SPRING 2015 The Public Eye

TERROR NETWORK OR LONE WOLF? Disparate Legal Treatment of Muslims and the Radical Right

Also: Biblical Economics · Who Speaks for Conservative Women? THE PUBLIC EYE QUARTERLY

PUBLISHER In Memoriam: Tarso Luís Ramos Jean Hardisty, Founder of PRA GUEST EDITOR Kathryn Joyce COVER ART y dear friend, Jean Hardisty, founded Political Research Associates in 1981, Adolfo Valle the year Ronald Reagan became President of the United States. Jean had al- LAYOUT ready forecast the nation’s right turn, and what she found scared her. Jennifer Hall M Jean founded Midwest Research in Chicago because she was concerned that the Left’s PRINTING response to the rise of the New Right was inadequate and dangerously misguided. In Red Sun Press an interview for ChicagoGayHistory.org, Jean recalled liberal and progressive activists EDITORIAL BOARD at the time were dismissing the burgeoning right-wing movements “as a bunch of ya- Frederick Clarkson hoos and rednecks,” telling her: they don’t know what they are doing; they’re too stu- Alex DiBranco Kapya Kaoma pid to hold power; and they’ll be gone quickly. Jean quipped, “In those first few years L. Cole Parke people didn’t know the difference between a Nazi and a neoconservative.” Jean sought Tarso Luís Ramos to educate Left activists to create more effective analyses and responses. This included Mariya Strauss Rachel Tabachnick convincing progressive groups to stop using dismissive language and to differentiate among the various sectors of the U.S. Right. The Public Eye is published by Peggy Shinner and I were the first two staffers Jean hired. Shinner recalls, “Jean was Political Research Associates so scrupulous in her work, both as an academic and an activist, and that combination Tarso Luís Ramos is very unique. Her discipline in fusing the two was extraordinary. There was simply Executive Director no separation: her scholarship was the foundation of her activism.” Jean insisted on Theresa Blackman scholarly integrity in our research and accessible language in our writing. Fact-check- Operations Coordinator ing became a team sport in the office. Eric Ethington We moved to Boston in 1987 and changed our name to Political Research Associ- Communications Director ates. By then, most of the Left had accepted the rise of the Right as the work of a pow- Kapya Kaoma erful and skillful set of adversaries. PRA shifted and studied how conservative leaders Religion and Sexuality Researcher were able to convince people to vote against their overall economic interests, and how Mark Brown fear of change in an unstable time could lead to an allegiance with repressive govern- Finance Manager ment policies and bigoted forms of social oppression. Kassia Palys When the Coors Beer conglomerate sued a small leftist group in the South into bank- Development Associate ruptcy, Jean responded by publishing a book with South End Press by Russ Bellant: The L. Cole Parke Coors Connection: How Coors Family Philanthropy Undermines Democratic Pluralism. We Gender Justice Researcher fully expected to be sued, and created huge binders of photocopies with underlying Mariya Strauss source texts for each footnoted paragraph for our anticipated courtroom appearance. Economic Justice Researcher Coors claimed there were many errors, yet when PRA asked for one example they nev- Aviva Galpert er responded—and they never sued PRA. This was Jean’s way. Program Coordinator In all her work, Jean’s goal was to help activists develop more effective strategies Fellows for countering the Right. Former PRA staff valued Jean’s mentorship. Surina Khan, T.F. Charlton author of PRA’s report Calculated Compassion, recalls, “Jean gave me the time and intel- Frederick Clarkson lectual space to think critically and understand the motivations behind conservative Spencer Sunshine Rachel Tabachnick political movements. She taught me to expose the leaders of the Right and never de- monize or scapegoat the followers.” Interns Pam Chamberlain helped edit PRA’s Activist Resource Kits, with topics including Kelsey Howe • Jacey Rubinstein education, reproductive rights, and the criminal justice system. Chamberlain remem- Board of Directors bers how Jean’s style of mentorship set “high expectations for these kits, and initially Dania Rajendra, Chair Katherine Acey • Lynette Jackson I was sure I was not up to the task. She would sit with me, calmly asking questions Janet Jakobsen • Hamid Khan until I felt as if I were teaching her, not the other way around. Eventually I came to Maria Elena Letona • Scot Nakagawa Zeke Spier understand her approach to political and cultural analysis. This was one of her great gifts to me.” Jean V. Hardisty, Ph.D. Nikhil Aziz writes, “Jean taught me to put my impatience with the way things are, Founder And President Emerita and my despair with the way things are going, into perspective.” Aziz adds that Jean’s 1310 Broadway, Suite 201 essay on “Liberalism” made him realize “we can’t do this alone. But it doesn’t let me off Somerville, MA 02144-1837 the hook…I have to do my part.” Tel: 617.666.5300 [email protected] © Political Research Associates, 2015 All rights reserved. ISSN 0275-9322 ISSUE 82 www.politicalresearch.org TRIBUTE

Jean Hardisty 1945-2015

Over several decades Jean became a national resource for human rights movements seeking social and economic justice and an end to bigotry based on race, gender, or class. Many social change activists knew Jean as a public intellectual, especially concerning feminist and lesbian issues. She was a game- changer on several national boards, and trained women philanthropists in the strategies of the Right. Gloria Steinem called Jean a “prophet.” Other memorial tributes describe Jean as both gentle and fierce—an accomplished scholar, strategist, mentor, activist, writer, and public speaker. Jean was all that and more.

