Tom DeWeese, Patriot

By Alan Caruba

For about ten years I served as the communications director of the American Policy Center, founded in 1986 and led by Tom DeWeese. Essentially my job was to disseminate news of the Center’s activities and Tom’s commentaries on events and trends.

Tom is a likeable fellow, but also intense. There is no room in his world for those individuals and groups that would threaten our freedoms. That’s why we are so “simpatico” as my Italian grandparents would say. I remain an “advisor” to the Center; something I regard as an honor. I serve in this capacity for other similar groups

The Center is a “privately funded, nonprofit, 501 c (4) tax-exempt grassroots action and education foundation dedicated to the promotion of free enterprise and limited government regulations over commerce and individuals.”

Tom is one of those people who read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution at a young age and was inspired to devote his life to protecting the fundamental ideals within them. To put it another way, Tom is a patriot.

Recently, he disseminated a commentary, “When loving your country marks you as a domestic terrorist.” It is particularly timely because so many things occurring within the Obama administration are very ominous. In particular, Tom documents the relationship between the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization with its roots in the Civil Rights movement, and the Department of Homeland Security.

The SPLC was founded in 1971 by Morris Dees and Joseph J. Levin, Jr. The nonprofit civil rights organization pioneered the use of civil law suits on behalf of victims of organizations it deemed to be hate groups and initially many were. Ironically, Dees had started off in politics working for the famed advocate of segregation, George Wallace, a former Governor of Alabama and one-time candidate for president. Over the years, however, SPLC has been criticized for spending more on fund raising than legal activities.

It has also mutated into an organization famed for publishing lists of “hate groups” that include the Tea Party and those it deems to be on the “radical right.” In the case of the APC, there is nothing radical about it. It has never advocated violence. Its agenda, pure and simple, is the defense of the Constitution, traditional American values, and the sovereignty of the United States. As such, the APC fulfills an essential educational function on issues from Agenda21 to education, immigration issues, free enterprise, and property rights, among others.

Tom’s commentary describes how SPLC has moved from civil rights to an agenda devoted to identifying “hate groups”, those on the right and how, in the process, its agenda closely resembles the Department of Homeland Security under the current administration.

These days, SPLC identifies as threats to the nation, “Islamaphobes, political opportunists, religious right anti-gay groups, and patriot groups” among others. The American Policy Center is on its list.

On July 11th I too made the list as well because a SPLC article about myself and Tea Party Nation, a social network, gave voice to an attack on our views, labeling them “extremist.”

In a similar fashion, Homeland Security identifies groups that oppose same-sex marriage, are anti-abortion, oppose illegal immigration, the United Nations, the Tea Party, the Constitution and Libertarian Parties as potential “terrorists”, but barely noticed are groups advocating Islamism. This is an administration that called the Fort Hood murders “workplace violence” and not terrorism.

Tom notes that Homeland Security has established “Fusion Centers” in every state “designed to combine federal, state, and local law enforcement whose stated purpose is to respond to terrorist attacks and natural disasters and has organized a “Countering Violent Extremism Working Group.” It is, says Tom, a “turn in your neighbor” program, similar in nature to authoritarian governments.

The SPLC, Tom says “has direct ties to the Department of Homeland Security, helping to write official DHS policy that may affect my life, my freedom, my ability to travel and my ability to speak out”; essentially “anyone disagreeing with actions of the American government is a potential terrorist and must be, at least, watched and monitored by federal, state, and local authorities.”

DHS was created in the wake of 9/11, an attack by Islamists on the nation. Under the Obama administration it has mutated into something very different, very dangerous to our freedoms.

We have four months before, as voters, we can take the steps necessary to remove this threat.

© Alan Caruba, 2012