Laying Seige to Mississippi's Last Abortion Clinic, p. 3

TheA PUBLICATION OF POLITICAL RESEARCH PublicEye ASSOCIATES FALL 2006 • Volume XX, No.3 $5.25 The Art of the Slur From Joe McCarthy to David Horowitz By Aaron Barlow ill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann BCoulter: these are perhaps the best known of the right-wing commentators who seem to have trouble with the truth — although their lies have little impact on their careers. The list also includes David Horowitz, the former leftist who has become a spokesman for right-wing causes and, perhaps more importantly, some- thing of a conservative movement tactician. From among this august grouping, it was Horowitz who actually codified lying, making it into a tactic rather than just a careless mistake. In his latest book, Dan- gerous Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, and related writing, Horowitz drips out misleading “informa- Credit: A.Y.Owen/Time & Life Pictures A.Y.Owen/Time Credit: A potential recruit gazes at the Davy Crockett memorial at the Alamo. tion” in an attempt to discredit liberals in Art of the Slur continues on page 11 Cruising on Military Drive ‘Good’ Latinos and ‘Bad’ Latinos in the Age of IN THIS ISSUE Homeland Security and Global War Editorial ...... 2 By Roberto Lovato Latino identity is taking in times of war. f you want to understand how Homeland Between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. teen and Laying Seige to the Last ISecurity influences us, go to south Texas twenty-something Mexican and Mexican Abortion Clinic in Mississippi . . 3 and take a walk around neighborhoods American youth drive along a six-block Ballot Initiatives on the Right . . . 6 whose streets were paved by the “clash of civ- stretch of Military Drive that sits between ilizations” in cities and towns at or near the Lackland and Kelly Air Force bases. On Book Reviews ...... 19 border. One such street is San Antonio’s their way to secluded spots for hanging out Military Drive where, on any Friday, Sat- and making out, young people in trucks, Reports in Review ...... 21 urday, or Sunday night, you can, if you pay jalopy Toyotas, and other cars pass F-14’s, Eyes Right ...... 23 close attention, watch some of the directions Flying Fortresses, and other storied war- Cruising on Military Drive continues on page 8

THE PUBLIC EYE1 FALL 2006 The Public Eye EDITORIAL ThePublicEye IN MEMORY OF MAYA MILLER, Publisher The Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, Activist, Donor, and Mentor M. Div., D. Min. Editor 1915 – 2006 Abby Scher, Ph.D Maya Miller died at home on her ranch outside Carson City, Nevada at the age of 90, Design/layout Hird Graphic Design surrounded by friends and family. While Maya’s death was not unexpected, it has left Printing the many people who were profoundly influenced by her with a sense of loss and grief. Red Sun Press Maya was a feminist, humanist, and political ally, especially of women who were Editorial Board marginalized and dismissed by the larger system. She worked both in Nevada and nation- Chip Berlet • Pam Chamberlain ally, even running for the U.S. Senate in Nevada in an attempt to raise the profile of Frederick Clarkson • David Cunningham, Ph.D Surina Khan • Roberto Lovato her progressive politics. She founded an environmental training center at her ranch even The Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale before there was a movement. She was a pro-choice activist in an anti-choice strong- Tarso Luís Ramos • Abby Scher hold, and her work for peace often involved placing herself on the ground where Holly Sklar • PaulWatanabe, Ph.D conflict was occurring. PRAPRA Political Research Associates Maya was a donor to Political Research Associates since our founding in 1981 in Chicago, POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES providing consistent support for our work for 25 years. For me personally, she was both Founder and President Emerita my beloved friend and my political mentor. Maya taught me, by example as much as by Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D explicit guidance, how to channel profound rage and disgust into useful political work. Staff The Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, When I visited her at “the ranch,” she always had a list of questions she was struggling Executive Director Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst to answer. This was true until the end of her life. I know that there are many of us across Pam Chamberlain, Research Analyst the country who share my wish to live a life that is fractionally as courageous and Cindy King, Business Manager Sean Lewis-Faupel, Webmaster principled as was Maya’s. Tom Louie, Director of Development – Jean Hardisty, Founding Director, Political Research Associates and Communications Tarso Luís Ramos, Research Director
Abby Scher, Senior Editor Interns Andrew Dykens and Douglas Foote IN MEMORIAM Board of Directors Richard Gross Eric Rofes Heeten Kalan Vivien Labaton 1954 - 2006 June Lorenzo Mohan Sikka The LGBTQ movement has lost one of its most thoughtful, progressive, and feminist Wendy Volkmann leaders with the sudden, unexpected death of Eric Rofes. Eric came out and did his early Paul Watanabe, Ph.D. The Public Eye is published by Political Research gay rights work in Boston, then moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco to head major Associates. Annual subscriptions are $15.00 for organizations, teach at Humboldt State University, and continue a prolific writing career. individuals and non-profit organizations, $10.00 for students and low-income individuals, and $29.00 He dedicated his entire life to the cause of gay rights, providing vision, energy, and lead- for libraries and institutions. Single issues, $5.25. Outside U.S., Canada, and Mexico, add $9.00 ership. His death will leave a profound gap in the LGBTQ movement’s strategic think- for surface delivery or $14.00 for air mail. ing, activism, and heart. Political Research Associates and the Public Eye staff share the Please make checks payable to Political Research Associates, 1310 Broadway, Suite 201, grief of his partner, his colleagues and his many Somerville, Massachusetts 02144-1837. CLARIFICATION 617.666.5300 fax: 617.666.6622 In “Back to the Future: GOP Revives Anti-Gay friends. Memorial gifts in his honor should be PRA is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. All Marriage Campaign for ’06” by Doug Ireland in made to the National Gay and Lesbian Task donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted the Summer Public Eye, he referred to the Catholic Force or The Highlander Center for Research and by law. © Political Research Associates, 2006. Church, meaning the Roman Catholic Church. Website: www.publiceye.org Education. All rights reserved. ISSN 0275-9322 ISSUE 53

THE PUBLIC EYE 2 FALL 2006 The Public Eye Laying Siege to the Last Abortion Clinic in Mississippi By Michelle Goldberg protests outside the Jackson Women’s A decade ago, there were six clinics in n Tuesday, July 18th, for the first Health Organization. The next week, Mississippi. Yet the combination of con- Otime in ten years, protesters arrived on another anti-abortion group called Oh stant harassment and onerous regulations Dr. Joseph Booker’s block in Jackson, Mis- Saratoga! commenced its own seven days led one after another to shut down, and sissippi. They went door to door, ringing of demonstrations. Impatient for a change since 2004, Jackson Women’s Health Orga- bells and telling people that their neighbor, in the Supreme Court, anti-abortion forces nization has stood alone. Closing it would the state's last abortion provider, is a baby are determined to make Roe v. Wade func- be the biggest victory yet in the anti-abor- killer. A few weeks before that, protestors tionally irrelevant in the state, and they tion movement’s long war of attrition. showed up at the Raleigh, North Carolina, believe they’re getting close. This makes Mississippi an alluring target. home of Susan Hill, the owner of the Jack- Operation Save America is not what it son Women’s Health Organization, the used to be and on the surface its Mississippi clinic where Booker works. Soon the death sojourn certainly didn't look victorious. threats started coming. “There is a feeling Clinic blockades are far There were at most a few hundred demon- that things are ramping up,” Hill says. strators in Jackson. That meant that women “The protestors that we see in various less frequent these days, coming to the clinic had to brave a gaunt- places are more vocal, screaming, not just let of shouting people, many holding mas- protesting.” In her experience, clinic vio- due largely to both a sive photos of aborted fetuses. But this was lence is often preceded by just this kind of a far cry from the days when Operation Res- heightened rhetoric. public backlash and a cue brought tens of thousands of protes- The last abortion clinic in Mississippi tors to cities like Wichita and Buffalo is under siege. In mid-July, Operation legal crackdown. during the early 1990s, where they tried, Save America—previously known as and sometimes succeeded, in physically Operation Rescue—held a week of shutting clinics down. Clinic blockades are far less frequent these days, due largely to both a public backlash and a legal crackdown. Not long after Operation Rescue's most high-profile demonstrations, a number of abortion providers were murdered, and their deaths sent the militant wing of the movement into disrepute. Then in 1994, partly in response to the killing of Florida abortion doctor David Gunn, President Bill Clinton signed the Free- dom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. FACE makes it a federal crime to use “force, threat of force or physical obstruction” to block access to reproductive health services, and imposed prison sentences and fines up to $250,000. The law also allows clin-

Michelle Goldberg is a contributing writer for Salon.com and the author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Marianne Todd/Getty Images Todd/Getty Marianne Police remove a demonstrator from Operation Save America’s clinic action in Jackson, Mississippi in July. Christian Nationalism.

THE PUBLIC EYE3 FALL 2006 The Public Eye ics and health care workers to bring civil say is, when protests at a clinic go up, been stalked repeatedly, and during the suits against violators. that’s when there tends to be a shooting,” 1990s, he was put under the protection of “We’ve been sued for millions and mil- says Eleanor Smeal, president of the Fem- federal marshals. “We were very fearful he lions of dollars,” says Flip Benham, the head inist Majority Foundation. “There seems was going to be killed,” says Smeal. He had of Operation Save America. A Texan with to be some link.” Many of the abortion a police escort during the recent protests, but ruddy, sun-cured skin, and short brown providers who have been shot, including if he’s fearful, he won’t admit it. A 62-year- hair, he has the hearty manner of a high George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas, Dr. old black man with a trim, white-streaked school football coach. “Thanks to the George Patterson in Mobile, Alabama, mustache and goatee, and a stud in his left media, we’ve been painted with the broad Gunn and John Britton in Pensacola, ear, Booker says anti-abortion harassment brush stroke of being violent folks because Florida, and Barnett Slepian outside Buf- has been increasing but he dismisses the pro- of a few loose cannons, who aren’t even falo, New York, were first the subject of testers as “more bark than bite. If you don’t Christian, who blew up abortion mills repeated demonstrations and threats. Their get intimidated, they get frustrated and and killed abortionists. So what happens names were put on hit lists and wanted don’t show up as much.” A Pittsburgh native is, folks are afraid. There are new laws in posters, and information about them cir- who was educated in San Francisco, he place now that weren’t there in the 1990s, describes himself as “a Yankee, pro-choice, like FACE.” outspoken, and black. And that’s a bad The result has been a drastic decline in combination in Mississippi.” Operation Rescue’s fortune and its clout. A decade ago, there Race is an omnipresent issue at the As legal judgments piled up, Benham, protests, though it shows up in unexpected who took over the group’s leadership in were six clinics in ways. The clinic’s staff and most of the 1994, changed the group’s name to Oper- patients are black; the majority of the pro- ation Save America in an attempt to get out Mississippi. Now the testors are white. Still, the demonstrators of paying. It didn’t work. “Planned Par- see themselves as the heirs of the civil enthood came into our office and confis- Jackson Women’s rights movement—they carry pictures of cated every computer, every file, every Martin Luther King, Jr., compare the pro- piece of paper, every pencil that we had,” Health Organization choice movement to the KKK and call he says. abortion “black genocide.” What they Yet Benham and his crew can still make stands alone. generally refuse to do, though, is support life difficult for reproductive health work- government measures that might ease the ers in Mississippi. The protests create a con- burdens of poverty in the state’s poor, stant, low-level state of emergency among black communities — or help women bet- the clinic's staff, intimidate many of the culated throughout the violent wing of the ter control their reproductive lives. Mis- patients, and add to the tension that plague anti-abortion movement. sissippi’s high rate of unplanned doctors already living with the omnipresent Even if the movement's extreme wing pregnancies, says McMillan, is due to the threat of violence. wasn't represented in Jackson, it has some “moral degeneration of the black culture, Hill owns five clinics throughout the support there. The most faithful of the Jack- and I submit it’s caused by the welfare country, and she has to be on constant alert. son clinic demonstrators is a local man mentality.” Over the years, her facilities have been named C. Roy McMillan, who sees protest- The protests are just one side of the vise subjected to 17 arsons or firebombings, as ing abortion as his full-time job and says that the Jackson Women’s Health Orga- well as butyric acid attacks and anthrax he's been arrested 65 times. McMillan is nization and the women it serves are caught threats. One of the doctors who was mur- one of thirty-four signatories to a 1998 in. Both are also being squeezed by an dered, David Gunn, worked for her. “For- statement that calls the murder of doctors ever-expanding panoply of anti-abortion tunately we’ve been safer in the last few years who perform abortions “justifiable…for legislation that’s made Mississippi the most for whatever reasons,” says Hill. “Thank the purpose of defending the lives of difficult state in America in which to ter- God there haven’t been the shootings.” unborn children.” He describes the late Paul minate a pregnancy. Even as the Jackson By and large, the people who showed up Hill—the murderer of gynecologist Dr. Women’s Health Organization hangs on, in Jackson so far are not nearly as belliger- John Britton and his bodyguard, retired Air the state offers the country's clearest view ent as their rhetoric. Historically, though, Force Lt. Col. James Herman Barrett—as of the religious Right's social agenda in the doctors who’ve been targeted by protests a friend. action. It’s a harbinger of what a post-Roe —especially protests that demonize them So Dr. Booker has reason to worry. He’s America could look like. personally—are the most likely to be long been one of the gynecologists singled On July 19, a white taxi that says assaulted or killed by extremists. “All we can out by militant anti-abortion forces. He’s “Choose Life” on its side pulled into the