Jean Hardisty: Presente! -Chip Berlet

SPRING 2015 Political Research Associates • 3 BY NAOMI BRAINE

Terror Network or Lone Wolf? Disparate Legal Treatment of Muslims and the Radical Right

n April 2014, an armed encampment formed at the Nevada cattle ranch of Cliven Bundy as news spread through militia networks about the Iconfrontation between the 67-year-old rancher and the Bureau of Land Man- agement. The BLM began to impound Bundy’s cows after he’d failed to pay grazing fees for approximately 20 years, claiming the federal government had no right to regulate the public land where he brought his livestock. Confronted with this armed encampment, the federal of- ficials backed down, ultimately return- ing Bundy’s cows. He was not arrested for the confrontation,1 and as of December, he bragged to reporters, he was continu- ing to graze his cattle, for free, on fed- eral land.2 Most media accounts treated Bundy as just a cantankerous oddball or, as an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times put it, “a scofflaw with screwy ideas about the Constitution.”3 More attention has been paid to the Michigan Militia members, bearing guns and a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, participate in a state- U.S. Far Right in recent years, but the wide militia training event called the WOLF Challenge. Photo via Photobucket and courtesy of media and federal representatives rarely Southeastern Michigan Volunteer Militia (SMVM). use the word “terrorism” to describe their actions. When Larry McQuilliams, who focus was primarily on the threat of glob- and offered few recommendations for followed the racist Phineas Priesthood al jihad,5 and the 2014 Congressional Re- action.7 ideology, shot more than 100 rounds at search Service report on countering vio- In the nearly 14 years since 9/11, more the Austin, TX, police station, federal lent extremists discussed only Muslims people have died in the U.S. from polit- courthouse, and Mexican Consulate, (although it claimed the material applied ically-motivated violence perpetrated by Austin police used the label, calling him to all forms of extremist thought).6 This right-wing militants than by Muslim mil- an “extremist” and “American terrorist,” February, the Department of Homeland itants.8 As in the McQuilliams episode, but media reports shied away from such Security (DHS) did release a report on the majority of these assaults target peo- terms, emphasizing his personal strug- the sovereign citizen movement, one el- ple who work for the government, par- gles.4 At the recent White House Summit ement of the Far Right, but it amounted ticularly law enforcement,9 but perpetra- on Countering Violent Extremism, the to barely three pages of substantive text tors rarely receive harsh penalties unless

4 • The Public Eye SPRING 2015 BY NAOMI BRAINE they kill or severely injure someone. The fer to international terrorism, involving violence and terrorism cases, although disparity between treatment of Muslims people or plans that include a demon- their definitions and exact lists vary. For and right-wing militants highlights the strated or attributed link to an interna- the purposes of this report, I have drawn centrality of political power and vulnera- tional entity. Cases involving Muslims upon the two most extensive and widely bility as factors shaping law enforcement that clearly originate in the U.S. are clas- cited. anti-terrorism measures. The “War on sified as “homegrown” international ter- The Southern Poverty Law Center fo- Terror” creates tremendous political and rorism, even though any links to inter- cuses primarily on right-wing activity, social vulnerability for Muslims in the national networks or entities may exist and has the most detailed and compre- U.S. by associating U.S. Muslims with only in the eyes of law enforcement. hensive list.18 The period from Septem- global jihad. The Congressional Research Service ber 2001 through December 2010 lists Right-wing militants, in contrast, defines “domestic terrorists” as “people 50 cases, almost double the number of benefit from the power of mainstream who commit crimes within the homeland “homegrown” Islamist cases in a simi- conservatives. For example, in 2009, and draw inspiration from U.S.-based lar period, and 21 of the 50 took place the domestic terrorism unit of the DHS militant ideologies and movements.”16 in 2009 and 2010, following President released a report10 indicating that right- This somewhat confusing FBI and DoJ Obama’s inauguration. All 50 domestic wing activity posed the most significant distinction between “homegrown” and cases involve elements of the Far Right, terrorism threat in the United States, and “domestic” terrorism produces interest- from Christian Identity to various militia that such activity was likely to increase ing contradictions: in domestic cases movements to the KKK and other white during the Obama administration. Con- involving Christian militants, antisemi- supremacist groups. Terrorist acts often servative bloggers declared the report tism is cast as a U.S.-based ideology, but involved significant caches of weapons was politically motivated and painted all conservative activ- International Terrorism ists as potential terrorists, and Cases initiated by or linked to foreign entities or ideologies conservative politicians reacted 403 cases 2001-2010 negatively as well.11,12 As a re- sult, the report was taken out Domestic Terrorism Undetermined of circulation, but the report’s Non-Islamist/Non-Jihadi Linked to U.S.-based militant ideologies or Islamist/Jihadi 44% of cases 11% of cases movements (e.g. Christian Identity, neonazi, analysis and predictions have 45% of cases (FARC, Tamil Tigers, etc.) sovereign citizen) 13 or fraud-related) since proven accurate. (mostly �inancial 50 cases 2001-2010 The ways in which federal law enforcement agencies de-

