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A Progressive Bully's Scorched Earth Tactics
Townhall.com ^ | February 23, 2016 | Robert Knight

Posted on 02/23/2016 8:39:57 AM PST by Kaslin

What do most Republican presidential candidates have in common with dozens of Christian, pro-family and patriotic organizations?

They're prominently featured in the Southern Poverty Law Center's latest report, "The Year in Hate and Extremism."

The cover has a large picture of an open-mouthed Donald Trump, under whom are a masked terrorist, the Islamist San Bernardino mass murderers, other hate crime suspects, a Nazi Swastika, columnist Ann Coulter, Center for National Security President Frank Gaffney, and, of course, the Confederate battle flag.

Subtle, eh?

Inside, the report cherry picks quotes from GOP presidential candidates about halting illegal immigration and President Obama's plan to import 10,000 Syrian migrants.

"Even as more establishment Republicans held back from most criticism, Trump and other candidates increasingly injected real hate into the electoral contest," the report claims.

A montage of photos of GOP candidates - Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee - makes them look crazy or mean. In 2014, the SPLC published an "extremist file" on Dr. Carson before removing it under heavy criticism.

Situated in Montgomery, Alabama, the SPLC long ago gained a reputation for tracking the Klan, Aryan Nations and other hate groups. The U.S. Justice Department and other government agencies rely on the SPLC to identify extremist groups, and the media cite it regularly as an "objective" source.

Armed with $300 million in assets, it has degenerated into a progressive bully that incriminates conservatives by association and even seeks to destroy groups that don't share its progressive ideology.

Last year, its army of lawyers crushed Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH), a small group in New Jersey that referred clients to counselors who assist people in overcoming same-sex temptations. In a kangaroo court, in which the liberal judge barred all of JONAH's expert witnesses and openly sided with the SPLC, a jury ruled that JONAH committed consumer fraud. Faced with exorbitant legal fees, JONAH agreed to shut down, a victim of the SPLC's war on choices with which they disagree.

The SPLC's new, 69-page report claims that the nation is awash in hate groups, with a 14 percent increase in 2015 over the year before, rising from 784 hate groups to 892. The number of dangerous "anti-government patriot groups" rose similarly from 874 to 998.

Along with skinheads, black nationalists, and white nationalists who peddle racial hatred and animus toward immigrants, the SPLC includes groups that oppose same-sex "marriage," promote the natural family, or oppose radical Islamists or illegal immigration.

Featured on the SPLC's "hate map" are the Family Research Council, Traditional Values Coalition, state pro-family groups, D. James Kennedy Ministries, the American Family Association (AFA) and the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. Also, Liberty Counsel, Pacific Justice Institute, the Ruth Institute, the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam), Freedom Center (run by former leftist David Horowitz), Tea Party Nation, and the Center for National Security, among others.

Here's an example of the SPLC's technique of guilt by association:

"The U.S. House of Representatives took up a bill to end the resettlement of refugees, riding a wave of fear after the San Bernardino attacks. And others joined that anti-Muslim parade, ranging from Christian Right groups such as the American Family Association to the Klan."

Get that? The AFA, a pro-family Christian media ministry founded by Methodist minister Don Wildmon, is in the same league as cross-burning Klansmen.

If you're a doctor who belongs to the American College of Pediatricians, which was formed to counter the uber-politically-correct American Academy of Pediatrics, congratulations. According to the SPLC, you are in a "hate group." That's because your group publicizes research showing that mother-and-father families are the optimal environment in which to raise children.

The SPLC singles out the Rockford, Illinois-based Howard Center and its partner organization, the World Congress of Families (WCF), for special attention.

The report labels the WCF, which had its most recent conference in October in Salt Lake City and will hold its next conference in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, in May, "a hate group with international reach that promotes the 'natural family.'"

Given the SPLC's contention that the advocacy of certain stances incites hate violence, one might think they would consider taking such non-hate groups as Family Research Council and the World Congress of Families off their "hate map."

In August 2012, a disturbed young man, Floyd Lee Corkins II, incited by SPLC's "hate map" designation of FRC, invaded the group's Washington, D.C. headquarters with the intent to commit mass murder. Stopped by FRC's courageous building manager, who took an arm-shattering bullet, Corkins was later convicted of domestic terrorism.

This year, the SPLC not only left FRC on the map but added more Christian and conservative groups.

"All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people," the SPLC explains in the report.