THE PUBLIC EYE 4 FALL 2006 The Public Eye parking lot of the Jackson Women’s Health percent of the pregnancy tests the center country, and the highest teenage birth Center. Out jumped one of the clinic’s sur- administer come back negative. Some of the rate. It is tied with Louisiana for America's gical technicians. Her boyfriend is a cab women who take them live with their worst infant morality rate. According to driver, and his boss, the owner of Veterans boyfriends, making a commitment to The National Center for Children in Taxi, has emblazoned the anti-abortion abstinence unlikely. But Beavers is unapolo- Poverty, more than half of the state’s chil- message on every car in his fleet. Opposi- getic about her opposition to birth control, dren under 6 live in poverty. The immis- tion to abortion is everywhere in this state in part because she thinks a woman whose eration of Mississippi’s women and children — more than an ideology, it’s part of the contraception fails might feel more entitled isn't solely the result of diminished repro- atmosphere. Recently, Mississippi came to an abortion. “They think, it wasn't ductive rights, of course. But it’s clear that close to following South Dakota and ban- their fault anyhow, so let's just go ahead and enforced ignorance and lack of choices ning most abortions; many expect it will kill it,” she says. play a major role. “You would be surprised do so during the next legislative session. The Already, places like the Center for Preg- what they don’t understand about their own local government leads the nation in anti- nancy Choices are leading public dis- bodies,” Betty Thompson, the former abortion legislation. Mississippi is one of pensers of reproductive health advice in director of the Jackson Women’s Health only two states in America where teenagers Organization, says about the clinic's seeking abortions need the consent of both patients. parents, forcing some mothers to go to For the anti-abortion movement, court to help their daughters override a The number of abortion though, Mississippi isn’t lagging behind the father’s veto. rest of the nation. Rather, it's the van- Many cars have “Choose Life” license providers dropped 11 guard. “We’re not waiting for the president, plates; the state gives much of the proceeds we’re not waiting for the Congress, we’re from the plates to Christian crisis pregnancy percent between 1996 not waiting for the Supreme Court to be centers. More than two-dozen such centers packed,” says Benham, the head of Oper- operate in the state. They look very much and 2000, and almost 90 ation Save America. “This issue can’t be like reproductive health clinics, and they won from the top down. When you’re on offer free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, percent of U.S. counties the streets and you see these battles won but they exist primarily to dissuade women over and over again, when you see the sta- from having abortions. Like other crisis lack abortion services. tistics of abortion dropping, you begin to pregnancy centers nationwide, those in realize hey, this battle is being won.” Mississippi tell their clients that abortion Indeed, the same strategy at work in increases the risk of breast cancer, infertil- Mississippi is being used all across the ity and a host of psychiatric disorders, Mississippi. The schools teach either absti- country. According to the National Abor- none of which is true. And although the nence or nothing at all. Besides private tion Federation, 500 state-level anti-abor- women who come to them are virtually all physicians, the only places that provide tion bills were introduced last year, and 26 both sexually active and unprepared for birth control prescriptions are the Jackson were signed into law. The number of abor- motherhood, they also counsel against Women's Health Organization and the tion providers dropped 11 percent between contraception, believing that abstinence is offices of the State Department of Health. 1996 and 2000, and almost 90 percent of the only answer for the unwed. At Jackson’s For women seeking to avoid pregnancy, U.S. counties lack abortion services. Center for Pregnancy Choices, which gets there are other hurdles. According to a sur- Abortion rights won’t disappear in around $20,000 a year in money from the vey by the Feminist Majority Foundation, America in one fell swoop, and they can’t Choose Life plates, a pamphlet about con- of 25 pharmacies in Jackson, only two be protected by a single Supreme Court doms warned, “[U]sing condoms is like stock emergency contraception (EC). Even precedent. Congress’s ban on adults taking playing Russian roulette…In chamber when the pharmacies do carry EC, indi- a minor who is not their child across state one you have a condom that breaks and you vidual pharmacists may refuse to dispense lines for an abortion, and South Dakota’s get syphilis, in chamber two, you have an it; Mississippi is one of eight states with attempt to ban abortion outright, are mak- STD that condoms don’t protect against at “conscience clause” laws protecting phar- ing headlines. But the more gradual ero- all, in chamber three you have a routinely macists who refuse to dispense contracep- sion of rights often escapes people’s view. fatal disease, in chamber four you have a tives. Dr. Booker says he has written several Through a combination of militant street new STD that hasn’t even been studied…” EC prescriptions, only to find his patients actions and punitive legislation, Roe v. According to Barbara Beavers, a former unable to fill them. Wade is being hollowed out from the sidewalk protestor who now runs the Cen- Not surprisingly, Mississippi has the inside. The right to an abortion doesn’t ter for Pregnancy Choices, as many as 40 third highest teen pregnancy rate in the mean much if there’s no way to get one. ■

THE PUBLIC EYE5 FALL 2006 The Public Eye Ballot Initiatives on the Right: 2006 By Kristina Wilfore TABOR Marriage Discrimination n 2004, the Right deployed state ballot ABOR stands for the Taxpayer’s Bill of lthough the anti-gay marriage cam- Iinitiatives opposing gay marriage to pull TRights, a policy gimmick designed to Apaign sought to prime conservatives to out socially conservative voters on Election shrink state government through a consti- support George W. Bush and conservative Day. While this tactic apparently only tutional amendment that must be approved candidates around the country in 2004, will enjoyed success in the key state of Ohio, it by voters. TABOR’s proponents are national it really do the trick this year? Faced with nonetheless helped frame the national elec- anti-tax ideologues like Grover Norquist, record-low poll numbers for Congress and tion, provided right-wing candidates with Dick Armey, and Howard Rick from Amer- the President, a war that keeps grinding on, a distinct message, and primed voters to sup- icans for Limited Government, who seek and skyrocketing energy prices, the Right port candidates who supported the marriage to “drown government in a bathtub” is increasingly overreaching, and the con- bans. The Right is running with the issue through a simplistic formula of tying the tinued strategy to push gay marriage as a again this year, while also appealing to eco- leading issue is indicative of their despera- nomically conservative voters with initia- tion. Most states that will vote on anti-gay tives “protecting” taxpayers, opposing marriage measures will see the harshest eminent domain, and cutting education The grand strategy to possible versions of the amendment on spending. the ballot. These strict laws punish many The past five years have seen a seismic ‘drown government in more people than gays and lesbians, out- shift in the use of initiatives, which are lawing not only gay marriage and civil experiments in direct democracy won by a bathtub’ has truly unions, but all domestic partner benefits. reformers a century ago. They allow citi- Marriage discrimination is again a zens to push for a popular vote on a key lost its momentum. national electoral strategy for the Right, and issue in their state either by gathering voter is already on the ballot (or very likely to be) signatures — a Citizen’s Initiative — or by in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Wisconsin, winning interest from the state legislature South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, — a referendum. Big business’s embrace of budget to inflation and population growth. and Virginia. Activists in Washington these mechanisms defies their populist TABOR laws would impose a cap on the failed miserably in their effort to secure the roots. And as more national organizations revenue the state is allowed to spend each signatures needed for a vote on repealing on the Right and Left deploy them strate- year; any excess must be returned to tax- the non-discrimination law passed recently gically to boost voter turnout, build cam- payers. Norquist’s intention to push by the state legislature. In Illinois, they did paign coffers, or generate support for an TABOR through state legislatures in 41 not submit enough signatures to put even issue, ballot measures are losing their local states has failed miserably. After it was a nonbinding proposal on the 2006 ballot. flavor and becoming homogenized across rejected in a bi-partisan fashion in 24 leg- Even Republican leaders nationwide the country. islative committees in 2005, advocates have wondered whether this strategy will Among the ballot attempts on the Left turned to ballot initiatives. be enough to save them in the mid-term this year: increases in the minimum wage After trying to gather enough signatures elections. (in six states — Arizona, Colorado, Mis- in eight states, they only succeeded in souri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio), and Maine, although Rhode Island’s governor “Anti-Takings” reversing South Dakota’s abortion ban. referred a non-binding measure to the bal- his sleeper issue of 2006 is eminent Here is a roundup of the ballot initia- lot. TABOR was kicked off the ballot in Tdomain, with elements of both the Left tives on the Right, courtesy of the Ballot Missouri and Ohio. In Oklahoma, 56,000 and the Right seeking to curb the power of Initiative Strategy Center in Washington, of the signatures in support of the initia- the government to take private property for D.C. As of press time, it looks like the Right tive proved invalid, so the state will prob- “public” use. The Left is concerned about will have to find more promising ways to ably take it off the ballot, and fraudulent the abuse of government power on behalf get out the vote. signature gathering has been reported in of business interests. Still the initiatives are Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, being pushed largely by anti-government and Oregon. TABOR still faces stiff legal Kristina Wilfore is Executive Director of challenges in several of those states. The For more information, the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center in grand strategy to “drown government in a visit www.ballot.org. Washington, D.C. bathtub” has truly lost its momentum.

