Report: Antagonism Towards President Obama, Changing Racial Demographics Spur U.S. Hate Group Rise

Report: Antagonism Towards President Obama, Changing Racial Demographics Spur U.S. Hate Group Rise (Southern Poverty Law Ctr)

As always, right before an election, we hear about the hate groups growing and some mobilizing, particularly since we have a black president. Well, there has been a meteoric rise in the number of hate groups, AKA “patriot groups,”  in the U.S., the Southern Poverty Law Center reports.

NY Times:   Fed by antagonism toward President Obama, resentment toward changing racial demographics and the economic rift between rich and poor, the number of so-called hate groups and antigovernment organizations in the nation has continued to grow, according to a report released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The number of groups whose ideology is organized against specific racial, religious, sexual or other characteristics has risen steadily since 2000, when 602 were identified, the center said. Antigay groups, for example, have risen to 27 from 17 in 2010.

The report also described a “stunning” rise in the number of groups it identifies as part of the so-called patriot and militia movements, whose ideologies include deep distrust of the federal government. In 2011, the center tracked 1,274 of those groups, up from 824 the year before.

People like Michele Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck help to foment these wingnuts on the fringe to mobilize.