Chip Berlet and Fred Clarkson on the Elections, p .2 & p .27

TheA PUBLICATION OF POLITICAL R PublicEyeESEARCH ASSOCIATES WINTER 2008 • Volume XXIII, No.4 $5.25 Rebranding Fascism National-Anarchists By Spencer Sunshine n September 8, 2007 in Sydney, Aus - Otralia, the antiglobalization move - ment mobilized once again against neoliberal

s economic policies, this time to oppose the e g a

m APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Coopera - I y t t

e tion) summit. Just as during the protests G / P

F against the World Trade Organization in A / n

o Seattle,Washington, in 1999, the streets were s t a

W filled with an array of groups, such as envi - m i J ronmentalists, socialists, and human rights Team Sarah, the network launched by the prolife Susan B. Anthony List to mobilize support for vice advocates. And also just like in Seattle, there presidential candidate Sarah Palin, continues to organize women (and men) post-election. was a “Black Bloc ”—a group of militant activists, usually left-wing anarchists, who wore masks and dressed all in black. Post-Palin Feminism In Sydney, the Black Bloc assembled and hoisted banners proclaiming “Globaliza - By Abby Scher Washington Hilton’s halls that day and tion is Genocide.” But when fellow demon - rom the podium at the Christian Right’s through the Republican party base in later strators looked closely, they realized these FValuesVoter Summit in mid-September, weeks, her vice presidential candidacy Black Bloc marchers were “National- National Review Institute’s Kate O’Beirne, revealed a generational cleavage that these Anarchists ”— local fascists dressed as anar - 59, pronounced that the “selection of Sarah elders may not have expected. Because for chists who were infiltrating the demon - Palin [as the GOP vice presidential nomi - some young people in the hall, Sarah Palin stration. The police had to protect the nee] sounded the death knell of modern was bringing women’s rights and femi - interlopers from being expelled by irate American feminism.” nism to them and their mothers and that’s Rebranding Fascism continues on page 12 “She’s a prick to the liberal establish - a good thing.These young people were not ment, to the feminists, and to the men who running to buy O’Beirne’s recent book, fear them,” she jeered to the audience of Women Who Make the World Worse: and Christian Right activists. HowTheir Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruin - IN THIS ISSUE ing Our Schools, Families, Military, and And when Phyllis Schlafly, 84, threw Commentary ...... 2 anti-feminist red meat to the cheering Sports. 1 It may have seemed to them like yes - crowd, a 60-plus woman in the audience terday’s news. Even Phyllis Schlafly, when Saving Monsignor Ryan ...... 3 asked directly how she felt that Sarah Palin turned to me and said proudly she had been Book Reviews ...... 30 with Ms. Schlafly since the campaign identified herself as a beneficiary of femi - against the Equal Rights Amendment in nism, backpedaled and said, well, there are Reports in Review ...... 33 the late 1970s. all sorts of feminists. Eyes Right ...... 35 But as Palin Power surged through the Post-Palin Feminism continues on page 20

THE PUBLIC EYE 1 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

GUEST COMMENTARY ThePublicEye Publisher The Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, The Culture Wars Are Still Not Over M. Div., D. Min. Editor The Religious Right in the States and Beyond Abby Scher, Ph.D Design/layout By Frederick Clarkson Hird Graphic Design In the wake of pre-election punditry that the Religious Right is dead and that the so- Printing Red Sun Press called Culture Wars are over, I wrote a piece for The Public Eye: “The Culture Wars Are Editorial Board Not Over: The Institutionalization of the Christian Right.” 1 The year was 2001, what Chip Berlet • Pam Chamberlain many now consider to have been the high water mark of the power and influence of the Frederick Clarkson • David Cunningham Religious Right in American politics. During the 2008 election season we have heard Gillian Kane • Surina Khan • Jean Hardisty similar claims by Washington, D.C. insiders and pundits that the Religious Right is dead, Roberto Lovato • The Rev. Katherine dying, or irrelevant or that the culture wars are over or about to be. Such declarations Hancock Ragsdale • Tarso Luís Ramos Abby Scher • Holly Sklar are as wrong now as they were in 2001. The Religious Right has developed an extraordinary infrastructure, especially at the PRA Political Research Associates state level, that will restore and replenish the movement as the founding generation of Reli - gious Right leaders passes from public life, and will regroup in the wake of national Repub - Founder and President Emerita Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D lican electoral losses in 2008. Additionally, fresh battles will break out on different turf, in different towns and states. Even the issues will evolve. But the culture of denial regard - Staff ing the ongoing potency and significance of the Religious Right in American public life The Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, President remains as a stubborn obstacle to meaningful discussion about this powerful movement. Alen Abdula, Data/Web Master Win or lose from election to election, whatever its ups and downs, the Religious Right Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst is on a mission, or rather a cluster of interrelated missions. The missions are religious in Pam Chamberlain, Senior Researcher nature and transcend not only electoral outcomes but the lives of most if not all indi - Kapya Kaoma, Project Director viduals and institutions. This is much of the source of both the movement’s resilience, Michelle Nicholas, Business Manager and its visionary development of a vast capacity to move people and shape events, to Tarso Luís Ramos, Research Director raise-up leaders, and to field effective organizations able to wage electoral campaigns Abby Scher, Editorial Director Commentary continues on page 25 Interns Noemie Hailu Maria Planansky Andrew Smith

Board of Directors Richard Gross Supriya Pillai Emelia Rallapalli Wendy Volkmann

The Public Eye is published by Political Research Associates. Annual subscriptions are $21.00 for individuals and non-profit organizations, $10.00 for students and low-income individuals, and $36.00 for libraries and institutions. Single issues, $5.25. Outside U.S., Canada, and Mexico, add $9.00 for surface delivery or $14.00 for air mail. Please make checks payable to Political Research Associates, 1310 Broadway, Suite 201, s

e Somerville, Massachusetts 02144-1837. g a 617.666.5300 fax: 617.666.6622 m I y t t

e PRA is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. All G / donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted n a

v by law. © Political Research Associates, 2008. i l l u S Website: www.publiceye.org n i t s

u All rights reserved. ISSN 0275-9322 J A San Francisco demonstrator after California voters passed Proposition 8 overturning a gay marriage law. ISSUE 62

THE PUBLIC EYE 2 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye Saving Monsignor Ryan Refuting the Myths of Neoconservative Roman Catholic Economics

By Frank L. Cocozzelli n October 1936, a Roman Catholic priest Iand professor of moral theology at the Catholic University of America took to the airwaves to defend the New Deal from scur - rilous attacks made by another Catholic priest, the demagogic radio personality of the day, Father Charles Coughlin. Monsignor John A. Ryan’s speech was titled “Roosevelt Safeguards America.” In many ways, the radio volley between the two priests still reflects debates raging in the church and in American society today. Ryan’s explanation of the sources of support for Communist anti-clericalism in Spain that he outlined in his radio address remains important in light of the claims of a small group of contem - porary neoconservative Roman Catholic intellectual leaders whose views have had a profound influence on the American Catholic Church, as well as broader Amer - ican public discourse. “The great tragedy of Spain,” Ryan declared,quotingfellowpriestWilfredParsons, was that in the nineteenth century the working masses apostatized from the Church, as Pope Pius X once m o c

remarked. And, it is well to remem - . o t o

ber, it was poverty, destitution and h p k c o

injustice which made them aposta - t s i , z c

tize. They got to hate the Church i w e i

because they hated the friends of the k z s a P

Church, who exploited them and a n i l o

whom the Church did nothing to r a rebuke or correct. K

Frank L. Cocozzelli writes a weekly column The lesson of all this for us is that we distribution of wealth and income. on Roman Catholic neoconservatism at should meet the evil of Commu - Failure to remove these evils will do Talk2Action.org, and is contributor to nism not merely by denouncing it, more to strengthen Communism Dispatches from the Religious Left: The and not at all by stigmatizing as com - than all the propaganda and all the Future of Faith and Politics in America (Ig munistic all fundamental reforms. “boring-in” methods of the organized Publishing, 2008). A director of the Institute We must attack the main causes of Communist movement. for Progressive Christianity, he is working on Communism. Among these are If, as Pope John Paul II declared, the a book on American liberalism. poverty, insecurity and inequitable

THE PUBLIC EYE 3 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

Church has a “preferential option for the revisionism is one of the more remarkable ment that the Church has repeatedly con - poor,” one would be pressed to find it deviations not only from Roman Catholic demne d— shaking off all the modern expressed in the works of such contem - teaching, but from basic standards of schol - equitable improvements of the Progressive porary “friends of the Church” as Michael arship in recent American history. and urban liberal movements of the early Novak, George Weigel and other Roman The point of this rewriting of history 20th century — particularly those of the Catholic neoconservatives. Indeed, they are is quite simple: Roman Catholicism has Protestant Social Gospel movement, the prominent proponents of a buccaneer had a tradition of social justice consistent 1919 Program of Catholic Bishops, and the capitalism that exploits the poorest peo - with the New Deal’s generally pro-worker work of Monsignor Ryan. In essence, their ple of God — an idea profoundly at odds approach, one that calls for the use of goal is to return the Roman Catholic with Catholic social teaching for more than activist government to ensure economic Church’s economic stance to the 19th cen - a century. tury when industrial capital was unchecked Many believe that neoconservatism is by the moral vision of the church and the nothing more than a unilateral approach practical power of the state acting on behalf to United States foreign policy. But this is of the citizens. One way they hope to a dangerous misconception. Lost in the Roman Catholic accomplish this task is by having Roman focus on a clique of Washington, D.C. mil - Catholicism again refocus on personal itarists (as important as they are) is the role neoconservatives ignore virtues rather than virtues related to the of the highly theocratic brand of neocon - broader economy. servatism.These “theocons” see their phi - the Church’s teachings At the forefront of the revisionist move - losophy as a mechanism to transform the ment is Michael Novak, the former Chris - whole of society into one based upon a challenging unregulated tian Socialist turned Catholic theocon, highly orthodox, traditionalist form of and a resident scholar at the American Roman Catholic morality, a fringe form capitalism and support - Enterprise Institute. Anyone who comes to resoundingly rejected by the vast majority Novak’s books on Catholic economic of the Church’s American flock. ing worker rights and ethics, without knowing that he is a theo - Much like its more secular variety, Roman rist of Roman Catholic neoconservatism, Catholic neoconservatism bases its approach distributive justice. may be misled. Novak pays lip service to upon three pillars: nationalism (as opposed such concepts as labor laws, for example, to patriotism), a national religious orthodoxy but when the rubber meets the road, he (as opposed to an overlapping moral con - excuses the sins of the rich and powerful at sensus derived from a pluralistic society), and equity. Catholic theocons such as Michael the expense of the common man and laissez-faire capitalism (as opposed to New Novak are doing their best to efface that woman. Deal legacy capitalism). 1 This is generally at tradition. Novak’s premier books on capitalism, odds with Roman Catholic theology. For The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (1982) example, the concept of nationalism is in The Whiggish Revisionism of and The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of direct conflict with theVatican’s call for uni - Michael Novak Capitalism (1993), present a highly tortured versalism (neoconservatives such as Irving any theocons deceptively use the term version of the Roman Catholic concept of Kristol — echoing Leo Strauss — bemoan M“liberal” to their advantage. social justice. For the Catholic neocon, this as “the end of politics”). This conflict They will point to continuous papal damna - ethics are up to the individual and should comes into sharp relief when economics tions of liberalism (Pope Pius IX’s 1864 not be incorporated into government comes into pla y— it quickly becomes appar - Syllabus of Errors immediately comes to action, but no one should be concerned ent that Catholic neocons are more “neocon” mind) dating back to the French Revolu - because laissez-faire capitalism ensures lib - than “Catholic.” tion, charging the great philosophy with erty for all. Throughout The Spirit of In essence, Catholic neocons are “nihilism” and “moral relativism,” and Democratic Capitalism, Novak praises the attempting to subvert the Roman Catholic warning of its supposed “corrosive nature.” virtues of “liberalism.” But when he does, tradition of social justice in order to fur - However, these papal denunciations he is actually referring to 19th century ther a greater (and ultimately) nonreli - are of a liberalism that has little to do with neoclassical liberalism, the variety that was gious neoconservative agenda. As we shall the liberalism of today. In fact, the pontiffs yet to be humanized by either the Protes - see, their take on Catholicism, social jus - were condemning laissez-faire capitalism, tant Social Gospel movement or its Roman tice, and economics is not only inaccurate, which today has taken other names and Catholic variation, Distributive Justice. but engages in a quietly ruthless form of his - forms. The “theoconic” economic model Rather than anything remotely like torical revisionism. I daresay that their is arguably the successor to the very move - Roman Catholic social teaching on eco -

THE PUBLIC EYE 4 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye nomics, Novak embraces the libertarian and governmental authoritarianism, as F.A. Hayek’s (1899-1992) view of a very concentrated economic power comes to ATimeline of Key Roman limited role for government. 2 Like Hayek, distort politics and government. A close Catholic Economic Novak describes himself as a “Whig” on corollary is that the lack of an activist gov - Justice Pronouncements economics (referring to the British and ernment creates a power vacuum which 1891: Rerum Novarum (Of New Things) American conservative parties that went powerful economic interests are ever-eager encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII, subti - extinct in the mid 19th century). Gov - to occupy; the Hayek/Novak formulation tled, The Rights and Duties of Capital ernment’s only concern, he believes, should fails to take this into account. and Labor. It condemned unrestrained be the rule of law, letting a “free market” Theocons such as Michael Novak con - laissez-faire capitalism, maintaining the correct itself when recessions and depres - veniently ignore Roman Catholic notions Church’s opposition to communism and sions occur. Hayek and Novak believe that of distributive justice, the ethics about support of private property ownership. the only appropriate corrective measure in economics based in “natural law.” Rooted Key progressive components included a the marketplace is loss of profit. They fail in the thinking of Thomas Aquinas, nat - living wage and the right for labor to to acknowledge that property concen - ural law ethics are the rules God set into organize. trated in the hands of a powerful few can, motion in the world and also instilled in and often has, been used to domineer the our own natures. While theocons distort 1906: A Living Wage – Monsignor John A. Ryan publishes his first major work many. Beyond that, Novak and “Whig- that defended the ownership of private minded” others of the Catholic Right offer property, but simultaneously “spurned no mechanism for extending property overly acquisitive and unregulated free ownership to the population at large. Monsignor Ryan is an market capitalism as economically Hayek advocated a laissez-faire approach unhealthy and morally bankrupt.” to business, equating it with freedom and important figure not only liberty. “The planning against which all our 1919: The Bishops’ Program of Social criticism is directed,” he wrote, “is solely in Roman Catholic but Reconstruction – ghost-written by the planning against competition.” In this, Monsignor John A. Ryan for the U.S. the Austrian-born economist feared that in American history. Catholic bishops. The document called New Dealism in America, as well as the for the right of workers to organize for mixed center-Left economy advocated by the purpose of collective bargaining and, Britain’s Labour Party, would fall short of as a forerunner of Social Security, retire - a promised “utopia” which in turn would notions of natural law to justify their views ment insurance. cause unrest and ultimately a slide into on family planning, stem cell research, 1931: Quadragesimo Anno – A papal strongman tyranny —“Caesarism ”— that and LGBT rights, they ignore this field of encyclical literally meaning “in the forti - would refuse to give up the reins of elected ethics when it comes to the economy for eth year” (to commemorate the fortieth power. History, of course, has proven him good reason: it throws a monkey-wrench anniversary of Rerum novarum ). Restat - 3 wrong. In Great Britain, Labor govern - into their entire argument. ing the message of Rerum novarum while ments have peaceably handed off control First consider this 2003 screed on pointing out workers’ rights’ progress toTories as have liberal Democratic admin - progressive taxation by Novak: that had been made in the last forty istrations to incoming Republican admin - From President Jefferson to President years, the document raised concerns for istrations in the United States. Theodore Roosevelt there was no other issues that had appeared since Novak’s embrace of Hayek gives cover income tax in America, and it never 1891, including the effects of more to those who invoke the free market to jus - entered into the heads of the Dem - complex industrialization upon class tify bad, even unconscionable, behavior. ocratic or any other party that a divi sions. Contrary to Novak’s fear of collectivism or limited government should confis - 1991: Centesimus Annus – A papal centralized state power, the real issue is cate money from some Americans on arbitrary powe r —whether it is derived encyclical literally meaning “in the the pretext of giving it to others. hundredth year” (to commemorate from the government or powerful eco - Nor that in so doing government the hundredth anniversary of Rerum nomic interests. Arbitrary economic power should pry relentlessly into every Novarum ) that revisits Catholic social can and often does cause hardship, deny - 4 item of income. justice teachings on economics. Pope ing the middle, working, and poor classes John Paul II added to the discussion the economic security in the form of a home Whatever one may think of Novak’s economic views, they are not rooted in role of creativity of entrepreneurs and and meaningful employment. It can also Third World debt. be closely linked to political persecution natural law. His shrill ideology also avoids the facts of American history. Contrary to

THE PUBLIC EYE 5 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

Novak’s slippery assertion above, for exam - due by the natural law to the suste - Church’s social justice tradition. What the ple, during the American Civil War our nance of the poor.” 6 New Deal provided was far more in line government instituted an income tax sys - But Novak is not the only Roman with Catholic teaching than any neocon’s tem as a means to finance the costs of the Catholic neoconservative whose views on sentiments for laissez-faire economics. conflict. Obviously, the idea of an income the New Deal run against the grain of tax “entered into the head” of Abraham Catholic teaching on economics. Con - More on Whiggish Economics Lincoln. sider rejected U.S. Supreme Court Justice he trouble with capitalism is capi - Contrast Novak with quotes from Ryan’s nominee and American Enterprise Insti - “T talists ,” Herbert Hoover (nobody’s natural law ethics-based view which suggests tute Scholar Robert H. Bork (a convert to socialist) once said, “They’re too damn that rather than opposing an income tax, orthodox Catholicism in later life), who greedy.” But the claims of Novakian theo - Aquinas would probably have been for it: declared in his book, Slouching Toward cons not withstanding, an orthodox The principle that ownership is stew - Gomorrah: practice of religion does not necessarily inoculate one from the temptation of ardship, that the man who possesses The great political upsurge of equal - greedy business practices. A particularly superfluous goods must regard him - ity occurred with Franklin Delano good illustration is the business leadership self as a trustee for the needy, is fun - Roosevelt’s New Deal and Harry of the late J. Peter Grace (1913-1995). damental and all-pervasive in the Truman’s Fair Deal….The message Grace, the CEO of W. R. Grace and teaching of Christianity. No more was that inequality must be cured by Company, was constantly described as clear or concise statement of it has government. No other institution is “devoutly Catholic.” He was both a Knight ever been given than that of St. sufficiently comprehensive in its of Malta as well as a founding member of Thomas Aquinas: “As regards the jurisdiction to undertake this task Legatus, an organization of Roman power of acquiring and dispensing which means egalitarian passion Catholic business leaders. On its web site, material goods, man may lawfully must always lead to greater central - Legatus describes its mission as “To study, possess them as his own; as regards ized power and coercion. Lyndon live and spread the Faith in our business, their use, however, a man ought not Johnson’s Great Society carried for - professional and personal lives .” to look upon them as his own, but as ward what Roosevelt and Truman Under Grace’s leadership, the company common, so that he may readily had begun and accomplished the 5 improperly disposed of a highly toxic minister to the needs of others.” most thorough-going redistribution industrial solvent into the ground water of As well as: of wealth and status in the name of Woburn, Massachusetts. The substance, equality that the country ever expe - The great systematiser of theology in trichloroethylene, has been linked to an rienced .…The fact is that antihier - the thirteenth century, St. Thomas increase in local diagnoses of leukemia archical, egalitarian sentiments were Aquinas, who is universally recog - and cancer.The court battle over this inci - on the rise in political movements, nized as the most authoritative pri - dent was the subject of the best-selling book whose tendencies were, therefore, vate teacher in the Church, stated the and film of the same name, A Civil Action. collectivism and centralization, with obligation of distribution in less As Seattle Post Intelligencer reported, “Grace a concomitant decline in the free - extreme and more scientific terms: was indicted by the Department of Justice doms of business organizations, pri - “According to the order of nature on two counts of lying to the EPA in 1982 vate associations, families, and instituted by Divine Providence, the about the amount of hazardous chemicals individuals. goods of the earth are designed to it used at its Woburn plant.” 7 supply the needs of men. The divi - Of course “the cards have been unfairly And then there was W.R. Grace’s role in sion of goods and their appropriation stacked.” But not in the way that Bork sug - asbestos dumping in Libby, Montana. In through human law do not thwart gests. Before FDR’s New Deal in the 1930s, February 2006, the U.S. Department of this purpose. Therefore, the goods both the middle class and working poor did Justice announced a 10-count criminal which a man has in superfluity are not have safety nets such as Social Security indictment against seven senior current and or the National Labor Relations Board, former Grace officials. Seattle Post Intelli - unlike the very wealthy whose superfluous gence r reported that the charges, “…alleged assets provided every possible cushion for conspiracy, knowing endangerment, Visit Right Web for profiles of the individuals the downturns in life. These are facts typ - obstruction of justice and wire fraud for and organizations promoting a militarist U.S. ically, and conveniently, left out of the endangering the people of Libby by con - foreign policy, especially in the Middle East. writings of the theocons whose special cealing well-documented hazards of the http://rightweb.irc-online.org pleadings for the wealthy are transparent tremolite asbestos.” 8 According to the to Roman Catholics well-grounded in the indictment, as far back as the 1970s Grace