THE PUBLIC EYE 6 FALL 2006 The Public Eye activists. They are responding to the controversial Kelo v. New London 2006 TABOR (”Taxpayer Bill of Rights”) THREATS decision of 2006, in which the U.S. Ballot Initiative Strategy Center

Supreme Court ruled that local gov- ME Races Gov: Baldacci (R) Sen: Snowe (R) ernments could seize property for MT Race Sen: Burns (R) private enterprises, providing they OR Race MI Races Gov: Kulongoski (D) Gov: Granholm (D) would use the property for the pub- Sen: Stabenow (D) lic good. But the Court’s ruling also

RI Race makes land use a state issue, and NV Races NE Races OH Races Gov: Don Carcieri (R) Gov: Guinn (R) Gov: Heineman (R) Gov: Taft (R) Senate: Chafee (R) Sen: Ensign (R) Sen: Nelson (D) allows states to outlaw this type of emi- Sen: Dewine(R) nent domain. Using the charged atmosphere following Kelo, campaigners are stir- OK Race ring up property rights activists. Gov: Henry (D) Anti-Kelo initiatives and referenda are expected to be on the ballot in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michi- gan, Montana, New Hampshire, South Carolina, California, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada

In some cases, property rights States where TABOR amendments have qualified (ME and RI). Ballot Initiative Strategy Center zealots are including provisions that 1025 Connecticut Ave, NW States where TABOR signatures have been submitted, and it will likely be certified without a challenge (MI, MT, NE, OR) Suite 216 echo Oregon’s damaging Proposi- Washington DC, 20036 TABOR signatures have been submitted and legal challenges or some kind of Phone: 202-223-2373 activity to remove TABOR from the ballot is underway(MO, NV, OH, OK) tion 37, passed in 2004, which Fax: 202-429-9292 States where TABOR is dead for 2006 but likely be attempted again www.ballot.org in 2007 or 2008 depending on the outcome of 2006 measures. Note: Ohio's requires governments to compen- measure is technically still on the ballot, but it will be removed by its sponsor sate for such regulation of private (Gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell) likely in August. property as zoning, or else waive the regulation. The effect of this “regulatory 65% Deception but football teams, field trips, and extra takings” provision gives special rights to big nother simplistic policy gimmick being tuition for special needs students. Not landowners and developers, whose Apushed nationally is the “65% Solu- included are building repairs, nurses, meals, demands for compensation are too heavy tion,” which would remove funding deci- security personnel, transportation, guidance to be met by local governments. The sions from communities and mandate that counselors, or even library services. landowners thus have another avenue to 65% of all state education funding be spent 65% is moving in states where TABOR challenge regulations that curb unmiti- “in the classroom.” Funded by Over- is likely to qualify, in order to provide gated growth. This provision (or full bal- stock.com entrepreneur Patrick Byrne, the cover for legislators pushing draconian tax lot measure) is moving in Arizona, front group behind the measure is called limitations to claim they still support edu- California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, First Class Education. According to their cation. The measure is also designed to split Montana and Washington. website, “in the classroom” includes not just the education unions between teachers teacher salaries and classroom expenses, and support staff and divert teacher union money away from funding competitive races. It is on the ballot in Colorado and Right-wing Ballot Initiatives of 2006 petitions are circulating in Oklahoma and ON THE RIGHT Oregon. A measure has been filed in Ari- zona. Activists are mulling a campaign in • Anti-Judiciary: Recall / Sue Judges – Colorado, Montana, Oregon, South Dakota Ohio, but as yet have not filed a ballot meas- • Anti-Choice: parental notification in Oregon and “redefinition of the fetus” in Colorado ure. The Florida legislature is very likely to THE “GUN BEHIND THE DOOR” refer it to the ballot (with an amendment These are initiative attempts that state legislatures took off the table to stop them from that links revisions in class size with the appealing to voters who could swing an election 65% mandate). It’s also being used in • Minimum wage hikes – Michigan and Arkansas Republican gubernatorial primaries in • Regulation of usurious payday loans – Oregon Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Ohio. ■ • Universal health care – Massachusetts

THE PUBLIC EYE7 FALL 2006 The Public Eye CRUISING MILITARY DRIVE continued from page 1 planes displayed in front of the many air In the lot in front of Diversions, a young citizens, identity choices like those of the bases and military production facilities man is punching another as friends try to video-gaming young fighter can be seen as lining the drive in this martial metropolis. separate them. Several minutes after his fresh expressions of the newly reconfigured Young cruisers usually end their back friends calm one of the somewhat inebri- national security culture that is wiring us and forth search for companionship, love, ated young teens, I approach him to ask a for war. and lust by parking in front of one of the few questions. Latinos — young and old, native born several military recruitment offices dotting A recent graduate of one of San Anto- and immigrant—have fast become fodder the strip malls that line Military Drive. nio’s worst high schools (and one with a for a U.S. elite urgently needing to align Their desire leads some into a crowded lot heavy presence of recruiters in a city that individuals, institutions, and entire com- across the street from a recruitment office is one of the Pentagon’s most important munities along the “axis of good” in the that is the center of daytime life on the source of new recruits), the young man “global war on terror." Everyone from drive. Nightlife on this part of the strip cen- seems primed to continue traveling along President Bush and Karl Rove to corporate ters around the nearby Diversions Game Military Drive beyond the cruise: “I just and religious leaders, are speaking Spanish Room which stays open late to accom- graduated and signed up for the Army.” and learning about cultural intricacies in modate the entertainment needs of cruis- Asked if the war in the Persian Gulf influ- a mission-critical task to sustain power. ers and walkers in the neighborhood. enced his decision, he quickly answered, Cruising on Military Drive has meaning for It is stunning to see how technol- many besides those in its cars and ogy and big money have transformed video arcades. —and integrated—video games and How the very young Latino popu- war since the days of Pac Man and lation (the average age is 26) aligns itself Space Invaders. Gamers who enlist will It is no coincidence that just as in this “new kind of war” is a matter be trained with war game simulations not just of national but global import. designed by the same companies that the war in Iraq has fallen in The Pentagon has staked the future designed those at Diversions. Here global deployment goals of the most they pay for the opportunity to play public opinion polls, the Bush powerful military on earth on the life “Crisis Zone,” “King of Fighters,” — and death — decisions of the coun- “Police 9-11,” and other video games Administration and the Republican try’s largest “minority” as African requiring them magically to enter Americans and women reject mili- digitized worlds, like one in which Party have framed the immigration tary recruiters at exponential rates; they must free white Americans being African American recruits are now 14 held hostage in shopping malls by debate as a military issue. percent of the total, dropping from dark-skinned terrorists. 23.5 percent in 2000. The enlistment Gamers leaving Diversions who of large numbers of gamers, immi- look across the drive see the win- grants, and other Latinos is nothing dows of a Marine and Navy recruiting “Fuck yeah. I wanna go kill Iraqis!” less than a matter of survival for U.S. office, plastered with colorful posters of This soon-to-be soldier boy was about power interests struggling to reconfigure planes, ships, and troops engaged in “real- to be baptized into the kingdom of war, a their own great global game. life” versions of scenarios depicted in the kingdom that is smelting his youthful Similarly, the electoral choices of Latino video games. The posters are emblazoned bravado, worship of violence, and poor voters will determine the fate of politicos with messages encouraging youth to “accel- man’s patriotism into another one of the and parties for years to come. What kind erate your life” or to dedicate their lives to “good guy” heroes hailed by politicos and of “Americans” recent immigrants, U.S.- “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of all who recruitment posters in San Antonio and born, and other Latinos decide to become threaten it.” beyond. His tragic disposition to kill — and depends on several external and internal fac- die — reminded me of how fervent nation- tors, factors that will increasingly define dis- alism, poverty, and military conflict forged tinctions between “loyal,” “civilized,” similar identities of “good” and “bad” peo- God-fearing, pro-war Latinos and undoc- Roberto Lovato is a New York-based writer ple, of “terrorists” and “defenders of free- umented immigrants, gangs, anti-war and with New America Media. This article was dom” in Cold War Central America. And anti-recruitment activists — the throngs of supported with an award from the Indepen- at a time when the “war on terror” is well Latinos being cast in the role of anti-civi- dent Press Association’s George Washington on its way to replacing the Cold War as the lizational “bad guys.” Williams fellowship. He can be contacted at primary wedge separating “good” and In this sense, certain Latinos also serve [email protected]. “bad” governments, and “good” and “bad” as a powerful, media-driven contrast

THE PUBLIC EYE 8 FALL 2006 The Public Eye

around which whites and Blacks and even American, and other transnational inner- also contributed to the depiction of back- more assimilationist Latinos in the United city gangs like the Salvadoran Mara Sal- ward, agriculturally oriented Mexicans States can define what they are not; viewed vatrucha. The Minutemen and the (hence the “lazy Mexican stereotype) in as the “law breakers” and as “potential ter- growing cohort of anti-immigrant, anti- contrast with increasingly industrial rorist threats,” undocumented immigrants Latino groups are not the only ones forg- whites working in the name of “progress.” in particular reinforce conservative ideas ing identities by civilizationally clashing In Alamo country, Mexicans provided about citizenship, ethnic and racial iden- with the “bad” Latinos. Pressures to align the foil against which whiteness in the tity, and political persuasion. Similarly, against the new “bad guys”— be they Arab West was won. Even today, what locals transnational gang banger “bad guys” have or immigrants or Latino gang bangers— tellingly call the “Alamo shrine” still has become the lynchpin linking, in Cold also push many San Antonio Latinos to enormous power to define “good” and War fashion, rich and poor neighbor- adopt “good” identities as they pay hom- “bad” citizens. hoods from the United States to Central age at the local “shrine” of those who During a recent trip to San Antonio, I America to a new cross-border struggle, defend freedom. visited the Alamo and found among the one that fuses the “War on Drugs” to the thousands of tourists throngs of young “war on terror.” Making Enemies: American cadets and soon-to-be deployed enlisted As domestic law enforcement morphs Exceptionalism and the Never- personnel and their families. Many of the into an extension of the “Global War on Ending Need for the Other cadets were, like the young fighter on Mil- Terror,” a growing choir of FBI officials, ot far from Military Drive, San itary Drive, local kids from decaying neigh- police chiefs, and increasingly militarized NAntonio’s Alamo powerfully sym- borhoods with decrepit schools whose police departments label those formerly bolizes the workings of war and identity, the faculties the New York Times reported were designated a “gang problem” during the war mixing of religious and military myths, in “filled with men and women who served on drugs as “terrorist threats.” District a narrative that inspired whites to kill and in uniform for 20 years or more.” With Attorneys, like the Bronx’s Robert T. John- conquer Mexicans in the name of Texas and, romantic battle pictures of Davy Crockett son, apply statutes originally designed to soon after, the United States. As a symbol hanging nearby, I asked some of them combat terrorists to Chicano, Central of then-ascendant modernity, the Alamo what they were seeking there just before

