Ahead of its convention, the GOP has produced a resolution that delegitimizes the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), indirectly aligning itself with white supremacists.
The Republican National Committee has approved the resolution at its meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, refuting the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “legitimacy to identify hate groups.”
The RNC says the group, founded in 1971 to combat “hate, intolerance, and discrimination through education and litigation,” now “puts conservative groups or voices at risk of attack.”
The resolution appears to stem from a “violent attack” on the Family Research Council, a fundamentalist Protestant activist group, with an affiliated lobbying organization. In the RNC’s document, the group is noted as a victim of the SPLC: “WHEREAS, The Family Research Council suffered a violent attack due to its support of the traditional family, which the SPLC has deemed as hateful.”
The brief resolution then notes the legitimization of the non-profit anti-hate group under the Obama Administration, including an alleged “ability to provide input to the Department of Homeland Security,” which “put conservative groups or voices at risk of attack.”
Finally, it accused the SPLC of being a “radical organization, and that the federal government should not view this organization as a legitimate foundation equipped to provide actionable information to DHS or any other government agency.”
The SPLC and CEO Margaret Huang would respond with a statement, and tweeted: “This resolution is an attack on our definition of hate groups in order to excuse the Trump administration’s history of working with those who malign entire groups of people—including #BlackLivesMatter, #immigrants, #Muslims and the #LGBTQ community — with dehumanizing rhetoric.”
“The resolution comes at a moment when Trump will argue at the Republican National Convention that he will combat hate and bigotry,” it continues. “In addition to this resolution giving comfort to hate groups, we have recently seen other evidence of hate groups and extremists making inroads into the Republican Party. Some in the party welcome QAnon into the GOP’s fold. The indictment of Stephen Bannon in recent days is a reminder of the extremism that he sought to embed in the Republican Party. And the SPLC has shined a light on OANN’s Jack Posobiec, a reporter at Trump’s favorite ‘news’ network, who is aligned with white supremacy and has used his platform to further hate speech and propaganda.”
“Now, Trump and the GOP are doubling down with QAnon and partnering with hate groups that are seeking to muzzle anyone who stands in their way of furthering their agenda and hurting communities that we care about.”
“But we’re not going to back down from calling out white supremacists and hate groups or pushing back against their dehumanizing rhetoric.”
In an investigation of OANN’s Jack Posobiec, SPLC senior investigative reporter Michael Edison Hayden wrote, “Jack Posobiec’s extensive ties to white supremacists should serve as a wake-up call for anyone who hasn’t made the connection between Trump’s MAGA movement and hate.”
Some are calling the indictment overdue, accusing the SPLC of grift.
Like the SPLC, others noted the GOP’s willingness to accommodate hate groups and the conservatives’ cleaving along the lines of outspoken rhetoric.
Writer/activist David Hogg (@stareagle) tweeted: “White supremacists and hate groups are the mainstream of the Republican party. Moderate Republicans are now the ones being driven away by the extremists.”