THE PUBLIC EYE 6 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye y e l g a B t a P and Company attempted to conceal infor - hierarchy doesn’t know as much about ogy is doomed to being a thin sort of gruel, mation about the adverse health effects of those things as they do about their theol - minimalist and unsatisfying to most reli - the mining operation. ogy.” 9 Monaghan’s personalized and pater - gious persons.” 10 Consider as well the case of another nalistic control of the university “A necessary bit of realism,” indeed! Legatus cofounder Tom Monaghan, icon singlehandedly exposes the absurdity of Novak and his cohorts acknowledge that and financier of Catholic Right causes. Novak’s contention that if business lead - capitalism is “for sinners” and as noted After building his Domino’s Pizza empire, ers merely become virtuous through faith, above, fail to provide any remedy for the he sold it in 1998 to Bain Capital (an then government oversight of industry collateral damage.Their theoconic remedy investment company co-founded by Mitt becomes unnecessary. is to make society as a whole more virtu - Romney) for a price in excess of one billion In his 1990 publication, Towards aThe - ous, largely as an outgrowth of individual dollars. Monaghan has since been invest - ology of the Corporation, Novak expounds virtue, and little or no government is ing his fortune in conservative Roman on why he believes theology is central to required. George Weigel, one of Novak’s Catholic causes such as theThomas More modern business ethics: “Finally, since fellow theocons, elaborated in a 1996 Law Center, Ave Maria University, and the most Americans are remarkably religious interview: militant anti-abortion group Priests for (and since most are of Jewish or Christian In Centesimus Annus, the pope writes Life, headed by Father Frank Pavone. background), a truly realistic business ethic that the temptation of wealthy soci - Monaghan has thwarted attempts by should have a theological dimension.” eties (or developing societies, for Ave Maria University employees to union - Several lines later, he adds, “Thus, a theo - that matter) is to confuse “having ize. When asked if he saw a contradiction logical investigation of the weaknesses and more” with “being more.” Spend an in his actions, since unionization is sup - strengths of a capitalist system or a business hour looking at ads on prime-time ported by the Catholic Church, Mon - corporation supplies a necessary bit of television, and you’ll see that temp - aghan replied, “I think that [the church] realism. A business ethic without a theol -

THE PUBLIC EYE 7 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

tation is omnipresent in America. If anything were ever a tip-off that theo - first appeared in mid-nineteenth century cons are using orthodoxy to conceal an Italy and reinterpreted the foundational Capitalist economies only work inequitable economic system, this is it. thinker of Catholicism,Thomas Aquinas. when a critical mass of people are pos - They ignore arguments of natural law Aquinas defines distributive justice as sessed by certain habits of the mind related to redistribution when it suits them. follows: and heart (what some of us used to It is important for both Roman call “virtues”): self-command, the …in distributive justice something Catholics and non-Catholics to be able to is given to a private individual, in so capacity for prudent risk-taking, the rebut the theocons and describe the pro - ability to form cooperative working far as what belongs to the whole is due found theoconic deviation from Catholic to the part, and in a quantity that is relationships, and the willingness to teaching on economics, their outrageous defer gratification. Corporations proportionate to the importance of historical revisionism, and their misplaced the position of that part in respect of need to be very careful that, in their loyalty to economic elites. A key to our marketing and advertising, they don’t the whole. Consequently in distrib - rebuttal is, as we shall see, the story of Mon - utive justice a person receives all the promote attitudes and counter-val - signor Ryan. ues that will, eventually, cause the more of the common goods, accord - market system to implode. “Just do ing as he holds a more prominent it” is bad morals and bad economics. 11 position in the community. This prominence in an aristocratic com - Contemporary liberals understand that Contrary to Novak’s munity is gauged according to virtue, the federal government, one representative in an oligarchy according to wealth, of the people, needs enough muscle in fear of collectivism or in a democracy according to liberty, order to deal with the excesses of central - and in various ways according to ized economic power of trusts, monopo - centralized state power, various forms of community. Hence lies, and polluters. A government built in distributive justice the mean is upon liberal democratic principles is the the real issue is observed, not according to equality greatest deterrent to the centralized power between thing and thing, but accord - of a plutocracy. arbitrary power. ing to proportion between things Roman Catholic natural law principles and persons: in such a way that even of distributive justice are integral to con - as one person surpasses another, so temporary liberal economic thought, as that which is given to one person sur - we’ll see below. Even John Locke’s notion A Brief Overview of Catholic passes that which is allotted to of natural law in Two Treatises of Govern - Economics another. 13 ment thwarts the theocons’ anything goes, o what are basic notions of Catholic Aquinas addresses something the free market opposition to economic justice: social justice and how have they been S Roman Catholic neoconservatives con - applied to contemporary economics in the It will, perhaps, be objected to this, spicuously do not: a duty to distribute United States? that if gathering the acorns or other with provision to the poorest of society. Modern Catholic social justice eco - fruits of the earth, etc., makes a right Theocons such as George Weigel may well nomics begins with Rerum Novarum (Of to them, then any one may engross point to Aquinas’s talk about inequality, but NewThings) which was issued by Pope Leo as much as he will.To which I answer, Aquinas is talking about unequal reward XIII in May 1891 and was subtitled, The Not so.The same law of Nature that based upon corresponding contribution Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor. In does by this means give us property, with an eye towards a minimum require - it, Leo severely condemned unrestrained does also bound that property too. ment of distribution to the most vulnera - libertarian capitalism, while maintaining “God has given us all things richly.” ble, not distribution based upon power. the Church’s opposition to communism Is the voice of reason confirmed by Clearly, Aquinas’ teachings are far closer to and support of private property ownership. inspiration? But how far has He the New Deal vision of redistribution and Key progressive components included a liv - given it us — “to enjoy”? As much as regulated capitalism than that of the Hayek- ing wage — the minimum salary necessary any one can make use of to any influenced theocons. for workers to support their family — and advantage of life before it spoils, so Neo-Thomism is far more flexible than the right of labor to organize unions. much he may by his labour fix a traditional natural law thinking based on While Leo’s encyclical is clearly based property in. Whatever is beyond this Thomas Aquinas. It embraces the spirit of upon natural law principles, they are Neo- is more than his share, and belongs his writings instead of focusing on the let - 12 Thomistic natural law principles, based on to others.” ter of the great theologian’s works. Method - a school of Roman Catholic thought that

THE PUBLIC EYE 8 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye ology trumps static conclusions and equi - tionalists, but rejected by many main - Deal liberalism and its legacy. ties are more freely allowed to rectify absurd stream American Catholics (as we shall see On the heels of the infamous 1911Tri - conclusions. It was an important first step below, many of today’s traditionalist angle Shirtwaist Factory fire, New York in acknowledging the role of historical Catholics now tend to worry more about State Assembly Majority Leader Al Smith consciousness in applying classical ethical societal disorder where biological issues are and New York State Senator Robert Wag - teachings to contemporary issues. This concerned, but become diametrically ner, Sr. along with other Roman Catholic difference in outlook explains why a tra - unconcerned on economic issues). At the elected officials (mostly in the Northeast ditionalist-minded Catholic would read time, the Vatican was concerned that exces - and parts of the Midwest) began paying Rerum Novarum and only see it as a con - sive individualism would result in long overdue attention to the needs of the demnation of Socialism while a Neo- deplorable living conditions for the work - worker-class. While this shift in con - Thomist will clearly see Leo’s call for ing class. But it must be remembered that stituency priorities may have come from the bettering the economic conditions of the the Church’s criticism was aimed at nine - moral outrage of seeing 148 mostly Italian working class through organized labor and teenth century classical liberal, laissez-faire and Jewish garment workers either burn or legislative action. economics — not the economics of New jump to their deaths, a political calculation Neo-Thomism acknowledges that Aquinas viewed the world through a thir - teenth century lens, and that he would undoubtedly see things differently 800 When Ryan’s CatholicView Strayed Rightward years later in light of the tremendous Monsignor Ryan’s name almost always generates apoplexy in conservative discourse, advances in science, our understanding of especially Roman Catholic Right discourse. A Catholic paleoconservative writer for the blog “Culture Wars” excoriated Ryan because he “…continued to serve on the ACLU board history, and so much more. Beyond with the Communists” while the National Review’ s Jonah Goldberg recently cited Ryan’s addressing the need to reconcile Church economic teachings as proof of “liberal fascism.” teachings with the ideas of Hegel, Kant, and But although Monsignor Ryan was instrumental in shaping New Deal economics and liberalism while addressing contemporary championing free speech, like a hero of any political or religious stripe, he was not flawless. issues, Neo-Thomism is a huge step closer Historian John McGreevy documents in his book Catholicism And American Freedom to Aristotle’s methodology (Aquinas based (throughout the chapter entitled “The Social Question”) how Ryan campaigned against his natural law ethics on the works of Aris - birth control, even going as far as describing couples who practiced it as engaging in “a love totle filtered through Maimonides, as well of material goods and a self-indulgence.” In fact, after economics, it was one of his primary as the works of Cicero) than the static concerns. dogmatism of Vatican traditionalists. Neo- Another shortcoming was his attitude towards the Loyalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. Thomism more closely follows the Classi - By and large, Ryan was an opponent of fascism. As early as the 1920s he wrote several cal Greek philosopher’s admonition that articles attacking Mussolini’s concept of the individual existing for the benefit of the state. 16 everything that has changed is changing. And he consistently condemned Hitler, particularly in regard to his antisemitic policies (In the run-up to the U.S. entry into World War II, Ryan openly campaigned to end restrictions Much of the historical Protestant- on neutrality that prevented providing arms to the Allies). However, on Franco and Spain, Catholic tension within liberalism arises Ryan got it wrong. from divergent notions of freedom. Main - According to a New York Times article published July 14, 1939, “Asks Public to Act on Neu - stream Protestants emphasize the freedom trality Act,” subtitled “Mgr. Ryan hits Nazi Ideal; Assails Totalitarian States but Defends of the individual coupled with a faith in the Franco,” while speaking at the University of Virginia on the need to loosen the restrictions basic goodness of mankind.They initially that denied sending weapons to France and Great Britain, both on the verge of war with also embraced a more Darwinist economic Nazi Germany, Ryan failed to make a serious connection between Nazi fascism and Franco’s liberalism of the nineteenth century: clas - Falange. Reporter Winifred Mallon noted, “the Monsignor sai d... he favored the Franco regime because the government it replaced had been ‘Communist controlled, and not a true sical liberalism (now known as economic democracy.’” Clearly, history records that the Loyalist regime assumed power through libertarianism).The Roman Catholic con - democratic elections. cept of freedom had less to do with the indi - If Ryan was anti-Nazi and anti-fascist, which he was, then what explains his apparent sym - vidual and is focused more communally — pathy for Franco? Most likely, the Monsignor viewed the situation in Spain through the with an emphasis upon order and general lens of attacks on the Church. There is the infamous photograph of Loyalist soldiers firing obedience to higher religious authorities. in execution fashion at a statue of Jesus — an image that must have chilled many a Roman Nineteenth century Catholicism feared Catholic. As a priest he was obviously appalled at some in the Republican forces who were executing approximately 7,000 priests and nuns (it should also be pointed out that Nation - that the Protestant emphasis on the indi - alist forces executed at least sixteen priests, not to mention incidents such as the Guernica vidual’s freedom would lead to disobedi - air raid). 17 ence and societal disorder — a belief still It is also worth noting that Ryan never again publicly defended Franco after June 1939. common among Roman Catholic tradi -

THE PUBLIC EYE 9 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye was involved: Tammany Hall and other Thomist ethics, and became a champion upon Aristotelian notions of natural law Democratic Party machines quickly under - of civil liberties and economic justice. He ethics, he outlined a very contemporary lib - stood that political power lay with work - wed theology to economics and in 1906 eral concept of the just distribution of ing class immigrants, not the corporate published his first major economic treatise, profit in relation to contribution, merit, and class. Real advances in public health, child A Living Wage, that defended the owner - special talents. He later became a confidant labor laws, and workers’ rights soon fol - ship of private property, but simultaneously of FDR, earning the moniker, “the Right lowed. “spurned overly acquisitive and unregulated Reverend New Dealer.” This is where Roman Catholicism has free market capitalism as economically His Bishops’ Program of 1919 called for had one of its greatest influences on mod - unhealthy and morally bankrupt.” 15 In a living wage as well as retirement insurance ern liberalism: a deeply ingrained sense of 1915 Ryan attained a professorship at — a forerunner of what in 1935 was to community, and the idea that activist Catholic University where he taught until become Social Security. government could advance the nation’s his retirement in 1939. To the chagrin of Ryan and the Bishops were not afraid of general welfare. This Catholic notion today’s Roman Catholic Right, he was crediting Fabian socialists with ideas that that we are still mutually and communally both an early board member of the ACLU could be used to make capitalism fair and responsible for each other helped trans - as well being a close friend of the organi - more meritorious.This stands in contrast form nineteenth century economic lib - zation’s founder, Roger Baldwin. 16 to the unthinking rejection of any and all eralism into the more compassionate If he were alive today Monsignor Ryan, ideas derived from socialism by today’s twentieth century liberalism which would like many of today’s theocons, would theocons whose fundamentalist-like faith ultimately define the New Deal and its oppose artificial birth control, abortion in market capitalism smacks of idolatry to succeeding variants. 14 rights, and embryonic stem cell research. mainstream Roman Catholics. But unlike today’s strident Roman Catholic At the heart of Rerum Novarum (as well The Bishops’ Program of Right, he understood that opponents on as its encyclical restatement in 1931, Social Reconstruction such matters could be strong allies on eco - Quadragesimo Anno ) and The Bishops’ Pro - he next major step in Roman Catholic nomic issues. As the Notre Dame historian gram of Social Reconstruction is a form of nat - Tsocial justice teaching in the United John T. McGreevy noted, “The civil lib - ural law ethics: the rules God set into States came in 1919 with the release of The erties lawyer Morris Ernst, before chal - motion in the world and also instilled in Bishops’ Program of Social Reconstruction — lenging the 1935 congressional testimony our own natures. Echoing the teachings of ghost-written by Monsignor John A. Ryan. of Father John A. Ryan on contraception Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, both The program, Ryan wrote, “…was issued carefully announced, ‘(O)n many battle works emphasized the merits of modera - in response to the general need which men fronts in the fight for freedom of the press, tion. These statements did not condemn felt after the war for programs for the recon - for labor, and so forth, I have fought side ownership’s right to take a profit from its struction of social regions.” It called for the by side with Father Ryan.’” 17 business endeavors; rather they required right of workers to organize for the purpose In 1916, he published the first of sev - that a proper portion of earnings to be justly of collective bargaining and for retirement eral editions of his magnum opus, Dis - distributed to their workers in proportion insurance — yet unlike previous Catholic tributive Justice:The Right andWrong of Our to their contribution and adjusted to allow distributist ideas advocating by such Present Distribution of Wealth. Drawing that worker to support a family. thinkers as Hilaire Belloc, G. K. Chester - ton and Dorothy Day, it embraced gov - ernment programs as the means for achieving these goals. Read the best analysis of the Christian Right on Ryan, a key theorist of Roman Catholic Talk2Action.org! approaches to economics and social justice, is an often-overlooked hero of twentieth Talk2Action is a group blog led by Public Eye writer and century economic liberalism. Born to Irish immigrants in 1869 Minnesota, John Ryan editorial board member Frederick Clarkson. Read weekly grew up during the age of robber barons contributions from Fred, Political Research Associates and a labor movement with little or no real bargaining power. Ryan was ordained a researcher Chip Berlet, and the rest of the best thinkers Roman Catholic priest in 1898. In the about the Christian Right. course of his career, he blended late nine - teenth century Midwestern Progressive Visit Talk2Action.org. Populism with a burning sense of Neo-

