Michael Bolden consorting with Muslims and known Muslim sympathizers... typical right wing extremist. (From left to right: Michael Boldin, Phil Russo, Kelsey Russo, M4L Director William Coley's infant son Shuaib, and wife Farah. Photo taken by William Coley)
By Davi Barker, M4L
June 7, 2012
It looks like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) needs a serious reality check. Last week the SPLC added long time friend of Muslims 4 Liberty, Michael Boldin to their list of “30 New Activists Heading Up the Radical Right”. Michael is the Founder and Director of the Tenth Amendment Center (TAC) and Muslims 4 Liberty stands with him and his organization against this despicable slander.
It takes a unique brand of obtuse State worship to put someone who got their start in the peace movement, who is a passionate opponent of the unconstitutional War On Drugs (not exactly staples of the right wing agenda) on the same list with Muslim bashing, mouth frothing, war ecstatics like Pam Geller, and Frank Gaffney. But from the Statist’s perspective the Constitution itself is a radically anti government manifesto, so if Michael has the audacity to advocate it he must be a domestic extremist. Michael Boldin is a champion of freedom, and to conflate his advocacy of peaceful noncompliance with violent extremism is not only a viscous assassination of his character, but also evidence of SPLC’s desperation to appear relevant as they fade into obscurity.
This was written by the SPLC Intelligence Report Staff:
The last decade has seen major changes in the American radical right. What was once a world largely dominated by a few relatively well-organized groups has become a scene populated by large numbers of smaller, weaker groups, with only a handful led by the kind of charismatic chieftains that characterized the 1990s.
What this tells you immediately is that the SPLC is disappointingly behind the times. They are apparently unaware that the right and left dichotomy is increasingly irrelevant in our political culture, and a growing number of activists are gravitating toward decentralized leaderless strategies. The fact that there are large numbers of small groups without charismatic leaders is not an indication that a movement is weak or disorganized. It is an indication that they are utilizing modern tools. It’s called, “netroots.” Google it. The SPLC may prefer a central command and control structure, but society at large, on the left, right and all points off the grid, is evolving.
They go on to warn of the “explosive growth” in anti-minority, anti-Muslim and anti-gay anger among the radical right people and organizations on their list. None of that has the slightest similitude with Michael Boldin. Clumping him with these bigots is a travesty, and disgrace to the credibility of the SPLC. But they go on:
So-called “Patriot” groups — which, unlike most hate groups, see the federal government as their primary enemy — have grown explosively in just the last three years, going from 149 groups in 2008 to 1,274 last year.
The SPLC’s only clear criticism of Michael appears to be that he favors the states nullifying unconstitutional federal laws. I suppose the SPLC favors unconstitutional laws? The TAC promotes a return to a balance of power between federal and state governments as expressed in the Tenth Amendment which reads, “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Nothing in his words or deeds could ever suggest that he harbors ill-will toward any ethnic or religious minority. The constitution is not a partisan document, and to portray it as such only exposes the wretched partisanship of the SPLC.They equate the nullification of federal laws with attempts in the past to nullify anti-segregation laws, and accuse Michael of those prejudices. But they completely disregard times in history when Northen states nullified federal fugitive slave laws by refusing to cooperate with federal slave catchers, and more recently attempts by numerous states to nullify the unconstitutional federal prohibition of marijuana by passing their own medical marijuana statutes. The War on Drugs cages millions of the very minorities the SPLC claims to defend, but since they consider nullification categorically racist, I suppose they must support locking them up.To the SPLC, shame on you for your empty appeals to justice as you genuflect to the State which violates it. Shame on you for rejecting a legal principle that was successfully used to free African slaves before the federal government got its act together. Shame on you for pretending to come to the defense of Muslims while you defame a friend of Muslims 4 Liberty like Michael Boldin. But most of all, shame on you for groveling at the feet of the master while the rest of us are striving to be free.
I would say you’ll be remembered on the wrong side of history, but I’d be surprised if history remembered you at all. Go ahead and add me to your list. It’d be an honor.
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