Rage on the right: The year in hate and extremism
Tea party groups are 'shot through with rich veins of radical ideas, conspiracy theories and racism', says Potok.
Program Note: Don't miss Anderson's interview with Mark Potok tonight at 10 p.m. ET.
Mark Potok
Southern Poverty Law Center
The radical right caught fire last year, as broad-based populist anger at political, demographic and economic changes in America ignited an explosion of new extremist groups and activism across the nation.
Hate groups stayed at record levels — almost 1,000 — despite the total collapse of the second largest neo-Nazi group in America. Furious anti-immigrant vigilante groups soared by nearly 80%, adding some 136 new groups during 2009. And, most remarkably of all, so-called "Patriot" groups — militias and other organizations that see the federal government as part of a plot to impose “one-world government” on liberty-loving Americans — came roaring back after years out of the limelight.
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Filed under: Hate Crime • Republicans |
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I wonder how much globalization contributes to these hate groups – we see our jobs go overseas and there seems to be nothing the normal person can do to mitigate that. Given that plus the economic recession and all the special groups demanding rights I suppose it would be a surprise if there wasn't a backlash against it all.
I just hope that these hate groups are short term, don't harm anyone else, and don't blow up any buildings like in Oklahoma. Homeland Security has its job cut out for it – protecting our country from international terrorism and now from internal terrorism as well.