THE PUBLIC EYE 10 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

“Humanity is instilled with intelligence rupting effect; religious organizations lose 10 Michael Novak, Toward a Theology of the Corporation, with which to make rational choices,” The their independence and their ability to (Washington, D.C., AEI Press, 1990), 4. 11 George Weigel Interview, “Faith Essential Ingredient of New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia explains, offer social criticism, and their history and Democratic Capitalism” Religion & Liberty, March & April “but its reason is bound by what one theologies are rewritten for them. 1996, 6: 2. ‘ought’ to do — every being has its telos or American Roman Catholicism doesn’t 12 John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, (Cambridge: end to fulfill and it is not for humanity to need any more Novaks channeling Hayek Cambridge University Press, 1988), 117. 13 Thomas Aquinas, SummaTheologica, “Question 61:The interfere.” and politically aligning with the Religious Parts of Justice, Article 2. Rerum Novaru m as well as the Program Right. It needs thinkers, writers and lead - 14 John T. McGreevy, Catholicism and American Freedom: of the American bishops say that the telos ers who advocate for the average worker — A History (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., for the worker to fulfill is to be allowed to an equally and often far more important 2003), 151. McGreevy notes, “To their surprise, Catholics also found an unexpected champion. Just before the 1932 live a reasonable life. That means earning player in wealth creation than seven-figure election the Democratic presidential candidate, Franklin an income that would allow for the pur - CEOs and mega-stockholders. It needs Roosevelt, sent a giddy tremor through Catholic circles I by quoting Quadragesimo Anno before a large Detroit chase of a home, food and clothing for his leaders like Monsignor John A. Ryan. crowd.The encyclical, Roosevelt explained, was ‘just as family. In other words, the worker who con - radical as I am’ and ‘one of the greatest documents of mod - ern times.” See also Harold Meyerson, “God and the New tributes to profit is to be rewarded with a Deal,” The American Prospect, November 21, 2004; dignified wage. End Notes http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=god_and_the_ne 1 See Irving Kristol, Neoconservatism;The Autobiography of w_deal Saving Monsignor Ryan an Idea, (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1999), 365. 15 “About Monsignor John A, Ryan,” University of St, 2 While Novak briefly touches upon Hayek in The Spirit Thomas, Minnesota, John A. Ryan Institute site page; onsignor Ryan’s role and legacy in of Democratic Capitalism New York: Simon and Schuster, Link: http://www.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/cst/ U.S. Roman Catholicism matters for 1982), he leans heavily upon the Austrian-born econo - aboutus/ryaninfo.html M 16 mist in other works. For example, in Towards a Theology Joseph M. McShane, S.J., “Sufficiently Radical”: Catholi - many reasons. Most importantly for purposes of the Corporation ((Washington, DC: American Enter - cism, Progressivism, and the Bishops’ Program of 1919 of this essay, he is the central figure in the prise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1981, pp. 15- (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America 16, footnote 22, he cites Hayek’s 1954 work, Capitalism Press, 1986), 30. development of modern American Catholi - specifically when he claims, “Given the and the Historians, 17 cism’s approach to economics and a profound anticapitalist bias of the Roman Catholic Church, of major McGreevy, 259. American and Protestant theologians of the century, and influence on FDR and the development of of the Pronouncements of Protestant churches, church the New Deal making him an important fig - leaders are susceptible to systematic misconceptions about ure not only in Roman Catholic but in the nature of democratic capitalism.” In The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, (New York: Free Press, 1993) American history. pp. 64-67, Novak, while seemingly critical of Hayek’s skep - It seems to be essential to the project to ticism about the concept of social justice, echoes him by declaring that social justice is often improperly thought which Novak et a l have devoted their lives of as a being guided by the state. Novak attempts to rede - — and the resources of their wealthy fine social justice as a matter of personal virtue, giving reli - gious faith a role in making citizens virtuous. Ironically, patron s— to erode Ryan’s influence and Novak repeatedly says he admires the personal ethics of ideas in the American Church. One of their Hayek who was an agnostic. Ironic because Novak the theo - con says only a society that follows orthodox religion can INTERNS WANTED! main methods is, as major Roman Catholic produce virtuous citizens. authors, to elide him from history. After all, 3 For a full discussion of their distortions of natural law, The Public Eye a Catholic Church that advocates for the see my “How Roman Catholic Neocons Peddle Natural The Public Eye economic interests of the poor, working, Law into Debates about Life and Death,” The Public Eye, welcomes interns Summer 2008. and middle classes can threaten the unfet - to join us in producing the only 4 Michael Novak, “The Liberal Game Made Obvious.” The magazine dedicated to exposing tered practice of buccaneer capitalism. National Review Online, September 30, 2003; They therefore shift the focus to the micro http://www.nationalreview.com/novak/novak the U.S. Right. 200309300823.asp issues of personal economic evils and away 5 John A. Ryan, Distributive Justice, (New York: The Political Research Associates from systemic causes of economic evils. Macmillan Company, 1927), p.304. Ryan is citing Political Research Associates, Aquinas’s magnum opus on natural law, Summa Theo - How irresistibly convenient for these neo - the parent think tank of The cons and their wealthy benefactors. logica, 2a. 2ae., q. 66, a. 3. 6 Public Eye, offers a research There is an important corollary here that Ryan, 306 7 “The History of W.R. Grace & Co.,” Seattle Post Intelli - internship, and a communica - is integral to the Church’s capacity to gencer, November 18, 1999. tion and development internship. advance fundamental notions of distribu - 8 Andrew Schneider, “W.R. Grace to Pay Record Superfund tive justice, one fully understood by Ryan. Fine,” Seattle Post Intelligencer, March 12, 2008. To apply, just email a letter and When only those of superfluous wealth 9 Susan Hansen, “Our Lady of Discord”, NewYorkTimes , resume identifying the internship have the ability to shape policy within his - July 30, 2006. http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/ that interests you to article?res=F30916F63 95B0C738FDDAE0894 [email protected] toric religious institutions, eventually their DE404482 . economic self-interest will have a cor -

THE PUBLIC EYE 11 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye REBRANDING FASCISM cont’d from page 1 activists. antizionism, and opposition to globaliza - pure villages.Troy Southgate, their leading Since then, the National-Anarchists tion. ideologue, says “we just want to stress that have joined other marches in Australia Fascism has become increasingly inter - National-Anarchism is an essential racial - and in the United States; in April 2008, they national in the post-World War II period, ist phenomenon.That’s what makes it dif - protested on behalf ofTibet against the Chi - particularly with the rise of the internet. ferent. ”5 nese government during the Olympic One of the most obvious results of this Why should we pay attention to such torch relay in both Canberra, Australia, and internationalization is the continual flow new forms of fascism? There is no imme - San Francisco. In September, U.S. of European ideas to the United States; for diate threat of fascism taking power in the National-Anarchists protested the Folsom example, the Nazi skinhead movement established western liberal democracies; the Street Fair, an annual gay “leather” event originated in Britain and quickly spread to rise to power of Mussolini and Hitler in the held in San Francisco. the United States. In trade, Americans 1920s and 1930s occurred in a different era While these may seem like isolated inci - have exported the Ku Klux Klan to Europe and under different social conditions than dents of quirky subterfuge, these quasi- and smuggled Holocaust denial and neo- those that exist today. Nonetheless, much anarchists are an international export of a Nazi literature into Germany. 2 is at stake. new version of fascism that represent a sig - The National-Anarchist idea has spread These new permutations have the nificant shift in the trends and ideology of around the world over the internet. The potential of playing havoc on social move - the movement. National-Anarchists have United States hosts only a few websites, but ments, drawing activists out from the Left adherents in Australia, Great Britain, the the trend so far has been towards a steady into the Right. For example, when the United States, and throughout continen - increase. But it represents what many see Soviet Union collapsed, a number of non- tal Europe, and in turn are part of a larger as the potential new face of fascism. By trend of fascists who appropriate elements adopting selected symbols, slogans and of the radical Left. Like “Autonomous stances of the left-wing anarchist movement Nationalists” in Germany and the genteel in particular, this new form of post-war fas - GLOSSARY intellectual fascism of the European New cism (like the European New Right) hopes Fascism: Fascism is an especially Right, the National Anarchists appropri - to avoid the stigma of the older tradition, virulent form of far-right populism. ate leftist ideas and symbols, and use them while injecting its core fascist values into Fascism glorifies national, racial, or to obscure their core fascist values. The the newer movement of anti-globaliza - cultural unity and collective rebirth National-Anarchists, for example, tion activists and related decentralized while seeking to purge imagined ene - denounce the centralized state, capital - political groups. Simultaneously, National- mies, and attacks both left-wing move - ism, and globalization — but in its place Anarchists hope to draw members (such as ments and liberal pluralism. Fascism they seek to establish a system of ethnically reactionary counter-culturalists and British first crystallized in Europe in response pure villages. National Party members) away from tra - to the Bolshevik Revolution and the In 1990, Chip Berlet showed in Right ditional White Nationalist groups to their devastation of World War I, and then Woos Left how the extreme Right in the own blend of what they claim is “neither spread to other parts of the world. 3 United States has made numerous overtures left nor right.” Postwar fascists have reinterpreted fas - to the Left. “The fascist Right has wooed Despite this claim, National-Anarchist cist ideology and strategy in various the progressive Left primarily around oppo - ideology is centered directly on what scholar ways to fit new circumstances. sition to such issues as the use of U.S. Roger Griffin defines as the core of fascism: troops in foreign military interventions, “palingenetic populist ultra-nationalism.” Third Position: Third Position support for Israel, the problems of CIA mis - “Palingenetic,” he says, is a “generic term politics are a minor branch of fascist conduct and covert action, domestic gov - for the vision of a radically new beginning thought. It rejects both liberal capital - ernment repression, privacy rights, and which follows a period of destruction or ism and Marxism for a kind of racially civil liberties.” 1 More recently, the fascist perceived dissolution.” Palingenetic ultra- based socialism. Its main precursors are Right has also tried to build alliances based nationalism therefore is “one whose mobi - the National Bolsheviks, who were a on concern for the environment, hardline lizing vision is that of the national fusion of nationalism and communism, community rising phoenix-like after a period and the Strasser brothers, key figures in of encroaching decadence which all but the “left-wing” of the Nazi party. Third Spencer Sunshine is a Fifth Estate contri- destroyed it. ” 4 Positionists tend to support national buting editor (www.fifthestate.org) , and For the National-Anarchists, this “ultra- liberation movements in the Third associate editor of I Am Not a Man, I am nationalism” is also their main ideological World, seek alliances with other ethnic Dynamite! Friedrich Nietzsche and the innovation: a desire to create a stateless (and separatists, and have recently supported Anarchist Tradition, ed. John Moore hence “anarchist”) system of ethnically environmentalism. (Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 2004).

THE PUBLIC EYE 12 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

Communist left-wing groups suddenly emerged in Russia offering the promise of a more egalitarian society sans dicta - torship. However, the group that became dominant was the National Bolsheviks, who are d r probably the most successful i H e i b

contemporary Third Position b e D fascist group (see glossary). y b g n Catching the imagination of i r e d n disaffected youth by taking up e r s ’ t s many left-wing stances and i t r engaging in direct action, they A successfully obliterated their rivals by absorbing their demo - graphic base en masse. The left-wing groups struggles. 9 This history prompts many cos - In the late 1990s however, the NRF disappeared and the National Bolsheviks mopolitan anarchists to worry that the started to morph into the National-Anar - remain a powerful political movement overtures of new-style fascists to radical chist movement; the two were referred to today with a huge grassroots and youth Leftists could meet with some success. interchangeably for a number of years, base. As they grow older, they will remain until the NRF disbanded in 2003. 11 South - influential in Russian politics for decades. Sect History and Strategy gate’s ideology does not seem to have Even when small, Jeffrey Bale suggests he National-Anarchists have their ori - changed substantially with the shift, and it is important to pay attention to these fas - Tgin in the National Front, a far-right he continues to circulate his NRF-era cist sects because they can serve as trans - British party with an impressive 1977 dark essays. mission belts for unconventional political horse electoral success based on their xeno - The NRF’s only known public action as ideas, influence more mainstream groups, phobic anti-immigrant platform. After the “National-Anarchists” was to hold an Anar - and link up into transnational networks. 6 election, the group fractured into many chist Heretics Fair in October 2000, in Over the years, the antiglobalization which a number of fringe-of-the-fringe movement has also created an opening for groups participated. However, when they these Left-Right alliances.The Dutch anti- attempted a second fair, a variety of anar - racist group De Fabel van de illegaal pulled chists and antifascists blocked it from out of the anti-globalization movement in The extreme Right being held. After the same thing happened 1998 because of its links with far-right in 2001, Southgate and the NRF aban - forces. Pat Buchanan, the paleoconserva - in the United States doned this strategy and retreated to purely tive politician who holds racist and anti - internet-based propaganda. 12 semitic views, spoke on aTeamsters Union has made numerous The fair reflected Southgate’s adaptation platform during the demonstrations against of theTrotskyist practice of entrism — the the IMF/ World Bank in Washington overtures to the Left. strategy of entering other political groups D.C. in April 2000. 7 Meanwhile, racists like in order to either take them over or break Louis Beam (who has worked with the off with a part of their membership. 13 Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Southgate argues, “The NRF uses cadre Nations) and Matt Hale (of the World internal factions before splintering into dif - activists to infiltrate political groups, insti - Church of the Creator) praised the Seat - ferent sects.Troy Southgate, the main Eng - tutions and services... It is part of our strat - tle demonstrations against the WorldTrade lish-language National-Anarchist ideologue, egy to do this work and, if we are to have Organization in 1999. 8 is a veteran of this internecine maze. He any success in the future, it is work that At the same time, parts of the anti- joined the National Front in 1984, and must be done on an increasing basis.” 14 He imperialist Left (including many anar - subsequently joined a splinter group that claims that the NRF infiltrated the 1999 chists) have built alliances with reactionary eventually split again before becoming the Stop the City demonstration and the 2000 Islamist movements such as Hamas and National Revolutionary Faction (NRF), a May Day protest, as well as activities of the Hezbollah, called for open acceptance of small cadre organization openly calling for Hunt Saboteurs Association and the Ani - antisemitism, and embraced nationalist armed guerilla warfare. 10 mal Liberation Front. 15

THE PUBLIC EYE 13 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

Beyond its tactical uses, entrism is a phi - opposition to racism, sexism, and homo - Southgate is undoubtedly sincere in his losophy for the National-Anarchists as phobia as they are to capitalism. In the aversion to the classical fascism of Hitler they recruit members from the Left and in United States, anarchists were key players and Mussolini, and has cited this as a rea - particular anarchist groups. Instead of sim - in the formation of labor unions, were the son for his break from one of the National ply calling themselves “racist communi - only political faction to support gay rights Front splinter groups. He sees the old fas - tarians,” they purposely adopt the label before World War I, were leaders in the free cism as discredited, and an abandonment “anarchist” and specifically appropriate speech movement, and were active in help - of the true values of revolutionary nation - anarchist imagery. Examples include the use ing to legalize birth control. The White alism. But his ultimate goal, shared with the of a purple star (anarchists typically use Nationalists’ embrace of the anarchist label European New Right, is to create a new either a black star, or a half-black star, and symbolism is more than little ironic, form of fascism, with the same core values with the other half designating their spe - since anarchists have a long history of of a revitalized community that withstands cific tendency, i.e., red for unionists, green physically disrupting White Nationalist the decadence of cosmopolitan liberal cap - for environmentalists, etc.), or a red-and- events, for instance by groups like Anti- italism.This cannot be done as long as his black star superimposed with a Celtic cross Racist Action. Anarchist military units views are linked in the popular mind to the (the latter being a typical symbol of White were even formed to fight Franco in Spain older tradition. Nationalists).The allied New Right factions and Mussolini in Italy. in Australia and the UK also use the “chaos Third Position symbol” — an eight-pointed star — which ne of the two main influences on they adapt from left-wing countercultural ONational-Anarchists is a minor current anarchists. of fascism calledThird Position.The origins The fascist use of the “black bloc” polit - The fascist use of ofThird Position are in National Bolshevism, ical formation at demonstrations is also an which originally referred to Communists appropriation of anarchist and far-left the “black bloc” who sought a national (rather than inter - forms. In recent years, German fascists national) revolution. It soon came to refer calling themselves Autonomous Nation - political formation at to Nazis who sought an alliance with the alists have marched in large black blocs, Soviet Union.The most important of these waving black flags (a symbol of traditional demonstrations is also was “left-wing Nazi” Otto Strasser, a former anarchism), and even appropriated the Socialist who advocated land redistribution symbolism of the German anti-fascist an appropriation and nationalization of industry. After criti - groupings. 16 cizing Hitler for allying with banking inter - As far back as 1984, Pierre-André of anarchist and ests, he was expelled from the party. His Taguieff, an expert on the European New brother, Gregor Strasser, held similar views Right, condemned the “tactic of ideolog - far-Left forms. but remained a Nazi until 1934, when other ical scrambling systematically deployed Nazis killed him in the Night of the Long by GRECE,” a right-wing think tank that Knives. embraced some leftist critiques of advanced A number of postwar fascists continued capitalism while promoting core fascist The Question of “Fascism” this train of thought, including Francis ideas. 17 Here we see that ideological scram - Parker Yockey and Jean-François Thiri - he National-Anarchists claim they are bling deployed on a grassroots level. art. 18 They saw the United States and lib - not “fascist.” Still,Troy Southgate looks It needs to be stressed that, despite the T eral capitalism as the primary enemy, to lesser-known fascists such as Romanian name, National-Anarchists have not sought an alliance with the Soviet Union, Iron Guard leader Corneliu Codreanu, and emerged from inside the anarchist move - and promoted solidarity withThird World lesser-light Nazis like Otto Strasser and Wal - ment, and, intellectually, their origins are revolutionary movements, including Com - ter Darré. Part of Southgate’s sleight of hand not based in its ideas. Anarchists typically munist revolutions in Asia and Latin Amer - is to claim to be ‘against fascism’ by claim - see themselves as part of a cosmopolitan and ican, and Arab anti-Zionists (particularly ing he is socialist (as did Nazis such as explicitly anti-nationalist left-wing move - those with whom they shared antisemitic Strasser) and by supporting political decen - ment which seeks to dismantle both cap - views). Thiriat’s followers in Italy formed tralization (as do contemporary European italism and the centralized state.They seek a sect of “Nazi-Maoists” based on these fascists such as Alain de Benoist). Sometimes instead to replace them with decentralized, principles, and after a gruesome August he proclaims fascism to be equivalent to the non-hierarchical, and self-regulating com - 1980 bombing in Bologna which killed 85 capitalism he opposes, or promoting a cen - munities. Although similar to Marxists, people, 40 Italian fascists fled to England, tralized state, which he also opposes. anarchists are just as adamant in their including Robert Fiore.

THE PUBLIC EYE 14 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

Fiore was sheltered by National Front member Michael Walker, editor of the Scorpion. 19 This paper subse - quently spreadThird Position and New Right ideas into Britain’s National Front, and Troy Southgate openly credits it as a major influence. 20 Third Position ideas also spread through the National Front via the magazine Rising. 21 After a 1986 split, this new influence resulted in a reconfiguration of the party’s politics. Prominent members visited Qadafi’s Libya, praised Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini and forged links with the Nation of Islam in the United States. Southgate claims to have abandonedThird Position fas - cism. 22 This is a duplicitous l

claim. He has rejected a cen - e v i u q

tralized state, and therefore its s E i o

ability to nationalize industry d a c r or create an “ethnostate.” A Nonetheless, National-Anar - chists retain the two main philosophical threads of Third Position. the National Alliance; Christian Identity claimed that National-Anarchists were The first is the notion of a racist socialism, pastor Bob Miles also held similar views. 25 part of anarchist black blocs. 29 Later White as a third option between both capitalism Often overlooked by commentators is the linked up with the National Alliance before and left-wing socialism like Marxism or tra - American Front’s affiliation with South - embracing the undiluted Nazism of the ditional anarchism. 23 The second is the gate’s NRF, which he boasted of for years. 26 National Socialist Movement. stress on a strategic and conceptual alliance Like the National Front, U.S. fascistsTom Currently there are two U.S. websites of nationalists (especially in the Third Metzger and Lyndon LaRouche also forged directly affiliated with the National-Anar - World) against the United States. Just as the ties with the Nation of Islam. 27 More chists. 30 One is the work of a prolific Chris - National Front praised the Nation of Islam recently, the National Alliance has incor - tian ex-Nazi skinhead, while the Bay Area and Qadafi, the National-Anarchists praise porated Third Position politics. They site has established a regional “network.” Black and Asian racial separatist groups, and attempted to cross-recruit left-wing activists It is this small group that claims to have support movements for national self-deter - by launching a fake antiglobalization web - taken part in demonstrations for Tibetan mination, such as the Tibetan independ - site, and, in August 2002, held a Palestine independence and protests against the Fol - ence movement. Unlike many White Solidarity rally in Washington D.C. 28 som Street Fair. Nationalists (such as the British National An early attempt to directly transplant Additionally, as an identity within the Party), National-Anarchists are pro-Islamist National-Anarchist ideology to the United White Nationalist scene, National-Anar - — but only “if they are prepared to con - States was made by political provocateur chists continue to attract a number of fol - fine their struggle to traditionally Islamic Bill White. Starting his political odyssey as lowers in the United States. For example, areas of the world.” 24 a left-wing anarchist, White briefly adopted one of the early collaborators of the Ore - As Chip Berlet and Matthew Lyons a National-Anarchist stance at the height gon-based magazine Green Anarchy affili - note, Third Position fascism influenced of the antiglobalization movement. He ated with their perspective. 31 U.S. U.S. groups such as the White Aryan penned an infamous article for Pravda National-Anarchists also frequently enter Resistance (WAR), the American Front and online in November 2001, which falsely into discussions on Stormfront, the main