scribe and classify “terrorism” “Homegrown” Islamist/Jihadi initiated entirely inside U.S. obscures the extent of violence 30 cases by, and even local policing of, right-wing and Christian mili- tants. To begin with, there is Figure 1. FBI/DoJ Classifications of Terrorism some inconsistency in how different in “homegrown” cases, it’s evidence of and explosives, with targets ranging types of incidents are labeled in practice global jihad among Muslims. from the murder of government repre- by different federal offices, even within The DoJ lists 403 cases of (interna- sentatives to assaults on synagogues or DHS, which complicates internal com- tional) terrorism from September 2001 mosques and other Islamic centers. munication.14 The Department of Justice through March 201017: 11 percent non- According to the New America Foun- (DoJ) is the lead agency for domestic law Islamist (mostly FARC or Tamil Tigers), dation,19 which tracks cases explicitly enforcement, and they classify “inter- 45 percent Islamist, and 44 percent un- classified as terrorism within the U.S., national terrorism” and “domestic ter- determined (mostly cases of fraud or fi- only 41 percent of jihadist plots in the rorism” separately15 (see diagram). The nancial misconduct involving someone U.S. since 9/11 involved weapons, and distinction, however, lies more in moti- with an “Arab-sounding” name). The Is- in almost one-third of those cases, the vation or organizational affiliation than lamist category includes 30 cases consid- weapons were supplied by U.S. govern- in geography; for example, a terrorist ered to be “homegrown.” ment agents. By contrast, 89 percent of incident in the U.S. will be character- The FBI and DoJ do not provide public- domestic terrorism cases involved weap- ized as international if the perpetrator is ly accessible lists of domestic terrorism ons, and in 92 percent of these cases the seen as motivated by Islamist beliefs, and cases, which complicates direct compar- arms were acquired without assistance domestic if motivated by militant right- isons between domestic and homegrown from government agents. wing beliefs. (It’s also a difference that cases. The data that do exist on domes- Based on the statistics and analysis of becomes clear when reading the lists of tic terrorism, or politically motivated available cases, there are significant dif- official “terrorism” cases—a list that does violence, result from examining local, ferences in the procedures, charges, and not include, for instance, the murder of state, and federal law enforcement activ- penalties in domestic (non-Islamist) and abortion provider Dr. George Tiller.) ity to identify relevant cases. A few non- homegrown (usually Islamist) cases. De- “Terrorism,” unmodified, is used to re- profit institutes track domestic political spite the greater prevalence of incidents

