THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

THE SOUTHERN CRAWL DOESN'T WORK | 2000-09-23

Morris Dees' heavily financed "anti-hate" group, The Southern Poverty Law Center, has declared the League of the South, the Heritage Preservation Association, and even the Sons of Confederate Veterans, to be "hate" organizations. I understand he has even included the UDC!

First, let's get over the idea that this condemnation could have been avoided by the Southern Crawl. There are those who insist that, if we grovel and declare that the South was always wrong about everything in the past, leftists won't condemn us.

To anyone who has ever had anything to do with real world power politics, there are two obvious fatal defects in the Southern Crawl. First of all, if you were always wrong, why should I believe that you have a point now? You were so wrong you are groveling and sobbing about every position you took until last week. You will be sobbing and groveling next week about whatever you're objecting to now, so it would be absurd to take you seriously.

The second reason the Southern Crawl is fatal can be seen by the simple fact that Dees could now condemn the UDC as a hate group and be taken seriously. First, leftists say that all of the Old South's racial views must be denounced by anybody who wants to be a good Southern Crawler, so Crawlers denounce them. The next hoop a good Crawler has to jump through is to say no one has any right to doubt that integration turned out to be a wonderful thing.

Next, the Crawlers have to denounce all anti-busing movements, then anyone who criticizes homosexuality. And soon Crawlers find that there is no bottom to this slippery slope.

Now it's the League. I would have expected the libs to condemn the League and then wait a while before going after the SCV and the UDC. But the Crawlers have been so vocal lately that they didn't even have to wait this time.

Almost every time I see a so-called "Christian" conservative debating a liberal, he is going for liberal brownie points by praising Saint Martin Luther King, and condemning anyone who ever dared disagree with him.

These self-styled "Christians (and a "Christian" is NOT a Christian) denounce everybody the left wants denounced. Then they go into a state of shock when THEIR organizations are denounced by the left as "hate groups," and their former allies join in the attack on them.

The left doesn't Crawl, only the right does. Liberals defend the legitimacy -- "They have something to say" -- of every single leftist group, no matter how extreme. Meanwhile, respectable conservatives ask their liberal masters for nothing more than the right to lead the lynch mob against critics of Saint King or any group leftists condemn as a "hate group."

To Crawl or not to Crawl? Here is the bottom line: In Boston, the SHAMROCK has been declared a "hate symbol," and the BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA are being moved into the "hate group" category.

Meanwhile, nobody, but nobody, calls the Communist Party of America a "hate group."