Op-Ed: How Radical Leftist Groups Disparage Conservatives
By: Steve Levy
There was a recent blaring headline in Newsday: “Southern Poverty Law Center lists Long Island groups as Anti-Government.” Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? Are these a bunch of skinhead or KKK groups?
You would certainly think so based upon the story citing the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which labeled the Long Island Loud Majority as an “extreme anti-government group.“ So what is the SPLC, and who are the Long Island Loud Majority? Sure sounds like a case of good guys versus bad guys - But that is the opposite of the truth.
In reality, the SPLC is a radical leftist propaganda outfit falsely claiming to be a benevolent watchdog. Its goal is to disparage conservatives and to tar them with the “intolerant” label, simply to marginalize them. The SPLC seeks to reduce the credibility of groups that challenge Critical Race Theory (CRT) in our schools.
But the SPLC has a troubled history. Just a few years ago it had to pay a $3.4 million settlement in a lawsuit brought by a Muslim American, whom the SPLC labeled - believe it or not - as being “anti-Muslim.” What was his crime? He had the audacity to make the claim that some Muslim groups were extremists.
Check out the SPLC website. Almost all the groups they label as being “hate inspired” are groups on the right. They smear conservative Breitbart News and conservative columnist Dennis Prager. The SPLC even labels the Family Service League as a “hate group” for supporting traditional marriage and opposing abortion.
Nowhere on the SPLC’s front pages is there any reference to Antifa, or Louis Farrakhan and his anti-Semitic Nation of Islam. The SPLC is a publicity seeking group whose main purpose is to raise money. And they raise a lot of it - as in half a billion dollars. The SPLC entered into Suffolk County politics during my tenure as County Executive so that they could write a report claiming that the Suffolk County Police Department was anti-Hispanic. The SPLC gathered testimony from the most radical leftist groups in the county, but never once reached out to the Suffolk County police commissioner or the county executive's office.
They made the false statement that I, as county executive, had promoted legislation to allow police officers to stop Hispanics on the street and ask for their papers. This was an outright lie. We did in fact ask individuals - who were already arrested for crimes - for their citizenship status, but that is a far cry from going out to people on the street.
The SPLC then made the claim that police had ignored complaints by Hispanic immigrants of having been attacked. Yet, they had not a single example where evidence existed to arrest an individual for a hate crime and the evidence was not pursued. Last week, the SPLC got its headline, and put their attack dogs on the Loud Majority here on Long Island.
The Long Island Loud Majority is a conservative group of local parents that sprung up to counter the teaching of Critical Race Theory in our schools. CRT teaches white children to feel guilty for their “white privilege” and black children to feel that they cannot get ahead in the US because they are perpetual “victims.”
CRT is an odious concept that racially divides our kids. Because the Loud Majority dared to push back, they were smeared by SPLC as a “hate group” looking to “overthrow the government.” What a crock!
The SPLC got the headline they wanted, and now when you google the Long Island Loud Majority, you’ll see that they’ve been smeared as an anti-government “hate group.” All by this entity called the Southern Poverty Law Center - which few people know is a bogus radical leftist organization with the intent to disparage any conservative thought.
The tragedy is that the SPLC started off as a very noble cause. Its original founder, Maurice Dees, gained notoriety by calling out the KKK and white nationalist groups. But that was decades ago. The new leadership is now just a mouthpiece for the radical left.
Rather than repeat SPLA slanders against conservative groups they disagree with, the media should instead be more focused on the lack of credibility from the SPLC itself. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of "The Steve Levy Radio Show." He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com