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Extremists in the U.S. come in a myriad of forms; Neo-Nazis, Klansmen, white nationalists, anti-gay zealots, neo-Confederates, racist skinheads, black separatists, border vigilantes and others. And their numbers are growing.
According to The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, the number of hate groups operating in America last year had risen to 1,002. The number of nativist vigilante groups grew to 319, while the antigovernment "Patriot" movement skyrocketed 61% to 824 groups just last year.
Conservatives
support a number of the issues pushed by these groups. In Arizona, the
Senate president proposed a law that would allow the state to refuse
to obey federal laws. Virginia sought to pass a law aimed at creating
an alternative currency. In Montana, a state senator proposed a statute
called the "Sheriffs First Act" that would require federal law
enforcement to seek permission to act in their state or face jail.
There are attempts to roll back birthright citizenship. Laws have been introduced this year in Congress and states across the country as we experience what Roll Call's executive editor called the "Arizonification of America".
There are attempts to roll back birthright citizenship. Laws have been introduced this year in Congress and states across the country as we experience what Roll Call's executive editor called the "Arizonification of America".
Antigovernment Patriot groups
have grown most dramatically, in part because of furious rhetoric from
the right aimed at the nation's first black president, who has become
symbolic to some of the changes in the racial makeup of the country.
Right-wing candidates called for a revolution and "second amendment solutions". Sarah Palin marked opposition candidates with crosshairs and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann warned Obama would set up re-education camps for young people. Media personalities Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck called the new president a Socialist, a Fascist, a Nazi and a Marxist, and floated conspiracy theories.
How could we forget the Neo-Nazi National Alliance? Founded by William Pierce, the group produced assassins, bombers and bank robbers. Pierce's novel, The Turner Diaries, was the inspiration for Timothy McVeigh's 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.
(click on chart to enlarge)
While such wild, insensitive rhetoric may simply be opportunists pandering, the reality is such lunatic rants pour fuel on the flames of incipient antigovernment fury, feeding the kind of anger that animates violence.
For those who deny the influence and impact of inflammatory rhetoric, I would ask what more they believe Osama Bin Laden offered his followers from a self-imposed prison in Abbotabad, Pakistan.
As Americans flocked to the streets to celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden, I couldn't help but recall the celebrations that took place in the Middle East on 9/11 and at how outraged Americans were. I wonder, at what point we come to realize that we can't exempt ourselves from the same moral calculus we apply to others?
Extremist Muslims are indeed a problem, but we need to acknowledge that the American extremists among us are a problem as well. Until that fateful day of 9/11, Americans paid little attention to the rhetoric and mood that led up to the event. I should hope we will not continue to ignore the rhetoric and mood that festers among us now, just because the initiators are Americans. Let's hope not, because hate is coming to a place near you.
Click here to go to an interactive map and find out which hate groups are in your state.
Join people across the nation who are standing against the hate.
Add yourself as a voice for tolerance.
Right-wing candidates called for a revolution and "second amendment solutions". Sarah Palin marked opposition candidates with crosshairs and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann warned Obama would set up re-education camps for young people. Media personalities Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck called the new president a Socialist, a Fascist, a Nazi and a Marxist, and floated conspiracy theories.
How could we forget the Neo-Nazi National Alliance? Founded by William Pierce, the group produced assassins, bombers and bank robbers. Pierce's novel, The Turner Diaries, was the inspiration for Timothy McVeigh's 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.
Following the Gifford's assassination attempt,
a national dialogue began about the political vitriol that
increasingly passes for "mainstream" political debate. It was
short-lived.
Four days after the shooting, a campaign called the Civility Project, a two-year effort led by an evangelical conservative, Mark DeMoss shut down because of a lack of interest and furious opposition. He told The New York Times, "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. 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."
Four days after the shooting, a campaign called the Civility Project, a two-year effort led by an evangelical conservative, Mark DeMoss shut down because of a lack of interest and furious opposition. He told The New York Times, "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. 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."
Six days later, a neo-Nazi member of the National Socialist Movement, was arrested in Arizona for possessing 12 grenade-like devices packed with ball bearings.
In Spokane, Wash. police found and defused a bomb that had been hidden along the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade.
In Michigan, police arrested a man in a car loaded with M-80s and other explosives in a parking lot outside one of the nation's largest mosques, packed at the time with 500 mourners at a funeral.
On the day after Barack Obama's inauguration, Keith Luke of Brockton, Mass., was arrested after shooting three black immigrants from Cape Verde, killing two of them, as part of a plan to kill black, Latino and Jewish people.
Members of the Minutemen American Defense (MAD), an anti-immigrant vigilante group that conducts "citizen patrols" on the Arizona-Mexico border -- is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the slayings of a Latino man and his 9-year-old daughter.
Two white supremacists were arrested in Tennessee for plotting to assassinate Barack Obama and murder more than 100 black people and Jews. The member of the racist skinhead group Supreme White Alliance, planned to kill 88 people, then behead another 14.
Sadly, this list could go on and on and on.
In Spokane, Wash. police found and defused a bomb that had been hidden along the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade.
In Michigan, police arrested a man in a car loaded with M-80s and other explosives in a parking lot outside one of the nation's largest mosques, packed at the time with 500 mourners at a funeral.
On the day after Barack Obama's inauguration, Keith Luke of Brockton, Mass., was arrested after shooting three black immigrants from Cape Verde, killing two of them, as part of a plan to kill black, Latino and Jewish people.
Members of the Minutemen American Defense (MAD), an anti-immigrant vigilante group that conducts "citizen patrols" on the Arizona-Mexico border -- is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the slayings of a Latino man and his 9-year-old daughter.
Two white supremacists were arrested in Tennessee for plotting to assassinate Barack Obama and murder more than 100 black people and Jews. The member of the racist skinhead group Supreme White Alliance, planned to kill 88 people, then behead another 14.
Sadly, this list could go on and on and on.
While such wild, insensitive rhetoric may simply be opportunists pandering, the reality is such lunatic rants pour fuel on the flames of incipient antigovernment fury, feeding the kind of anger that animates violence.
For those who deny the influence and impact of inflammatory rhetoric, I would ask what more they believe Osama Bin Laden offered his followers from a self-imposed prison in Abbotabad, Pakistan.
As Americans flocked to the streets to celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden, I couldn't help but recall the celebrations that took place in the Middle East on 9/11 and at how outraged Americans were. I wonder, at what point we come to realize that we can't exempt ourselves from the same moral calculus we apply to others?
Extremist Muslims are indeed a problem, but we need to acknowledge that the American extremists among us are a problem as well. Until that fateful day of 9/11, Americans paid little attention to the rhetoric and mood that led up to the event. I should hope we will not continue to ignore the rhetoric and mood that festers among us now, just because the initiators are Americans. Let's hope not, because hate is coming to a place near you.
Click here to go to an interactive map and find out which hate groups are in your state.
Join people across the nation who are standing against the hate.
Add yourself as a voice for tolerance.