THE PUBLIC EYE 15 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye internet gathering place for White Nation - Benoist also incorporates many sophis - imperialist Left’s idea of “national self- alists. There they defend their racial-sep - ticated left-wing critiques, sometimes determination” to micronational Euro - aratist and antisemitic credentials to sounding like a Frankfurt School Marxist. pean groupings (sometimes called “the traditional fascists, many of whom look Today he denounces capitalism, imperial - Europe of a Hundred Flags”). The “right upon Third Position politics with skepti - ism, liberalism, the consumer society, to difference” has influenced the anti- cism, if not outright hostility. Apparently Christianity, universalism, and egalitari - immigrant policies of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s hearing White Nationalists promoting anism; he defends paganism, “organic National Front in France, and a number of Islamist, Communist, and anarchist democracy,” and the Third World. He GRECE members joined this party, even thinkers is as difficult for some of the questions the role of unbridled technology though Benoist himself rejects Le Pen. 36 Right to digest as it is for the Left. and supports environmentalism and a Benoist has also influenced U.S. White kind of feminism. 34 He also rejects bio - separatism. Usually based around the Benoist and the European logical determinism and embraces a notion demand for a separate White nation in New Right of race that is cultural. 35 Southgate follows parts of Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Wash - esidesThird Position fascism, the other practically all of these positions, which ington, and Wyoming, this became a pop - Bmajor ideological influence on the are not necessarily present inThird Position. ular idea in White Nationalist circles starting National-Anarchists is the European New Because of these views, the European in the early 1980s. 37 This decentralized Right, especially the thinker Alain de Benoist. New Right is very different from the U.S. regional perspective was matched by decen - National-Anarchists have adopted his ideas New Right, whose Christianity and free tralized organizational schemas which about race, political decentralization, and the market views are anathema to the Euro - emerged at the same time. Louis Beam “right to difference.” peans.The Europeans are closer to the pale - advocated “leaderless resistance,” and the Benoist founded the think-tank oconservative tradition in the United States, “lone wolf” strategy for far-right terrorism, 38 GRECE, and has spent his life creating an and connect withThe Rockford Institute, while Christian Identity Pastor Bob Miles intellectually respectable edifice for a core publisher of Chronicles. started referring himself as a “klanarchist.” of fascist ideas. Like Southgate, Benoist Benoists’s main intellectual formula - Inverting language, Benoist claims that loudly proclaims that he is not a fascist, but tion is the “right to difference,” which he is an antiracist. Racism, he argues, is a scholars such as Roger Griffin disagree. upholds the cultural homogeneity and function of universalistic ideologies like lib - Griffin says that the New Right “could by separateness of distinct ethnic-cultural eralism and Marxism, which purportedly the end of the 1980s be credited with the groups. In this sense, he extends the anti- wipe out regional and ethnic identities. He not inconsiderable achievement of having carried out a ‘makeover’ of classic fascist discourse so successfully that, at least on the surface it was changed beyond recog - Left & Right Unite! 32 nition.” The call for the political Left and Right to unite and smash a corrupt centrist regime Benoist extended the notion of an has a long and ugly history, including the early National Socialist movement that helped alliance of European nations with the usher in the German Nazi dictatorship. While some scholars insist fascism as a polit - Third World against their main enemies: ical movement terminated with the end ofWorldWar Two, a group of contemporary the United States, liberalism, and capital - scholars has produced a body of studies which show that fascism flourishes today under ism. But against the fascists who desired a united Europe under a super-state, Benoist a variety of guises. Here are a few of the best: instead calls for radical federalism and the Robert Antonio, “After Postmodernism: Reactionary Tribalism,” American political decentralization of Europe. Roger Journal of Sociology 106(1), 2000, pp. 40–87. Griffin describes this vision as: Tamir Bar-On, Where Have All the Fascists Gone? , Aldershot, England: Ashgate, The pluralistic, multicultural society 2007. of liberal democracy was to give way, Roger Griffin, International Fascism: Theories, Causes, and the New Consensus. not to a culturally coordinated, London: Arnold, 1988. charismatic, and, in the case of Nazism, Roger Griffin, and Matthew Feldman, A Fascist Century, Basingstoke England: racially pure, national community Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. coterminous with the nation-state, but to an alliance of homogeneous In addition, visit PRA’s Sucker Punch collection at ethnic-cultural communities (eth - http://www.publiceye.org/sucker_punch/index.html. nies) within the framework of a fed - – Chip Berlet eralist European “empire.” 33

THE PUBLIC EYE 16 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye says “Racism is nothing but the denial of Hunt adopted an apocalyptic, Mad Max- The stance on homophobia is more difference.” 39 ButTaguieff, a keen observer esque vision of a post-industrial society. interesting. Southgate said: of the European Right, identifies a “pho - Southgate comments that “to say that we Homosexuality is contrary to the bia of mixing” at the core of this form of have been hugely influenced by Richard Natural Order because sodomy is racism. It is part of the “softer, new, and Hunt’s ideas is an understatement,” and quite undeniably an unnatural act. euphemistic forms of racism praising dif - Southgate took over the editorial helm of Groups such as Outrage are not 46 ference (heterophilia) and substituting Hunt’s magazine when he fell ill. campaigning for love between males 40 ‘culture’ for ‘race.’” Hunt’s critique also reverberated with — which has always existed in a The influence of these New Right ideas the environmental strain of classical fascism, brotherly or fatherly form — but on the National-Anarchists is explicit. In such as the views of Hitler’s agriculture min - have created a vast cult which has Australia, the National-Anarchist group is ister Walter Darré. Southgate openly gushes led to a rise in cottaging, male-rape for all practical reasons coextensive with over Darré’s “Blood and Soil” ideology in and child sex attacks… But we are 47 “New Right Australia/New Zealand” and one article while white-washing him in not trying to stop homosexuals at one point they claimed that “New Right another, referring to him merely as a engaging in this kind of activity like is the theory, National-Anarchism the the Christian moralists or bigoted 41 practice.” In Britain,Troy Southgate has denizens of censorship are doing, been involved in New Right meetings on the contrary, as long as this behav - 42 since 2005. But while Benoist claims A National-Anarchist iour does not affect the forthcoming that he does not hate immigrants, repudi - National-Anarchist communities ates antisemitism, and endorses feminism, denies the charge of then we have no interest in what the National Anarchists show what New people get up to elsewhere. 50 Right ideas look like in practice: crude racial separatism, open antisemitism, homo - antisemitism, claiming What this means in his schema is that phobia, and antifeminism. The “right to queer people will be given their own sep - difference” becomes separate ethnic villages. that they merely engage arate “villages.”The recent National-Anar - The New Right also has had a limited chist demonstrations in San Francisco influence on elements of the Left intelli - in a “continuous were against two majority-queer events, the gentsia. In the United States, the influen - Folsom Street Fair and the related fair Up tial journal Telos (known for disseminating criticism of Israel and Your Alley. Their orchestrator, “Andy,” Western Marxist texts into English) moved declares that he is a “racist” who hates rightward in the 1990s as its editor showed its supporters.” queer people. sympathy for Europe’s New Right and Andy also denies the charge of anti - published Benoist’s works. 43 It continues to semitism against National-Anarchists, publish Benoist, and explores the thought claiming that they merely engage in a of Nazi legal theorist Carl Schmitt. Many “nationalist ecologist.” 48 Many other con - “continuous criticism of Israel and its sup - 51 Leftists now consider the once venerable temporary fascist groups, especially WAR porters,” as do the majority of Leftists and journal anathema. 44 in the United States, also embrace envi - anarchists. Once again, this is a typical ronmentalism. disingenuous attempt by National-Anar - Richard Hunt chists to duck criticism. Antisemitism is an important element of the political world - lthough Benoist advocates decentralized Homophobia, Antisemitism, views of Southgate and Herferth. federalist political structures, the Aus - Antifeminism A Southgate actively promotes the work tralian National-Anarchists make clear that he National-Anarchists are quite open of Holocaust deniers, including the Insti - he does not go so far as to advocate anarchism about their antifeminism and desire to T tute for Historical Review, and holds party- itself. 45 Instead the claim to “anarchism” exile queer people into separate spaces, but line antisemitic beliefs about the role of the apparently stems from Richard Hunt’s tend to hide their deeply antisemitic international Jewish conspiracy. As a dodge, notion of “villages.” Originally an editor at worldview. Troy Southgate says of femi - he sometimes uses the euphemism “Zion - the British magazine Green Anarchist, which nism, “Feminism is dangerous and unnat - ist”; for instance, he says “Zionists are well advocated an intensely anti-industrial envi - ural… because it ignores the complimentary known for their cosmopolitan perspec - ronmental ethic, Hunt was expelled from relationship between the sexes and encour - tive upon life, not least because those who the editorial collective for his right-wing ages women to rebel against their inherent rally to this nefarious cause have no organic views before founding Green Alternative, feminine instincts.” 49 roots of their own.” 52 In another inter - which is seen as an “ecofascist” publication. view he says that, “there is no question that

THE PUBLIC EYE 17 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye the world is being ruthlessly directed (but tion, as opposed to the crude skinhead sub - 9 On the alliance between certain sectors of the antiglob - alization movement and Islamist factions, see Andrew Hig - perhaps not completely controlled) by culture. National Anarchists abandon any gins, “Anti-Americans on the March”. Wall Street Journal, International Zionism. This has been obvious references to the Hitler or Mus - December 9, 2006, p. A1. For an example of contem - porary left-wing calls to openly tolerate antisemitism, see achieved through the rise of the usurious solini’s fascist regimes, often claiming not Rami El-Amine, “Islam and the Left,” Upping the Anti banking system.” 53 And he describes the to be “fascist” at all. #5, October 2007, http://uppingtheanti.org/node/3025. Protocols of the Elders of Zion (a forgery Like the European New Right, the 10 Troy Southgate, “Transcending the Beyond: FromThird which is the world’s most popular antise - National-Anarchists adapt a sophisticated Position to National-Anarchism” Pravda, January 17, 2002, http://english.pravda.ru/politics/2002/01/17/25828 mitic text) as a book which “although still left-wing critique of problems with con - .html. unproven, accords with the main events in temporary society, and draw their symbols 11 Graham Macklin, “Co-opting the Counterculture:Troy modern world history.” 54 and cultural orientation from the Left; Southgate and the National Revolutionary Faction,” Pat - terns of Prejudice 39, no. 3 (2005), p. 325. Meanwhile, his Australian counterpart then they offer racial separatism as the 12 Macklin, p. 325. Welf Herferth is even more explicit in his answer to these problems.They are attempt - 13 Troy Southgate, “The Case for National-Anarchist neo-Nazi antisemitic views. In one speech, ing to use this new form to avoid the stigma Entryism,” www.rosenoire.org/articles/entryism.php. he describes the Holocaust as an “extrap - of the old discredited fascism, and if they 14 “Neo-Nazis Join Animal Rights Groups”, Sunday Tele - olation” that “has been an enormously are successful like the National Bolsheviks graph June 19, 2001, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ uknews/1353870/Neo-nazis-join-animal-rights- profitable one for the Jews, and one which have been in Russia, they will breathe new groups.html. has brought post-war Germany and Europe life into their movement. Even if the results 15 Macklin, p. 318. to its knees,” before referring to Israel as “the are modest, this can disrupt left-wing social 16 See for example http://velhametsa.wordpress.com/2007/ most powerful state in the Western world.” movements and their focus on social justice 11/12/autonomous-nationalists/. Herferth concludes that “by liberating and egalitarianism ; and instead spread elit - 17 Cited in Roger-Pol Droit, “The Confusion of Ideas”, Telos 98-99, (Winter 1993-Spring 1994), p. 138. GRECE Germany from the bondage to Israel and ist ideas based on racism, homophobia, stands for the “Groupement de recherche et d’études pour restructuring a new Germany on the basis antisemitism and anti-feminism amongst la civilisation européenne” - the “Research and Study of a new ‘volksgemeinschaft,’ the German grassroots activists. I Group for European Civilization.” nationalists will liberate Europe, and the 18 Martin A. Lee, The Beast Reawakens (Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1997), pp. 168-83; Kevin Coogan, 55 West as well.” NOTE: All internet links active as of September Dreamer of the Day (Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 1999), pp. 30, 2008. 191–92. For Yockey’s influence on Southgate, see Mack - Conclusion lin, p. 320. 19 Lee, p. 450 n40. See also Southgate, “Transcending the ecently new groups of National-Anar - End Notes Beyond.” Rchists, recruited through Southgate’s 1 Chip Berlet, RightWoos Left: Populist Party, LaRouchian, 20 Troy Southgate, Interview, “Interview with Troy internet activism, have made the leap from and Other Neo-fascist Overtures to Progressives andWhy they Southgate, Conducted by Graham Macklin. ” Must Be Rejected (Cambridge, MA: Political Research http://www.rosenoire.org/interviews/nrf_troy.php. contemplating their idiosyncratic ideas on Associates, 1994), http://www.publiceye.org/rightwoo/ 21 Macklin, pp. 303-4; Martin A. Lee and Kevin Coogan, the internet into making them the basis of rwooz9.html “Killers on the Right,” Mother Jones 12, no. 4, (May really-existing politics, by joining demon - 2 Jeffrey Kaplan andTore Bjørgo, eds. Nation and Race:The 1987), p. 45. Developing Euro-American Racist Subculture (Boston: 22 Macklin, pp. 317–18. strations in Australia and San Francisco. Northeastern University Press, 1998). 23 Web pages and blogs continue to pop up in 3 Troy Southgate, “Was ‘Fascism’ Outside of Germany and For recruitment of counter-culturalists, see Nick Griffin, Italy Anything More Than An Imitation?” “National Anarchism: Trojan Horse for White Nation - different countries and languages. http://www.rosenoire.org/articles/hist15.php; “Revolution The danger National-Anarchists repre - alism,” Green Anarchy 19, (Spring 2005), versus Reaction: Social-Nationalism & the Strasser http://www.greenanarchy.org/index.php?action=viewwriting Brothers,” http://www.rosenoire.org/articles/hist13.php. sent is not in their marginal political detail&writingId=150. On spreading National-Anar - 24 strength, but in their potential to show an chist ideas to BNP members, see Troy Southgate’s com - Troy Southgate, “Enemy Within? Hizb-ut Tahrir, Al- ments at http://newrightausnz.blogspot.com/2008/03/ Muhajiroun, & the Growing Threat of Asian Coloni - innovative way that fascist groups can statement-of-new-right-on-national.html. sation,” http://www.rosenoire.org/articles/enemy.php. rebrand themselves and reset their project 4 Roger Griffin, The Nature of Fascism (New York: St. Mar - 25 Chip Berlet and Matthew Lyons, Right-Wing Populism on a new footing. They have abandoned tin’s Press, 1991), p. 38. in America (New York & London: Guilford Press, 2000), pp. 269–70; see also Betty Dobratz and Stephanie 5 Email from Tory Southgate to National-Anarchist many traditional fascist practices — includ - Shanks-Meile, “White Power,White Pride!”TheWhite Sep - listserve, message #26659. November 30, 2003. ing the use of overt neo-Nazi references, and aratist Movement in the United States (New York:Twayne http://www2.ca.nizkor.org/ftp.cgi/people/m/michael.david/2 Publishers, 1997), pp. 262–67. On Miles, see Lee, pp. recruiting from the violent skinhead cul - 003/Troy_Southgate.031130. 340-41. 6 ture. In its place they offer a more toned- Jeffrey Bales, “ ‘National revolutionary’ groupuscules and 26 Southgate says, “We also have an excellent relationship down, sophisticated approach. The new the resurgence of ‘left-wing’ fascism: the case of France’s with National-Bolsheviks like the American Front (AF), Nouvelle Résistance”, Patterns of Prejudice , v36 #3 (2002), who, despite the fact that they do not share our anarchistic fascists speak of “difference” and “respect pp. 25–26. tendencies, are basically working for very similar objec - for cultures” instead of using openly racist 7 Anti-Fascist Forum, ed. My Enemy’s Enemy (Montreal: Ker - tives.” “Synthesis EditorTroy Southgate, Interviewed by splebedeb, 2003), p. 31 Dan Ghetu,” http://www.rosenoire.org/interviews/southgate language and imagery. Their cultural ref - 2.php. 8 Don Hammerquist, J. Sakai, et al. Confronting Fascism erences are the neofolk and gothic music (Montreal: Kersplebedeb, et al, 2002), pp. 35–38. 27 Berlet and Lyons, p. 267. scene, which puts on an air of sophistica -

THE PUBLIC EYE 18 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

28 The website for the “Anti-Globalism Action Network” 33 “Plus ça change!” p. 4. 44 Tamir Bar-On, Where Have All the Fascists Gone? (Burling - is still viewable at http://g8activist.cust.nearlyfreespeech.net/ 34 Alain de Benoist and Charles Champetier, “The French ton, VT: Ashgate, 2007). See also Center for New Community, index.html. New Right in the Year 2000,” Telos no. 115, (Spring 45 See New Right Australia New Zealand Committee. “Neo-Nazi Infiltration of Anti-Globalization Protests,” 1999), pp. 117–144. http://home.alphalink.com.au/~ June 22, 46 “Synthesis EditorTroy Southgate, Interviewed by Wayne Center for New Community, radnat/debenoist/alain9.html 2002, http://info.interactivist.net/node/1039; , Anti- John Sturgeon,” http://www.rosenoire.org/interviews/ Defamation League, “Purported ‘Anti-Globalization’ 35 Many fascist intellectuals have held this view, including southgate.php; see also Macklin, pp. 312–13. early Nazi leader Otto Strasser, Italian occult philosopher Web Site Fronts for Neo-Nazi Group,” July 12, 2002, 47 Southgate, “Blood and Soil.” http://www.rosenoire.org/ Julius Evola, U.S.Third Position theorist Francis Parker www.adl.org/extremism/neonazi_web/na_web.asp. For articles/bloodandsoil.php. the Washington, D.C. rally, see Anti-Defamation League, Yockey, and German Nazi legal theorist Carl Schmitt. 48 “Neo-Nazis Rally in Nation’s Capital,” www.adl.org/ For a discussion of “spiritual” versus “biological” race, Troy Southgate, “The Guild of St. Joseph and St. Learn/news/Neo_Nazis_Rally.asp ; Susan Lantz, “Fascists see Coogan, 313 n38, p. 481. See also Lee, pp. 96. Dominic.” http://www.rosenoire.org/articles/THEGUILDS Countered In D.C.,” Baltimore IMC, August 28, 2002, 36 JOSEPH.php. On the link between German Nazis and “Three Interviews with Alain de Benoist.” Telos nos. 98- ecology, see Janet Biehl and Peter Staudenmaier, http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/ 99, (Winter 1993-Spring 1994), pp. 173–207. 1556/index.php ; “Washington, DC: National Alliance Ecofascism: Lessons From the German Experience (San 37 Rally a Huge Bust,” Infoshop News, August 24, 2002. Dobratz and Shanks-Meile, p. 99. Francisco: AK Press, 1995). http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=02/08/24/33965 38 See Jeffrey Kaplan, “Leaderless Resistance,” Terrorism 49 Southgate, Sturgeon interview. 68. and Political Violence 9 no. 3, (Autumn 1997), pp. 50 Southgate, Sturgeon interview. 29 80–95; see also Dobratz and Shanks-Meile, pp. 171-74, Bill White, “Anti-Globalist Resistance Beyond Left And 51 Right: An EmergingTrendThat Is Defining A New Par - pp. 267–68. For the influence on Tory Southgate, “A smear salad: Nick Griffin, Green Anarchy, and a con - adigm In Revolutionary Struggle,” Pravda Online, see Macklin, p. 312. Beam’s essay is also reproduced coction of fallacies,” Bay Area National Anarchists, November 2, 2001, http://english.pravda.ru/usa/2001/11 on the Australian National-Anarchist site October 7, 2007, http://bayareanationalanarchists. /03/20022.html. http://www.newrightausnz.com/?p=48. com/blog/2007/10/a-smear-salad-nick-griffin-gre.html. 39 52 30 www.folkandfaith.com is based in Idaho Falls, Idaho. “Three Interviews with Alain de Benoist,” p. 180. Troy Southgate, “Manifesto of the European Liberation Front, 1999,” http://www.rosenoire.org/articles/elf.php. www.bayareanationalanarchists.com/blog is based in Cal - 40 Pierre-André Taguieff, “The New Right’s Vision of ifornia’s Bay Area. As unlikely as this location may seem, European Identity,” Telos nos. 98-99, Winter 1993- 53 Southgate, Sturgeon interview. the NRF-affiliated fascist skinhead gang the American Spring 1994; p. 123. 54 Troy Southgate, “Oswald Mosley: The Rise & Fall of Front originated there as well. http://attackthesystem.com 41 is another site sympathetic to National-Anarchists. New Right Australia New Zealand Committee, English Fascism Between 1918-45,” http://www. “Statement of New Right on National-Anarchism and rosenoire.org/articles/hist30.php. 31 See Griffin; The U.S.-based Green Anarchy is not to be Australian Nationalism.” http://newrightausnz.blogspot 55 “Welf Herfurth On Kameradschaft,” confused with the UK-based Green Anarchist, despite http://bayarea .com/2008/03/statement-of-new-right-on-national.html. nationalanarchists.com/blog/2007/10/new-right-australia- shared ideology. Green Anarchy has explicitly denounced 42 National-Anarchism. For the intellectual influence of the New Right on welf-herfu.html. Southgate, see Macklin, p. 306. 32 Roger Griffin, “Plus ça change! The Fascist Pedigree of 43 the Nouvelle Droite,” draft, August, 1998; p. 5. Telos nos. 98-99, Winter 1993 - Spring 1994. http://ah.brookes.ac.uk/resources/griffin/publications.html.

POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES BOOKSTORE Reports and books from the premier watchdog on the US Right Special rates for Public Eye readers!

Our Activist Resource Kits Books by PRA Associates Defending Justice (2005): $10 Right-Wing Populism in America by Chip Berlet and Defending Immigrant Rights (2002): $5 Matthew N. Lyons: $17 Defending Public Education (1999): $5 Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence from the Defending Reproductive Rights (2000): $3 John Birch Society to the Promise Keepers by Jean Hardisty: $10 Defending Democracy (2001): $3 Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy by Frederick Clarkson: $10 Special Reports: $3 ______Deliberate Differences: Progressive and Conservative Campus Activism in the United States (2004) To order, call PRA at 617.666.5300 Privatizing the Common Wealth: The Pioneer Institute (2002) Or send your check with $3.50 postage for first item plus $1.50 for each additional item to: Calculated Compassion: How the Ex-Gay Movement PRA, 1310 Broadway, #201, Somerville, MA 02144 Serves the Right’s Attack on Democracy (1998 ) www.publiceye.org Challenging the Ex-Gay Movement: A resource packet (1998) Visa and Mastercard accepted

THE PUBLIC EYE 19 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye POST-PALIN FEMINISM continued from page 1 Sarah Palin’s musings about being a Sunday schools still refuse to allow women of context.”The key Biblical issue, Barton beneficiary of Title IX may be as wobbly to teach boys, though men can teach both argued, is, “is the wife in rebellion to her as her off-again, on-again support for talk - boys and girls. husband or are they in accord?” ing about condoms during sex education. Christian nationalist author and lecturer “If [Sarah’s husband] Todd is support - [see box] Certainly progressive feminists David Barton waged a vigorous defense of ive, then Sarah is not usurping authority who see abortion access as a crucial part of Sarah Palin against fundamentalists who over men,” said Barton. “They’re doing this the reproductive autonomy women need saw her candidacy as “un-Biblical.” 3 as a family.” Barton continued that, “Sarah for equality publicly cringe at her associa - may be like an Esther or a Deborah that tion with the group Feminists for Life. 2 But God raised up” in extraordinary times Palin gives viable political form to a free when men didn’t step up to the plate. market feminism that until now was largely Even before the 2008 “You can’t say God didn’t call her to be championed by a few intellectuals and a Deborah. I don’t think God just calls peo - pundits based in conservative beltway election, the number ple. He calls families. If he has told Sarah think tanks. As Republicans wrestle to to be vice president, his children will have rebuild power in a world where women’s of Republican women an extra measure of grace.” voter turnout is higher than men’s, their While Barton defended Palin as an identification with the Democratic Party officeholders dropped as extraordinary woman raised up by God, stronger, and the number of Republican some conservative evangelical women used women in office dropping [see box], this moderate Republican the debate to argue that the scriptures do feminism slightly softens the culture war not mandate their subservience to men. tone that is so off-putting to moderate women were ousted After the Los AngelesTimes covered this con - Republicans and independents alike. We troversy (one of the few mainstream media may be hearing more of it in the future. in the primaries. outlets to notice), the comments section It also energizes activists in an unex - was full of conservative evangelical women pected quarte r— the Christian Right. supporting this view (as well as Barton’s). Some young activists say they have been “We don’t need enemies, we have Phyllis Nelson wrote: waiting for a woman like Palin for a long friends,” Barton told interviewer Bran - I am a 20 year veteran of home edu - time. non Howse. “There’s some basis for their cation, a small home business owner For David Schmidt, 24, the media concern,… but you can take scripture out and a leader in my church and com - director of Live Action Films, which goes “undercover” to investigate abortion providers, “the word feminist has so many different meanings. I don’t think the term Is Sarah a Feminist? in and of itself is a turnoff to conservative While many progressive feminists do not accept the idea that former vice presidential candi - date Sarah Palin is a feminist, Palin embraced the identity in her interview with CBS News’ voters. It’s a good thing to see women Katie Couric and claims membership in Feminists for Life, an organization launched by advance. I think it’s a wonderful thing. fairly liberal women that now is home for prominent conservatives championing women’s “I’m more open than someone who is advancement and the banning of abortion. 22 Palin also is steeped in a Pentecostal denomina - older about women’s role. But I haven’t seen tion, Assemblies of God, with a history of women pastors, even if not all present day leaders any push back against it. People may be like the idea. 23 This is in contrast to other conservative evangelicals, who often take a patriar - wrestling a little internally.” chal view towards women’s role in the church. And people were struggling, particularly More directly, Palin prefers the honorific “Ms.” She credits Title IX for her opportunities, the conservative evangelicals who believe telling Charles Gibson of ABC News, “I’m lucky to have been brought up in a family where women’s submission to men is theologically gender has never been an issue. I’m a product of Title IX, also, where we had equality in given. The Promise Keepers continues to schools that was just being ushered in with sports and with equality opportunity for educa - tion, all of my life. I’m part of that generation, where that question is kind of irrelevant bring men together in fellowship to assume because it’s accepted. Of course you can be the vice president and you can raise a family.” 24 their God-given role at the head of a mar - riage. The Southern Baptist Convention Flanked by Elaine Lafferty, a former editor of Ms. magazine, who was a paid campaign con - sultant, and Shelly Mandell, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organi - banned women from serving as pastors in zation for Women, Palin vowed on the stump to a Nevada crowd in late October that she 2000. And some conservative evangelical would break the glass ceiling in government, adding, “Working mothers need an advocate, and they will have one when this working mother is working for all of you.” 25 Abby Scher is a sociologist and editor of The Doubts about Palin’s self-professed feminism may be linked to Palin’s larger credibility Public Eye. problem with women outside the core of the Republican base.

THE PUBLIC EYE 20 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

munity. I am also very conservative. I have spent a great deal of time praying about and studying the role of women and do not believe the Scriptures, especially the New Tes - tament indicate the level of sub - servience taught by some. My husband of 30+ years is the head of our home and an elder in our fel - lowship, but thankfully holds me, my gifts and talents in high esteem. We work as a team to bring the Gospel to those who have ears to hear. 4 A woman named “Lynn” supported Barton in focusing on Palin’s continued submission to her husband’s authority: I am a Christian and a stay-at-home mom and a homeschooler. I am under my husbands authority. If Mrs. Palin’s husband supports her in her career and all how can she be wrong to do it? m o

Feminism is a step too far for these c . s n o women and for some young people I inter - o t r a c l

viewed at September’s Values Voters Sum - a c i t i l

mit. Angelise Anderson, 22, admitted she o p / n would have to “look into” Palin’s Feminists o s l o h c

for Life membership. Kirsten Dalton, 22, i N r e

is pregnant with her first child and married t e to a staffer of Generation Joshua, an ini - P tiative training conservative evangelical youth to “reclaim” America through the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were the political process. She had heard about role models… To have a traditional Palin’s membership “and it does bother me. woman, it’s something people can I don’t know what to think about it.” Putting Palin in the political relate to. But it was only enthusiasm from Emily mix is either crystallizing new Another staffer, Justin Aguila, 23, said Buchanan, the young executive director of “There’s a great picture of her with her son Susan B. Anthony List, a prolife version of sentiments, or surfacing ones in a sling signing a law,” adding, “My the Democrat’s Emily’s List that focuses on mother is not usually involved in the polit - electing prolife women to office and claim - barely visible before. ical process and now she is.” ing 145,000 supporters.The group’s pink Buchanan agreed, “She’s paved the way and blue Palin Power stickers were stuck for traditional women in office. I hope we on hundreds of Values Voters conference see our mothers running for office, that goers and stacked high at its booth. The She’s independent. She speaks her they see the connection starting at the group’s Team Palin website and network mind. But she also embodies the community level.That’s a place in their life was soon to become home for women at traditional values that are so impor - you can relate to.” the grassroots inspired by the candidate’s tant to Americans. To these activists, Palin is “normal,” a politics. From behind the table, Buchanan For such a long time, the powerful word heard as often as “traditional.” She said about Palin’s claimed feminism, “That’s women in Washington were all tout - wears makeup. She is pretty. She is an great. The early feminists were prolife.” ing prochoice as prowoman. People evangelical Christian. She is anti-abor - She embodies the American woman. like Senator Hillary Clinton and tion. She is also White. That is normal

THE PUBLIC EYE 21 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye within the sphere of these conservatives. But n’t see gender as something that is vic - Founded in 1992 after the Clarence “traditional” for these young people is no timizing. She doesn’t see it as a bar - Thomas hearings, IWF champions “lim - longer a woman who stays home with the rier.” ited government, equality under the law, children while the husband works, or who This suggestion that progressive femi - property rights, free markets, strong fam - submits to her husband.Todd Palin’s active nists peddle victimology courses through ilies, and a powerful and effective national 6 domestic role is not so unusual — on stage the Right. It helps distinguish the rightists’ defense and foreign policy.” With only a at the Values Voters conference was Con - acceptance of women’s equality in the $1.5 million annual budge t— tiny for a gresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of workplace from their opponents’ politics. beltway conservative grou p— its small Washington, whose husband, a retired When I asked Phyllis Schlafly, the leader staff promotes school choice, conserva - military man, is well known in this com - of the Stop ERA battle and longtime anti- tive women’s groups on campuses, and munity for taking care of their child who feminist campaigner, a specific question women’s issues in the Muslim world. The was born with Down syndrome. about what she thought of Palin being a group refuses to take a stand on abortion There has been a surprising transvalu - member of Feminists for Life, she briefly or gay marriage (like its sister organization ation of ideas revealed by the Palin cam - sidestepped to say the problem is feminist the Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute paign. Traditional now seems to be victimology not women’s aspirations to which trains young conservative women as someone who embraces the belief in a het - leaders). And while O’Beirne, an emerita erosexual nuclear family and a conser - IWF board member, trashes feminists vative Christian embrace of “family in general (while saying she always values,” not a stay at home mom. supported equal opportunity in the The transformation of the definition What it means to be a workplace), others on the Right criti - of “traditional” builds on larger shifts seen cize the group for continuing to iden - among evangelicals including but not “traditional” woman is changing. tify with the women’s movement at all. 7 limited to the most conservative who are Maybe that’s why its staff so vigor - considered part of the Christian Right. It’s not staying home ously attacks liberal feminists. Scholar W. Bradford Wilcox says white “It is not surprising to see feminist evangelical Protestants “typically talk with the kids. organizations like the National Organ - right and, often unwittingly, stumble ization for Women dispute the term left,” saying they support “traditional” ‘feminist’ as it applies to Gov. Palin,” families while living messy family lives equality. She said, “There’s some good Carrie Lukas, IWF’s vice president for pol - with levels of divorce even higher than other people in Feminists for Life….The big dif - icy and economics wrote on a blog the 5 groups of Americans. They live the same ference is attitude – women are discrimi - group set up around the Palin candidacy. economically challenging lives of the rest nated against. Victimology. She’s not the “After all, groups like NOW have worked of the country, where two-income families kind of person who is complaining because for years to redefine ‘feminism’ to fit their are a necessity. The redefinition was she is a woman. I think women can do what liberal agenda. Anyone who exposes con - inevitable, rendering Reagan-era battles they want.” servative views is not welcome in their 8 against Title IX irrelevant. You also hear this victimhood story line feminist club.” This redefinition was supported by Joy from the neoconservative feminists oper - IWF Director Bernard was a popular Yearout, Susan B. Anthony List’s legislative ating from the Independent Women’s speaker during the presidential campaign and political director, in explaining the con - Forum (IWF).The five core program staff with her message that there can be such a tinued enthusiasm for Palin a few weeks of IWF do not all identify as feminists, thing as a “limited government feminist,” 9 after the Republican ticket’s defeat. “I’m cer - though its director Michelle Bernard or a “red state feminist.” tain there are going to be more women in prominently does when she appears on talk “We are in the midst of third wave fem - the political process.” shows throughout the country. Until Sarah inism,” she said during a radio discussion If you look at most of the leading Palin hit the scene, IWF was the lonely with Marie Wilson, director of the White women in politics today, they’re home of the “free market” feminists who House Project, an explicitly feminist and older, very liberal. She [Palin] bal - say the key issue is choice and women prochoice group that trains women for ances work and home, and she now have choice so why complain? IWF’s public office, and Kim Gandy of National embraces conservative family values staff say the group offers a feminist alter - Organization for Women. “Young women standing up for human life. She sup - native to the progressives at National look at it very differently than Gloria ports traditional marriage. It’s a dif - Organization for Women who exaggerate Steinem. Feminism was about women’s 10 ferent paradigm than what we’ve their victimhood to support big govern - right to choose the way they want to live.” seen at the national level. She does - ment policies When Wilson suggested choices are more

THE PUBLIC EYE 22 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye circumscribed for women juggling work and home unless public policies make that Does Post-Palin Feminism Have a Future? balance easier, she exposed the divide in their notions of feminism. During the Republican convention, the National Journal asked, “Can Palin’s Rise Lift “Equity” or free market feminists like the Boats for GOP Women?” Even before the 2008 election the number of Republican Christina Hoff Sommers of the American women officeholders dropped in the House and at the state level as moderate Republi - Enterprise Institute support women’s equal can women were ousted in the primaries. The newspaper found Republicans already capacity to men and their right to be promoting Palin’s background as a PTA president and city councilmember to recruit 26 treated equally in the workplace and women to run. schools, while opposing affirmative action, But one lesson of the 2008 election is that women as right-wing as Palin could have a family leave laws and other government hard time in the general election. Susan B. Anthony List, or SBA List, which promotes programs to ensure that this equal treat - prolife women for office, suggests a majority of women want to ban abortion but recent ment happens. Like other conservatives, election results don’t bear this out. SBA List reports almost 40 percent of the candidates they see it as up to the individual to com - it endorsed in 2008 (both male and female) suffered defeat in the November elections pete in the market, no matter what back - (it is hard to verify this figure based on available information). This includes two impor- ground or resources they bring to bear.That tant incumbents: Elizabeth Dole, the North Carolina senator and the only prolife goes for women, working class people woman in the Senate, and Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado who helped without resources for college, or a group launch and cochaired the House Prolife Woman’s Caucus in the last session. Musgrave that had faced a history of discrimination. was defeated by Betsy Markey, who was supported by the prochoice Emily’s List. Sommers took up the gauntlet against “gender feminists” who support govern - Forty-two percent of the House is now clearly prochoice, according to NARAL ment action back in 1994 with her book Pro choice America, as 20 prochoice members join the next session. The Senate saw six Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have new prochoice members join. 27 Betrayed Women. Interestingly, Sommers “We will be bereft of the prolife, prowoman perspective when and if the first Supreme broke with her friends at IWF to admit Court President Obama nominee arises. This is an important and necessary perspective about Palin that she is “not certain about to counter the Boxer/Feinstein/Mikulski feminist axis,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, the her qualifications,” while adding somewhat president of the SBA List, told National Review Online. 28 contradictorily that “as a role model for women — she’s superb.” 11 “The prolife movement has indeed suffered a great political setback and is on the defen - “Feminists further[s] a leftist agenda, not sive. Almost 4000 children will continue to die every single day the sun does come up.” the rights of all women,” an intern with the The SBA List does not support ballot initiatives, but its cause suffered severe defeats conservative Clare Booth Luce Institute in that arena as well. All three ballot initiatives striving to restrict abortions failed. In wrote in a Washington Times essay posted South Dakota, an abortion ban was defeated 55 percent to 45 percent, even while the 12 on the Institute website. Women have state swung for John McCain as president. Colorado defeated its ban 73 percent to 27 won power through struggle and now have percent, and the state went for Barack Obama. California voters defeated a parental the power of choice, as do other middle class notification requirement for abortions. Americans, is the story line.This feminism mirrors the feminism you will find in At the state level, the number of Republican women legislators in the next session will modern women’s magazines, such as Self . drop to a level not seen since 1988, even while the overall number of women serving It is a sort of pop bottom line for more lib - sets records because of the rise in Democrats. 29 On the other hand, Republican women erated young women. And in its focus on have nowhere to go but up since the Southern states that backed John McCain rank choice, it overlooks the way choices are lowest for women in elective office, according to the Center for American Women in structure d— for low income women or Politics. privileged women, for whites and people Dannenfelser and Joy Yearout, SBA List’s political director, are two of many prolife of colo r— and how real gender equity campaigners who suggest their candidates lost because of the tsunami of the economic could be supported. crisis, and it is important to continue to promote prolife legislators who will ban the Far from being inauthentic, the free procedure or support justices who will. But others, particularly Roman Catholics, market feminism of Bernard, Sommers, suggest the defeat of the ballot initiatives and the increase in abortions by low-income and some of the conservative evangelicals women during the administration of George W. Bush mean the movement should is part of a lineage of right-wing feminists refocus on improving social and economic conditions as a way of reducing the number that goes back to the National Woman’s of abortions. 30 Party (NWP), which after suffrage became