SPRING 2015 Political Research Associates • 5 and deaths resulting from right-wing rorism cases involve use of an informant that has been used in multiple prosecu- violence, U.S. Muslims experience more but only 27.5 percent of non-Islamic tions of accused Muslim terrorists. aggressive surveillance, greater use of cases do.21 According to a report by Co- In contrast, the participation of infor- informants, more severe charges, and lumbia University Law School and Hu- mants and undercover agents in right- greater use of restrictive confinement man Rights Watch, 50 percent of federal wing cases has been much more limited, once incarcerated. counterterrorism convictions resulted and does not involve either initiating a The differential treatment of right- from informant-based cases, and almost plot or being the only source of weapons wing and Muslim cases draws attention 30 percent were stings.22 (A “sting” re- or explosive materials. In 2002, Larry to the political contexts surrounding ter- fers to a case in which an informant or Raugust, an anti-government militant rorism-related law enforcement, as these undercover agent actively developed the well known to law enforcement, gave an disparities only make sense within polit- case, leading defendants to escalate their explosive device to an undercover agent; ically-driven calculations. Mainstream activity and often providing explosives he ended up pleading guilty to 15 counts conservative politicians and media per- or other materials.) The Columbia Law of making bombs, and served just over sonalities protest depictions of right- School report found that all but four of five years in a federal prison.25 Similarly, wing militants as anything more than the high-profile homegrown terrorism in 2005, Gabriel Carafa, a man with ties troubled but patriotic Americans, while plots of the last 10 years were FBI sting to the neonazi World Church of the Cre- Muslim men—particularly young men— operations. While informants play a role ator and a racist organization called The are constantly monitored as intrinsic in domestic cases, there is little recent Hated, was arrested after he and another security risks. In the process, Muslims evidence of right-wing cases being built man asked an informant to build them a lose Constitutional protections for be- through stings (although there is some bomb. They were charged with selling 11 lief, speech, and association—forced to history of FBI stings with environmental guns illegally to police informants and inhabit an ambiguous territory as “un- activists in the early 2000s). providing 60 pounds of urea for use in American” and presumptively foreign. A 2009 case in Newburgh, NY, that be- building a bomb; Carafa was sentenced came known as the Newburgh Four23,24 to seven years and his accomplice to SURVEILLANCE AND INFORMANTS provides an example of an FBI sting op- 10.26 In both of these cases, not only did The disparate treatment of the two eration. Newburgh is a small, formerly the defendants acquire their own weap- groups of alleged terrorists begins before industrial city about 60 miles north of ons and explosive materials, but the men charges are ever filed, with how the two New York City, with a substantial Afri- had extensive histories of right-wing ac- are investigated. Covert surveillance is, can-American population and relatively tivism. by definition, difficult to prove unless high poverty rate. In 2011, the city was The Internet plays an increasingly cen- specific prosecutions or other evidence declared the murder capital of New York tral role in the development and commu- bring it into public view. A report by state. In the winter of 2009, an FBI in- nication of beliefs, as well as law enforce- the New York University School of Law20 formant developed a relationship with ment monitoring of potentially violent describes systematic surveillance of an openly antisemitic Muslim man who activity. However, the consequences of Muslim communities by the NYPD, FBI, had a history of drug addiction. The in- posting beliefs that signal the potential and other law enforcement entities in the formant offered him $250,000 plus addi- for violence varies considerably by reli- U.S. The widespread use of informants tional luxuries if he would gather a group gion. Adel Daoud was a socially isolated in homegrown terrorism cases also of Muslims to carry out a terrorist attack. 17-year-old Muslim boy in suburban Chi- indicates an ongoing undercover The man recruited three friends, each cago who found refuge online. In 2012, presence. No evidence exists of similar of whom had significant financial needs. he began to post on message boards and routine surveillance of communities Each received small amounts of cash write emails relating to violent jihad, at with significant right-wing activity, during the time the informant guided which point the FBI drew him into plan- and reports and other materials about them in developing a plan to attack Stew- ning an attack with an undercover agent. the Right produced by the FBI, DHS, art Air National Guard Base and bomb a In 2013, the agent drove Daoud to a jeep and Congressional Research Service local synagogue, using explosives and a filled with fake explosives, and he was all emphasize the right to freedom of vehicle provided by the informant. The arrested after he tried to trigger the ex- speech and expression, including the men were arrested after the informant plosives outside a bar they had agreed to importance of differentiating beliefs delivered the men and the explosives to target. He was charged with attempting from actions. Based on available case cars provided by the FBI. All four were to use a weapon of mass destruction, and summaries, the majority of domestic charged with conspiracy, attempt to use the case is still in court.27 terrorism prosecutions occur after weapons of mass destruction, and plot- Compare that to the 2010 case of the perpetrator has taken concrete ting to kill U.S. government employees, 26-year-old Justin Carl Moose, who de- action or as a consequence of other law and were sentenced to 25 years in prison. scribed himself as the “Christian coun- enforcement contact, which suggests A judge rejected an appeal based on en- terpart to Osama bin Laden” and posted a low level of ongoing surveillance of trapment, accepting the government’s threats of violence against abortion pro- right-wing movements. rationale that the men would have even- viders along with information about the The New America Foundation data tually committed terrorism on their use of explosives on his Facebook page. indicate that 46.8 percent of Islamic ter- own—a theory called “radicalization” The FBI were tipped off, and Moose pled

6 • The Public Eye SPRING 2015 guilty to distributing information on the of a militia-style group called Project 7 tual assault or violence took place. The manufacture and use of explosives. He who was wanted for assaulting police of- case of the Fort Dix Five, as it came to be was sentenced to 30 months in prison ficers, was found with 25,000 rounds of known, was primarily built through the and was released early, despite having ammunition and multiple pipe bombs; use of an informant who actively guided demonstrated knowledge of explosives he was sentenced to seven years.30 In a the youngest of the five men—then just and his alignment with a movement that separate case, a series of raids on militia 19 years old—to collect videos depicting has an extensive track record of murders members in rural Pennsylvania netted jihad-oriented violence, develop a hazy and destruction of medical facilities.28 16 bombs and at least 73 other weapons, “plot” to attack Fort Dix, and recruit his but none of the militia members served friends to participate. The evidence at SEVERITY OF CHARGES more than three years in prison.31 The trial included a map of Fort Dix that one As the five cases described above sug- quantity of armaments involved in many of the defendants had used to deliver gest, the charges and prison sentences of the right-wing terrorism cases calls pizza, and the claim that paintball games faced by defendants in right-wing ter- for a response of a corresponding order and camping trips were “jihadi train- rorism cases are significantly lower than of magnitude, especially in light of the ing.”32 However absurd this may sound, those in homegrown cases. The key dif- sentences given to Muslims who never this interpretation of both paintball and ference is usually in the specific charg- independently obtained a weapon of any camping while Muslim has been used in es brought. Many right-wing acts of kind. other trials, and notes from the NYPD’s violence are simply never prosecuted as Homegrown terrorism cases, on the surveillance of the Brooklyn College Is- “terrorism,” which has significant conse- other hand, are prosecuted using a wider lamic Society include references to “mili- quences due to terrorism “adjustments” and more severe array of charges. Six- tant paintball trips.”33 to sentencing guidelines that increase teen of the 30 homegrown cases listed The 2010 Hutaree militia case pro- the penalty for any given offense.29 Do- by the DoJ included conspiracy charges, vides a very interesting contrast to this mestic cases largely involve charges of which can carry high sentences even in treatment of Muslims. In 2008, the FBI weapons possession (including explo- the absence of a completed criminal act. planted an informant with the Hutaree Prosecutors may militia group in Michigan, and followed combine both “con- their activities for two years before initi- spiracy” and “at- ating an arrest with charges of seditious tempt to commit” conspiracy and attempt to use weap- charges in cases ons of mass destruction based on the in which no actual group’s plan to kill police officers and violence took place, plant bombs at their funerals. A judge including sting cas- dismissed the conspiracy charges and es where the only dropped all charges against six of the weapons involved nine defendants on the grounds that were provided by their hatred of law enforcement was not FBI agents or infor- evidence of a conspiracy.34 Three men in mants. Domestic the group pled guilty to weapons posses- terrorism cases that sion, and two of them were released on include charges of just two years’ supervision.35 While the attempt to assault informant taped conversations with the or murder almost militia members, he does not appear to always base the have conducted a sting operation. When charge on the active Muslims express hostility towards the use of a weapon— U.S. government or law enforcement, Marchers with the Project SALAM Journey for Justice protest the incarcera- usually shooting at this has been treated as evidence of radi- tion of Mohammed Hossain and Yassin Aref, Muslim men convicted of a law enforcement calization and intent to engage in acts providing material support for terrorism as part of an FBI sting. Photo via officer but some- of terrorism, but, at least in this case, a Flickr, courtesy of Vanessa Lynch, orangeinkeducation.wordpress.com. times activating an U.S. judge heard these same sentiments explosive device. much differently when uttered by right- sives and/or assault weapons), murder, The issue of conspiracy charges throws wing activists. or attempted murder; most of these are into stark relief the demonization and The majority of cases of homegrown filed and prosecuted at the state and lo- excessive surveillance of American Mus- terrorism analyzed in the report by Co- cal level. lims. In 2008, five men were convicted lumbia, and a significant percentage of While weapons possession may sound of conspiracy to murder members of the international cases, involve charges of like a minor offense, and often results in U.S. military, and four of the five were material support for terrorism.36 The sentences of less than 10 years, the ac- convicted of possession of firearms. Four original statute on material support for tual quantity of weapons involved can be of the men were sentenced to life and the terrorism,37 passed in 1994 after the first considerable. David Burgert, the leader other to 33 years, even though no ac- World Trade Center bombing, criminal-

