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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization with a leftward orientation, recently released its annual Year in Hate and Extremism Report. The online document includes a \u201chate map,\u201d listing entities from each state deemed either hate groups or anti-government groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citizens Defending Freedom, a conservative nonprofit based in Polk County, appears on the list, as does Florida Moms for America, which is identified as based in Winter Haven. The SPLC labels each in the category \u201cgeneral anti-government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SPLC, an organization founded in 1971 and headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, describes anti-government groups as \u201cpart of the antidemocratic hard-right movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey believe the federal government is tyrannical, and they traffic in conspiracy theories about an illegitimate government of leftist elites seeking a \u2018New World Order,\u2019\u201d the report says. The SPLC says the category includes \u201csovereign citizens, militias, overt conspiracy propagandists and constitutional sheriff groups.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Robert Goodman, executive director of Citizens Defending Freedom, dismissed the label.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I find it absurd that Citizens Defending Freedom (CDF) would be categorized as anti-government,\u201d Goodman said by email. \u201cCDF’s mission is based on preserving the principles in our government’s founding documents. The United States government is the first in the world \u2018of the people, by the people, for the people,\u2019 and our mission is to preserve that for our generation and all generations to come.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CDF arose in Polk County in 2021 and has since formed chapters in other Florida counties and in Georgia, Texas, and Michigan, with chapters coming soon in Virginia and Pennsylvania, according to its website. The nonprofit promotes a brand of conservatism tied to evangelical Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is the second consecutive year that the group has appeared on the SPLC\u2019s \u201chate map.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report lists 114 in Florida<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report applies the \u201chate\u201d or \u201canti-government\u201d labels to 114 organizations in Florida, though many are county chapters of a single group, such as CDF and Moms for Liberty. The map includes the Polk County chapter of Moms for Liberty, a conservative group known for seeking the removal of certain books from school libraries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since its founding, CDF members have attended meetings of the Polk County School Board to criticize mask requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic and to advocate for the withdrawal of certain school books, some of which they deem pornographic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CDF filed a lawsuit against Polk County Public Schools<\/a> in March, alleging that the district had violated state law and its own policies in handling challenges to library books. The suit is still pending<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Citizens Defending Freedom has promoted advocates who share conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, among them Michael Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former security adviser to former President Donald Trump who resigned amid reports that he had lied about having conversations a Russian ambassador to the United States. Flynn pled guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI but was later pardoned by Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Flynn, who has promoted QAnon conspiracy theories and claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic was fabricated for political reasons, is listed as a guest speaker at CDF\u2019s August gala in Dallas along with Charlie Kirk, the controversial founder of Turning Point USA, a student-oriented conservative group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moms for America is a national nonprofit founded in Ohio in 2004 to combat a \u201cdramatic cultural shift in America led by radical feminists,\u201d according to its website. The organization opposes the teaching of Critical Race Theory, saying that public schools are teaching children to hate America and indoctrinating students on theories of sexuality or gender orientation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moms for America\u2019s website posts videos featuring such conservative figures as Tucker Carlson, Erik Prince, and Sebastian Gorka. The group has a political component, Moms for America Action, that issues candidate endorsements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How the list is compiled<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maya Henson Carey, a research analyst with the SPLC, said that both CDF and Moms for America fall under an \u201canti-student inclusion\u201d subgroup in the anti-government category. Such groups \u201cattack public education\u201d and \u201cpush this narrative that public schools are trying to indoctrinate and sexualize children through this radical Marxist agenda, and their tactics for doing that is book banning, the anti-CRT operation, the attacks on the LGBTQ-plus community and some really even call for abolishing the Department of Education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carey noted that PEN America, a nonprofit that promotes literature and free expression, listed CDF among three national advocacy groups that are \u201cparticularly prominent in pushing for book bans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conservative groups and their allies, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, deny that efforts to remove certain titles from school libraries equate to book banning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carey said the SPLC gathers information from various sources, including local tips, to decide which groups belong on its \u201chate map.\u201d Analysts monitor websites, social media, and podcasts to see what messages the groups are promoting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though the SPLC did not place Citizens Defending Freedom and Moms for America in the \u201chate\u201d category, they appear on a list of Florida groups that includes United Skinhead Nation and Stormfront, a white nationalist outfit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conservative groups regularly denounce the SPLC, an organization that arose from the civil rights moment in the South. Alliance Defending Freedom calls the SPLC \u201ca far-left organization that only targets the right\u201d and alleges that the \u201chate map\u201d was created as a fundraising tactic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The SPLC has faced lawsuits over its labeling of such figures as Ben Carson and has sometimes revised its lists after challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carey emphasized that the SPLC is a nonprofit that cannot engage in political advocacy. She said the definitions of hate groups and anti-government groups do not mention political parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Leaders of two Polk County organizations reject their inclusion in a list of extremist groups. 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