No, we don’t make this stuff up.

Today, from Representative Vicky Hartzler (r):

….I rise today to speak against the discriminatory practice of the Southern Poverty Law Center, through the use of so called hate mapping and its proliferation of intolerance. While the group claims to be dedicated to fighting hatred and bigotry, the Southern Poverty Law Center has instead placed itself at the forefront of Christian persecution and religious intolerance. Because of its misplaced hate mapping, on August fifteenth of last year Floyd Lee Corkins entered the Family Research Council and shot and badly wounded building manager Leo Johnson who stopped Corkins’ intended killing spree. The SPLC’s radical intolerance of traditional values is not only hyper polarizing but spurred on this violence. Spreading discrimination against those who believe in traditional values is not, in fact, fighting hatred. Rather, it is espousing further bigotry. Our country was founded on the principles of religious freedom. When the SPLC demonizes any group or person who remains steadfast in their religious convictions it only increases the amount of intolerance in our society. So, I ask my fellow members to join me in fighting against religious intolerance in the world today by calling for an end to religious intolerance against all groups, including those with Christian beliefs….

“…on August fifteenth of last year Floyd Lee Corkins entered the Family Research Council and shot…”

Is this about gun control? Just asking.

“…The SPLC’s radical intolerance of traditional values is not only hyper polarizing but spurred on this violence. Spreading discrimination against those who believe in traditional values is not, in fact, fighting hatred…”

A few examples of the Southern Poverty Law Center‘s hyper polarizing radical intolerance of traditional values:

The Estate of James C. Anderson, et al., v. Deryl Dedmon Jr., et al.

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

09/06/2011

In the early morning hours of June 26, 2011, a black man was attacked in the parking lot of a Jackson, Miss., motel and then fatally run over by a truck. The Southern Poverty Law Center joined Mississippi attorney Winston J. Thompson III, in filing a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the man’s family. The civil lawsuit accused seven white teenagers of deliberately setting out to harass a black person.

Jordan Gruver v. Imperial Klans of America

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

02/22/2007

The Southern Poverty Law Center sued the Imperial Klans of America (IKA) and four Klansmen, saying several members were on a recruiting mission for the group in July 2006 when they savagely beat a teenage boy at a county fair in Kentucky. A jury found IKA leader Ron Edwards and two other members responsible for the attack and awarded $2.5 million to the teen. The SPLC moved to seize Edwards’ interest in the IKA headquarters to satisfy the judgment.

Johnson v. Amox et al.

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

09/19/2005

This is a lawsuit against four young white men who terrorized, humiliated and beat a mentally retarded African-American man, dumped his unconscious body on the side of a dark country road and left him for dead. In 2007, a jury awarded a $9 million verdict to help the family pay for the care the victim will need for the rest of his life.

Leiva v. Ranch Rescue

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

06/26/2003

After a Texas rancher invited the vigilante border patrol group Ranch Rescue to guard his property in 2003, two Salvadorans crossing the U.S. border were terrorized and assaulted by members of the group. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Salvadorans, obtaining more than $1 million in a settlement and judgments, including the title to Ranch Rescue’s Arizona headquarters.

Sells v. Berry

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

01/18/2000

The Imperial Wizard of one of the most aggressive Klan groups in the country detained and terrorized two journalists covering a story about a planned Klan rally. The Center sued, winning a $120,000 judgment, and investigating criminal charges that sent the Klan leader to prison.

Landmark Case

Keenan v. Aryan Nations

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

01/25/1999

Victoria and Jason Keenan were chased and shot at by members of the Aryan Nations in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Held at gunpoint, the mother and son feared for their lives. The Center sued and obtained a $6.3 million jury verdict; Aryan Nations was forced to turn its compound over to the victims it had terrorized.

Jouhari/Horton v. United Klans of America/Frankhouser

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

08/28/1998

In 1988, a white fair housing advocate and her daughter were harassed and threatened over the internet by Klansmen and neo-Nazis. After they filed complaints with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Center achieved justice against the hate groups.

Landmark Case

Macedonia v. Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

06/07/1996

On a summer evening in 1995, members of the Christian Knights of the KKK set a fire completely destroying a 100-year-old black Baptist church in South Carolina. The Center sued the Klan on the church’s behalf, winning the largest judgment ever awarded against a hate group.

Landmark Case

Mansfield v. Pierce

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

02/27/1995

Fearful that his white supremacist group would be sued over the murder of a black sailor, the leader of the Church of the Creator sold the group’s property to the late neo-Nazi leader William Pierce. The Center sued and obtained a $1 million judgment against the COTC and a $85,000 judgment against Pierce.

Landmark Case

Mansfield v. Church of the Creator

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

03/07/1994

For killing an African-American Gulf War veteran, a white supremacist “reverend” received an award of honor from the leaders of the racist Church of the Creator (COTC). In the wake of this horrible crime, the Center sued the COTC for inciting violence against African-Americans.

Berhanu v. Metzger

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

11/22/1989

In 1988, racist Skinheads beat an Ethiopian graduate student to death with a baseball bat. Mulugeta Seraw was murdered by recruits of neo-Nazi leader Tom Metzger, founder of White Aryan Resistance (WAR), who faced a Center civil suit and a $12.5 million judgment.