SPRING 2015 Political Research Associates • 7 ized the provision of weapons, physical conducted by the DoJ from 2001 to contact with family and friends is com- goods, money, or training to terrorists 2011 found that more than 25 percent pletely banned. Muslims make up over and terrorist organizations, but included involved charges of material support or two-thirds of prisoners in CMUs, even specific free speech protections and- ex conspiracy, indicating that these charges though they account for only six percent emptions for humanitarian aid.38 Subse- are more common among homegrown of the total federal prison population.42 quent versions of the law removed the cases than genuinely international ones. Special Administrative Measures (SAMs) free speech protection, narrowed the Beyond individual cases, the surveil- also restrict a prisoner’s communication humanitarian aid exception, broadened lance of Muslim communities, the use and contact with others in ways that vary the scope of what counts as “material of informants, and the question of ma- from case to case, and have become rou- support,” and increased the penalties terial support create a fear that limits tine in terrorism cases, including dur- for conspiracies and attempts to provide development of community support for ing pre-trial detention.43 Since the vast support. The material support statute those caught in terrorism prosecutions, majority of cases formally designated as applies to “designated terrorist organiza- effectively isolating family members of “terrorism” in the U.S. are “homegrown,” tions,” but the FBI’s list of designated ter- accused or convicted “terrorists.” these extreme forms of control and con- rorist organizations, available on finement overwhelmingly af- its website, includes no domestic fect Muslims. Almost 50 per- organizations of any ideological While the discourse of terrorism situates Muslims cent of the homegrown cases bent. As a result, material support accused of violence as part of a worldwide terror reviewed by the Columbia charges have no analog among network, their right-wing counterparts are usually Law School report involved domestic terrorism cases, despite depicted as “Lone Wolves,” acting alone. significant pre-trial solitary the existence of longstanding and/or restricted communi- right-wing organizations associ- cation, which had a negative ated with political violence.39 In effect on the development blunt terms, if a person gives money to CONDITIONS OF INCARCERATION of a legal defense. These high levels of the KKK, they will not be prosecuted for The limited data available on domes- isolation and control of communication material support to terrorists. Although tic cases makes a direct comparison of are justified by the portrayal of Muslims it might technically be possible to bring the conditions of incarceration difficult, living in America as representatives of such charges, in practice, it simply although some inferences can be made. global terrorist networks. doesn’t happen. The U.S. penal system has developed While there are no comparable reports But the material support statute has stringent conditions of confinement and on the conditions in which right-wing become central to the prosecution of management that can be applied under terrorists are held in U.S. prisons, Muslims accused of terrorism. One of a variety of circumstances, especially the disproportionate use of pre-trial the more prominent prosecutions on at the federal level. The federal system solitary, SAMs, CMUs, ADX, and other material support concerned the Holy includes the Administrative Maximum highly restrictive settings with Muslims Land Foundation, a large Muslim char- Penitentiary (ADX) Florence supermax indicates differential treatment, as does ity in the U.S. that provided aid to zakat prison in Colorado, where almost all pris- the extent of organized community (charitable) committees in the West Bank oners are held in solitary confinement support for incarcerated right-wing and Gaza. The zakat committees were for 23 hours of every day. According to activists. not involved in violent activities but sup- the Bureau of Prisons, in 2013 the ADX For prisoners who are not subject to ported the social services instituted by was holding 41 prisoners designated as isolation and restrictions on communi- Hamas, which was designated a terrorist “terrorists,” the majority of whom are of cation, contact with the outside world organization in 1997. This secondhand Muslim background. The UN Committee can be a vital source of affirmation, in connection to the social services arm of Against Torture has raised the question addition to mundane assistance like Hamas resulted in the use of material as to whether the extensive use of soli- commissary credits or care packages. Or- support charges to close down the Holy tary confinement in the U.S. constitutes ganizations on the Right openly provide Land Foundation and convict the senior a form of torture.41 (See sidebar: Brutal- support for and maintain contact with administrators on terrorism-related ity Made Visible) incarcerated individuals who share their charges in 2009, with sentences from 15 While virtually all U.S. prisons have political perspective, even those convict- to 65 years.40 the structural capacity for solitary con- ed of murder, such as Scott Roeder44,45 The Holy Land Foundation case is not finement, the federal system has the and Timothy McVeigh.46 The anti-abor- an outlier or an isolated example. In additional ability to impose two highly tion movement, in particular, gener- fact, 65 percent of the homegrown cases restrictive forms of communication ally does not sever ties to those who have analyzed in detail by Columbia included control. Communication Management been incarcerated for violence against charges of conspiracy and/or attempt to Units (CMUs) were created in 2006 to abortion providers. This level of organi- provide material support to terrorists, isolate certain prisoners from contact zation reflects how much right-wing vio- resulting in sentences ranging from with the outside world; all forms of com- lence is grounded in social movements, five to 30 years in prison. The Columbia munication with family, friends, and even if individual perpetrators appear to analysis of all terrorism prosecutions other prisoners are limited, and physical be lone actors.

