SPLC Tells Americans to ‘Fight Hate’ by Voting Democrat

By Tyler O’Neil / PJ Media:

On the eve of the midterm elections, the far-Left smear group the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) urged Americans to “fight hate” by voting — and they don’t mean voting to support President Donald Trump or his party. In fact, the group clearly intended to convey the message, “To fight hate, vote Democrat.”

“The midterm elections on Tuesday are not about partisan politics,” SPLC President Richard Cohen said in post called “To fight hate, vote.” Cohen argued that the midterms are “about the future of our country. Whatever your political persuasion, reject hate and vote.”

The post began by referencing three horrific attacks and suggesting that President Trump was the source behind them:

First, a white gunman killed two African Americans in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, after trying to break into a black church.
Then, a man who reportedly identified as a white supremacist was arrested for mailing pipe bombs to President Barack Obama, George Soros, Hillary Clinton and other people President Trump has criticized.

And on Saturday morning, as worshippers gathered at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, a white gunman shouted “All Jews must die” as he opened fire, killing 11 people.

Behind each attack was the same kind of naked hate.

Notice the subterfuge. The SPLC only mentioned Trump in the case of Cesar Sayoc, the alleged “MAGA bomber.” The political affiliation of the alleged Jeffersontown shooter remains unknown, and it seems unlikely this hater of black people would be glad to hear Trump hosted a huge meeting of black conservatives at the White House just last week. The Pittsburgh synagogue shooter loathed Trump, attacking him as controlled by Jews.

The SPLC previously attempted to tie Trump to the synagogue shooter, despite the fact that shooter hated Trump. The group also suggested Trump’s opposition to “globalism” is coded language for anti-Semitism. Trump, the proud father of a convert to Judaism and a staunch supporter of the state of Israel, seems an odd target for charges of anti-Semitism. Trump’s opposition to globalism has everything to do with the UN and loss of national sovereignty and nothing to do with anti-Semitism.

The SPLC’s post went on to describe other horrific acts of terror:

“This irrational fear that ‘the other’ — minorities and people of color — will take the country away from whites is the through-line connecting a spate of violence targeted at houses of worship across different religions in just the past six years,” Heidi Beirich, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project, argued.

If it were not clear the SPLC’s remarks against “hate” were aimed at Trump and his party, the group made it clear Tuesday morning by tying Trump’s immigration policy to “white supremacist goals.”

The SPLC focuses on “hate crimes,” and this obsession blinds them to the fact that there have been 1,705 deadly force attacks against religious organizations — churches, mosques, synagogues, temples — since 1999, only 5.87 percent of which were motivated by animus against people groups.

None of this diminishes the utter disgusting evil of the Pittsburgh shooter, the MAGA bomber, the white supremacist Charleston shooter, or others. It does suggest, and underscore, the fact that the SPLC specifically chooses the attacks that fit their narrative, conveniently ignoring those that do not.

According to Carl Chinn, founder of the Faith Based Security Network, the deadly-force attacks were motivated by robbery (25.97 percent), domestic disputes (16 percent), personal conflict (13.6 percent), mental illness (10.97 percent), or gang-related issues (8.89 percent).

Chinn remarked that “the Southern Poverty Law Center is a flagship for what’s wrong with the study of hate crimes.” The SPLC brands mainstream conservative and Christian groups “hate groups,” and focuses on instances of apparent animus against people due to their skin color, sexual orientation, or other characteristics. The group has been known to fall for “hate” hoaxes and to fail to correct the record afterwards.

Most important for any description of fighting “hate,” however, the SPLC has published a “hate map” plotting every “hate group” across America. One terrorist used this “hate map” to attack the Family Research Council (FRC), intending to shoot everyone in the building. The man who shot Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) at the congressional baseball game shooting last year, and aimed to kill many congressional Republicans, also “liked” the SPLC on Facebook. The SPLC had repeatedly attacked Scalise specifically.

In its haste to fight “hate,” it seems the SPLC has itself inspired a great deal of “hate.” Furthermore, the SPLC wrongly listed Maajid Nawaz, a Muslim reformer, as an “anti-Muslim extremist.” The group paid Nawaz’s organization $3.375 million in a settlement, and about 60 organizations immediately began discussing whether or not they have a defamation case against the SPLC.

The SPLC has wielded the “hate group” label as a cudgel against anyone brazen enough to oppose liberal orthodoxy on issues ranging from Islam to immigration to LGBT activism. The group branded ACT for America a “hate group,” leading Hyatt Hotels to ban them last month.

The Left-wing smear group has branded Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian law firm that won nine Supreme Court cases in the last seven years, a “hate group,” twisting out of context decades-old quotes about homosexuality. The SPLC also placed D. James Kennedy Ministries on their “hate group” list, leading Amazon to exclude the nonprofit from its charity program, Amazon Smile. D. James Kennedy Ministries responded with a lawsuit.

The SPLC branded the small Catholic nonprofit the Ruth Institute a “hate group,” citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s position against same-sex marriage. By the SPLC’s logic, 1 billion human beings belong to an anti-LGBT hate group headed by Pope Francis.

After the white nationalist riots in Charlottesville, Va., last year, the SPLC published a “hate map” plotting Confederate monuments. This map, released at a time when protesters were targeting these monuments for violent protest and vandalism, included elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. The map even included Stonewall Elementary, which was named after a stone wall, not General Stonewall Jackson.

As Americans vote on Tuesday, they would do well to discount any advice from the SPLC. Voting Democrat does not constitute voting “against hate.”

Indeed, Shane Mekeland, a Republican candidate for Minnesota’s state House, blamed Democrats for inspiring the incivility that led a man to punch him out of nowhere, leaving him with a concussion and the inability to campaign outside without getting a headache.

“They’re constantly driving this narrative of ‘It’s okay to be violent,'” Mekeland said. How do they drive this narrative? Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) called on activists to harass members of the Trump administration in public places like gas stations and restaurants. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) encouraged activists to “get up in the face” of Republican candidates and office-holders. Hillary Clinton said Democrats “cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for.” Eric Holder declared, “When they go low, we kick them.”

America’s civility crisis is a good reason to vote Republican, not Democrat. The SPLC, in seeking to find any excuse to connect Trump to the latest domestic tragedy, seems utterly blind to the dangers of a Democratic mob. They’re too busy finding anti-Semitic “dogwhistles” uttered by a president who welcomed Jews into his family with open arms.