OPINION: Be wary of the agenda of Love Lives Here

Love Lives Here is an affiliate organization of the Montana Human Rights Network, a statewide organization focused on “equality” and monitoring “hate groups.” Love Lives Here brands itself as a do-gooder non-profit that is “committed to co-creating a caring, open, accepting and diverse community.”

But a closer look into Love Lives Here’s Facebook page indicates they are Chicago-style “community organizers” (many not from Montana) who are attempting to undermine existing values in the Flathead Valley. The techniques they use are straight out of Saul Alinsky’s guide for agitation, “Rules for Radicals.”

These tactics include lying about one’s agenda. Community organizers don’t like to be honest about their ultimate goals because they know moderates, and even most liberals, will not support them. Love Lives Here started out by protesting neo-Nazis and hosting events to celebrate the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. — ideas the entire community will rally behind. But now, several years down the road, they’ve started to push a more radical agenda and to show their true colors.

Let’s take a look at some recent Facebook posts from Love Lives Here and the Montana Human Rights Network.

n On Jan. 29, Love Lives Here publicly stated it would be “fantastic” to have a refugee resettlement office in Missoula, and suggested the Flathead Valley should too, writing “why not here!” Now they are hosting a pro-refugee rally in Kalispell, saying it is standing against “hate.” Apparently anyone who disagrees with their opinion on refugees is full of hate, fear, and violence.

n Do you support anti-immigration policies? Think Americans should speak English? Celebrate Columbus Day? According to a post the group shared on Feb. 5, that is “racism”!

n On Feb. 1, the Human Rights Network said those who attended an anti-refugee rally in Missoula were “extremists” and called it “disgraceful.” That’s right — they think people legally advocating for their community and values are disgraceful.  

n The big kicker was a Feb. 1 press release in which Montana Human Rights Network co-director Rachel Carroll Rivas stated, “ACT for America and its chapter in Montana spreads hate and fear against Muslim people through their community activism and political actions.” On Feb. 23, the Flathead chapter of ACT for America hosted a meeting that drew an estimated crowd of 460 concerned citizens.

Alinsky’s fifth rule for radicals is “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” This is the primary tool of the regressive left — calling everyone who disagrees with them “hateful” or “bigoted” or “xenophobic.” There are no legitimate facts to support their positions, which is why their arguments can only appeal to emotion, never logic. And rather than engage in debate, they simply threaten people with being labeled “hateful.”

We’re now at the point where labels like “extremist” and “xenophobic” have been so overused that these terms are completely meaningless! Flathead residents should be on guard against this type of immature, anti-intellectual bullying.

Buell is a resident of Whitefish.