8 • The Public Eye SPRING 2015 with the 1983 Aryan World Congress, Brutality Made Visible on charges of conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government. They were acquit- Terrorism trials have drawn some attention to the use of harsh pre-trial detention as a ted at trial, but the experience led one of method for extracting guilty pleas, and of solitary confinement for prisoners convicted of terrorism. However, extended pre-trial confinement has become the norm for low- the men, Louis Beam, to republish an es- income Americans who cannot afford bail, and solitary confinement is used extensively say he had written calling for “leaderless throughout U.S. jails and prisons, including for people awaiting trial. resistance” as a way to evade infiltration and surveillance.49 Over the past 10-15 In 2010, 76 percent of defendants in federal district courts were detained pre-trial, up years, most incidents of right-wing vio- 1 from 59 percent in 1995. The Center for Constitutional Rights currently has a class action lence have been carried out by individu- lawsuit on behalf of prisoners at a California prison who are serving indeterminate sen- als or small groups, in keeping with the tences in SHU (Security Housing Unit, a form of solitary confinement), usually on the basis philosophy of leaderless resistance and of their alleged gang membership or affiliation. Five hundred men in the CCR lawsuit have been in SHU for at least 10 years.2 Lone Wolf action. However, a decision to act alone does not mean acting outside of Incarceration practices based on extreme methods of control and isolation also predate social movement frameworks, philoso- the “War on Terror”: the federal supermax prison ADX Florence opened in Colorado in phies, and networks. 1994, and special administrative measures (SAMs) to control communication and contact Research has shown that, at the time began in 1996. Over the last 10 years, the process of resource adaptation has become bi- they engage in political violence, the directional, as institutional architecture designed for the War on Terror has been used for majority of so-called Lone Wolves are other purposes. The use of military vehicles on the streets of Ferguson was a nationally over 30 years old. A comparison of case visible example of militarized policing, but it’s not the only one. Away from the public eye, “intelligence fusion centers,” which bring together multiple levels of law enforcement, descriptions shows that many have had were originally intended to monitor terrorism threats but have instead focused the major- significant histories of participation in ity of their activity on drug and immigration cases.3 hard-right movements.50 Preliminary findings from a study of individual radi- As these examples demonstrate, repressive measures and violations of civil or human calization point to the importance of so- rights spread outward from their original context, whether the example is solitary con- cial ties with other militants as a key ele- finement for alleged gang members or expanded intelligence gathering systems brought ment of the radicalization process, again to local police. Similarly, the procedures and processes permitted in federal terrorism tri- casting doubt on the model of the iso- als also create precedents that could be drawn upon in other circumstances. lated actor.51 Another study found that organizations whose members commit INDIVIDUALIZATION OF RIGHT-WING the sovereign citizen movement, which violence have higher levels of intercon- VIOLENCE was described as engaging in low levels nection with other movement organiza- While the discourse of terrorism situ- of often spontaneous violence that take a tions than groups not associated with ates Muslims accused of violence as part highly individualized and non-symbolic violence.52 The findings from these two of a worldwide terror network, their form, such as a threat or assault towards studies fit with the age and movement right-wing counterparts are usually de- a specific individual law enforcement of- experience of Lone Wolves while chal- picted as “Lone Wolves,” acting alone. ficer or government representative.48 For lenging the model of the isolated actor. As a result, the social and organizational example, the DHS report describes an Scott Roeder, Dr. Tiller’s assassin, saw contexts for right-wing violence are sys- himself as acting as part of a movement tematically erased. even if he was not representing a specific When the authors of the April 2009 Scott Roeder, Dr. Tiller’s organization. DHS report on right-wing extremism put assassin, saw himself as acting Politically, the organizational and na- out a draft version for review, the Office as part of a movement even tional contexts for right-wing activists of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties argued if he was not representing a disappear in the focus on the individual, for a narrow definition of “right-wing specific organization. while the individuality and immediate extremist” that would be limited to per- social context for the actions of Muslims sons known to have committed violence are rendered invisible by the focus on the themselves and exclude those who were incident in which a sovereign citizen in global. members of or who donated money to Alaska conspired to murder an Internal organizations with well-known histories Revenue Service officer and a judge who SEPARATE LAW ENFORCEMENT RULES of violence, such as the KKK.47 The DHS oversaw legal proceedings against him. FOR MUSLIMS? report maintained a broader definition The individualized “Lone Wolf” model Law enforcement action shows two that included groups and social move- of viewing right-wing violence reflects substantially different patterns in -rela ments, but the overall trend has been to- an intentional change in strategy by tion to Muslims and right-wing activists. ward viewing perpetrators of right-wing right-wing militant groups. In 1987, The (appropriate) concern for protecting violence as isolated actors. The February the government indicted a core group of free speech and association expressed 2015 DHS report on right-wing extrem- 14 visible national leaders within right- in law enforcement materials on right- ists, for example, focused exclusively on wing militant movements, all associated wing organizations and activists stands

