The Right's Magic Beyond Tea Parties, p.3 TheA PUBLICATION OF POLITICAL RESEARCH PublicEye ASSOCIATES SUMMER 2009 • Volume XXIV, No.2 $5.25 Remembering the New Right Political Strategy and the Building of the GOP Coalition By Richard J. Meagher hen the Washington Post ran an Wobituary for Paul Weyrich on its front page last December, the casual reader could be forgiven for not recognizing the name. But those who followed conserva- tive politics inside Washington probably approved of the significant placement. Weyrich was the creator or co-creator of a dozen prominent conservative institutions over the past 35 years, and hosted weekly meetings over that span where conservative activists and government officials shared ideas and strategies with each other. While no single person is responsible for the strik- ing success of conservative policies and politics since the 1970s, Weyrich probably comes closest to deserving that credit. Weyrich was at the center of what in the Reagan era was called the “New Right.” This moniker, typically contrasted with the “Old Right” of Robert Taft and Barry David Paul Morris/Getty Images In February, California mosques discovered the FBI had hired a con man to infiltrate their communities. Goldwater, is often misunderstood. Many journalists and scholars have misused the From Movements to Mosques, Remembering the New Right continues on page 5 Informants Endanger Democracy IN THIS ISSUE By Thomas Cincotta Letter to the Editor ...................2 n February,2009, members of the Islamic Monteilh for a while. Back in 2007, the local ICenter of Irvine learned that the Federal chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Battle Over Labor Law Reform ....3 Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had hired Relations (CAIR), alarmed by his talk of Book Reviews .......................18 Craig Monteilh, a 46-year-old fitness jihad and plans for a terrorist attack, instructor and convicted con man, to infil- reported him to Irvine police and secured Reports in Review ..................21 trate their mosque and keep it under sur- a three-year restraining order against him. Eyes Right ...........................23 veillance. Members had wondered about From Movements to Mosques continues on page 11 THE PUBLIC EYE1 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye LETTER ThePublicEye To the Editor, Publisher Tarso Luís Ramos You are and have been doing a wonderful job with The Public Eye; it always Editor informs/horrifies me. I really appreciate the time and effort it takes to publish. I’ve been Abby Scher, Ph.D there... Design/layout However, in the spring issue, the editorial says, “The magazine was founded in the Hird Graphic Design 1970’s by the National Lawyers Guild to publish the latest news...” Actually, the maga- Printing zine was cofounded by me and Harvey Kahn; we published for a few years (1975-80?) Red Sun Press and then, after floundering, asked Chip Berlet to take it on via the National Lawyers Guild Editorial Board Civil Liberties Committee. It then migrated to Political Research Associates. Chip Berlet • Pam Chamberlain Thomas Cincotta • Frederick Clarkson Founded by mid-1970’s sounds right; I believe it went to NLG by the end of the 1979, David Cunningham • Gillian Kane surely by 1980. My copies are in storage at the moment but I do have a 1991 edition Surina Khan • Jean Hardisty • Roberto Lovato that was sponsored by the NLG Civil Liberties Committee and published by Investiga- Katherine Hancock Ragsdale Tarso Luís Ramos • Abby Scher • Holly Sklar tive News Features. Letter continues on page 4 PRA Political Research Associates Founder and President Emerita Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D Staff Tarso Luís Ramos, President Alen Abdula, Data/Web Master Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst Pam Chamberlain, Senior Researcher Thomas Cincotta, Project Director Kapya Kaoma, Project Director Cindy King, Business Manager Charles Ocitti, Finance Director Abby Scher, Editorial Director Interns Mohamed Brahimi Kris Coombs Maria Planansky Karen Rodriguez Board of Directors Pardis Mahdavi Supriya Pillai Emelia Rallapalli Rene Redwood The Public Eye is published by Political Research Associates. Annual subscriptions are $21.00 for individuals and non-profit organizations, $10.00 for students and low-income individuals, and $36.00 for libraries and institutions. Single issues, $5.25. Outside U.S., Canada, and Mexico, add $9.00 for surface delivery or $14.00 for air mail. 