The Southern Poverty Law Center recently urged Mississippi lawmakers to reject the Convention of the States application, through their attorney attorney Jody Owens. 

For those of you who haven’t been paying attention the SPLC is a far left organization that — mysteriously — journalists look to for advice on who is (and is not) “good cultural company.”

In other words, they are always busy policing other organizations and mislabeling them as “hate groups.” (Especially conservative organizations.) And now, apparently, the Convention of States is on their radar.  We’re not alone.

National Review has the details on other organizations they dislike:

The SPLC, as readers may know, has lately busied itself with greatly expanding its definitions of hate groups and extremists. It recently paid a $3.4 million settlement and issued a formal apology for labeling British Muslim Maajid Nawaz an “anti-Muslim extremist.” It was forced to apologize for posting an “extremist file” on Dr. Ben Carson. It calls AEI’s Charles Murray a “white nationalist” and (like it did with Nawaz) has branded Ayaan Hirsi Ali — a former Muslim who fled terrible oppression in Somalia and even now faces jihadist threats on her life — an “anti-Muslim extremist.” It unconscionably calls my former employer, the Alliance Defending Freedom, “an anti-LGBT hate group.”

But the story does not end there.  On March 14, the SPLC fired its co-founder Morris Dees for “inappropriate” conduct. Though the details are few, the SPLC hired an outside firm to evaluate the culture of their organization.  The Los Angeles Times has more:

The Times has also learned that the organization, whose leadership is predominantly white, has been wrestling with complaints of workplace mistreatment of women and people of color. It was not immediately clear whether those issues were connected to the firing of Dees, who is 82.

Also Thursday, employees sent correspondence to management demanding reforms, expressing concerns about the resignation last week of a highly respected black attorney at the organization and criticizing the organization’s work culture.

A letter signed by about two dozen employees — and sent to management and the board of directors before news broke of Dees’ firing — said they were concerned that internal “allegations of mistreatment, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and racism threaten the moral authority of this organization and our integrity along with it.”

Plus, sometimes you can tell a lot about an organization based on who they condemn.  I’m happy that we’re on the wrong side of the SPLC.  May all Americans unite against their hatred.
Image Credit: StretchyBill on Flickr 
Caption: Morris Dees speaking at the closing event: “Pursuing Justice Together”

About The Author

Mark was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, and served as the national coordinator. He left the organization to work more broadly on expanding the self-governance movement beyond the partisan divide. Mark appears regularly on television in outlets as diverse as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He’s highly sought after for the tea party perspective from print and electronic media outlets, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Examiner, Politico and the The Hill. Mark blogs at MarkMeckler.com, and his opinion editorials regularly run in many of the leading political newspapers both on and offline. Mark has a BA in English from San Diego State University and graduated with honors from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1988. He practiced real estate and business law for almost a decade. For the last eleven years of his legal career he specialized in Internet advertising law. When not fighting for the future of our nation, Mark is an avid horseman, and lives in rural northern California with his wife Patty and two children.

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