SPRING 2015 Political Research Associates • 9 in stark contrast to the criminalization ing anonymously, a former DHS agent rather than their power. In late February, BY PETER MONTGOMERY of both speech and association among compared the FBI’s sting operations in the latest case to hit the news involved a Muslims. Reports by the Columbia and Muslim communities to the practice of young man who wanted to go to Syria to NYU schools of law describe the target- police leaving an expensive car unlocked fight for ISIS, but his FBI handler had to ing of vulnerable individuals and com- in a poor urban neighborhood: if law en- procure his travel documents, because munities, with informants building rela- forcement provides a large enough in- his mother wouldn’t give him his pass- tionships with men who have expressed centive, he suggested, then eventually port.60 certain political or religious beliefs but someone will make criminal use of it. This 19-year-old can only be under- who have not independently voiced an While it’s politically useful for federal stood as dangerous if his actual life cir- intent to commit violence. The cases of authorities to demonstrate progress on cumstances are subsumed by a narrative the Newburgh Four and the Fort Dix Five prosecuting terrorism—even if it often of global jihad. This pattern of systemic illustrate the centrality of informants involves trumped-up cases—the flip side targeting and differential prosecution is and the lack of evidence of independent of that political reality is the conservative fully in keeping with well-documented violent action—or the necessary re- politicians and writers who see discus- law enforcement practices of racial/eth- sources for such—in the prosecution of sions of right-wing political violence as a nic profiling of African Americans and these cases. These cases stand in sharp with the internment of Japanese Ameri- contrast to the large weapons caches and Many Muslims convicted of cans during WWII. The suppression of self-organization of right-wing activists, terrorism can only be understood information about right-wing move- who, like Larry Raugust, are more likely as dangerous if their actual life ments creates a double-erasure in which to give explosives to an informant than to circumstances are subsumed by a Muslims can only be seen through the acquire them from one. narrative of global jihad. lens of the global “War on Terror,” while The prosecution of Muslims in the ab- right-wing militants continue to be de- sence of independent action has been threat to their own constituency, down- picted as isolated and troubled individu- justified by using a theory of radicaliza- playing the severity of the threat from als instead of social movement actors. tion that argues defendants would have the Far Right. A July 2014 study found This combination may serve a range of eventually committed terrorism without that law enforcement rated sovereign ex- political and economic interests, but it the assistance of informants. Multiple tremists the number one terrorist threat does little for the health and safety of the theories of radicalization exist within in the U.S.,55 and the February 2015 U.S. population. the study of militant movements, includ- DHS report on right-wing extremism The FBI and DoJ distinction between ing some that examine processes across documented the extent of assaults on “homegrown” and “domestic” terror- diverse political or religious movements. law enforcement and other government ism is a political creation and should be In law enforcement, models of radical- personnel.56 But saying this publicly ended. The “homegrown” classification ization have been part of larger frame- has consistently led to hostile responses locates Muslims as foreign agents oper- works that heighten the fear of hidden from conservative media. The DoJ Do- ating in the U.S., not as part of the so- dangers.53 For example, the theory of mestic Terrorism Executive Committee cial fabric of this country. The portrayal radicalization used in prosecutions of was re-launched in June 201457 but, as of of U.S. Muslims as potential or actual Muslims caught by sting operations de- February 2015, had not yet held a meet- representatives of global jihad is used to rives from a 2007 NYPD report that de- ing, according to a former DHS analyst. justify the denial of constitutional pro- scribed a “religious conveyor belt” from It’s worth noting that right-wing vio- tections and leads to representing ordi- belief to action.54 This theory has no sup- lence has also increased in Europe58 and nary men—asking religious questions, port in social science research and situ- Israel59 over the past several years, but criticizing the U.S. government, or even ates constitutionally protected beliefs as this trend is similarly invisible across going camping with their friends—as evidence of the probability to commit the Western political discourse of terror- a threat to society. It is past time to ap- violence. The core constitutional princi- ism. In Europe, it was the Charlie Hebdo ply the same constitutional protections ples of freedom of religion and freedom attacks that became emblematic of ter- to everyone, and develop a response to of speech and association are repeatedly rorism, not the Anders Breivik massacre terrorism based in analysis of patterns violated in relation to Muslims in argu- in Norway, even though Breivik’s attacks of violence instead of political costs and ments made in the courts as well as in were six times deadlier. benefits. surveillance practices, recruitment of The differential treatment of Islamic informants, and day-to-day law enforce- and far-right terrorism cases only be- ment. comes explicable through the lens of po- Naomi Braine is an Associate Professor in litical calculation. The Right Wing is an the Sociology Department at Brooklyn Col- POLITICS, RISK, AND LAW ENFORCEMENT entrenched element of the U.S. cultural lege, CUNY, and a lifelong activist in strug- Data on militant violence in the U.S. and political power structure, raising the gles for social justice. Her political and suggest that the primary factors directing costs of high profile law enforcement ac- intellectual work has addressed mass incar- federal attention involve political calcu- tion. The primary targets of federal anti- ceration, the “War on Drugs”/drug policy, lations and Islamophobia, not any dan- terrorism investigations have been Mus- HIV and collective action, and, more re- ger posed by their communities. Speak- lim men defined by their vulnerability cently, the “War on Terror.”