THE PUBLIC EYE9 FALL 2006 The Public Eye being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. bad Mexicans, who, on promotional comparison, contrast — and clash — with Whether Latino, Black, or white, the young posters lie in the shadows of the glowing, citizens, especially white citizens, of the men and women answered my question in golden-white walls of the Alamo. In the country that decided to assume the name much the same way that Tejano helicop- current context of war, conquest, and of the entire continent. Latinos in and ter pilot and U.S. Navy Captain Ron San- assimilation framed as a “clash of civiliza- outside of the United States became Other, doval did: “The Alamo ties it all together. tions” by Bernard Lewis, Samuel Hunt- often “bad,” Americans. And the tradition It galvanized Texans in their fight for inde- ington, and other national security continues. pendence from Mexico. A lot of us are here ideologues, the racial wedging of “good” now to draw inspiration as we get ready to and “bad” Latinos at the Alamo still exer- Immigrants, Gangs, and the Al- go to Iraq. It (Iraq) seems like a no-win sit- cises enormous cultural and political Qaedization of Latino Identity uation. But that’s what they thought about power. Its imagery supports those who ot far from the white walls of the the Alamo.” champion wars of defense against domes- NAlamo, Mexican and other Latino Especially interesting is how Sandoval, tic Others while providing a symbol for immigrants are again being cast as the a U.S. citizen of Mexican descent, sees the those supporting the more expansionist anonymous “bad guys” as they run up Alamo and Iraq as part of the defense and imperial project in places like Iraq. against the political, physical, and psychic expansion of American freedom. His Post 9-11 wedging of racial and politi- borders of the U.S. immigration debate. As perspective positions him in a manner cal identity like that found in the streets and the Bush Administration and the Repub- similar to that of Mexicans and Mexican tourists traps of the Alamo city is, with some lican Party continue their steady spiral Americans depicted in the most recent— important distinctions, only the most downward, they have done what Bill and more politically palatable—Alamo recent rendition of the narrative of U.S. his- Clinton and other politicians have done in movie, which opened on Good Friday tory as the history of necessary wars, times of crisis: declare war. Viewed from this when I first visited San Antonio in 2004. inevitable conquests and civilizing assim- perspective, the election year focus on The national media covered the pyrotech- ilation in the fight of “good” against “evil.” immigrants serves the same function as nics and star power of the gala opening Such events are, according to this narrative, the Iraq war in terms of keeping the pop- more than the capture earlier that day of a divinely designed to realize the American ulace on war footing, this time against the local man who had set fire to five gas Exceptionalism. “invaders” denounced on billboards in San stations owned by Muslim and South We can find the wedging of racial iden- Antonio and across the country. Asian immigrants. tities as early as the establishment of the In what is not so much a coincidence as Mexicans in the most recent Alamo English colonies in New England. During it is an urgent political necessity, the Bush movie were divided into good Mexicans, conflicts like King Philip’s War, the New Administration and the Republican Party who fought with Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie England uprising of indigenous peoples in have, in their desperation, taken the frame and other “heroes” (some local Mexicans 1675, for example, we find the distinctions of war and applied it to the issue of immi- view them as slaveholding elites who were between “good Indians” who allied with the gration. Witness Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) the vanguard of a historic land grab), and colonists and the “bad Indians” who fought who set the tone of recent hearings of the them. We also find these dynamics present Subcommittee on International Terror- during the 19th century when Manifest ism and Non-Proliferation by remarking Destiny informed and rationalized the that Homeland Security officials report that Now Online at need for wars requiring the extermination “Al-Qaeda has considered crossing our www.publiceye.org! of Indians and the pillaging of Mexican Southwest borders,” and “It may already 9/11 Conspiracies Run Rampant! lands in the name of a higher good. have happened.” Semi-religious symbols like the Alamo Royce went on to offer a laundry list of 9/11 conspiracy theories on were cultivated in response to the growing post-Cold War bad guys: “Drug cartels, the Left suggest that the U.S. cultural needs created by the hemispheric smuggling rings, and gangs operating on government attacked the World land and power grab justified by Manifest both the Mexico and U.S. sides are increas- Trade Center itself, while on the Right some suggest that Jews Destiny, which provided the ideological ingly well-equipped and more brazen than planned it. Why are these and other foundation for the invasion of Mexico ever,” he said, adding “some border areas conspiracy theories persisting? and the beginnings of U.S. politico-mili- can be accurately described as war zones. tary domination west of the Mississippi— These border vulnerabilities are opportu- PRA Researcher Chip Berlet offers a and south of the Rio Grande. The United nities for terrorists.” roundup of what and why. States’ drive for dominance in the hemi- Such enemy-making statements—and sphere in the 19th century marks the start policies—have deepened the racial and On publiceye.org now! of a Latin identity defined, in part, by the political effects of the national security

THE PUBLIC EYE 10 FALL 2006 The Public Eye culture on Latinos. It is no coincidence that Qaeda sympathies. By naming and pros- between Salvadoran gangs and Al-Qaeda just as the war in Iraq has fallen in public ecuting bad guys—even those found to made by Rep. Ortiz and other mainstream opinion polls, the Bush Administration and have minor criminal records but no U.S. media and Central American gov- the Republican Party have framed the weapons, money, or direct links to al- ernment officials has taken on frenzied immigration debate as a military issue. As Qaeda—he is, by implication, positioning levels. Reports in the Boston Globe, in Guantanamo, the government grants himself as a good guy. “gangsta” lifestyle magazine Don Diva, a multi-million dollar no-bid contracts for Defined as the new “bad guys” by National Geographic channel special immigrant super-prisons to Halliburton. national security operatives, Latino gangs hosted by “The View’s” Lisa Ling, and Like Royce, other Republican leaders have become an especially valuable source network (English and Spanish language) including Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Col.) and for sowing fear. “It’s established that Mara special reports (also unproven) of “terror- Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) reg- Salvatrucha and al-Qaeda have had meet- ists” moving into the United States among ularly apply terms like “invaders,” “ter- ings, Middle Eastern people are willing to undocumented immigrants have an impact rorists,” and other post-9-11 tropes to spend millions to get into this country,” far beyond the border. immigrants who were previously framed by said Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Texas) last Gangs and “illegal aliens” have become the “criminal” tropes of the war on drugs; year. A 2005 Senate hearing titled “Cur- metonymic of an entire generation of Lati- and like President Bush in his Global War rent and Projected National Security nos because these images of border crossers, on Terrorism, “Minutemen” have built a gangster thugs, or any number of amalgams cultural-political movement around the of these stereotypes, are among the most idea that immigrants are “invaders” who popular Latino representations in the U.S. need to be defended against. The case of Jose Padilla, former media. Newscasts, cop shows, movies, For his part, President Bush denied and TV preview the creation of new kinds militarizing the border when he sent 6,000 gang member and alleged U.S. of Latino identity in times of perpetual troops there. Deploying the National anti-terrorist war, a war that certain inter- Guard is but the most recent and most dan- al-Qaeda operative being held ests have unsuccessfully tried to bring gerous acceleration of the trend towards indefinitely without charges, closer to the Americas. militarizing the debate and practice of The attempt to create and connect the immigration policy. That Bill Richard- may preview the great fusion of various types of new enemies is well-illus- son, a Democratic Latino Governor (of trated by Donald Rumsfeld’s statements at New Mexico), set the precedent for the fur- ‘Latino’ with ‘terrorist threat.’ a 2004 meeting of Latin American and ther militarization of migration— and Caribbean defense ministers in Quito, Latino identity—with his calls for Ecuador. At that meeting, Rumsfeld National Guard deployment to the border echoed Rep. Ortiz and Rep. Royce in his several months before Bush says much Threats to the United States” discussed the view of “new” hemispheric threats, con- about the growing chasm between “good gang, as well as a new FBI task force necting Latinos in the United States with Latinos” and “bad Latinos” in this bipar- charged with making an “international “threats” in Colombia, Venezuela, El Sal- tisan battle against law-breaking (and attack” against it. vador, and other parts of Latin America: therefore “bad”) immigrants. Within this language of global war, “The new threats of the twenty first cen- So does the work of the country’s high- Latino gangs, like immigrants, connect tury recognize no borders. Terrorists, drug est law enforcement official, Alberto Gon- the security dots from cities and neigh- traffickers, hostage takers, and criminal zalez, hailed by many, including many borhoods like those in San Antonio or gangs form an anti-social combination Latino elites, as the country’s first Hispanic Miami to cities and neighborhoods in that increasingly seeks to destabilize civil Attorney General. Yet he is a walking, Latin America. The case of Jose Padilla, for- societies.” talking and prosecuting symbol who will mer gang member and alleged U.S. al- Gangs like the transnational Mara Sal- jail more immigrants, more alleged ter- Qaeda operative being held indefinitely vatrucha have been the topic of widely rorists, more gang bangers, more Latino without charges, may preview the great reported regional security meetings among “bad guys” than any Attorney General in fusion of “Latino” with “terrorist threat.” U.S., Mexican, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, U.S. history. The Miami-Dade NAACP Cruisers on Military Drive and other and other foreign ministers; Secretary of denounced Gonzalez for selective prose- San Antonio youth who physically resem- State Condoleeza Rice mentioned gangs in cution of politically insignificant groups ble Padilla will increasingly resemble him her surprise announcement last September after his two very high profile press con- politically if they do not adopt an identity of a treaty establishing a multimillion dol- ferences following the arrest of mostly acceptable to national security elites. The lar, regional, anti-drug and anti-gang train- black Haitian Americans for alleged al- alleged and preposterous connection ing center in El Salvador. Critics see the