THE PUBLIC EYE 23 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye the home of more privileged women who supposedly do. “She differs from main - You heard this argument from the new gen - supported a free market and were vigor - stream feminists in that her sexuality and eration of conservative Christian women ously anticommunist. 13 An NWP member, fecundity are not in tension with her politicians like Michelle Bachmann, the Vivien Kellems, a small businesswoman achievement and power.” 18 Minnesota Congresswoman who almost from Connecticut, even launched a cam - The Sarah Palin phenomenon seems to lost her seat after suggesting her colleagues paign against the federal income tax in the be enlarging the small crew of women on should be investigated for their anti-Amer - 1940s, and her anticommunist women’s the Right like those at IWF who accept free icanism. She and Sarah Palin both received group took the country by storm in oppos - market feminis m— a minimal, bottom their political training as conservative pro - ing what members saw as the dangerous line feminism that women and girls should life evangelicals, balance a demanding socialism of the New Deal. 14 be treated equally under the law, fully par - public life with a large family, and merge Such women are entangled not just in ticipate in public life, and not be discrim - their “family values” ideology with market feminist politics supporting political and inated against in the workplace or in schools friendly analysis. economic inclusion in the system, but in because of their gender. Equal “rules of the These politicians and a handful of oth - class politics; for them feminism does not game” not substantive equality is the goal. ers are, like Willard, asserting new roles in lead its adherents to support grander claims This is in keeping with the efforts of both transforming the public realm, and mov - for economic justice. the Heritage Foundation and the Christian ing beyond a surprisingly egalitarian yet seg - Christian evangelicalism also has deep Right’s Family Research Council (FRC) in regated space of women’s power that scholar historical ties to feminism, since the reli - Barbara Brasher discovered within con - gious movement that gave birth to nine - servative churches over ten years ago. 21 teenth century feminism produced many Putting Palin in the political mix is prominent suffrage campaigners. Cham - Far from being either crystallizing new sentiments, or sur - pioning women’s direct relationship with facing ones barely visible before.The young God, these early evangelicals suggested inauthentic, free market people I spoke with were inspired by her that men are not their lords and masters. sense of possibility as a liberated woman Sommers reminds us of the feminism of feminism is part of a embracing “traditional” Christian, het - Frances Willard, founder of the Women’s erosexual, anti-abortio n— and gender Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), lineage of right-wing egalitaria n— values. Where this new energy who argued women had to “increase their takes them in a political moment follow - civilizing and humane influence on soci - feminists that goes ing the greatest defeat for their movement ety” in the name of protecting the home. 15 and the Republican Party since the rise of Sommers misleadingly champions Willard back to the National political evangelicalism thirty years ago is as a “conservative feminist” because her anyone’s guess. I maternalist politics suggested a conserva - Woman’s Party. tive sense of women’s role as civilizers of the world. In fact, Willard and the WCTU in End Notes its early years promoted progressive social 1 Kate O’Beirne, Women Who Make the World Worse: and HowTheir Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Schools, reform through government action and explicitly promoting a free market and Families, Military, and Sports (New York: Sentinel HC, some members were even populist radicals. “small government” ideology among evan - 2005). Jane Addams is another feminist forbearer gelicals and the Christian Right. 19 The 2 Or cringe for other reasons. Susan Douglas, “Feminism without Feminism,” In these Times, September 10, and progressive champion of maternal - tight support conservative Christians now 2008. http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3898/ ism, valorizing women’s role as mothers. give to tax cuts for the rich, the flat tax 3 “David BartonTakes onThose Who Say It is Unbiblical Sommers is correct in reminding us of (which presidential aspirant Mike Huck - For Sarah Palin to be Vice-President,” Worldview.net, October 6, 2008. http://www.worldviewtube.com/ maternalism, but it is a tendency that abee championed) and other right-wing video.php/4047 weaves through both progressive femi - economic strategies will make these sup - 4 Phyllis Nelson, comment submitted October 2, 2008. nism and rightwing feminism. 16 On the porters hard to shake from the GOP coali - Teresa Watanabe, “To some evangelicals, Palin’s career vio - Left, a former NOW staffer is trying to tion as some of their old allies want to do lates Biblical teachings,” Los Angeles Times , October 1, 2008. http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-evangelical1- 20 organize progressive maternalists through in order to win back power. 2008oct01,0,7023768.story 17 a new website. On the Right, Kay For FRC and other “free market” Chris - 5 W. Bradford Wilcox, “Talking Right, Stumbling Left,” Hymowitz of the Manhattan Institute sug - tians, it is important to shrink the gov - The Immanent Frame, Social Science Research Council, September 24, 2008. http://www.ssrc.org/blogs/immanent_ gests “Red State Feminists” like Palin ernment and institute reforms like creating frame/2008/09/24/talking-right-stumbling-left/ embrace motherhood instead of demo - a system of school vouchers so parents can 6 http://www.iwf.org/about/. Also see Ronnee Schreiber, nizing it, the way progressive feminists use the money to pay for Christian schools. Righting Feminism: Conservative Women & American Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

THE PUBLIC EYE 24 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

7 For an example of criticism, see Lisa Schiffren, Book 15 Christina Hoff Sommers, “Feminism and Freedom,” On 23 “The Role of Women in Ministry as Described in Holy Review, “Who Stole Feminism,” American Spectator , v. the Issues , August 2008, (Washington, D.C.: American Scripture” adopted as the official statement by the Gen - 27, no.10, 69. Enterprise Institute). http://www.aei.org/publications/ eral Presbytery of the Assemblies of God on August 14- 8 “Is Sarah Palin a Feminist?” Female Factor #6, Independent filter.all,pubID.28410/pub_detail.asp 16, 1990. Women’s Forum, September 26, 2008. http:// 16 Since Sommers is a philosopher, she might be interested 24 “Excerpts: Charlie Gibson Interviews GOP Vice Presi - www.iwf.org/iwfmedia/show/20703.html in philosopher Sarah Ruddick’s defense of progressive dential Candidate Sarah Palin,” ABC News, 9 After the election, Bernard wrote, “Gov. Palin has dra - maternalism, MaternalThinking:Toward a Politics of Peace http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5789483 matically busted another stereotype: the presumption that (New York: Ballantine, 1990). 25 Juliet Eilperin, “Palin Displays Her Feminist Side,” a feminist and career-oriented woman must be a politi - 17 http://www.mothersmovement.org/site/about.htm. washingtonpost.com October, 21, 2008. http:// cal liberal. Indeed, much of the venom spewed at candi - 18 Kay S. Hymowitz, “Red State Feminism,” City Journal, voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/ date Palin reflected liberal frustration that this woman ; Elaine Lafferty, September 8, 2008. http://www.city-journal.org/print - 21/palin_displays_her_feminist_si.html running for vice president was-gasp!-a conservative, free “Sarah Palin’s a Brainiac,” October 27, able.php?id=2830 The Daily Beast, market feminist.” “The Sarah Palin Effect: Shattering 2008. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/ America’s Political Glass Ceiling,” November 10, 2008. 19 Abby Scher, “Who Would JesusTax?” Making Contact 2008-10-27/sarah-palins-a-brainiac/1/ radio, April 11, 2007. http://www.radioproject.org/archive/ http://www.iwf.org/news/show/20860.html 26 Brian Freil, “Can Palin’s Rise Lift the Boats for GOP 10 2008/1508.html. Richard Meagher, “Tax Revolt as a Fam - Midmorning with Kerri Miller , Minnesota Public Radio, ily Value: How the Christian Right Is Becoming A Free Women?” National Journal Online, September 16, 2008. September 22, 2008. http://minnesota.publicradio. Market Champion,” Public Eye, Winter 2006. http://www.nationaljournal.com/conventions/ org/radio/programs/midmorning/?date=09-22-2008 http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v21n1/meagher_tax_re co_20080904_7984.php?related=true&story1=null&story 11 Sridhar Pappu, “This is Something New…” Washing - volt.html ; Pam Chamberlain, “Heritage is Hip to Cul - 2=null&story3=null tonindependent.com/5852/this-is-something-new.html. ture: Think Tank Turns to Family Values,” Public Eye, 27 “2008 at a Glance: Preliminary Congressional Results,” Winter 2007. NARAL Prochoice America. 12 Danielle Sturgis, “Foibles of Feminism,” The Washing - http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v22n4/ http://www.prochoiceamer - ton Times, August 21, 2005. www.cblpi.org/ heritage.html ica.org/elections/2008-congressional-results.html resources/article.cfm?ID=13. 20 Kathleen Parker, “Giving Up on God,” Washington Post, 28 “Pro-Life Causes Live On: An NRO Q&A,” national - 13 Historian Nancy F. Cott untangled this complex history November 19, 2008. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- reviewonline, November 7, 2008. in The Grounding of Modern Feminism, (New Haven: Yale dyn/content/opinions/?nid=top_opinions 29 “Women Achieve Record Numbers in State Legislatures,” University Press, 1987). Historian Susan Levine reminded 21 For more on Brasher, see my review “Political Chapter, press release, Center for American Women and Politics, us of that history this election season in “McCain’s Bible Verse,” The Nation, April 26, 1999. http:// November 11, 2008. http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/ Feminist Mistake,” InTheseTimes, September 7, 2008. www.thenation.com/doc/19990426/scher press_room/news/documents/PressRelease_11-11-08.pdf 14 Abby Scher, Cold War on the Home Front: Middle Class 22 Dion Lefler, “Nominee’s wife aided local anti-abortion 30 Anthony M. Stevens-Arroyo, “Bishops Must Rethink Women in Community Conflict in the Age of McCarthy, group,” The Wichita Eagle , posted July 22, 2005 at Anti-Abortion Strategy,” On Faith, Newsweek/Washington Ph.D dissertation, New School for Social Research, http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1288 Post , November 11, 2008. http://newsweek.washington - June 1996. 153 post.com/onfaith/catholicamerica/2008/11/catholic_dis - connections.html

THE CULTURE WARS continued from page 2 at all lev els and effectively use the process The Defining Moment of the women in combat-that’s change, all right. of state ballot initiatives to drive wedge Culture Wars But it is not the kind of change America issues and ultimately their legislative and he speaker who launched the term wants. It is not the kind of change Amer - constitutional agenda. T“culture wars” into our political lexicon ica needs. And it is not the kind of change So let us be clear. The Religious Right did not actually employ the term. we can tolerate in a nation that we still call will be a major factor in American politics Pat Buchanan delivered an inflammatory God’s country.” for at least as long as the lives of anyone speech at the 1992 Republican National If this rhetoric sounds familiar, it is reading these words. It is important to Convention. It is now known in political cir - because little has changed since these words underscore this point because as the spec - cles as “the culture war speech.” were shouted to the world on prime time tacle of smoke and mirrors pours out of the “My friends, this election is about much national television at one of the two major political consultancies and non-profit more than who gets what,” Buchanan party conventions in the most powerful shops of Washington, DC, so drives our declared. “It is about who we are. It is about country in the history of the world. It is also national conversation on these matters what we believe. It is about what we stand because the words express the deeply held with expensively produced, wrong headed for as Americans. There is a religious war views of a wide swath of conservative narratives and overblown interpretations going on in our country for the soul of Christianity. of polls (see sidebar). One such reality America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the Buchanan’s speech epitomizes the Reli - check is what is actually happening on kind of nation we will one day be as was the gious Right’s general view of the “culture the ground, in the states, where most of Cold War itself.” [Emphasis added] 2 war”— as a “religious war” 3 that manifests American political life and government He denounced the “radical feminism” itself on many “cultural” fronts, most takes place. We will look at an album of of Bill and Hillary Clinton, stating that urgently abortion, homosexuality (espe - snapshots from the states in a moment, but their “agenda would impose on America — cially, now, marriage equality), education first, let’s begin at the beginning. abortion on demand, a litmus test for the privatization, and curriculum content of Supreme Court, homosexual rights, dis - the public schools. crimination against religious schools, So the culture war is not simply conflict

THE PUBLIC EYE 25 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

over abortion or gay marriage. It is a one- abstinence education programs as well as the first time in American history, rolled sided war of aggression against the civil anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers.” (It back a court ordered advance in civil rights rights advances of women and minorities should be noted that federal funding for gained by an oppressed minority. and the rights of individual conscience abstinence-only education has continued, But the battle is far from over. At this that we generally discuss under the rubric despite Democratic majorities in both writing, major legal challenges are planned of religious pluralism and of separation of houses of Congress in 2007 and 2008.) and massive street demonstrations protest - church and state. For these political aggres - That the Democrats’ national party ing the outcome have made national tele - sors, war is not merely a metaphor or the recruited, fielded, and massively financed vision news for a more than a week in the equivalent of a sports analogy. It is far twelve explicitly anti-abortion candidates wake of the election results. more profound and stems from the con - for the House of Representatives in 2008 What’s more, while Rhode Island and flict of “worldview,” usually described as a is one indication that the culture war is mov - New York recognize the validity of same sex “Biblical Worldview” against everything ing more deeply into the Democratic Party. 5 marriages from other states, the 1996 fed - else. It is explicitly understood by its pro - But probably the more significant bat - eral Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) ponents as a religious war and waged tles will be in the states where the Religious allows states to refuse to recognize the accordingly on multiple fronts, mostly in Right’s political strength is now greater than validity of same sex marriages.The Supreme terms we have come to define as “cul - in the federal government. For example, Court has so far declined to hear consti - tural.” How the conflict plays out takes on Focus on the Family Action, the political tutional challenges to the federal DOMA, political dimensions and sometimes phys - arm of James Dobson’s Focus on the but that could change as more states rec - ical conflict. This war is theocratic in Family (FOF), has 35 state affiliates called ognize same sex marriage and more issues nature, and seeks to roll back decades, and family policy institutes or councils. 6 These of interstate recognition of same sex mar - depending on the faction, centuries of groups, such as the Massachusetts Family riages emerge. Meanwhile, civil rights democratic advances. Institute, have taken the lead in state level efforts will go forward on many fronts, and It is important to note that while vio - anti-marriage equality campaigns and bal - there will be efforts to thwart or roll them lence has diminished overall, this war is lot initiatives for years; often they work in back. So far, 30 states have passed anti-mar - already marked by decades of violence, close collaboration with the Roman riage equality initiatives; and 10 states including hundreds of arsons and bomb - Catholic Church. This is a political infra - passed statutory DOMAs. ings of abortion clinics, as well as the assas - structure that is far greater than the sum of New York and New Jersey: Shortly sination and attempted assassination of its parts. after the November election, the Associated doctors. We have also seen extraordinary Press reported that the coalition of evan - violence against LGBT people. There has Snapshots from the Culture gelicals and the Mormon and Roman also been, and continues to be, a multidi - War in the States Catholic Churches that passed the stunning mensional battle against the Constitu - et’s look at a few snapshots from real life reversal on marriage equality in California tional doctrine of separation of church Lpolitics in the states in 2008 and what planned to take the battle to these eastern and state in the service of religious suprema - they portend for the future. states where marriage equality has shown cism. This manifests itself in many ways, Anti-marriage equality initiatives pre - signs of advancing in the state legislatures. 7 from efforts to post the Ten Command - vailed in Arizona, Florida, and Califor - Anti-abortion ballot initiatives lost in ments in public buildings, especially court nia in 2008. Longtime Religious Right California, Colorado and South Dakota. houses and the public schools, but partic - leader Chuck Colson called the California The Colorado initiative would have defined ularly in public educatio n— which offers initiative, Proposition 8, “the Armageddon a fertilized egg as a person for legal purposes the opportunity to teach biased, religiously of the culture war.” Maggie Gallagher, in contravention of Roe vs.Wade. The Cal - framed versions of human sexuality 4 and president of the National Organization ifornia initiative was a parental notification evolutionary science as well as Christian for Marriage said: “This is ground zero in measure that has been defeated twice before nationalist versions of American history. a culture war that the California Supreme and the South Dakota abortion ban had We have also seen state and federal fund - Court just declared on Christianity and been defeated once before. These defeats ing of proven ineffective and “faith-based” every single faith.” Tony Perkins, head of underscore the persistence and ongoing the Family Research Council, told The capacity of the Religious Right to wage the NewYorkTimes , “It’s more important than battles of the culture war. Frederick Clarkson has written about politics the presidential election.” Fueled with tens Constitutional Convention initiative and religion for 25 years. He is the editor most of millions of dollars from the Mormon in Connecticut: Every 20 years, the state recently, of Dispatches from the Religious Church, as well as such evangelical finan - is required to have an initiative asking the Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in ciers as John Templeton and Howard voters if it is time for a state constitutional America (Ig Publishing, 2008). He is a mem - Ahmanson, the initiative passed, and for convention. In the wake of the October rul - ber of the editorial board of The Public Eye.

THE PUBLIC EYE 26 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye ing by the state’s Supreme Court legalizing Right, it voted to approve materials from cent of efforts to get around federal and same sex marriage, the Religious Right, led the even more right-wing and controver - Supreme Court decisions intended to by the Connecticut Family Institute (the sial National Council on Bible Curriculum desegregate the schools, or bar the posting state political affiliate of Focus on the in Public Schools. 9 of religious documents such as the Ten Family) and the state’s Roman Catholic Louisiana: In 2008, the legislature Commandments in the public schools. bishops seized on the initiative as a way of passed, and Republican Governor Bobby Indeed, the 1987 Supreme Court case keeping the issue alive, purchasing a large, Jindal signed, a law that critics say is a back - of Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) ruled a last minute TV ad campaign. While this door way of slipping the teaching of cre - Louisiana law requiring the teaching of cre - effort was ultimately unsuccessful, it is a safe ationism and intelligent design by allowing ationism in the public schools unconsti - bet to expect further battles in Connecticut. for “supplemental” materials that feature tutional, pushing advocates of creationism Failed efforts to get other anti-abortion unwarranted and unscientific critiques of to produce the concept of “intelligent or antigay initiatives on the ballot: evolution to be used in addition to standard design” and ultimately a rewrite of the Montana, Arkansas and Massachusetts. science books in the public schools. The creationist textbook Of Pandas and People Even in losing, the Religious Right has con - legislation was originally introduced in in an effort to get around the ban. 11 In 2005, siderable capacity to keep their issues on the collaboration with the Louisiana affiliate a federal judge ruled that the use of the front burner. of Focus on the Family and the Discovery revised book in the Dover, Pennsylvania Texas: The elected State Board of Edu - Institute. 10 This kind of action is reminis - public schools was unconstitutional, con - cation is chaired by Don McLeroy, a Reli - gious Right activist who has made a career of seeking to inject the agenda of the Reli - Numbers Racket gious Right into the public schools. In Barack Obama ran an effective campaign pulling millions of voters to the polls and expand - October 2008, the board appointed three ing the ranks of those who walked away from the GOP to vote Democratic in 2008. In the prominent advocates of the “Intelligent election coverage, however, observers used polling data to make claims about the Christian Design” religious theory of the origin of the Right and conservative evangelicals that are dubious at best. universe to a six member science review The Christian Right did not vanish, and White Christian conservatives voted the way they panel. One of these, Steven Meyers, is a vice- usually voted. They were simply outvoted by Obama supporters. The main problem is that president of the Seattle-based Discovery many comparisons claiming big shifts use polling data for the Kerry campaign in 2004, Institute, a Religious Right think tank which was very atypical when compared to previous elections. devoted to the propagation of intelligent For example, pundits note Obama picked up 24 percent of the White evangelical vote, up design. McLeroy wrote in an October op- three points compared to Kerry’s 21 percent tally in 2004. This all sounds good until you ed, “Science education has become a culture realize Gore secured roughly 30 percent of their vote. war issue” and that the claims of scientists White Protestants? Obama scored with 34 percent, which is above Kerry’s 32 percent. Check “will be challenged by creationists.” 8 2000, however, and Gore also received 34 percent of the White Protestant vote—no change. Additionally, the legislature passed a But check out Obama’s 54 percent of all Protestants compared to Gore’s 42 percent, and you see a significant gain—but one that appears due to Black and Latino evangelicals’ vote. bill that would make it easier for school dis - tricts to teach courses about the Bible, but Another surprise was Obama picking up 43 percent of those Christians who attend church of course, this opened the door to teach - once a week or more often—“high attendees.” Gore only picked up 39 percent in 2000 and Kerry scored 38 percent in 2004. Keep in mind, however, signs that McCain failed to fully ing the Bible itself, from particular religious mobilize evangelicals in general. Karl Rove speculates that more than 4 million High Atten - and political points of view. For example, dees who “voted in 2004 stayed home in 2008.” four members of the state board soon Then there are the young evangelicals, who indeed distrust older Christian Right leaders and made news when they wrote to Texas are concerned about the environment, poverty, war, and other “moral values.” None of this school districts urging them to use the justifies the breathless announcements of the “end of the Culture Wars.” Convincing evi - discredited, Christian nationalist oriented dence suggests that a small percentage of White Christian evangelicals are swing voters when Bible study curriculum produced by the the Democratic Party stakes out clear and strong stands. Many of these swing voters, even National Council On Bible Curriculum in the youth, remain rigid in their opposition to abortion and gay marriage. Public Schools. Experts predict lawsuits if Centrist Democratic pundits don’t seem to get it. Since 2004 we have seen what Pastor Dan school districts use the program. Schultz of Street Prophets calls “the endless parade of Religious-Industrial Complex consult - Alabama: The State Board of Education ants and activists who tell us that Rick Warren is the epitome of the ‘moderate Evangelical’ first approved a Bible study curriculum that Democrats should be working to attract.” Warren is a nice guy, but he is hardly an ally of progressive activists. As progressives we should be reaching out to people of faith, includ - published by the Bible Literacy Project for ing evangelicals, but we need to clearly assess who we work with based on real numbers. elective use in Alabama school districts. – Chip Berlet and Frederick Clarkson Then, under pressure from the Religious