Given its equation of conservative views with extremism and hatred, the SPLC is maligning tens of millions of Americans. That just might make the SPLC itself the biggest hate group of them all.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bullying; progressives; splc
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1 posted on 02/23/2016 8:39:57 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

2 posted on 02/23/2016 8:41:18 AM PST by Jim Noble (Diseases desperate grown, are by desperate appliance relieved, or not at all)
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To: Kaslin

This is how tyrants gain power. They label their opposition as “hate groups.”


3 posted on 02/23/2016 8:42:28 AM PST by SamAdams76 (Delegates So Far: Trump (68); Cruz (11); Rubio (9)
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To: Kaslin
"All hate groups have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people,"

Describes the Democrat party to a "T".

4 posted on 02/23/2016 8:43:21 AM PST by rjsimmon (The Tree of Liberty Thirsts)
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To: Kaslin

Yes...the biggest hate group of them all.


5 posted on 02/23/2016 8:44:21 AM PST by Lee'sGhost ("Just look at the flowers, Lizzie. Just look at the flowers.")
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To: Kaslin

Another shrill hysteric screaming child article

Here an idea “Conservatives” stop the ad homin Leftist emotion base attack tactics and try making a case FOR your candidate for once.

We get it. You hate Trump and his Alpha Male ways. Sucks to suck you precious little Snowflakes.


6 posted on 02/23/2016 8:44:47 AM PST by MNJohnnie ( Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered)
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To: Kaslin
Southern Poverty Law Center's

So now "conservatives' are using Leftist race baiting proapganda fronts "Data" to spew their "Hate Trump" emotional drivel?

Get in bed with the dogs Town hall, don't be surprised when people point out you got fleas.

7 posted on 02/23/2016 8:46:35 AM PST by MNJohnnie ( Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered)
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To: Kaslin

Blacks must be herded so that they don’t get off of the democrat planation and think for themselves. And based upon past election cycles, they like to be lied to by their massahs.


8 posted on 02/23/2016 8:52:47 AM PST by MHGinTN (Democrats bait then switch; their fishy voters buy it every time.)
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To: Kaslin

Interesting juxtaposition of the title and the picture. It makes it look like Trump is the “Progressive Bully.” Townhall has not been a great fan of Trump.


9 posted on 02/23/2016 8:53:09 AM PST by kabar
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To: SamAdams76

Exactly


10 posted on 02/23/2016 8:53:36 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him. He got them and now we have to pay the consequences)
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To: rjsimmon

Bingo


11 posted on 02/23/2016 8:54:11 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him. He got them and now we have to pay the consequences)
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To: Jim Noble

They left me off their list. I am depressed.


12 posted on 02/23/2016 8:54:50 AM PST by Noumenon (Resistance. Restoration. Retribution.)
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To: MNJohnnie

I don’t believe you even read the op-ed


13 posted on 02/23/2016 8:55:14 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him. He got them and now we have to pay the consequences)
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To: MNJohnnie

The posted article is uniformly critical of the SPLC. Not a single word of it criticizes Donald Trump.


14 posted on 02/23/2016 8:55:48 AM PST by HoustonSam
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To: MNJohnnie

Sucks to suck you precious little Snowflakes.

Huh...? sucks to suck you...?

You didn’t read the article, did you...?


15 posted on 02/23/2016 9:02:14 AM PST by IrishBrigade
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To: Kaslin

Once upon a time there were plenty race baiter SPLC defenders here


16 posted on 02/23/2016 9:04:51 AM PST by wardaddy (Boy the nasties are sure out in force here.....I hope someone is saving this...Trump Cruz that order)
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To: Kaslin
Do you EVEN read the articles???

They are NOT attacking Trump... but, somehow, YOU think you are.

17 posted on 02/23/2016 9:05:29 AM PST by VideoDoctor
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To: kabar

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT TOWNHALL DID

AND LOOK HOW MANY FREEPERS FELL FOR IT

BASED ON SOME REPLIES HERE THEY DIDNT BOTHER TO READ IT

JUST WENT ON PICTURES

BUT THEY DECLARE WE TRUMP SUPORTERS ARE SIMPLETONS....LOL


18 posted on 02/23/2016 9:08:24 AM PST by wardaddy (Boy the nasties are sure out in force here.....I hope someone is saving this...Trump Cruz that order)
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To: VideoDoctor

Do you EVEN read the articles

I beleieve you’re responding to the wrong poster...

Need to read...


19 posted on 02/23/2016 9:09:08 AM PST by IrishBrigade
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To: Kaslin

The headline is 110% Obama.


20 posted on 02/23/2016 9:10:26 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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