Letter to IRS Re Southern Poverty Law Center

PO Box 130
West Shokan, New York 12494
April 22, 2010

Lois G. Lerner, Director
Exempt Organizations Division
Internal Revenue Service
1111 Constitution Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20224

Dear Ms. Lerner:

I am a former contributor to the Southern Poverty Law Center.  The Southern Poverty Law Center is a 501 (c) (3) organization.  I have become increasingly concerned by the Center's apparent involvement in politically partisan advocacy, in particular advocacy and support of the election of President Barack Obama. Although many have been enthusiastic about President Obama's election, the dissemination of propaganda on his behalf is not permissible under the tax code.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has invented disinformation concerning the so-called "Tea Party" movement, which is in essence a movement that concerns partisan politics and specifically opposes socialism and the increasing scope of government.  Without competence or knowledge, the Southern Poverty Law Center has been libeling the Tea Party movement, accusing it of violence that parallels that of fringe groups whom the SPLC has traditionally monitored.  In fact, the Tea Party constitutes 17% of the American electorate, according to a recent poll.  The SPLC has made radical, unverified accusations about the Tea Party in an effort to support the Democratic Party and Barack Obama.

Further evidence of the SPLC's political nature might include the absence of a single Republican from their board; other propaganda-style attacks on behalf of additional Democratic candidates; and any direct involvement of the group's officers with the Democratic Party.

I urge you to investigate the Southern Poverty Law Center. I contributed to them in good faith for many years in the 1980s and 1990s because I believed them to be an anti-bias and anti-KKK organization.  However, as a member of the Tea Party movement, I now learn that they are calling me ugly names because I do not believe in their socialist political program. 

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert