How the Southern Poverty Law Center drives demonization of its conservative foes

If you touch one of the Democrats’ sacred cow nonprofits, they’ll start whining about how you’re attacking “civil society.” But what if the sacred cow Democrats want to defend is actually a violent bull — one of the worst forces undermining civil society in America today?Democrats and their allies portray criticism of the Southern Poverty Law Center as a threat to civil society.That’s rather ironic. You see, the SPLC is an engine of the very fear and suspicion that are driving Americans apart.Conservatives increasingly fear that our opponents don’t just disagree, but actively despise us.The SPLC doesn’t just publish papers explaining why it thinks conservatives are wrong.

No, this organization — which gained its reputation by suing the Ku Klux Klan into bankruptcy — puts its political opponents on a “hate map” alongside Klan chapters, a map the SPLC says reveals the “infrastructure upholding white supremacy.”Now, the SPLC faces criminal charges for allegedly funding the very hate it publicly opposes.According to a federal indictment, the SPLC directed more than $4 million to members of the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups.

The SPLC claims it was paying “informants” to keep tabs on potential violent threats.The indictment, however, claims that the money in some cases actually facilitated white supremacist organizing. According to claims, the SPLC acts like an exterminator who plants rats in his neighbor’s house or a firefighter who moonlights as an arsonist.

While asking donors to pony up cash to fight “hate,” it allegedly uses some of that very money to prop up the hate — so it has an excuse to ask donors for more.The SPLC needs to justify its existence in an America that bears little resemblance to the true racism of the 1950s and 1960s, so it exaggerates hate.The supply of hate can’t keep up with the SPLC donors’ demand.

So, the SPLC pads the numbers on its “hate map.” It lists each organization’s chapter ...