Landmark Case

McKinney v. Southern White Knights

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

03/24/1987

“Black and white together” is one of verses of the famous civil rights hymn, “We Shall Overcome.” But when blacks and whites marched together in all-white Forsyth County, Georgia, in 1987, they were greeted with Klansmen throwing rocks and shouting racial slurs.

Landmark Case

Donald v. United Klans of America

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

06/14/1984

On March 20, 1981, members of the United Klans of America abducted a young African-American man at random, put a noose around his neck, beat him, cut his throat and hung his body from a tree. The Center sued the Klansmen and won an historic $7 million judgment.

Person v. Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

06/05/1984

In the mid-1980s, a North Carolina Klan group was one of the most militant and violent, engaging in paramilitary-style training, using U.S. military personnel to prepare recruits for combat. After a series of terrorizing incidents, the Center sued the Klan and won court orders shutting down their illegal training camps.

Landmark Case

Vietnamese Fishermen’s Association v. Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

04/16/1981

Armed men in Klan robes spewed hate-filled threats, burned crosses and destroyed shrimp boats. White fishermen, fearful of competition from Vietnamese immigrants, invited the Klan to Galveston Bay, Texas. The Center sued and brought an end to their illegal activities, including paramilitary training camps.

Landmark Case

Brown v. Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan

Agenda Area(s):

Hate and Extremism

Date Filed:

11/03/1980

In 1979, over 100 Klan members attacked Decatur, Alabama marchers protesting the conviction of Tommy Lee Hines, a retarded black man accused of rape. After a ten-year fight, the Center secured criminal convictions and financial compensation for the victims.

“…So, I ask my fellow members to join me in fighting against religious intolerance in the world today by calling for an end to religious intolerance against all groups, including those with Christian beliefs…”

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors hate groups in the U.S., has issued a new report. It focuses on the “stunning” growth in the “Patriot” movement, defined as “conspiracy-minded groups that see the federal government as their primary enemy.” Members of the groups are prone to fantasies of government persecution and grandiose visions of heroic, armed resistance. Sound familiar? Some echoes from the Tea Party summer of 2010, perhaps?

Patriot groups documented by the SPLC have grown from a low of 149 known groups in 2008 to 1,274 currently active groups. In Missouri the SPLC names 28 groups that it considers to be part of the movement. They range from full-fledged militias to fringe political parties and various off-shoots of the Tea-Party. Some, such as the Oathkeepers, are part of larger, national groups.

There are those, such as sociologist James William Gibson, who argue that patriot militias and similar groups function as a safety valve for individuals who find themselves in a world that is changing in ways that they find frightening and incomprehensible. While the SPLC report cautions that inclusion in the list “does not imply that the groups themselves advocate or engage in violence or other criminal activities, or are racist,” it, nevertheless, views the growth of these poorly informed and easily inflamed groups with alarm. The SPLC report contends that:

… If the primaries generate more attacks on the nation’s first black president based on complete falsehoods – that he is a secret Muslim, a Kenyan, a radical leftist bent on destroying America – it’s likely that the poison will spread. And if he wins reelection next fall, the reaction of the extreme right, already angry and on the defensive as the white population diminishes, could be truly frightening.

It’s hard to be sanguine about folks who, in Gibson’s own words, “are focusing on the idea that America’s problems can be resolved into something that can be shot.”

I was struck, though, as I read through the list of patriot groups, to note that former State Representative Cynthia Davis has gone to roost in the shelter of one, the Constitution Party. She is running for Lieutenant Governor as the representative of that party. Davis was always on the fringe, but she, nevertheless, managed to get elected to a state office and even served as Chair of the Franklin County Republican Party.

I also remember the right-wing hullabaloo that ensued when an internal Missouri law-enforcement report on domestic terrorism was leaked in 2009. The report “profiled” what it characterized as potentially dangerous militia members. Among the traits that were cited as red flags were many that are in themselves innocent – Ron Paul supporters, for instance, were flagged. The report presented an overall portrait, however, of a domestic terrorist that is very similar to the paranoid, anti-government, conspiracy theorist that the SPLC report spotlights. That the report enraged many members of Missouri’s GOP political class was telling.  Several contended that they themselves were at risk of government persecution based on the document’s description of risk indicators.

Does this suggest that an important segment of the Missouri Republican Party occupies the same territory that the SPLC explores in their report on radical, potentially dangerous hate-groups? I don’ really think that any faction of the state’s GOP pols are necessarily violent or condone violence – but it is interesting that many of Missouri’s GOP political functionaries seem to share an intellectual terrain where the crazies are also in residence.

Certainly, such a supposition would go a long way toward explaining lots of things – such as a GOP Speaker of the House who wants to bestow state honors on America’s foremost spewer of right-wing invective and hate-talk. It would also help explain the failure of the Missouri legislature to function effectively over the past ten years. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted in a recent editorial, Missouri seems to be falling way, way behind in almost every measure of citizen well-being, and the legislature seems to be hell-bent on accelerating the decline with policies that “keep so many of its residents in poor health, poverty or prison.” But then, fear-crazed, anti-government zealots shouldn’t be expected to do a good job of running government.

* Fifth and last paragraphs slightly edited for clarity.