By Tim Donohue
Back in August 2019, I wrote a column for Save Jersey titled “In Search of White Supremacy.” It was satire, the kind of pointed, tongue-in-cheek piece you write when you are exhausted by the endless hysteria and narrative-driven hypocrisy pouring out of the leftwing establishment and the corporate media.
My premise was straightforward: there was no genuine epidemic of white supremacy ravaging America. What we faced was a calculated political weapon—Democrats and the left branding any opposition to their agenda as racist. Support for President Trump, secure borders, school choice, law and order, or traditional American values? All of it got cynically slapped with the “white supremacist” label. The goal wasn’t racial justice. It was to silence conservatives, shame Trump voters, and cancel anyone who stepped out of line.
I never expected that satire to become such a personal test case for me as the mayor of a small town, Middle Township, NJ.
Almost immediately, the local Democrats and the Cape May County NAACP attacked. They cherry-picked the column’s title, ignored the context and satirical intent, and tried to brand me as some kind of hidden extremist. Press releases, mailers, public demands for apologies and resignations—the whole bucket of mud. The assaults were personal and dishonest. Tens of thousands of dollars were invested to smear me in an election cycle where my name wasn’t even on the ballot. They weren’t engaging with my argument; they were manufacturing outrage for political gain and, no doubt, fundraising.
But something revealing happened in response. My neighbors and supporters from all backgrounds, fed up with the hypocrisy and cancel culture, pushed back hard. They showed up at public meetings in droves. They spoke up forcefully. They made it clear they knew me, knew my record, and knew the attacks were a smear. Black, white, Hispanic, Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike rejected the false narrative. That grassroots defense meant everything. It showed that real communities can see through the noise when national agitators try to divide us. The karma from that incident still reverberates. The Democrat candidates in Middle Township were trounced in the next several elections and their party have not fielded a candidate for local office since 2022.
I left my position as Mayor of Middle Township on December 31, 2023. But I remain deeply active in supporting candidates and campaigns that I believe promote the best interests of America—strong borders, economic opportunity, individual liberty, and national unity over identity politics. The principles haven’t changed. The fight against weaponized accusations continues.
Now, seven years on, the country is waking up to the true size and scope of this well-funded witch hunt.
Just days ago, the U.S. Department of Justice handed down an 11-count federal indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center—the organization that has spent decades labeling mainstream conservative groups, Trump supporters, Christians, and local Republicans as “hate groups” and “white supremacists.” The charges include wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
According to the grand jury, from 2014 to 2023 the SPLC secretly funneled more than $3 million in donor funds to individuals tied to violent extremist groups—the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, the National Socialist Party of America, and others. Paid informants were allegedly embedded in these circles, sometimes seemingly enabling the very extremism the SPLC claimed to combat, all while the group raised hundreds of millions by hyping an ever-expanding “hate” crisis.
In short, they were manufacturing and profiting from the very threat they used to smear millions of ordinary Americans. Exactly what my 2019 column satirized.
I take no joy in “I told you so.” But when one of the left’s premier institutions stands formally accused by the federal government of inflating, infiltrating, and monetizing “white supremacy” for donor dollars, vindication feels unavoidable. Not personal vindication alone, but for every American who was called a bigot for loving their country, every parent labeled “extremist” for wanting better schools, and every voter demonized for supporting secure borders and equal treatment under the law.
The real damage has been to trust. Trust between neighbors and loved ones. Trust in institutions. Trust that we can debate policy without character assassination. The loudest voices warning about “systemic racism” often had the most to gain by keeping racial tensions inflamed. Meanwhile, countless minority families were told America was irredeemably hostile, when the bigger obstacle was often the professional grievance industry itself.
Across this country, good people still reject that poison. We judge others by character and conduct, not by the latest officially approved talking points. We just want unity, opportunity, real hope and a quest for shared common ground. We are exhausted by the never-ending, agenda-driven quest to divide us into warring grievance groups. The spell is broken.
That is why the backlash against my column failed in 2019, and why the broader American public is increasingly tuning out the cult-like hatemongers today.
The SPLC indictment doesn’t erase the years of smears. But it pulls back the curtain on an inherently evil business model built on exaggeration and falsehood. It confirms what many of us suspected: the endless hunt for “white supremacy” was always less about protecting the vulnerable and more about the Left consolidating their power, profits, and political control.
America remains a good and decent nation. You don’t have to search too hard to find that. Our communities still pull together to do good work. Our generosity is unmatched. We still strive for a more perfect union. And the truth, as always, ultimately sets us free.
That is why we can never rest in our quest for the truth and never stop calling out the lies and hypocrisy.
MAAA – Make America Accountable Again
