on President Obama, who is
seen as embodying everything that's wrong with the country.
Hate groups topped 1,000 for the first time since the Southern Poverty
Law Center began counting such groups in the 1980s. Anti-immigrant
vigilante groups, despite having some of the political wind taken out
of their sails by the adoption of hard-line anti-immigration laws
around the country, continued to rise slowly. But by far the most
dramatic growth came in the antigovernment "Patriot" movement —
conspiracy-minded organizations that see the federal government as
their primary enemy — which gained more than 300 new groups, a jump of
over 60%.
Taken together, these three strands of the radical right — the
hatemongers, the nativists and the antigovernment zealots — increased
from 1,753 groups in 2009 to 2,145 in 2010, a 22% rise. That followed
a 2008-2009 increase of 40%.
What may be most remarkable is that this growth of right-wing
extremism came even as politicians around the country, blown by gusts
from the Tea Parties and other conservative formations, tacked hard to
the right, co-opting many of the issues important to extremists. Last
April, for instance, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed S.B. 1070, the
harshest anti-immigrant law in memory, setting off a tsunami of
proposals for similar laws across the country. Continuing growth of
the radical right could be curtailed as a result of this shift,
especially since Republicans, many of them highly conservative,
recaptured the U.S. House last fall.
But despite those historic Republican gains, the early signs suggest
that even as the more mainstream political right strengthens, the
radical right has remained highly energized. In an 11-day period this
January, a neo-Nazi was arrested headed for the Arizona border with a
dozen homemade grenades; a terrorist bomb attack on a Martin Luther
King Jr. Day parade in Spokane, Wash., was averted after police
dismantled a sophisticated anti-personnel weapon; and a man who
officials said had a long history of antigovernment activities was
arrested outside a packed mosque in Dearborn, Mich., and charged with
possessing explosives with unlawful intent. That's in addition, the
same month, to the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in
Arizona, an attack that left six dead and may have had a political
dimension.
It's also clear that other kinds of radical activity are on the rise.
Since the murder last May 20 of two West Memphis, Ark., police
officers by two members of the so-called "sovereign citizens"
movement, police from around the country have contacted the Southern
Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to report what one detective in Kentucky
described as a "dramatic increase" in sovereign activity. Sovereign
citizens, who, like militias, are part of the larger Patriot movement,
believe that the federal government has no right to tax or regulate
them and, as a result, often come into conflict with police and tax
authorities. Another sign of their increased activity came early this
year, when the Treasury Department, in a report assessing what the IRS
faces in 2011, said its biggest challenge will be the "attacks and
threats against IRS employees and facilities [that] have risen
steadily in recent years."
Extremist ideas have not been limited to the radical right; already
this year, state legislators have offered up a raft of proposals
influenced by such ideas. In Arizona, the author of the S.B. 1070 law
— a man who just became Senate president on the basis of his harshly
nativist rhetoric — proposed a law this January that would allow his
state to refuse to obey any federal law or regulation it cared to. In
Virginia, a state legislator wants to pass a law aimed at creating an
alternative currency "in the event of the destruction of the Federal
Reserve System's currency" — a longstanding fear of right-wing
extremists. And in Montana, a state senator is working to pass a
statute called the "Sheriffs First Act" that would require federal law
enforcement to ask local sheriffs' permission to act in their counties
or face jail. All three laws are almost certainly unconstitutional,
legal experts say, and they all originate in ideas that first came
from ideologues of the radical right.
There also are new attempts by nativist forces to roll back birthright
citizenship, which makes all children born in the U.S. citizens. Such
laws have been introduced this year in Congress, and a coalition of
state legislators is promising to do the same in their states. And
then there's Oklahoma, where 70% of voters last November approved a
measure to forbid judges to consider Islamic law in the state's
courtrooms (see related story) — a completely groundless fear, but one
pushed nonetheless by Islamophobes. Since then, lawmakers have
promised to pass similar laws in Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, South
Carolina, Tennessee and Utah.
After the Giffords assassination attempt, a kind of national dialogue
began about the political vitriol that increasingly passes for
"mainstream" political debate. But it didn't seem to get very far.
Four days after the shooting, a campaign called the Civility Project —
a two-year effort led by an evangelical conservative tied to top
Republicans — said it was shutting down because of a lack of interest
and furious opposition. "The worst E-mails I received about the
Civility Project were from conservatives with just unbelievable
language about communists and some words I wouldn't use in this phone
call," director Mark DeMoss told The New York Times. "This political
divide has become so sharp that everything is black and white, and too
many conservatives can see no redeeming value in any" opponent.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll this January captured the atmosphere
well. It found that 82% of Americans saw their country's political
discourse as "negative." Even more remarkably, the poll determined
that 49% thought that negative tone could or already had encouraged
political violence.
Last year's rise in hate groups (see map) was the latest in a trend
stretching all the way back to the year 2000, when the SPLC counted
602 such groups. Since then, they have risen steadily, mainly on the
basis of exploiting the issue of undocumented immigration from Mexico
and Central America. Last year, the number of hate groups rose to
1,002 from 932, a 7.5% increase over the previous year and a 66% rise
since 2000.
At the same time, what the SPLC defines as "nativist extremist" groups
— organizations that go beyond mere advocacy of restrictive
immigration policy to actually confront or harass suspected immigrants
or their employers — rose slightly, despite the fact that most of
their key issues had been taken up by mainstream politicians (see
story and list). There were 319 such groups in 2010, up 3% from 309 in
2009.
But like the year before, it was the antigovernment Patriot groups
that grew most dramatically (see list), at least partly on the basis
of furious rhetoric from the right aimed at the nation's first black
president — a man who has come to represent to at least some Americans
ongoing changes in the racial makeup of the country. The Patriot
groups, which had risen and fallen once before during the militia
movement of the 1990s, first came roaring back in 2009, when they rose
244% to 512 from 149 a year earlier. In 2010, they rose again sharply,
adding 312 new groups to reach 824, a 61% increase. The highest prior
count of Patriot groups came in 1996, when the SPLC found 858.
It's hard to predict where this volatile situation will lead.
Conservatives last November made great gains and some of them are
championing a surprising number of the issues pushed by the radical
right — a fact that could help deflate some of the even more extreme
political forces. But those GOP electoral advances also left the
Congress divided and increasingly lined up against the Democratic
president, which is likely to paralyze the country on such key issues
as immigration reform.
What seems certain is that President Obama will continue to serve as a
lightning rod for many on the political right, a man who represents
both the federal government and the fact that the racial make-up of
the United States is changing, something that upsets a significant
number of white Americans. And that suggests that the polarized
politics of this country could get worse before they get better.
More:
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2011/02/23/new-report-splc-hate-group-count-tops-1000-as-radical-right-expansion-continues/
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
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