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ISSN 0275-9322 Andy Singer ISSUE 64 THE PUBLIC EYE2 SUMMER 2009 The Public Eye COMMENTARY Battle over Labor Law Reform Shows True Power of the Right By Abby Scher crisis “100 times as grim as 9/11,” the ome people may enjoy watching the people were being “brainwashed” SRight thrash around trying to find its into complacency by the media and way in the Obama Age, but I take the elec- soon “the face of big brother will be tion results and their aftermath as a sign of exposed and the slogans of a classless a country dangerously divided.There really one party system are revealed to us.”1 was a stark difference in the major party can- In a desperate search for relevance to its didates, and 46 percent voted for the guy shrinking electoral base. the Republican who lost. 59,946,378 is a lot of people.This Party embraced the language of suspicion, Source: Liberty Counsel website. political force isn’t going away. conspiracy, and betrayal. Far from pushing During the McCarthy Era of the early the conspiracy-minded away in hopes of would let workers form a union if a major- 1950s, the anticommunist movement fed finding a vital center, Newt Gingrich and ity sign cards saying they want one, taking off of disgruntled Republicans who could other GOP beltway heavies threw their away the power of employers to ignore the not accept that huge influential chunks of weight behind the anti-Obama, anti-tax cards and demand secret ballot elections their party accepted the New Deal and the “tea parties,” and Republican congress- instead. It also pushes the contract nego- role of the government in regulating cap- men, mayoral candidates and the like lined tiations into binding arbitration after 90 italism.They saw America’s new regulations up to speak even though many protestors days if talks are fruitless, since companies and modest aid for people tossed by harsh despised them as much as the Democrats. that don’t beat unions at the ballot box often business cycles as outright property theft In their scramble, neither the Republi- do by stalling at the negotiating table. and communism. That the New Deal can Party nor Christian Right organizations Now they would have incentive to close the asserted federal power over the states could like Focus on the Family have a pretty face bargain. mean only a loss of political sovereignty and to put on their politics. No Ronald Reagan, But one by one, the business lobby has American liberty. Feeling disenfranchised not even a George W. Bush with folksy peeled back crucial support from Democ- not just by Washington but parts of their mannerisms disarming the nation. But rats so that the heart of the bill, “card own party, the Republican Right created the question is not who will be the next check,” is in jeopardy. To counter both an alternative universe of betrayal, suspi- Republican savior or the new Ralph Reed union donations to Congress and the over- cion, and conspiracy. deploying marketing intelligence and belt- whelming support of Americans for unions, This spring’s tea party protestors reveled way connections for his Christian Coali- they pump ready money at southern in the language of the Old Right, the same tion. The question is whether the Right’s Democrats like Senator Blanche Lincoln language warning of incipient socialism that institutions are strong enough even in the of WalMart’s home state of Arkansas and Republican operatives rolled out in their wake of electoral defeat for them to win key insinuate with $20 million worth of prop- attempt to defeat Obama in 2008 and victories in such areas as health and work- aganda that union thugs will become that television and radio pundit Sean Han- ers’ rights that ensure reactionary domi- Americans’ new slavemasters and take nity channels from some strange archaic nance of the sectors progressives need to away their freedoms.2 source. The news stories and photos told move the country closer to justice. The The corporations opposing EFCA had the story: answer to that question is clearly yes. Don’t no trouble getting Republicans to vote The audience, which was quite large be distracted by the tea parties and think against it since the White men who tend despite a heavy rain, was told that that only Fox News zealots are left to fight to vote Democratic also tend to be union Obama was leading the country on core issues. members. White men in unions went for toward “dictatorship.” The govern- Tosee the huge economic and ideolog- Obama by 18 points, when White men in ment, we were told, was creating a ical resources at the Right’s disposal, you general went for his opponent by 16 points.3 need only look at the wavering chances of You don’t need donations from WalMart the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), or Home Depot to convince you to get on Abby Scher is editor of Public Eye and a which would make it easier to organize a board, if you are a Republican counting sociologist.