THE PUBLIC EYE11 FALL 2006 The Public Eye

International Law Enforcement Academy, naled a desire for assimilation, and a will power of previous movements, the effects as it will be called, as a more police-focused to be defined as “good” in ways deemed of this one will be felt for years to come as version of the infamous School of the acceptable by elite interests, such a per- many Latinos search for what defines them Americas which trained foreign military spective misses the point about the breadth in the United States. leaders responsible for the deaths of hun- of the movimiento. In direct contrast to the A whole spectrum of choices will be dreds of thousands of Latin Americans in “good” Latino identity, the new forms of made available to a population that had few the name of defending freedom. Most of Latino identity are increasingly positioned alternatives to cruising on Military Drive. the killers and the killed I saw in El Sal- Some, like the young fighter, will cruise vador in the 1980s looked like the young straight to Iraq, while others will work to cruisers searching for their freedom in stop business as usual at the recruitment San Antonio. centers, perhaps in the process shaping a Alberto Gonzalez is a new freedom fit for the global era. A “New Kind of War” Inspires a One of them is a lanky 16-year-old New Kind of Hope walking, talking, and who I met standing apart from hundreds ut not all is dreary in the Latino Amer- of other Latino students waiting to enter Bicas. The repressive and assimilation- prosecuting symbol who will the cracked and curved white walls of the ist pressures influencing the identity of “Alamo shrine.” Mario Anguiano was less- “good” Latinos in El Salvador, at the Alamo, jail more immigrants, more than-reverential. “I see a cover-up on top and in Iraq are also giving way to another alleged terrorists, more gang of a cover-up. This used to be a Catholic kind of struggle, another kind of Latino: the mission where they enslaved and killed a movimientista. One of the collateral effects bangers, more Latino ‘bad lot of Indians. Then it became a fortress of the raids, exploitation, surveillance, and where they killed a lot of Mexicans” said the other repressive components of the war on guys’ than any Attorney high school junior whose baggy pants, immigrants has been to energize and inform Converse sneakers, shoulder-length black identities of defiance among many Latinos. General in U.S. history. hair and wire rim-spectacles are reminiscent Because they are arguably those most of a previous generation of San Antonio affected by national security policies and activista. “That history is not here.” ■ their cultural implications, immigrants have been forced to take their place along- in direct opposition to the national secu- side African Americans, women, Latin rity culture identities shaped by war, con- American revolutionaries, and others who quest, and assimilationist pressures. INTERNS WANTED! sought to redefine freedom beyond the Marchers marched in response to and in usual notions. spite of the extreme pressures to either The movimeniento was not just born of remain silent or assimilate that Latinos The Public Eye Congressional bill HR 4437, which would receive from corporate, political, academic, The Public Eye welcomes interns have criminalized the undocumented, or military, religious, and other interests. to join us in producing the only the drumbeat of disc jockies. Of equal or The leadership of the movimiento is magazine dedicated to exposing greater influence are the more than 5,000 made up of immigrant and U.S.-born the U.S. Right. immigrant dead in the deserts near San Latinos and brings together various strands Antonio since 1994, the countless raids, the —domestic and Latin American—of Political Research Associates perpetual harassment by Minutemen and political experience to create a more glob- Political Research Associates, other perpetrators of white fear, and count- alized response to the nationalist workings the parent think tank of The less other ravages of our national security of national security culture. Back near Public Eye, offers a research culture. Military Drive, for example, local immi- Beyond giving rise to the largest simul- grant rights activists staged some of the internship, and a communica- taneous protests in U.S. history, with an largest marches in that very conservative tion and development intern- estimated 2 million people marching in a city’s history. And in many cities like Mil- ship. single day, the movimiento has cast Latinos waukee and Atlanta, where newer Latino in a new identity, a new historic role: bear- populations had not yet found a political To apply, just email a letter and ers of hope. identity, the movimiento has given voice to resume identifying the internship While it can be argued that the flags and millions of immigrants and non-immi- that interests you to some of the rhetoric of the big marches sig- grants that they lacked previously. Like the [email protected].

THE PUBLIC EYE 12 FALL 2006 The Public Eye ART OF THE SLUR continued from page 1 academia — claiming, for instance, that a magazine (frontpagemag.com), an online For instance, last year in California the New York University professor teaches a journal where Horowitz maintains a per- Santa Rosa Junior College Republican subversive book (are books to be banned sonal blog. The website, which presents Club created a blacklist, “red starring” ten from the classroom?) and that a respected original material, also reprints from a wide “troublesome” faculty for “openly advo- Princeton professor is a member of a left- variety of right-wing sources and links to cating Communist and Marxist theories”; wing legal organization that Horowitz other Horowitz projects, such as his “Dan- they eventually retreated to charging “left- implies is traitorous to America (when he gerous Professors” blog and his Students for ist bias” when they could not corroborate merely delivered a speech to the group). Academic Freedom (studentsforacade- their claims. Horowitz long ago recognized the value micfreedom.org) organization, an “Astro- Their crusade was linked to that of a of such slurs on both Left and Right. And turf” group Horowitz founded and sustains, Republican state legislator who around starting in the 1970s, he began preco- although the sixty-something Horowitz has the same time introduced a “Students Bill ciously showing the rest of the Right just not been a student for quite some time. of Rights” opposing the indoctrination of how to use them effectively. Never simply Unlike many of the contemporary impressionable students.2 Nineteen such a defender of any particular right-wing set Right, Horowitz can claim no base in the bills have been introduced by conservative of beliefs, Horowitz is much more com- state legislators across the country since fortable on the attack—and has shown 2004, thus far with little success, accord- many on the Right just how well that can ing to the National Education Association.3 work. ‘In political warfare you do Horowitz provides the inspiration and A self-styled intellectual and scholar, scurrilous tactics for this ferment. Horowitz is able to bring his crusades not fight just to prevail in against the academy to public attention pri- Who is Horowitz? marily because of generous funding from an argument, but rather to he child of Communist parents, right-wing foundations, particularly the THorowitz was himself an important “four sisters”: the Lynde and Harry Bradley, destroy the enemy’s fighting part of the Left for a short time in the 1960s, John M. Olin, Sarah Scaife, and Ran- editing the high-profile Ramparts magazine dolph (formerly Smith Richardson) Foun- ability,’ says Horowitz. which carried much substantial material, dations. Together, they provided his Center but also was known for promoting the for the Study of Popular Culture (now conspiracy theories of former New Orleans known as the David Horowitz Freedom District Attorney Jim Garrison concerning Center) with more than $1 million in the Kennedy assassination. By the mid- 2003 alone. He also receives substantial fundamentalist Christian movement, nor 1970s, in part due to suspicions over the funding from the Coors’ Castle Rock does he fit in with the Straussian neo-cons death of a friend who may have been killed Foundation, among others. who have become so influential in foreign by members of the Black Panthers, Such backing, along with what he earns affairs. A maverick unaffiliated with any Horowitz began the transformation that through speaking engagements, provides particular conservative world view, he would lead him from leftwing conspir- Horowitz with a substantial financial cush- made a public conversion to the Right in acism to the right—a change of hats, but ion—and motivation to keep his name in 1980 when he supported Ronald Reagan. accompanied by little change in the bel- the news. With negligible grassroots finan- His conservativism comes down to "a sin- ligerent, no-quarter-given attitude he had cial support to rely on, he has little choice gle patriotic idea: The revolutionary fail- already developed. but to depend on the foundations which ures of the Twentieth Century had A key to understanding Horowitz is back him, funding him because of what his demonstrated the wisdom of the American recognizing that he needs enemies, no intellect offers the conservative movement founding, and validated its tenets: private matter which side he is on. His attacks are as a whole: the poisonous, Rove-like atmos- property, individual rights, and a limited so relentless that it is easy to be left won- phere he tries to cast over a sector many con- state.”1 That he still manages to find sub- dering what Horowitz himself stands for. servatives loathe. stantial funding despite his free agent sta- In his autobiography Radical Son, Horowitz Aside from his books, speeches, and tus is a tribute to his skill as a writer and to describes the impact of his conversion: appearances on television, Horowitz’s main his ability to provide the sort of strategies Like [Whittaker] Chambers, I had conduit to the public is his Front Page that are currently igniting campus Repub- become the most hated ex-radical of lican clubs and even state legislators. my generation. And like him, I had Student Republican Club activists have Aaron Barlow teaches at New York City discovered that the enemies against embraced Horowitz, bringing him and College of Technology. You can read his blog who I once battled so furiously were his tactic of baseless slurs to their campuses. at http://audsandens.blogspot.com/. more fantastic than real.[...]

THE PUBLIC EYE13 FALL 2006 The Public Eye

I am now as prominent on the con- attack politics which both Rove, who For McCarthy, the real goal was simply servative side of the ideological divide endorsed the Horowitz pamphlet, and winning. Without needing to achieve any as I once was in the ranks of the Horowitz partake of. other end, his focus turned solely to tactics. Left. But the conservatives I have This creates a problem for opponents, joined are unlike the enemies I once Horowitz and Tailgunner Joe especially those who try to focus on goals imagined.4 uch of the strategy developed by outside of winning, who want discussion He never takes the next step, never con- MHorowitz in that pamphlet seems to and compromise—for neither discussion siders that his former allies, on whom he look back to the successes of “Tailgunner nor compromise is of interest. Once goals turns his wrath today, are no more deserv- Joe” McCarthy, the ex-Marine who claimed are set aside, it is easy for cynics to then ing of it now than the conservatives were, shrapnel in his leg (there was none), to have claim that older goals and ideals were then. Ultimately, it is his simplistic “friends risen from the ranks (though he enlisted as thwarted, undermined by their enemies. or enemies” attitude that underlies his jus- a lieutenant—and was discharged at the Rarely, then, does the focus return to the tification of lying. same rank), and more than 25 combat goals themselves. Writing in Harper’s, Although he may not gather the same missions (he flew fewer than half that, and Kevin Baker suggests that: notice of the top pundits and political fig- generally as a passenger). In his anti-Com- the Right has distilled its tale of ures, Horowitz works in ways reminiscent munist crusade of the 1950s, McCarthy betrayal into a formula: Advocate of Karl Rove. Each is among the best of the some momentarily popular but reck- conservative strategists; they influence less policy. Deny culpability when what others say and do without always win- that policy is exposed as disastrous. ning the prime media focus themselves. Blame the disaster on internal ene- George W. Bush, long ago zeroed in on by Instead of responding mies who hate America. Repeat, Rove (who was searching for the perfect always making sure to increase the candidate), is the type of politician to charges, Horowitz, number of internal enemies.7 Horowitz was also wishing for when he like McCarthy, changes The only real goal left is defeat of the wrote his 1998 pamphlet The Art of Polit- enemy who has “held them back”; even ical War (later incorporated into The Art the subject, turning to program implementation becomes of Political War and Other Radical Pursuits) meaningless. which was distributed widely among Republican operatives in 2000 (see box). attack and accusation. The Professors’ “Straw Men” In this screed, Horowitz wrote: ecently, Horowitz has gathered atten- In political warfare you do not fight Rtion for the “straw man” he sets up in just to prevail in an argument, but fabricated with impunity—and it never The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Aca- rather to destroy the enemy’s fight- seemed to hurt his career. His implosion demics in America — the good that Amer- ing ability.[…] Even if you had time was not a result of his lies directly, but ica can achieve is being subverted by a to develop an argument, the audience more from ill-considered attacks, from his group of nefarious academics. His reme- you need to reach (the undecided and continually acting off the cuff and without dies, listed in an “Academic Bill of Rights,” those in the middle who are not pay- considering strategic needs—including mingle statements no one can disagree ing much attention) would not get his lack of clear goals. with — such as, “The central purposes of it. Your words would go over some Fifty years after his death, it sometimes a University are the pursuit of truth… of their heads and the rest would not seems we are oversaturated with McCarthy Free inquiry and free speech within the even hear them (or quickly forget) (even Ann Coulter has written a book on academic community are indispensable to amidst the bustle and pressure of him), but his demagogic spirit imbues our the achievement of these goals.”—with a daily life.6 time, as a close look at Horowitz shows. call to arms increasingly embraced by right- Bush was a perfect mix, able to present The question of McCarthy becomes wing students, namely, affirmative action the veneer of a “compassionate conserva- even more important in light of the suc- for conservative faculty. tive’” while never shying away from the cesses of Horowitz, Coulter, O’Reilly, Still, he never details the damage done by Limbaugh and the others inspired by or those academics he sees as the enemies of echoing McCarthy’s methodology. They America. Instead, he takes a page from For more on David Horowitz,visit seem to have studied him, learning tac- McCarthy’s playbook, and just offers a slur: Political Research Associate’s website, tical lessons from both his successes and My most difficult task in writing www.publiceye.org/horowitz. failures. this book was living daily with the

