CAPS Articles

Jeff Flake: Reaping what he has sown

California appeared to witness a rise in hate last year.

In 2016, the state was home to 79 organizations with animus toward blacks, whites, immigrants, Muslims and other groups, according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based group that tracks extremism. That’s up from 68 the year before.

I admit right up front that when the subject is immigration, I’m what the media loves to call a “hardliner.” When or why journalists came to embrace hardliner as their preferred word to describe Americans who believe in enforcing immigration law, I’m not sure. But I’m certain that reporters and their editors rarely miss an opportunity to use the pejorative hardliner in a not-too-subtle attempt to condemn those of us who feel that laws must be obeyed.