Is there a hate group in your neighborhood? In you town or state? These questions can be easily answered thanks to the Southern Poverty Law Center's new hate map, you can check it out here. Last year, across the US, 932 hate groups were counted. Majority of these groups are growing in size, it's unknown now what size they have grown to.
The SPLC documented a 244 percent increase in the number of active Patriot groups in 2009. Their numbers grew from 149 groups in 2008 to 512 groups in 2009, an astonishing addition of 363 new groups in a single year. Militias - the paramilitary arm of the Patriot movement - were a major part of the increase, growing from 42 militias in 2008 to 127 in 2009.
Most of these people are racist, anti government "Patriots", as described by the SPLC, 'that see the federal government as part of a plot to impose ‘one-world government’ on liberty-loving Americans’. Of course this is garbage, they have begun growing in size since the election of Barack Obama. On January 20th, 2009, the white supremacist mind snapped back to "reality".
These people don't care about America, they care about "their" America. So if they see you as unfit for what they imagine this country to be, which is basically all White and male dominated, you'll probably end up in shackles. But I've always wondered why the KKK are allowed to be, I understand the Constitution protects their right to march, organize and all that.
But they aren't some ordinary group, they are a Terrorist organization that has done more evil and harm to this nation than Al Qaida and the Taliban ever has. Yet these racist, xenophobes can throw on the hoods and march in the street, to inflict fear where ever they are. But what's different during these times, is that they have a megaphone to preach their "types" of messages across the country:
New SPLC Report:
Unlike the 1990s, the Patriot movement's central ideas are being promoted by people with large audiences, such as FOX News' Glenn Beck and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. Beck, for instance, reinvigorated a key Patriot conspiracy theory - the charge that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is secretly running concentration camps - before finally "debunking" it.
Fox News be damned, they can be connected to this but they "toe the line" enough to walk whatever they say back. It seems like this is the strategy, say something completely false and crazy, wait for the uproar, then walk it back by saying it isn't true, while the damage has already been done. Or, like Michele Bachman, you can actually believe that members of Congress need to be investigated, or that a constitutionally protected service, The Census, is a liberal plot to destroy America.
"This extraordinary growth is a cause for grave concern," said Intelligence Report editor Mark Potok. "The people associated with the Patriot movement during its 1990s heyday produced an enormous amount of violence, most dramatically the Oklahoma City bombing that left 168 people dead."
The Patriot movement has made significant inroads into the conservative political scene, according to the new report. "The ‘tea parties' and similar groups that have sprung up in recent months cannot fairly be considered extremist groups, but they are shot through with rich veins of radical ideas, conspiracy theories and racism," the report says.
The Tea Parties, basically a way out for racist and anti government loons to protest without the sheets. Not all of these people are probably like this, but if you weren't, why would you associate yourself with a group of people who don't mind looking like what they deny so vehemently.
The thing is though, is that these people, all of them that either race bait, preach hate, or participate in a hate filled protest, are getting a free pass:
These three strands of the radical right - the hate groups, the nativist extremist groups, and the Patriot organizations - are the most volatile elements on the American political landscape. Taken together, their numbers increased by more than 40 percent, rising from 1,248 groups in 2008 to 1,753 last year.
There are already signs of radical right violence reminiscent of the 1990s. Right-wing extremists have murdered six law enforcement officers since Obama's inauguration. Racist skinheads and others have been arrested in alleged plots to assassinate the president. Most recently, as recounted in the new issue of the Intelligence Report, a number of individuals with antigovernment, survivalist or racist views have been arrested in a series of bomb cases.
What I really hate is the whole "false equivalency" test the MSM likes to place on us, to make up for the crazy of the right. Are there 3 types of Radical Left? People who compare Alan Grayson to Michele Bachman need a reality check, because if that's the best you can do then don't bother. How serious does it need to get before these groups are broken up and treated like the criminals that they are?
I hate to fill this diary up with so many questions, but that's really all I have for what I can't understand. What I can't understand is why they are allowed to do this. The KKK shouldn't be, some people really don't deserve this great country. You can't hate the government so much that you'd murder innocent people, to then turn around and call yourself a patriot and to say that you have "real" love for this country.
The Rage of The Right, By Mark Potok:
Mr. Mark Potok here is a great man, and I am sure he is hated almost as much as the President is. If it were not for him, we would have no idea what deranged, hateful people there are, and where they are.
"We are in the midst of one of the most significant right-wing populist rebellions in United States history," Chip Berlet, a veteran analyst of the American radical right, wrote earlier this year. "We see around us a series of overlapping social and political movements populated by people [who are] angry, resentful, and full of anxiety. They are raging against the machinery of the federal bureaucracy and liberal government programs and policies including health care, reform of immigration and labor laws, abortion, and gay marriage."
Why does the Right Wing hate America so much? They lost and this is there solution to losing. Talk about a sore loser, if you people can't handle a democracy, then maybe Somalia is for you. You can't rebel against a government you "love" so much, under the guise of protecting your liberties, and your freedom.
The signs of growing radicalization are everywhere. Armed men have come to Obama speeches bearing signs suggesting that the "tree of liberty" needs to be "watered" with "the blood of tyrants." The Conservative Political Action Conference held this February was co-sponsored by groups like the John Birch Society, which believes President Eisenhower was a Communist agent, and Oath Keepers, a Patriot outfit formed last year that suggests, in thinly veiled language, that the government has secret plans to declare martial law and intern patriotic Americans in concentration camps. Politicians pandering to the antigovernment right in 37 states have introduced "Tenth Amendment Resolutions," based on the constitutional provision keeping all powers not explicitly given to the federal government with the states. And, at the "A Well Regulated Militia" website, a recent discussion of how to build "clandestine safe houses" to stay clear of the federal government included a conversation about how mass murderers like Timothy McVeigh and Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph were supposedly betrayed at such houses.
There is evidence abound at how those on the right can not handle having a Democratic, Black president, it makes everything they hate worse. So this is what we have to deal with. They own all of this and yet they are still able to deny it, deny having anything to do with the violence exploding across this country. They'll come out and say it was some lone nut with a gun, or a bomb, who had no political affiliations what so ever.
Already there are signs of similar violence emanating from the radical right. Since the installation of Barack Obama, right-wing extremists have murdered six law enforcement officers. Racist skinheads and others have been arrested in alleged plots to assassinate the nation’s first black president. One man from Brockton, Mass. — who told police he had learned on white supremacist websites that a genocide was under way against whites — is charged with murdering two black people and planning to kill as many Jews as possible on the day after Obama’s inauguration. Most recently, a rash of individuals with antigovernment, survivalist or racist views have been arrested in a series of bomb cases.
Right, this lone nut excuse needs to be thrown out and destroyed, because it is obvious that they all adhere to the same principles. There is a pattern here and you'd have to have your head in the sand to not notice this. So what can we do, is there anything we can do as Americans, as Daily Kos members?
Well the first link I posted, you can see how many hate groups are in your state here: SPLC's Hate Map. Compiled by experts in all relevant fields through reports and studies.
Then you can check out this map, where you can Stand Strong Against Hate, by listing your name and letting it be known that you DO NOT tolerate hate on any levels. That we need to get passed this because as humans, it holds us back from reaching our true potential. This is the only place we can call home, yet everyday we destroy it, and not even little by little anymore.
So to anyone who likes to think of our President as a coward, or inept or any of those insults that talk about his character, read this diary one more time. Read the report so you know what he's up against. Because he isn't a coward, he's one of the bravest Presidents we have ever had.
You should respect that, and respect this:
Death Threats for this President are up 400 percent!