THE PUBLIC EYE 14 FALL 2006 The Public Eye

knowledge it provides of the enor- mous damage that several generations of tenured radicals have inflicted on our educational system; and of being cognizant of the unrelenting malice that so many of them hold in their hearts for a country that has given them the great privileges and free- doms they enjoy as a birthright.8 Nowhere in the book does Horowitz detail this “enormous damage” or provide any proof that these academics’ hearts hold “unrelenting malice” towards the United States. Horowitz’s purpose seems not to change academia, but to destroy those he sees as his enemies—so it really doesn’t mat- ter that his charges have no substance and his putative goals no attainability. The book consists mainly of assertions with little substantive verification, many of which are close to the truth but have been twisted into inflammatory claims. He attacks Richard Falk, the emeritus profes- sor at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, as a member of the left-wing Inter- national Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL). While Falk did give talks for them, he was never a member. Horowitz also makes statements about what goes on in classrooms without ever having visited them. In correspondence with me, he claimed he had once tried to visit a class—but a film was being shown. The slight, anecdotal “information” he gleans from a former student or two is suf- ficient for his purposes. Andy Singer Many of the problems with The Professors come from unsubstantiated Thomas Hobbes, and Edmund Burke— The Art of the Lie statements that, in the context of a puta- in addition to the Christian Gospels. The tively “scholarly” book, can lead a reader to hy lie, if it can be so easily discov- list can go on for pages, and does, at the assume they are fact. He claims award-win- Wered? The point, for Horowitz, like website of Free Exchange on Campus ning director and playwright George Wolfe McCarthy before him, seems to be to lie which has catalogued Horowitz’s errors.9 is anti-Israeli, for example, with nothing to in such a way that the rebuttal sounds like When called on any of these, Horowitz back it up but the assertion itself. There are a splitting of hairs, as he does in The Pro- claims the errors are trivial. In fact, each also lies by omission, such as an attack on fessors. So what if Falk is not really a mem- error really is trivial, taken alone. In the New York University professor Todd Gitlin ber of the leftist IADL? He spoke under aggregate they present a picture of acade- for assigning works by German sociologist its auspices, so the association is there. mia that is demonstrably false. The dam- Jürgen Habermas, implying that any stu- Even if proven false, the claim has served age is still done, though, because refuting dent contact with the scholar’s writings its purpose. Gitlin does teach Habermas, him focuses back on his individual errors, poses a threat to America. He never men- doesn’t he, even if the writer is a defender not on the problems with the larger picture tions that Gitlin also assigns thinkers such of democracy? they compile. as Plato and Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas,

THE PUBLIC EYE15 FALL 2006 The Public Eye

The apparent lies put you on the defen- When lies become part of a tactical sive, making it difficult to ask, why, given package, they become part of a system of even Horowitz’s “support” for academic justification. According to Sissela Bok, such freedom, is it wrong to speak to a leftist legal His mantra, when a system is based on: group, or teach texts that challenge the just- confronted with his three circumstances [that] have ness of the current economic structure? seemed to liars to provide the McCarthy was himself a “preposterous strongest excuse for their behavior— 10 ‘errors,’ is that the liar.” But his legacy is not quite so simple, a crisis where overwhelming harm for his lies were only a part of what he was, ‘mistakes’ are trivial. can be averted only through deceit; of what has developed into the extremely complete harmlessness and triviality effective strategy of people like Horowitz. to the point where it seems absurd to The premise is that it is not the research quibble about whether a lie has been Unlike Hoover, McCarthy found more that’s important, but the way it is pre- told; and the duty to particular indi- power in the charge than in the foundation, sented. By contrast, FBI Director and Red viduals to protect their secrets.11 hunter J. Edgar Hoover based his career on so he could pretty much ignore the infor- meticulously collecting and analyzing mation gathering that was Hoover’s bread Together or separately, these can provide “data” that he often kept hidden (even and butter. It’s the charge in the open that justification for almost any type of lie and while wielding it with rare talent). was the thing for McCarthy, and is now for provide the underpinning for their use. Horowitz. Horowitz, who has never served in gov- ernment, relies least on the last of these excuses—protecting an individual. For his THE ART OF POLITICAL WAR recent book, his invented “crisis” in edu- Horowitz’s book on “the professors” is little more than a list that, taken as a whole, is cation provides the first excuse (those meant to paint a picture of universities out of control. Horowitz likes lists, and seems nefarious professors have to be gotten rid to feel that they constitute argument by themselves. Even his “The Art of Political of—so it is OK to lie about them to War” contains lists, including a list of “principles”23 that illuminate his current tactics: accomplish that), and his mantra, when confronted with his “errors,” is that the 1. Politics is war conducted by other means: “mistakes” are trivial, the second excuse. In political warfare you do not fight just to prevail in an argument, but rather to On his “Dangerous Professors” website, destroy the enemy’s fighting ability.[…] Horowitz reproduces an email he sent to Even if you had time to develop an argument, the audience you need to reach Scott Jaschik of InsideHigherEd.com, (the undecided and those in the middle who are not paying much attention) responding to a question about errors in the would not get it. Your words would go over some of their heads and the rest would not even hear them (or quickly forget) amidst the bustle and pressure of daily life.24 book. Horowitz writes, “Without excep- tion the claims that I have seen are all triv- 2. Politics is a war of position: ial and normal to a book of this size and do Choose the terrain that makes the fight as easy for you as possible.25 not affect in the slightest the argument I have made.”12 Yes, there are mistakes in 3. In political warfare, the aggressor usually prevails. any book—I called Jim Jarmusch “Joseph By striking first, you can define the issues as well as your adversary. Jarmusch” in my last book, and still get Defining the opposition is the decisive move in all political war.26 emails pointing that out—but that does 4. Position is defined by fear and hope. not excuse them, certainly not in The Pro- fessors, where the number of “errors” is When and how to use fear is a political art.27 staggering. As the work of Free Exchange 5. The weapons of politics are symbols evoking fear and hope. on Campus shows, there are serious prob- With these audiences, you will never have time for real arguments or proper analyses. lems with details in at least a quarter of the Images—symbols and sound bites—will always prevail.28 entries, probably more.13 Notably, all of the professors Horowitz 6. Victory lies on the side of the people. lists in his book are in secure (generally You must define yourself in ways that people understand. You must give people tenured) positions within academia. No hope in your victory, and make them fear the victory of your opponent.29 one is likely to lose his or her job because Honesty, clarity, discussion, and compromise: these have no place in Horowitz’s of the book. Ward Churchill, even though “war.” Lies do. tenured, did lose his, but for reasons unre-

THE PUBLIC EYE 16 FALL 2006 The Public Eye lated to his depiction in The Professors. The truth behind it. Horowitz’s “dangerous 5. Justify the Lie (Making Sure You errors so common in the Horowitz book professors” sometimes number 100, 101, Believe): make it unlikely that it could be used or 103. Horowitz even asserts, with no real The only way I can come to terms with against any single professor anyway. Here supporting evidence, that there are 60,000 the purposeful deceit that Horowitz, like again, clearly, the attack is meant to be leftist professors in America, although he Joe McCarthy, employs is to imagine that against the aggregate, not the individual. arbitrarily cut that number in half at one he believes he is justified through his pur- Horowitz seems to justify his slurs point.18 suit of what he sees as a “greater good.” Is exactly as Bok would predict in her descrip- 4. Always attack, never defend: he like this figure described by Bok: tion of liars. Bok’s liars see: “Asked by the press to explain some The powerful tell lies believing that those who threatened society [as] statement that didn’t add up, [McCarthy] they have greater than ordinary outside its moral bounds and, as a would change the subject, bluster, or some- understanding of what is at stake; 19 result, need not be treated with the how get away without answering.” very often, they regard their dupes as honesty due to others. Armed with Instead of responding to charges, having inadequate judgment, or as such a conviction, those who con- Horowitz, like McCarthy, changes the likely to have respond in the wrong template action against enemies may subject, turning to attack and accusation. way to truthful information.22 then throw ordinary moral inquiry Both McCarthy and Horowitz have to the winds. They see no reason to demonstrated intelligence—they never seek alternatives to lying and rarely did anything out of stupidity. McCarthy question either their own motives or A key to understanding completed four years of high school in the process whereby they came to see one and went on to earn a law degree. their enemies as enemies, as outside Horowitz is recognizing Horowitz attended Columbia and Berke- 14 the social contract. ley, earning a Masters degree. Their intel- And this, of course, brings us back once that he needs enemies, lect, I fear, inspired in each of them a again to Joe McCarthy and the tactics he contempt for the American public that is developed in the early 1950s. no matter which side demonstrated in their pronouncements, Here is my own modest list showing actions and (in Horowitz’s case) writings. Horowitz’s overlap with Tailgunner Joe: he is on. The two share another trait. Though 1. Claim to Be Acting in the Public quite smart, neither ever felt that they Interest: received respect enough for their brains nor We need Horowitz to protect the youth When Joel Beinin sued Horowitz for the recognition they desired. For this over- of America from leftist indoctrination, using his picture on the cover of a pamphlet, sight, are we neglectful scholars to be just as we needed McCarthy to stop those Horowitz responded by attacking Beinin Horowitz’s targets until his last breath? Communists who had already been purged for having bought the rights to the pho- Horowitz likes to claim a huge change from government! tograph, never accepting that he had made in his thinking leading to his move from 2. Claim definite proof (but never a mistake by not gaining permission before Left to Right. However, if we examine his precisely reveal it): using the picture.20 He attempted to change work carefully, no real change is evident. McCarthy waved paper around on the the conversation from what he had done The tactics he uses now are the same that floor of the Senate and pointed to it—but by attacking what Beinin had done. he used then—and tactics are at the cen- never released any paper containing proof Scott McLemee of InsideHigherEd.com, ter of everything he does. Though he does 15 of his charges. He discovered: If you also tried to put Horowitz on the defensive seem to believe in his cause (vague as it make it seem real, it will be believed as real. and force him to concede his errors, but might be), Horowitz cares less for the ends Horowitz’s anecdotes are equally unsub- never succeeded: than for the limelight—and for the fight stantiated, such as the ones claiming left- itself. ■ ist professors gave students “F’s” to retaliate Once again, when push came to against their conservative views.16 shove, Horowitz had been obliged to 3. Use numbers: concede that the facts were not quite End Notes Part of what brought McCarthy to the on hand. But that was only how it 1 Horowitz, David, Radical Son (New York: Touchstone, 1997), 397. fore was his (false) assertion that he knew appeared. “I didn’t retract what I said,” he wrote to me. “I just 2 Bacon, David, “Right-wing students “red star” ten instruc- the specific number of Communists in tors: Action timed to conservative ‘Student Bill of Rights’ the State Department.17 If he has a num- acknowledged that I could not con- in California Legislature,” California Teacher (April/May ber, the rationale goes, there must be some firm the veracity of the student’s 2005), 15. claim.”21

