NGO warns that extremist ideas are becoming widespread in the US

The number of extremist groups in the United States decreased in 2021, a fact that, far from showing its weakening, reflects that in the year of the assault on Capitol Hill, extreme right-wing ideas have become generalized, including in the Republican Party and the media. , according to a report published on Wednesday.

In its annual report on groups that spread hate in the country, the NGO Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which follows the trail of more than 1,600 extremist groups in the United States, warned that it is “sounding the alarm” that “democracy is under threat.”

This was stated by Susan Corke, director of the SPLC Intelligence Project, in a teleconference in which a report was presented that ensures that the smaller number of these groups suggests that the “extremist ideas that mobilize them now operate more openly in the political mainstream. ”.

“The reactionary and racist beliefs that drove a mob to Capitol Hill that day (January 6, 2021) have not dissipated. Instead, they have coalesced into a political movement that is now one of the most powerful forces shaping politics in the United States.

Less, but more influential

In 2021, the SPLC documented 1,221 active hate and anti-government extremist groups across the United States.

After reaching an all-time high of 1,021 in 2018, the number of hate groups fell for the third year in a row to 733 last year, while that of anti-government groups also fell from 566 in 2020 to 488 in 2020. 2021.

But that smaller number does not make them less dangerous for SPLC, quite the opposite, as evidenced by what happened when a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) stormed the Capitol when a joint session of the chambers was held to ratify the victory of Democrat Joe Biden in the elections of the previous November.

Cassie Miller, an SPLC analyst, insisted on the strength of a good part of these groups, which have “connections” with the Republicans and their “great replacement” conspiracy theory, that the white population is being systematically replaced by immigrants of color, It is part of the discourse of politicians and the media.

As an example, he points to Tucker Carlson, host of the most watched cable news program in the country, on Fox News, where he promoted this far-right theory and was behind attacks such as the one in August 2019 in El Paso (Texas), where a Trump supporter killed 22 people, many of them of Mexican origin.

Local politics in the spotlight

Because for SPLC these types of messages and groups that spread hate are no longer so hidden, but are also manifested in state and local governments, where far-right organizations denounce, intimidate in meetings, including school boards or municipal councils throughout the country.

“As a result, public servants have experienced a wave of threats that will likely continue as the country approaches the 2022 midterm elections,” the report states.

One of the groups that have changed their strategy “for fear of attracting the attention of the forces of order” and have “come down” to the local level is the Proud Boys, whose leader, the Cuban-American Enrique Tarrío, was prosecuted. this Tuesday for conspiracy in the case of the assault on the Capitol.

In 2021, SPLC documented 72 active Proud Boys chapters across the country, up from 43 the previous year, organizations at the local level that have a “real impact on communities and local officials, who are subjected to threats and harassment ”.

That influence has been evident, according to the NGO, in attacks on school curricula, attempts to ban books that address race and sexuality, or measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

democracy in danger

All of this creates, according to SPLC analyst Rachel Carroll Rivas, a “dangerous environment” that threatens democracy and that, according to Corke, forces the authorities to “improve the response” to these dangers.

She was joined by Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin, who is part of the committee investigating the assault on the Capitol.

Raskin said in the teleconference that it is necessary to “discover the weaknesses” of the system so that these groups do not continue advancing in their goal of ending democracy, something that was “almost lost” on January 6, 2021.

That event was a reflection of the role that “white nationalist violence and extremism are playing and (how they are) affecting public opinion and national politics.”