Success Breeds Excess

The Civil Rights movement and legislation in the 60s brought a sea-change to race relations in America. But there was still much to be done. Giving poor blacks in the South equal rights wasn't the same thing as allowing them to exercise those rights. Many fine organizations which advanced what the Civil Rights statutes had only put into books grew up. One of those was the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Co-founder Morris Dees has been a tireless worker for equality and racial justice since the SPLC was created in 1971. He has successfully sued racist domestic terror groups, putting several of them out of business entirely. He expanded the mission of the Center beyond its Southern roots in recognition of the fact that there was still considerable institutional racism in the North. Even into the 80s, the SPLC was breaking ground for recognition of the effects of de facto segregation and very real racial discrimination. It was particularly effective in shutting down violent racist groups by use of civil lawsuits.

Still, like so many formerly excellent and dedicated civil rights groups, the SPLC has done such a good job of defeating the enemies of racial justice that they have largely run out of major targets. There will always be racism and violent racists to exploit it, but 2010 is not 1970. Much of the work is done, daily vigilance is being exercised, and almost all governmental agencies are on-board and vigorous in enforcing both the words and the intent of the civil rights statutes.

But Dees has built a huge organization with a large campus of its own and branch offices. The organization is registered as a not-for-profit corporation, and all indications are that it remains so. It is not profit that motivates Dees and his lawyers. It's a palpable dedication to liberal-left social engineering, using the law as a sword more than as a shield. The organization's mission has gone beyond ending racial hatred and violence against racial and ethnic minorities, and has moved onto the "everybody's a victim" stage. When the organization found that the big dragons had been slain or subdued, it was time to move on to smaller and occasionally imaginary dragons. Dees is one of those very fearsome creatures called "true believers."

Following the lead of political grandstanders and demogogic people-dividers, Dees has decided that since the Ku Klux Klan is now a pathetic shadow of its former monstrous self, he might as well go after the Family Research Council. The SPLC's mission is now to fight "hate" and "bigotry" in all its forms, which mostly includes any organization that doesn't have the same socio-politico-religious goals as the Center. Dees knows that the legitimate use of the words "hate group" have genuine meaning as a result of the success of the civil rights era. It worked with racist bigots (easy to recognize one), so use it to denigrate any group that disagrees with you. From skin color to opinions and beliefs is not any easy leap, but Dees is not a simple man.

What "don't ask, don't tell" has to do with Southern poverty or race is beyond me, but Dees sees it as a crystal clear. Some people think that openly gay people should be allowed full access to the military. Others don't. The former are the champions of truth, justice and the American way. The latter are hate groups. Now is it clear to you? If there aren't enough hate groups around to support your immense staff of do-gooders, create them or simply name a few that aren't of your own particular philosophy.

Dees has named the Family Research Council as mentioned above, along with the American Family Association, the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, the Family Research Institute, the Illinois Family Institute, the National Organization for Marriage, the Coral Ridge Ministries, Concerned Women for America, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, Mass Resistance, Liberty Counsel, and the Traditional Values Coalition. He has put all of these groups in the same category as the Klan simply because they disagree with him on the issue of homosexuality and the military.

Former Attorney General Ed Meese says "I think it is attacking them for exercising their freedom of speech and their freedom of religion." Meese is a much-honored purveyor of the law, but he missed the memo about "no freedom for 'hate speech'" and "freedom from religion." Meese accurately points out that Dees and the Center have cited no evidence of any kind that the Family Research Council or any other major pro-family traditionalists are hate groups.

Some of the "hateful lies" that the conservative groups are alleged by Dees to have used is that gay men have a lower life expectancy. Dees gives no explanation for how this is hateful, and in addition ignores the fact that studies made at liberal universities have found life expectancy for gay men to be 8 to 21 years less than the general male population (the higher mortality figures were reached during the height of the AIDS epidemic). But if you point that out, even sympathetically, you're a hater. Likewise for the suicide rate. Clearly the Center has gone from being a respectable defender of racial minorities to becoming a full-fledged political advocacy group.

The point of this article is not to debate or re-debate the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. We've already done that, several times. The real point is that certain major civil rights groups have lost their original raison d'etre and have moved on to attempting to force their own social views on the public by use of lawfare. The Southern Poverty Law Center, and Morris Dees himself have become the shock troops of the most dangerous kind of zealots. When advocating the murder of a black person or denying him his constitutional rights solely because of his race becomes muddled up with military policy towards openly gay men and women serving in the military, fascistic personal values have replaced both the Constitution and the right to disagree on religious grounds.