THE PUBLIC EYE17 FALL 2006 The Public Eye

3 http://www2.nea.org/he/freedom/aboraction.html. 9 Free Exchange on Campus, http://www.freeex- 18 Horowitz, David. “Response to Neil Gross.” Dangerous Another good source on Horowitz-inspired campus and changeoncampus.org/index.php?option=com_con- Professors. http://dangerousprofessors.net/ legislative attacks is Free Exchange on Campus, a coali- tent&task=blogcategory&id=7&Itemid=34. 5/30/06. 2006/02/review-right-left-and-wrong-david.html. tion of 10 groups, including the American Association 10 Lewis, Anthony, “Demagogue Without a Cause: A 5/30/06. of University Professors, American Civil Liberties Union, Review of Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy 19 Lewis, 53. United States Student Association, and Campus by Tom Wicker,” The New York Review of Books, Vol. 20 Horowitz, David and Jacob Laksin, “Joel Beinin: Apol- Progress/Center for American Progress. Freeexchangeon- LIII, No. 10, June 8, 2006, 53. campus.org. ogist for Terrorists,” Front Page Magazine, 11 4 Bok, Sissela, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArti- Horowitz, 2-3. Life (New York: Pantheon, 1978), 166. cle.asp?ID=22536, 5/30/06. 5 Berkowitz, Bill, “Not Your Grandma's Religious Right,” 12 Horowitz, David, “Article: E-Mail Interview with Scott 21 McLemee, Scott, “D’Ho,” InsideHigherEd, Common Dreams News Center, http://www.common- Jaschik, Editor of InsideHigherEd.com,” Dangerous http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2006/02/22/node dreams.org/views05/0106-30.htm, 7/20/06.Referenc- Professors, http://dangerousprofessors.net/2006/05/arti- _35635, 5/30/06. ing Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, Banana cle-e-mail-interview-with-scott_10.html, 5/30/06. Republicans — How the Right Wing Is Turning America 22 Bok, 168. 13 Into a One-Party State (Tarcher/Penguin, 2004). Freeexchangeoncampus.org has a Horowitz Fact Checker 23 Horowitz, David, “The Art of Political War,” 349. 6 for easy reference. Horowitz, David, “The Art of Political War,” Left Illu- 24 Ibid. 349-350. sions: An Intellectual Odyssey (Dallas: Spence, 2003) 349- 14 Bok, 138. 25 Ibid. 350. 350. 15 Wicker, Tom, Shooting Star: The Brief Arc of Joe McCarthy 26 7 Baker, Kevin, “Stabbed in the Back!: The Past and Future (New York: Harcourt, 2006), 128. Ibid. 351. of a Right-Wing Myth,” Harper’s, Vol. 312, No. 1873, 16 Jaschik, Scott, “Retractions from David Horowitz,” 27 Ibid. 353. June, 2006, 31. InsideHigherEd.com, http://insidehighered.com/ 28 Ibid. 354. 8 Horowitz, David, The Professors: The 101 Most Danger- news/2006/01/11/retract, 6/20/06. 29 Ibid. 355. ous Academics in America (Washington, DC: Regnery, 17 Hofstadter, Richard, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life 2006), xlviii. (New York: Knopf, 1963), 339.

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THE PUBLIC EYE 18 FALL 2006 The Public Eye Book Reviews A Conservative Challenge to Operation Rescue followers to accept language that merged abortion with child The Rhetoric of Operation Rescue: Projecting the killing. Christian Pro-Life Message The hegemonic impulse – the idea that there is one, and only by Mark Allen Steiner one, way to be an “authentic” Christian -- posed other problems, T & T Clark, 2006, $29.00 paperback, $95.00 cloth; 226 pages. Steiner writes. Pluralism becomes impossible, and acceptance Reviewed by Eleanor J. Bader of diversity becomes little more than the condoning of immoral Mark Allen Steiner describes himself as a conservative, evan- behavior. Not surprisingly, when Terry said, “If you believe abor- gelical Christian and at first blush, his credentials seem stellar. tion is murder, you have to act like it’s murder,” the troops mobi- An assistant professor at Pat Robertson’s Regent University, he lized. appears to walk the walk and talk the talk. The upshot is that the “rhetoric of Operation Rescue encour- What a shock, then, to read his critique of Operation Res- ages a particular view of abortion history, one that frames the cue’s rhetoric and hear his close-to-stunning plea to tone down abortion issue as an acute and severe crisis,” he continues. Stir the histrionics in favor of civility and respect. in Francis Schaeffer’s diatribe about the evil of secular human- Steiner’s assessment of the meteoric rise of ism, and much of the evangelical community the militant anti-abortion group Operation was prepped for action. Rescue and the language that propelled group Randall Terry’s often-eloquent and impas- founder Randall Terry into a sustained lime- ‘You’re going to have sioned demand to save the babies, stop the light is fascinating. He starts by articulating bloodbath and end the holocaust, proved effec- the role rhetoric plays in community life. to sacrifice everything,’ tive. Thousands of previously apolitical “Rhetoric does function as persuasion in the churchgoers decided it was time to defend traditionally understood sense. More fun- Rev. Pat Mahoney told themselves, their families and their churches damentally, though, rhetoric also engages from encroaching infidels. “Satan receives the fundamental aspects of worldview and com- Operation Rescue blood of these little ones as human sacrifice, munity. It helps shape what we think is good, and he is not going to give up his stronghold and what we think is worth thinking about. protesters in Wichita. and demonic altar without a fight,” Terry told And for Christians, more specifically, it helps adherents. The flipside of this is redemptive. shape not only what they think the faith ‘There’s [sic] going to The United States can regain its moral means, but also their vision of how to grow stature, he exhorted, if people turn back to and become more mature in that faith; how, be people wounded.’ God and reject abortion, homosexuality and in other words, to be true to the faith that they pre-and-extra-marital liaisons. profess.” By stressing America’s moral crisis, Terry Interesting, but practically speaking, what does this mean for gave Operation Rescue members a common purpose. For a time, evangelical Christians vis-à-vis abortion? this glued them together and offered their lives meaning. In addi- While Steiner never reveals his opinion of legalized abortion, tion, they were collectively repentant, serving as exemplars of he is clearly no fan of either Operation Rescue or of Terry. Indeed, sacrifice for the rest of the country. his distaste for the anti-abortion group’s tactics likely propelled And then the violence began. Once Michael Griffin, Paul Hill this in-depth look at its ascension and decline. and Shelley Shannon came on the scene in 1993 and 1994— So why did Operation Rescue have such appeal? killing two doctors and a clinic escort and wounding Dr. George Steiner believes that two flaws in contemporary evangelical Tiller—the rhetoric of the “holy war” began to sour. Both the thinking led people to respond favorably to Terry’s rhetoric and public and the media, once eager to hear what Terry had to say, involve themselves in the blockades, clinic invasions and protests began to characterize Operation Rescue as insensitive, intoler- that wreaked havoc on reproductive health centers from the late ant and fanatical. Suddenly, Operation Rescue was not a legit- 1980s to the mid-1990s. The first is anti-intellectualism and the imate protest group, but a horde of crazies. second is the “impulse to hegemony.” This shift caused the group’s rhetoric to become even more In the first, Steiner cites a confluence of errors: the notion that inflamed. “You’re going to have to sacrifice everything,” Rev. Pat faith is antithetical to analysis or interpretation; the concept that Mahoney told protesters in Wichita. “There’s [sic] going to be theological deconstruction of texts is both irrelevant and elit- people wounded….It’s about whose will shall rule on this ist; and the belief that the Bible should be read in a literal, over- planet, God’s or man’s.” Joseph Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action simplified way. These beliefs, he argues, made it easy for Terry’s League, an ardent Operation Rescue supporter, called the abor-

THE PUBLIC EYE19 FALL 2006 The Public Eye tion controversy “a battle between good and evil.” Leaders whom they seek to influence.” He further asks that they con- dubbed pro-choice activists witches and feminazis. “They hate sider “the sacred” in different communities. Secondly, he urges God,” Scheidler announced. evangelicals to “cultivate the life of the mind and critical think- This over-the-top language, Steiner says, contributed to ing as values.” He further stresses the need to avoid rigid or dog- Operation Rescue’s downfall. But it was not the sole cause. matic thinking and to consider alternative perspectives. Third, Increasing violence, as well as the passage of the Freedom of Access he writes, “evangelicals need to cultivate a greater appreciation to Clinic Entrances Act [FACE] in 1994, played a role in its for humility as an overarching attitude.” Laughter, at oneself and demise. The Act made it a criminal offense to block clinic doors. at others, is a central tenet of humility and Steiner stresses it as The punishment, a year in jail and fines of up to $10,000, stymied an antidote to ideological ossification. Fourth, he continues, all but the most devoted. Fines forced Operation Rescue into “evangelicals need to be more fully cognizant of the fundamental bankruptcy, although the movement eventually regrouped power of rhetoric in its generative, perspective shaping capaci- under the name Operation Save America (see Goldberg, this ties.” Lastly, he calls on evangelicals to cultivate nuanced per- issue). Unfortunately, Steiner steers clear of the muck sur- spectives on faith, practice and civic involvement. rounding Randall Terry’s high-profile divorce, rumors of extra- In the end, Steiner hopes to enhance democracy by maxi- marital dalliances, and rejection of his homosexual son, mizing tolerance for, and recognition of, the ethical differences sidestepping both Terry’s hypocrisy and its deleterious impact inherent in a pluralistic society. One can only wonder what Pat on the organization’s faithful. Robertson, Randall Terry and other conservative evangelicals Despite this, and despite a few gratuitous snarks about pro- think of his arguments. choice rhetoric, Steiner’s recommendations are nothing short Eleanor J. Bader is a teacher, writer, and activist, and coauthor of of remarkable. Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism. First, he calls on evangelicals to “acknowledge the diverse ideas, values, experiences and moral commitments held by those

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THE PUBLIC EYE 20 FALL 2006 The Public Eye ……Reports in Review…… REPORT OF THE MONTH

No College for You welfare and college administrator offices, lack of adequate child Resilient and Reaching for More: Challenges and Benefits of care, and the need to juggle schedules to carve out study time. Plus Higher Education for Welfare Participants and Their Children. they are racing against the clock created by a five-year lifetime limit Avis A. Jones-DeWeever and Barbara Gault, Institute for Women’s Policy on assistance. One woman interviewed was actively discouraged Research, Washington, D.C., April 2006. by a caseworker from entering college using benefits; she didn’t This report is particularly welcome since the Bush Adminis- know it was even possible until she joined LIFETIME. tration is starting to force the few states still supporting college Despite these impediments, the report demonstrates that study for women on welfare to drop the program. women who obtain a degree have better job opportunities, earn Resilient and Reaching for More provides moving evidence more than their counterparts who are still in school, and are more that higher education helps raise welfare recipients out of poverty. successful at obtaining economic self sufficiency and increased self A joint report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and esteem. Sixty-eight percent said they had more financial resources, LIFETIME, a California welfare rights group that supports and 83 percent said they had better job opportunities. Ironically, higher education for those receiving public assistance, it documents officials are discouraging the very strategy—promoting educa- the strength and persistence of these “student/parents” in the face tion—that has proven the most successful in reducing welfare of huge odds. recipients’ reliance on government assistance. Women who attend college and receive welfare benefits con- –Pam Chamberlain front obstacle after obstacle, from bureaucratic hassles in both