THE PUBLIC EYE 27 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye sistent with Edwards v. Aguillard . Still, Palin, who was vetted by the Religious Meanwhile, Focus on the Family rolled activists continue to push Intelligent Design Right-dominated Council for National out a new “Truth Project,” a religious and at high levels of state government in flagrant Policy and forced onto the Republican ideological indoctrination program that is defiance of the federal courts, demonstrat - Party ticket has emerged as a leader of the touring the country. In addition to dis - ing the insistence and capacity of the Reli - Republican Party and of the Religious cussing family issues and sexuality, the gious Right to pursue theocratic policies. Right, along with such Religious Right fig - project aggressively promotes intelligent Kansas: Control over the elected State ures as Gov. Jindal, former Arkansas gov - design and features, among others, Ben Board of Education has flipped back and ernor Mike Huckabee (currently a Fox Stein, the producer of the anti-Darwin forth between the Religious Right, and News program host) and arguably Mitt propaganda film Expelled . Young people of moderate Democrats and Republicans Romney (a Mormon who has moved “college age” are a particular target. Analy - since the late 1990s. In 2008, the “mod - towards the Religious Right since func - sis of current polling may show trends erates” held a narrow and electorally frag - tioning as governor of Massachusetts). among young White evangelicals on the hot ile 6-4 majority over the Religious Right, Even a cursory flip through snapshots button matters of the culture wars. (See box anti-evolution faction. A moderate coali - from the culture war shows that the Reli - on page 2 7). The Religious Right is cer - tion of Democrats and Republicans gious Right remains strong in the Repub - tainly looking at the same data. Focus on increased their majority over the anti-evo - lican Party, intends to, and is capable of, the Family and the millennially militant lution, Religious Right faction to 7-3, at waging and winning theocratic battles organizationThe Call, among many oth - least until 2010 when five seats are expected against LGBT and women’s civil and ers intend to aggressively contend for that to be contested. human rights, as well as disrupting secu - same demographic. Iowa: Just weeks after the 2008 presi - lar public education. The religious war The Call is a national parachurch youth dential election, Gov. Jindal, 37, a Religious Buchanan described in 1996 has shown organization head by the Los Angeles- Right Roman Catholic, was the headliner that it can transcend the wins and losses of based Lou Engle, which played a dynamic at a high dollar fundraiser for the Iowa Fam - any given election season.The only way the role in the California campaign to roll ily Policy Center, the state political affili - culture war could be over or nearly over is back marriage equality. Engle is a member ate of Focus on the Family. The event was if one or another side is clearly winning or of the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Eld - seen as a foreshadowing of the 2012 Iowa losing, their capacity to wage the war has ers, which leads the international Pente - presidential caucuses. been significantly enhanced or degraded, costal movement called the New Apostolic Washington, D.C.: The Los Angeles or they are about to call a truce or to sur - Reformation (also known as the Third Times published an article just before the render. None of these things is happening. Wave) and is headed by former Fuller election that shows that little has changed Theological Seminary professor C. Peter with the dynamics of the Religious Right Innovations Wagner. The Third Wave gained consid - in the GOP in two decades: “In skirmishes t a national meeting of the American erable attention during the 2008 election around the country in recent months, ACatholic bishops held shortly after the season, due to the involvement of GOP evangelicals and others who believe Repub - election, many passionately declared that Vice-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin. 16 licans have been too timid in fighting there was no acceptable compromise on It sees itself struggling in a demon infested abortion, gay marriage and illegal immi - abortion, and denounced the prochoice world, with the job of invoking supernat - gration have won election to the party’s views o f President-elect Obama. Some also ural powers of “anointing” and “spiritual national committee, in preparation for a condemned Catholics who had argued it was warfare” to drive out witches and demons fight over the direction and leadership of morally acceptable to back President-elect and reform the culture. Many understand the party…. The Religious Right is con - Obama because he pledged to reduce abor - themselves to be part of group called Joel’s tending with party moderates for control tion rates. 13 Nevertheless liberal Roman Army, a biblically prophesized unit that will of the Republican National Committee. It Catholic columnist E.J. Dionne wrote in do battle with the forces of Satan to estab - was frustration with the Bush-led Repub - TheWashington Post a few days after the elec - lish a theocratic order in the End Times. 17 lican National Committee that prompted tion that Obama should seek common The Call enjoys the support of such top a number of conservatives this year to try ground on abortion by not rescinding Religious Right leaders asTony Perkins of to upend the system. Conservatives won Bush-era anti-abortion executive orders the Family Research Council, Father Frank seats representing California, Iowa, Alaska, — such as the infamous “global gag rule” 14 Pavone of the militantly anti-abortion Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina and otherwise not pursuing prochoice poli - Priests for Life, and former GOP presi - and Michigan. One new member is a pop - cies. Mistaking capitulation with compro - dential contender Gary Bauer. ular black preacher from Detroit, Keith mise is an all-too-common pattern among In August of 2008, Engle mobilized Butler, who presides over a mega-church.” 12 those who would sacrifice the civil rights of 50,000 young people for a rally on the Mall Alaska: Republican Governor Sarah others in the name of common ground. 15 in Washington, D.C. The crowd was

THE PUBLIC EYE 28 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye addressed by GOP presidential primary Rev. Jim] Garlow agreed, saying they were 4 See Pam Chamberlain, “Abstaining From theTruth, Sex candidate Mike Huckabee among other ‘crying out’ to God in spiritual desperation Education as Ideology,” The Public Eye, Fall 2008. 5 Raymond Hernandez, “Democrats Carrying the Anti conservative leaders. Church & State to save California, as they were ‘watching Abortion Banner Put More Congressional Races in Play,” reported: “Pieces of bright red tape with the the destruction of Western civilization.’” The New York Times, October 25, 2008. http://www. word “LIFE” covered their mouths as Focus on the Family, even while facing a nytimes.com/2008/10/26/us/politics/26abortion.html?_r=1 6 See Frederick Clarkson, “Takin’ It to the States: the Rise young Americans rocked back and forth, budget crisis that has resulted in recent lay - of Conservative State-LevelThinkTanks,” The Public Eye, swaying their arms in the air to loud Chris - offs, nevertheless poured $539,000 in cash Summer/Fall, 1999. http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/ tian music while they listened to the raspy into the “Yes on 8” campaign and FOF v13n2-3/PE_V13_N2-3.pdf. voice of their leader, Pastor Lou Engle. board member Elsa Prince kicked in 7 Lisa Leff, “Calif. win cheers religious groups,” Associated Press, November 9, 2008. Engle… summoned the young genera - $450,000. 20 8 Don McLeroy, “Biology standards and reasonable doubts,” tion to ‘revive’ the nation from what he When significant leaders of the Religious Waco Tribune-Herald, October 19, 2008. often refers to as ‘forces of darkness.’” Right such as Dobson say such things, it 9 Phillip Rawls, “State school board approves 2nd Bible text - “‘I believe…that God has thrown a is important to take notice. But if we view book,” Associated Press, November 14, 2008. http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20081114/ window open,’ Engle told Charisma , a such events solely though the lens of the NEWS02/811140337/1009. leading Pentecostal magazine. ‘We have “culture war” —which is to say, narrowly 10 Barbara Forrest, “The Discovery Institute,The LA Fam - entered a season of time in a massive [spir - framed disagreements over abortion and ily Forum, and the LA Science Education Act,” T alk to Action, June 26, 2008. http://www.talk2action.org/story/ itual] war. It’s Pearl Harbor. It’s Nazirites homosexuality, one is risking the error of 2008/6/26/18920/8497. or Nazism. We are in a war, and if we reductionism. Dobson, Engle and their 11 Barbara Forrest, “The Vise Strategy: Undone,” The don’t win, we lose everything.’ Some young supporters are powerfully motivated by and Skeptical Inquirer, 2006. http://www.csicop.org/intelligent evangelicals who are part of Engle’s move - committed to their worldview, which is reli - designwatch/kitzmiller.html. 12 Peter Wallsten, “Social conservatives fight for control of ment see themselves as soldiers in this gious, militant, and comprehensiv e— and the Republican Party,” Los Angeles Times, October 28, ‘war.’ They view it as their duty or calling not merely a grab bag of hot button issues. 2008. http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-gop28- to end the nation’s immorality and stop 2008oct28,0,3963149.story. what they consider the ’dark forces,’ such Conclusion 13 Rachel Zoll, “Catholic Bishops will fight Obama on Abor - tion,” Associated Press, November 12, 2008. as legal abortion and gay marriage.’” at Buchanan was right. There is a reli - http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/REL_CATHOL “Abortion is not another social issue,” gious war going on in America against IC_BISHOPS?SITE=WIBEV&SECTION=HOME. P 14 says Engel, “Abortion is fueling the demo - civil rights advances at odds with conserva - The global gag rule refers to an executive order issued by 18 every Republican president since Reagan that proscribes nization of our whole culture.” tive religious orthodoxies.This poses one of U.S. family planning assistance to foreign non govern - Engle was featured in the Academy the central challenges of our time for those mental organizations that perform abortions (except in cases of a threat to the woman’s life, rape or incest) pro - Award nominated, 2006 documentary of us who are not part of the Religious vide counseling and referral for abortion; or lobby to make Jesus Camp, in which he indoctrinates Right. Those of us for whom religious plu - abortion legal or more available in their country. The rule stifles discussion of abortion-related issues and young children in anti-abortion ideology ralism and constitutional democracy mat - compels NGOs to choose between accept U.S. assistance and takes them to the steps of the U.S. ters as reproductive freedom and marriage and provide essential health services. Supreme Court where they wear the same equality, and free, quality, and secular pub - 15 E.J. Dionne Jr., “Obama’s Promise to Pro-lifers,” The bright red tape over their mouths with the Washington Post, November 15, 2008. http://www. lic education are important values need to washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/ word “LIFE” written in black on it as was pay attention to how the Religious Right 13/AR2008111303364_pf.html. used at the rally on the Mall. adapts to the changed political environ - 16 See The New Apostolic Reformation ResearchTeam, Palin’s The Call actively campaigned for the ment. And in order to do this, we must view Churches and theThird Wave Series, Talk to Action, Octo - ber 30, 2008. http://www.talk2action.org/story/ anti-marriage equality ballot initiative in announcements of the death of the Religious 2008/10/27/115813/98. California, culminating with a 10-hour Right and the end of the culture wars, with 17 Casey Sanchez, “Arming for Armageddon, Militant election eve prayer rally in a San Diego sta - considerable skepticism, every time. I Joel’s Army Followers Seek Theocracy,” Intelligence Report, Fall 2008. http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/ dium headlined by James Dobson and article.jsp?aid=964. Tony Perkins that attracted some 33,000 18 End Notes Sandhya Bathija, “Answering The Call: Evangelist Lou people. Rally speakers, including Engle, 1 Engle Rallies Evangelical Youth on Behalf of the Religious Frederick Clarkson, “The Culture Wars are Not Over:The Right,” Church & State, October 2008. called for “martyrs” and predicted that Institutionalization of the Christian Right,” The Public http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-187842638.html. there would soon come a time when “we Eye, Spring 2001. http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/ v15n1/State_of_Christian_Rt.html. 19 Michael W. Wilson, “The Call: Spiritual Warfare in the will have to risk our lives.” 19 Dobson pro - Field of Martyrs,” (video) Talk to Action, November 4, 2 Patrick J. Buchanan, 1992 Republican National Con - moted the rally on his national radio show, 2008. http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/11/4/ vention Speech, Houston, Texas, August 17, 1992. 14143/7617. and according to one report was, “Chok - http://www.qrd.org/qrd/usa/federal/1992/campaign.92/buch 20 Cara Degette, “More Layoffs at Focus on the Family,” ing up as he said he felt the hand of God anan-RNC-.txt. 3 The Colorado Independent, November 17, 2008. telling him to go. ‘The Lord must be For further discussion of religious war ideology, see Fred - http://coloradoindependent.com/15287/after-pumping-money- erick Clarkson, Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between into-prop-8-focus-on-the-family-announcing-lay offs. involved in this,”’ Dobson said. [Yes on 8’s Theocracy and Democracy, Common Courage Press, 1997. pp. 136-138.

THE PUBLIC EYE 29 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye Book Review Remaining in Exile Clearly, the impulse undergirding Sliding to the Right: The Contest for the Future of these behaviors was a profound dis - American Jewish Orthodoxy comfort with the non-Jewish world. By Samuel C. Heilman As the 1940s and 50s gave way to the University of California Press, 2006, 363 pages. 1960s, Heilman reports that “Ortho - Reviewed by Eleanor J. Bader dox estrangement seemed to grow Sociology professor Samuel C. Heilman’s fascinating—albeit and…doubtful about the whole - limited—study of the half million Orthodox Jews living in the someness of America, looked for United States, Sliding to the Right , asks an important question: continuity with its traditionalist Why has this community become increasingly observant and right wing” (p. 47). Similar to those rigidly bound toTalmudic principles over the past three decades? who embraced Christian conser - The book centers on New York City because one-quarter of vatism, the Orthodox community America’s Orthodox population lives there and, Heilman writes, bristled at liberalized sexual mores standards set in New York influence Orthodoxy in the rest of and protest movements that questioned gender and race relations. the country. He describes two groups, the Haredi Orthodox who Those who had previously straddled both Orthodoxy and world - eschew contact with the secular worl d— think black-coated liness began to fear that the latter would send them onto dan - Hasids from Williamsburg, Boro Park or Crown Heights, gerous turf. As a result, many Orthodox peopl e— especially those Brooklyn—and the modern Orthodox, who keep kosher and who attended Orthodox synagogues on holidays but otherwise dress modestly, but typically pursue edu - lived in secular societ y— retreated. While cation and work outside the Jewish com - a small number opted to leave Orthodoxy munity. The latter group, he writes, “now completely, the bulk hunkered down into finds itself losing the ideological battle for Those who had previously the security and rules of an ordered Jewish survival. Frum [religiously observant] is life. giving way to frummer ” (p. 13). straddled both Orthodoxy Once there, they had decisions to make The question is why. regarding the degree to which they’d inter - Heilman’s exploration touches upon the and worldliness began act with mainstream New Yorkers. Should political conservatism that dovetails with their kids go to public schools, or should devotional conservatism, but he does not to fear the latter. they send them to a yeshiva or private Jew - linger there. Instead, he seeks to deconstruct ish day school? If they chose the latter, what how a population that once planted its feet did they want their kids to learn? in both Jewish and secular America has Heilman’s chapter on Jewish education given way to one that prizes insularity. is particularly insightful since he sees the schools as essential play - He begins by assessing the impact of the Holocaust on both ers in the community’s rightward shift. As he tells it, families’ the native-born and those who immigrated to the United States relinquishment of responsibility for the education of their kids post-war, and reports that while some Jews turned from a God to Judaic authorities, coupled with the increased religiosity of who allowed Hitler’s atrocities to happen, others concluded that teachers, and the emergence of virtually mandatory post high “no culture, however attractive or open, could be trusted. school study programs in Israel, contributed to the increasing Judaism, especially Judaism in its most traditional form, was the conservatism. only reliable treasure” (p. 26). What’s more, this faction argued Factor in National Jewish Population surveys that documented that by holding fast to this treasure, the Jewish community was high rates of intermarriage and assimilation, and you get a sense collectively thumbing its nose at those who wished to extermi - of the survival panic that enveloped the already uneasy com - nate it.That is, survivin g— or better, thrivin g— was proof pos - munity.The revelation that young college grads were among “the itive that Jews were neither passive nor easily defeated.Traditional most assimilated and prone to intermarriage” made the idea of garb—from married women donning wigs, to men displaying sending offspring to far-off colleges seem risky (p. 98).The cul - previously hidden ritual garments and covering their heads with ture wars had invaded the Orthodox village square. yarmulkes—became marks of defiance. For their part, Heilman writes, Jewish day schools and yeshivas began to dwell on religious doctrine, as if sacred texts Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn-based teacher, writer, and activist. alone would keep community members from secular tempta - She is the coauthor of Targets of Hatred: Anti-AbortionTerrorism tions. On top of this, since the late 1980s, the majority of teach - (St. Martin’s Press, 2001). ers have come from the Haredi sector since few modern

THE PUBLIC EYE 30 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

Orthodox students are opting to become educators. Small sur - remains always the stranger, always holding onto a sense of being prise that Torah, Talmud, and Midrash have taken precedence in exile, and that lines remain that can never be crossed,” he writes over reading, writing, social studies and arithmetic. (p. 296). Worse, writes Heilman, Haredi teachers promote passivity: At the same time, he continues, the community is practical and, “When [pupils] established a relationship with a rabbi they had in order to support themselves and their families, both men and to subordinate themselves, accepting the rabbi’s opinion as women have little choice but to become mired in a multicultural superior and nullifying their own opinions before him. Democ - workforce. Indeed, financial realitie s— especially for families racy and autonomy, values that modern Orthodox at least boasting seven to nine childre n— may ultimately trump remain - claimed to hold dear, paled in the face of da’as Torah” (p. 109). ing cloistered. In the end, economic survival may push the com - Then there’s the year in Israel, deemed a “booster shot ofTorah munity outward, no matter the demons that lie in wait. life,” (p. 113) that reinforces the idea of a necessary separation from all things goyish. Images of Hope, Images of Fear Upon their return to the States, decisions loom. In addition Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West to finding a suitable opposite-sex mate, still-teenaged returnees Directed by Wayne Kopping, Produced by Raphael Shore can attend a nearby college or find work. In addition, males can DVD Release Date: September 11, 2007, Running time: 77 minutes, $14.95. enter the community-supported “scholars’ society” and devote Reviewed by Adem Carroll themselves to prayer and study. With relief and some surprise, much of the nation has been For those who opt for the work world, avoiding si n—from congratulating itself on finally electing an African American pres - nonkosher food, to rock and roll, to Internet porn or exposure ident, even one with a “Muslim middle name.” As the cathar - to feminists, queers, leftists or atheist s— remains paramount. tic images of hope begin to fade from our screens, however, let As Heilman writes, “They look for a place that will minimize us pause to reflect on those image-makers and image destroy - their exposure to what they consider the seductions of sex and ers who worked hard to incite voters’ fears about Barack Hus - seek to avoid environments where contact between men and sein Obama. women is free and easy, particularly where women are ‘immod - In the course of the campaign, infomercials and speeches cir - estly’ dressed” (p. 168). culated depicting Barack Obama as a terrorist sympathizer, a It’s a tall order. socialist, as well as a secret Muslim. Viral political messaging and Yet for all this, Heilman’s explication of Orthodox fears and mobilization on the internet energized that 12 percent of Amer - the retreat into dogmatic spirituality as a way of maintaining Jew - icans who insisted up to the election that the Democrat was a ish cohesion fails to fully explain the Jewish community’s sup - Muslim and hated him for it. In response, the Obama campaign port of Republican politicians or the alliances they’ve made with worked to distance their candidate from controversial asso - Christian conservatives. Polls showed three-quarters of the ciate s— and from the vilified Muslim and Arab Orthodox voting for McCain, while the Jewish com - communities. munity as a whole reported that level of support for As part of the early fall election season vilifi - Obama. Sliding to the Right would have been a bet - cation of Muslims, 28 million DVDs of a doc - ter book had it more thoroughly interrogated these umentary called Obsession: Radical Islam’sWar trends. At the same time, it is an enlightening, if Against theWest were distributed free inside more introductory, look at New York’s Orthodox popu - than a dozen major newspapers across the lation, from the Satmar Hasidim of Williamsburg, country. Cleverly framed as a pseudo-scholarly to the Lubavitchers of Crown Heights, to the mod - report on radical Muslim movements, together ern Orthodox of Manhattan’s Upper West Side and Flat - with sensationalist imagery, the Obsession DVD is bush, Brooklyn. actually misleading and hateful in its messaging. It is also And it explains the shift an Orthodox friend has described to fairly effective as propaganda, well paced and visually engaging. me. Growing up in the 1970s, she remembers that everyone One must really pay close attention to note its many misrepre - watched movies and ate nonmeat entrees in restaurants. Now a sentations and conflations. mother of two, she complains about her sons’ increasing dogmatism After a gentle beginning, the DVD argues that there is a vast and expresses shock at their contempt for television, secular Islamic conspiracy to dominate the world through violence and music, and films. Still, she feels unable to challenge pervasive com - trickery. Warning that failure to see the situation in these apoc - munity norms and sees the slide to the Right as already complete. alyptic terms constitutes appeasement, speakers in the film repeat - Heilman isn’t as sure and concludes that while the ultra-obser - edly suggest links between Nazi and Muslim ideologies. And vant agree that being aware of “boundaries between themselves despite a brief disclaimer, the film implicitly and explicitly and the proverbial other” is important, the question of whether the boundary can be traversed remains unresolved. “The Haredi Adem Carroll is director of the New York-based Muslim Consul - group is certain that to be Orthodox means recognizing that one tative Network.