Other Reports in Review

The Jungle, Cajun Style tors on behalf of the huge corporations that Not Just a Few Bad Cops Risk Amid Recovery: Occupational get the clean up contracts, they strip buildings Stonewalled: Police Abuse and Miscon- Health and Safety of Latino Immigrant saturated with mold and toxic mud without duct against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Workers in the Aftermath of the Gulf protective gear and clothing. This mold can Transgender People in the United States trigger infections. They pay $300 a month to Coast Hurricanes Amnesty International USA, September 2005, By Tomás Aguilar with Laura Podolsky, UCLA pitch tents in the city park, are spurned pay- New York. http://www.amnestyusa.org/out- Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program ment by bosses, and are harassed by police and front/stonewalled/report.pdf. employers. Employers often ignore hard-won and the National Day Laborer Organizing Amnesty International’s two-year inves- health and safety regulations that are on the Network, June 2006. tigation of police misconduct and abuse of books; but in New Orleans these same regs are After hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender indi- simply waived by the government. federal Occupational Safety and Health viduals concludes the problem is so severe that The authors recommend educating the Administration suspended its safety enforce- it constitutes abuse and torture. Government workers about their rights, providing neces- ment regulations in parts of four southern agencies should thus be held accountable sary protective equipment, and establishing states to allow “faster and more flexible under international agreements on human permanent workers rights centers as direct responses to hazards facing workers involved rights and the prohibition of torture, the responses to the immediate problems. But they in the cleanup and recovery.” The result: organization says in its report Stonewalled: also demand that both the contractors hiring deadly health and safety hazards for those Police Abuse and Misconduct against Lesbian, these workers and the government agencies doing the massive cleanup and reconstruction. Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People in the US. overseeing the process be held accountable. The most threatened are the largely undocu- It documents two major forms of mis- –Pam Chamberlain mented Latino workers who are doing the fun- conduct: Hostile police single out LGBT damental demolition and clean up work. individuals for abuse, and complacent police Risk Amid Recovery presents the shocking and other agencies ignore hate crimes target- working conditions of these day laborers ing them. Police assault them, arrest them through their own voices. Hired by contrac- without grounds, and issue insults. This is true

THE PUBLIC EYE21 FALL 2006 The Public Eye even in cities with LGBT police liaisons and include student perspectives or many exam- particularly those in support of animal rights officer sensitivity training. ples of student-instigated action. This means and against the war. Amnesty USA argues that anti-gay polic- they miss both key aspects of current student For instance, during a nonviolent demon- ing is the result not of isolated rogue police but activism and possible recourse. For instance, stration, police assaulted Direct Action to Stop of systemic homophobia in the culture. nowhere do they consider how new technol- the War and the International Longshore- Stonewalled particularly highlights the crim- ogy, especially the internet, has shaped new workers Union in Oakland with wooden inalization and profiling of LGBT youth by conservative strategies, or its potential for bullets, after the department had spied on the police, and documents that “within the supporting an effective response. them. Local police in Fresno placed an under- LGBT community, transgender individuals, Instead, they propose creating large-scale cover operative at a student animal rights people from ethnic or racial minorities, young national initiatives that mimic those of the con- event. people, homeless people and sex workers are servative groups. Yet is this appropriate given A new State Terrorism Threat Assessment at most risk of police abuse and misconduct.” their destructive use by the Right? Above all, Center is a central state outpost, and accord- While necessary, working with police the report sounds a call for a war on the Right ing to the Los Angeles Times, monitored an ani- departments and civilian review boards is not to block their advance on campuses. Ironically, mal rights rally protesting seal hunting and an sufficient. “The issue of police brutality can- this approach, along with similar ones from anti-war demonstration in Walnut Creek not be tackled without addressing both the the Right, may itself be creating a new trend: addressed by a Congressman, among other pervasive discrimination that LGBT face, students who utterly reject partisanship out- events and groups. The FBI’s anti-terrorism and the social, economic, and cultural right and strive for a better world through database tracks anti-war groups including marginalization of many within the LGBT cooperation and perseverance. ones on the UC Santa Cruz and Berkeley cam- community.” –Pam Chamberlain – Sean Lewis-Faupel puses. After Sen. Diane Feinstein lodged a protest, the feds agreed the information was The New Spymasters inappropriate. The Campus Right Much of the information in the report Turning the Tide: Challenging the Right The State of Surveillance: Government came from news reports, some triggered by on Campus: An analysis of the right Monitoring of Political Activity in whistleblowers, while Freedom of Information wing and corporate influences in higher Northern and Central California requests seemed almost useless. The list of education Mark Schlesinger, ACLU of Northern Califor- offenses goes on, as do the ACLU’s proposed By Anuradha Mittal with Felicia Gustin, The nia, July 2006. solutions. Whether the state and federal gov- Institute for Democratic Education and Since 9/11, this report shows, state and ernments will issue regulations and laws reign- Culture/Speak Out (Emeryville, Calif.) and federal agencies have blurred the line between ing themselves in—a key demand—seems The Oakland Institute (Oakland, Calif.), May terrorism and dissent, and dropped protec- unlikely. 2006 tive regulations, while the federal government – Abby Scher http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/pdfs/Turning- has invested millions in building up local and theTide_1.pdf. state surveillance structures. This has led to intensified surveillance on California activists, Although student activism is traditionally with governments infiltrating groups, crim- a liberal landscape, this report documents inalizing legal protest, videotaping, and oth- the growing role of national conservative erwise monitoring peaceful organizations, organizations in promoting campus action. They make major investments: in 2002- 2003, Young America’s Foundation dedi- cated $10.4 million, Intercollegiate Studies Read the best analysis on the Christian Right Institute spent $6.9 million, and the Leader- ship Institute spent $6.2 million on campus on Talk2Action.org! activities. The total spent by all conservative groups in that year was $36.7 million. Talk2Action is a group blog led by Public Eye writer and These national groups help spread con- editorial board member Frederick Clarkson. Read weekly servative ideas, including the claim that conservatives are oppressed. They provide contributions from Fred, Political Research Associates speakers, funding for conservative publica- researcher Chip Berlet, and the rest of the best thinkers tions, and outside leadership training, while on the Christian Right. also suggesting tactics like mobilizing alumni. However, the report doesn’t analyze Visit Talk2Action.org. whether this collegiate conservative insur- gence is a wave or a hiccup. Nor does the report

THE PUBLIC EYE 22 FALL 2006 The Public Eye

WHAT’S THE MATTER When asked about her comments later on Eyes WITH SHOES? “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” Coulter RIGHT Responding to the many issues facing our said that while she may not completely country, avowed conservative and Opus Dei believe Clinton is gay, Al Gore is a “total fag.” member Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) She immediately followed with “No, no, introduced as many as 17 bills regarding that’s a joke.” NO GIRLY MEN NEED APPLY duties on shoes in the final days of the Sen- Source: Weigel, David. “Coulter Comes Out Against Gay New Man, the Promise Keepers magazine for ate session. To please his conservative base, Clinton Marriage.” Wonkette! Online. July 25, 2006. http://www.wonkette.com/politics/movies/coulter-comes- Men on a Mission, is looking for men. Not Brownback made sure to ease the pain on out-against-gay-clinton-marriage-189845.php just any men, but real men. Men who take stay-at-home mothers by including an risks and want to live the “unsafe” life. amendment to “reduce temporarily the duty Video Clip found at http://www.crooksandliars.com/posts/2006/07/28/coulter- In a recent story, New Man suggests that on certain house slippers.” Does this have on-clinton-and-gore-gay-and-fag/ evangelical churches are turning adventure- anything to do with the fact that Payless Shoe seeking, risk-taking souls of men away from Source is headquartered in Topeka? Or is the God with their namby pamby messages. tradition-minded senator giving in to his “TOTE ‘EM AND QUOTE ‘EM!” This is a problem for the Promise Keepers, inner-Imelda Marcos or his inner-Carrie Is it unconstitutional for teachers to evangelize since it seeks to encourage men to reclaim Bradshaw? The Witchita Eagle’s Alan Bjerga with their Bibles in the classroom, not just their rightful role as head of the family has his doubts, reasoning, “Besides, it’s doubt- teach it as part of a nonsectarian curriculum? through a renewed relationship with God. ful that Carrie or Imelda would buy their The week of September 24th is the Ninth “Men are about risk and adventure, but shoes at Payless. Now, if Manolo Blahnik gets Annual Scriptures in School week. Founded today’s church culture is all about comfort and a tax break...” relationships,” the article quotes Mark Galli, by teacher Bob Pawson, Scriptures in School Source: Bjerga, Alan. “Immigration bill still thorny, seeks to bring the Bible back to America’s author of Jesus Mean and Wild, as saying. Brownback fan of feet?” Kansas.com, The Witchita “One of the things men are reacting to in the Eagle Online. May 28, 2006. youth by encouraging students and teachers http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/columnists/alan_ to bring up the Bible whenever they can. Christian Church is that the church empha- bjerga/14685151.htm. sizes the gentle compassionate virtues of the “Dare to bring your Bibles. Let’s return the faith.” Bible to our public schools and restore basic Instead, men should be encouraged to take RETURN OF THE Biblical literacy to America’s children," says risks to glorify God and thereby discover their COULTER-GEIST Pawson, a teacher in the Trenton, New Jer- sey, public school system since 1980 who true purpose in life. Otherwise, they will never Bestselling conservative author and actively founded the campaign nine years ago. It’s now be the best husband, father or churchgoer that blond pundit Ann Coulter, promoting her a grassroots effort with churches encourag- they could possibly be. Said Kenny Luck, new book on TV’s “The Big Idea with Donny ing teachers and students to read the Bible founder of Every Man Ministries, “The Deutsch,” said that Bill Clinton’s “rampant in class, at recess, or at lunch. "Ironically, the unsafe life is where…you don’t know if all promiscuity” is an indication of his “latent only people keeping Bibles out of America’s your needs will be met. You don’t know if it homosexuality.” public schools are us Christians,” says Paw- will all work out. That’s an unsafe life, but it’s When questioned on this logic, Coulter dug son. “All we have to do is bring them in. Let's the best life.” herself deeper: “Well, there is something do so. It’s a real confidence booster to par- New Man doesn’t presume to tell men how narcissistic about homosexuality. Right? ticipating students knowing that millions of to figure out what risks God wants them to Because you’re in love with someone who other people all across America are also take, saying simply that, “God wired us for looks like you. I’m not breaking any new ter- bringing their Bibles to public schools that risk, but it’s the kind of risk that is for His ritory here, why are you looking at me like week." kingdom.” This leaves just a little room for that?” “Tote ‘em and quote ‘em!” is his battle cry. interpretation. Has anyone seen Ralph Reed? During the line of questioning related to those Creating a total atmosphere of Bible quot- Source: “The Unsafe Life” by Kirk Noonan and Chad comments, Coulter combined outrageous ing in every public school is the goal, creat- Bonham, New Man (July/August 2006), pp. 20-24. leaps of logic with blatant homophobia, ing a really inviting environment for backing up her theory of Clinton’s homo- non-Christians. Thanks, Bob! sexuality by referring to his “self-obsession” and that his activities were “reminiscent of a Source: Christian News Wire, July 20, 2006; http://www.bringyourbible.com/. bathhouse.”

THE PUBLIC EYE23 FALL 2006 The Public Eye

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