THE PUBLIC EYE 31 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye depicts all Muslims, including the five million U.S. Muslims, favorites like the professional Christian convert Nonie Darwish, as a threat to the United States and to Israel. author of Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for Distributed by the Clarion Fund, a spin off of a well-known America, Israel and theWar onTerror, whose remarks follow a stan - organization called Aish HaTorah, the video seems intention - dard neoconservative line; neoconservative academics like ally designed to appeal to the fears and concerns of American Itamar Marcus, the founder of Palestinian Media Watch; and Jews as well as Christian Zionists.Twenty eight million is obvi - the infamous Walid Shoebat, a Muslim-born Palestinian con - ously an enormous number of DVDs, and advocacy groups noted vert to Christianity who claims to have been a Palestinian ter - that a majority of them were distributed in battleground states, roris t— a claim found not credible by the Jerusalem Post. apparently to influence the election. (This possibility prompted Shoebat introduces the term Islamofascism to amp up the the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) to lodge a invectiv e— and claims that with 55 predominantly Muslim complaint to the Federal Communications Commission that countries in the world, they “could have the success rate of a foreign-registered group underwriting the DVD was interfering several Nazi Germanys.” in U.S. politics.) Shoebat also undermines the argument that the word “jihad” A few months earlier, the website Jews on First reported that has many meanings by remarking, “ Jihad may mean self- the Republican Jewish Coalition apparently teamed with Chris - struggle… but so does Mein Kampf. ” tians United for Israel (CUFI), a conservative evangelical group, Infamous pundit Daniel Pipes tries to sound “reasonable” and to send thousands of Jews the Obsession DVDs tucked into a book talks about empowering “moderate Muslims” towards the end by the CUFI director. of the film. He speculates that that radical Muslims may be about Despite its evident failure to sway Jewish voters in the presi - 10 percent or even 15 percent of the over one billion Muslims dential election—78 percent supported the winner, according worldwide, without telling us what “support” for radical Islam to Pew—it may have helped the Obama/terrorist/Muslim sto - means or what evidence backs this statistic. Instead we are left ryline take hold among some conservative Christian voters. with the idea that hundreds of millions are a clear and Rightist interests will almost certainly continue to use this video present danger to our existence. to incite fear, marginalize Muslims and Arabs, and influence As noted in www.changethestory.net, the vast majority of national discourse on national security and international relations. Western Muslim s—the same percentage as other Americans or Indeed, the producers of the Obsession DVD are planning highe r—reject terrorism altogether. Predominantly Muslim future films (such as “The Third Jihad”) targeting Muslim nations around the world have varying understandings of American community institutions like the CAIR and Islamic terrorism, but studies have shown that only in Nigeria did a major - Society of North America. One is left to wonder if the largely ity show sympathy for terrorism. However, negative views immigrant communities the group’s serve will continue to be about the U.S. government have increased among Muslims and marginalized under a new administration, as a result. in most nations around the world. Negative speech or views should not be equated with support Images and Message for terror —opinion must be dealt with through dialogue, not Obsession begins with a disarming disclaimer that not all Mus - military drones and cluster bombs.This type of conflation, how - lims are terrorists. This may allow newspapers distributing the ever, occurs throughout the DVD —and as a depressing cata - DVD to say it is not hate speech targeting all Muslims but the logue of Muslims behaving badly, the film can indeed seem statement is consistently belied by sensationalistic images of vio - effective. lence, children training for martyrdom, concentration camps As a Muslim, I am aware of the unhelpful, reactionary, and and other horrors. National independence movements among irresponsible rhetoric one can come in touch with in the Mus - Iraqis, Chechens, and Palestinians are conflated with religious lim world. Racist, class, and tribal distinctions may hide them - zealotry. Frequently, important context is missing. Many of the selves in the green flag of Islam as well as in the red, white, and examples of so-called Islamist propaganda deplored in the film blue. But as Rabbi Arthur Waskow of the Shalom Center has are actually footage of the war in Iraq or videos including such observed, “ Obsession does not address this tug toward violence news material. As noted, the images also conflate widespread Mus - as it infects all our communities. It pretends that only Islam is lim hostility to Israeli occupation with the massive crimes of Nazi infected, and all Islam at that. And by doing this, it distracts us antisemitism. from addressing the real changes we need to make to wash away Obsession builds its argument concerning the IslamicThreat the bloody streaks in each and all of our traditions.” with a thread of statements from “academic” commentator s— (www.shalomctr.org/node/1462) producing at least the illusion of scholarly consensus. Yet speak - ers like Dr. Khaleel Mohammed of San Diego State University For more information on the DVD, visit Fairness and Accuracy in and Imam Ahmed Dewidar have complained that their remarks Reporting’s Smearcasters website which discusses some of the experts were put into false context. interviewed (www.fair.org), and a faith-based critique at For the most part, however, the film relies on right-wing www.obsessionwithhate.com.

THE PUBLIC EYE 32 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye ……Reports in Review…… REPORT OF THE MONTH On Immigration: Clearing Smoke, Cracking Mirrors Shifting the emphasis from the number of states with reactionary The Anti-Immigrant Movement that Failed: Positive Integration immigration policies to the numbers of unauthorized immigrants Policies by State Governments Still Far Outweigh Punitive affected by such policies, the authors see a glass half full: “The states Policies Aimed at New Immigrants with the largest numbers of undocumented immigrants… have been quietly promoting a whole range of policies based on integration of Progressive States Network, New York, September 2008. new immigrants.” http://progressivestates.org/files/reports/immigrationSept08.pdf The report argues that only states dominated by rightwing leader - Since Minutemen border vigilantes burst onto U.S. television sets ship won more punitive laws in 2008. This glosses over the fact that in the spring of 2005, the anti-immigrant movement has successfully national policy campaigns often build off momentum generated in the utilized national news outlets to exaggerate — and to build — its size states, where campaigners pick the low-hanging fruit at sympathetic and momentum. Various cable news pundits serve as virtual mouth - legislatures. As important, this backlash has framed the terms of debate pieces for anti-immigrant groups (e.g. Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck) well beyond a few retrograde statehouses, putting new immigrant com - and until the financial crisis and presidential campaigns eclipsed cov - munities on the defensive even in “integrative” locales like New York, erage, mainstream news venues regularly featured stories on the grow - where in ’07 then-Governor Spitzer withdrew his driver’s license plan ing anti-immigrant backlash — even as polls indicated that a majority for the undocumented under a hailstorm of criticism.The creation of of the population favored a path to citizenship for the country’s esti - an anti-immigrant climate, in which unauthorized immigrants are mated twelve million undocumented immigrants.The Progressive States reduced to the criminal label “illegals,” is itself an achievement for the Network’s recent report, The Anti-Immigrant Movement that Failed, White nationalists who comprise the backbone of the movement. comes as a welcome — if partial — corrective to the media hype. Some readers may also take exception to the report’s state rankings. Given the impasse of federal immigration reform, over the past few While a “mixed” Colorado did manage to repeal a one-year residency years most policy action has been at the state and municipal levels. By requirement of those seeking hospital treatment for tuberculosis, only the end of the most recent legislative season in June, 39 states had enacted the chronically optimistic would consider the state’s ’08 immigration 175 bills and resolutions regulating immigrants from1, 267 such meas - record to be anything other than harsh. Indeed, rights activists ures introduced, according to the National Conference of State Leg - describe being on the defense in the legislature’s toxic environment, islatures. In 2007, 46 state legislatures passed 240 of the 1,562 where nothing pro-immigrant passed and “victory” was killing 19 anti- measures introduced that year — triple the number enacted in 2006. immigrant measures even nastier than those ultimately enacted. Anti-immigrant policy appears to be sweeping the nation. The report’s title, The Anti-Immigrant Movement that Failed , Not so fast! argue Caroline Fan and Nathan Newman of the Pro - raises hopes that, alas, remain unfulfilled. Deflating exaggerated media gressive States Network. In 2008, the authors find that only 14 states characterizations of the anti-immigrant movement’s size and momen - enacted “punitive or somewhat punitive” policies, whereas seven tum is important, and this report makes a valuable contribution. As states passed “mixed” and seventeen passed “integrative or somewhat the issue of immigration resurfaces post-election, we can permit our - integrative” packages. More telling, “only 11 percent of undocumented selves the audacity to hope for great things if we also commit to the immigrants live in states that have enacted comprehensive Punitive tremendous organizing challenge we face — in our communities, our policies” on immigration. By comparison, over 50 percent of undoc - legislatives bodies, and, yes, the news media. umented immigrants live in states in which they are eligible for in-state – Tarso Luís Ramos college tuition.

Other Reports in Review Charitable War onTerror tionless, misguided disaster with philan - Rather than be considered “innocent until Collateral Damage: How the War on Ter - thropic and charitable foundations receiving proven guilty,” the Bush Administration ror Hurts Charities, Foundations, and the a big hit, according to this report.The finan - assumes philanthropic organizations are at People They Serve cial anti-terror campaign under the USA fault. Charities are shut down immediately, PATRIOT Act gave the executive branch and without given the latitude of for profit com - By Kay Guinane, Vanessa Dick, and Amanda the U.S. Treasury Department clearance to Adams, OMB Watch and Grantmakers panies to pay fines and defend themselves. One Without Borders, July 2008. blacklist disfavored individuals and groups, example is the charity KindHearts USA, http://www.ombwatch.org/npadv/PDF/collater and impose guilt by association. Broad sur - which closed in February 2006 after theTrea - aldamage.pdf veillance powers combined with unregulated sury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and evolving standards allow the Treasury (OFAC) alleged the organization was cre - The financial war on terror has been a direc - Department to skirt due process. ated from Holy Land and the Global Relief

THE PUBLIC EYE 33 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

Foundation (GRF) — two groups shut down ical attention. Muslims and the Media in 2001. In the end, this band-aid approach ulti - Smearcasting: How Islamophobes Spread The writers suggest charities like Kind - mately will exacerbate and worsen the health - Fear, Bigotry and Misinformation Hearts cannot predict what constitutes illegal care access gap. –Maria Planansky By Steve Rendall, Isabel Macdonald, Veronica behavior given the flaws in the Treasury’s Cassidy and Dina Marguerite Jacir, Fairness & guidelines for nonprofits, the Anti-Terrorist Homophobia and the Power of Accuracy in Reporting, October 2008. the Media? Financing Guidelines: Voluntary Best Prac - http://www.smearcasting.com tices for U.S.-Based Charities and the Risk How The Real World Ended “Don’t Ask This report profiles twelve of the most vit - Matrix for the Charitable Sector. Charities Don’t Tell” riolic anti-Muslim pundits, exposing a loose, must probe their associates and donors, but By P.W. Singer, Brookings Institute, August albeit powerful, network of prominent right have no legal protection despite adherence to 2008. wing commentators who regularly broadcast their voluntary self-inspection. An organiza - http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/pa misinformation, lies and innuendo through the tion may not automatically defend itself when pers/2008/08_military_singer/08_military_si mainstream media that marginalizes Muslim investigated: its attorney must first procure a nger.pdf Americans and manipulates public atti tudes. special license from theTreasury Department Seven strangers have made “Don’t Ask Among the “dirty dozen” are Daniel Pipes, before representing the accused charitable Don’tTell” obsolete, or so Peter Singer would founder of the Middle East Forum think foundation. Criminal prosecutions routinely have you believe. MTV’s popular reality show tank, who claimed that the “enfranchisement employ shoddy evidence, manufacturing the The Real World, premiering the same year of American Muslims” entailed “true dangers link between non-profits and terror groups. President Bill Clinton enacted the military pol - for American Jews” and led a campaign to oust The report suggests that the solution in part icy letting gays and lesbians remain in the mil - the principal of an Arabic language public can be found in the U.S. Department of itary as long as they keep their sexual school in Brooklyn. Prolific blogger Michelle State’s existing Guiding Principles for Gov - orientation a secret, features a youthful, seven- Malkin referred to Islam as “the religion of ernment Treatment of NGOs which would member cast ranging in age from 18 to 25. perpetual rage,” and Rev. Pat Robertson, on allow the government to fight terrorism This group represents different races, genders, his Christian Broadcasting Network, referred without harming the philanthropic world’s religious and political beliefs, and sexual ori - to Islam as a “worldwide political movement” ability to do its work. –Maria Planansky entations. Singer uses the reality show’s dis - determined to “subjugate all people under cussions about homosexuality as a barometer Islamic Law.” Political commentator Bill One More Band-Aid of national feelings about gays in the military. O’Reilly made the list for justifying greater sur - An Unequal Burden: The True Cost of Singer lists LGBT strides in the media such veillance of Muslim Americans, labeling it High-Deductible Health Plans for as Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show and Queer Eye “criminal profiling.” –Andrew Smith Communities of Color for the Straight Guy and credits this visibility By FamiliesUSA, September 2008. for shifting public opinion. When the mili - http://www.familiesusa.org/assets/pdfs/unequal tary policy was first enacted, allowing gays and -burden.pdf lesbians to serve openly in the military was The high-deductible health plan is the controversial. By 2007 CNN found that 79 latest quick-fix scheme to expand healthcare percent of Americans think people who are coverage that we should avoid, according to openly homosexual should be allowed to Families USA. Low premium payments make serve in the U.S. military. such plans attractive, but the cost of The 18 to 25 demographic is not only deductibles forces families to pay large sums MTV’s intended audience, but also accounts of money out-of-pocket when they actually for the age range of prospective servicemen and seek health care. women in the U.S. military. What is clear is FamiliesUSA uses hard data and statistics that “Don’t Ask Don’tTell” isn’t working. Unit to show that high-deductibles are greatly ben - cohesion in the military is more threatened by eficia l— but largely to relatively healthy banning homosexuality than accepting it, Caucasians. Communities of color are and the military simply cannot afford to dis - reported as being in poorer health than whites charge any more members. Hit especially of similar income, with more chronic diseases hard are the “high demand/low density” posi - and illnesses. In the end, the high-deductibles tions, including pilots, combat engineers, burden people with more healthcare costs. and Arab linguists. With only 15 percent of New Report from PRA! The bottom line is high deductible plans are American youth deemed as “qualified military Available online now! just too expensive for many low income peo - available,” Singer urges the military to embrace ple and especially people of color. Rather than the cultural changes and start “getting real.” seek out aid, they will avoid receiving med - –Maria Planansky www.publiceye.org

THE PUBLIC EYE 34 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye Eyes RIGHT Eye OBAMA WIN: A MANDATE AMERICANS MUST CHOOSE LASHES FORTHE RADICAL FREEDOM OR SOCIALISM HOMOSEXUAL LOBBY? Occasional Presidential candidate and pub - Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs at lishing heir Steve Forbes offers his two cents The Hand of the Liberty Council and Liberty Alliance on the road ahead in fighting President- “ Action, warns President-elect Obama to rec - elect Obama’s liberal tax policy in a mailing God Has Been ognize that many of his crucial supporters also from the anti-tax, anti-union, anti-regulation voted to ban same-sex marriage in Califor - group FreedomWorks.The organization has Removed from nia, Arizona, and Florida. As he put it, been at the vanguard of successful efforts to “…Obama, who has pledged full support prevent workers from forming all-union this Nation. for every single demand of extremist homo- workplaces and led numerous smear cam - –Internet Evangelist Bill K”eller upon sexual pressure groups, must recalibrate his paigns to discredit environmental and con - the election of Barack Hussein far-left positions on these and other social sumer watchdog groups. Rather than the Obama as the 44th president of issues if he wishes to be an effective leader.… economic meltdown, Forbes most fears the United States, www.liveprayer.com. President-elect Obama owes his African- “nanny state” which he says can be fought American supporters and the rest of Amer - with flat-rate taxes, private healthcare, and ica assurances that he will work to protect the economic deregulation. The choice, as he cornerstone institution of legitimate marriage says, is “Freedom or Socialism.”That seems and reject the free-speech killing, religious lib - like a plan to show who’s in charge. erties chilling agenda of the radical homo - Source: Direct mail letter from Steve Forbes, Vice sexual lobby.” President, FreedomWorks Foundation November 7, 2008, PRA files. Source: “California Proposition 8 Poll Results: Voters Again Reject Artificial “Gay Marriage” by Matt Barber, “OBAMA-PROOF”YOUR November 5, 2008, The Post Chronicle. http://www.postchronicle.com/commentary/article_21218 INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO 3991.shtml Vulnerable Americans need investment tips PROLIFE GROUPS REFLECT to face off the “tsunami of big-government” ONTHE “OBAMANATION” and “redistributed wealth” that comes with the Obama victory, says Mark Skousen, a pro - Father Frank Pavone, Director of Priests for lific economist. Just follow his seven “Obama- Life, is breathless in his video statement Proof” investments to help individual spelling out the harsh challenges facing the investors survive, and thrive, as Obama leads prolife movement under an Obama admin - “the nation toward the kind of socialism istration. Obama’s win is “one of the biggest now operating in Western Europe-where mistakes that the American people have production and growth can be charitably made in the entire history of our nation” described as stagnant.” Essentially, Skousen because “we have a president-elect who can - encourages people to withdraw their money not tell the difference between serving the from the American market and invest it in public and killing the public.” Ultimately, “areas of the globe whose booming growth “Finally, the while Father Pavone recognizes that the pro - doesn’t depend on what’s happening with the life movement will no longer be able to work Religious Left U.S. economy.” The precise investment tips “inside the White House,” he believes pro - are available for a steep price in Skousen’s has found its voice.” lifers will be victorious through greater voter Obamanomics &Your Money: HowTo Profit –JOAN BROWN CAMPBELL L education and lobbying. FromThe Coming Big-GovernmentTsunami. Source: “An Obamanation: Father Frank Responds,” You Tube , November 5, 2008. Source: “Obama-Proof” Your Portfolio” by Mark Now available at Amazon.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKIFqrUQCIM Skousen, promotional insert into Human Events.

THE PUBLIC EYE 35 WINTER 2008 The Public Eye

I Yes! I want to support The Public Eye . Enclosed is a donation of: SupportThe Public Eye magazine! I $1000 I $750 I $500 I $250 I $100 I $50 I Help us provide the best reporting Other $______I Yes, I want to subscribe to The Public Eye , $21. and analysis on the U.S. Right I and government repression. Check Enclosed I Charge my Mastercard or Visa ( circle one )

Account # ______Exp Date ______Each issue of The Public Eye Signature ______costs $12,000 to produce –

not including staff time! Name ______Yet we still make it available Adress ______to everyone who wants it, City ______State _____ Zip______with your help. Mail form with payment to: Political Research Associates, 1310 Broadway, Suite 201, Somerville, MA 02144-1837

NON-PROFIT ORG. ThePublicEye U.S POSTAGE MAGAZINE PAID BOSTON, MA Political Research Associates PERMIT NO. 54584 1310 Broadway, Suite 201 Somerville, Massachusetts 02144-1837 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER THE PUBLIC EYE 36 WINTER 2008