10 • The Public Eye SPRING 2015 THEOCRATIC RUMBLINGS

BY PETER MONTGOMERY Biblical Economics The Divine Laissez-Faire Mandate

n February, the culture warriors at the rhetoric of conservative pundits and dia and public appearances to argue that Iowa’s “pro-family” group The Fam- politicians.3 But Barton’s essays go be- the Bible, indeed God Himself, opposes ily Leader distributed personalized yond his claims about the biblical origins minimum wage laws, capital gains taxes, copies of The Founders’ Bible to ev- of the U.S. Constitution; The Founders’ and progressive income taxes. He defines Iery member of the state legislature as Bible, a New American Standard Bible the free enterprise system—which he be- part of their lobby day—or as they put it translation, is also filled with Barton’s ar- lieves is “the economic system set forth in an invitation letter, the “war with Sa- guments that right-wing economic poli- in numerous passages in the Bible”—as tan, who has taken many captive in Des cies are divinely mandated. “one in which ‘prices and wages are de- Moines.”1 Greg Baker, Director of Ambas- Though Barton’s work has been repeat- termined by unrestricted competition sador Church Network, told pastors that edly challenged by reputable scholars, in- between businesses, without government the goal of “The Iowa Capitol Project” is to cluding his fellow evangelical Christians, regulation,’” and sees any policies that pe- help legislators “do what God has asked he is no fringe character, but rather a ma- nalize productivity and profits as “a com- them to do,” and The Founders’ Bible jor player within the Republican Party and pletely unBiblical system.” should help given its “compelling content conservative movement. He was an active To most readers, Jesus’ parable of the pertaining to their job at the Capitol.”2 member of the GOP platform committee vineyard is generally understood to be about the gift of God’s grace, a metaphor for the Kingdom of God. In Barton’s ex- egesis, the story about the landowner who pays workers an equal amount no matter how many hours they worked is a literal handbook for God’s approach to employer-employee relations. Govern- ment, he writes, “certainly has no right to tell an employer what to pay an employ- ee, including with a so-called minimum wage.”5 Yes, this is a Bible the Koch brothers can love.

RECONSTRUCTIONISM, THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT, AND THE TEA PARTY Barton is one of the figures examined by religious studies professor Julie Inger- soll in Building God’s Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction,6 forth- coming from Oxford University Press in August. Christian Reconstructionism is hardly a household word. However, its A star-spangled David Barton appears in America: A Call to Greatness (1995). ideology has infused not only the Chris- Photo credit: Paige-Brace Cinema, Ltd. tian Right but also the Tea Party and the conservative movement in general. Those Most of that “compelling content”—the in 20124 and his rhetoric about America’s familiar with Reconstructionism may as- non-biblical part anyway—comes courte- founding as a Christian nation is promot- sociate it most often with the idea that sy of David Barton, the Republican Party ed by other religious conservatives, from government should enforce Old Testa- activist and self-styled historian whose Glenn Beck to Newt Gingrich. ment law and its harsh punishments. But, “Christian nation” revisionism informs Barton uses his essays and frequent me- Ingersoll argues, what’s gone largely un-

SPRING 2015 Political Research Associates • 11 noticed is “The degree to which Christian But the Reconstructionist influence has gathering at which Barton spoke. Reconstructionists understand a biblical spread well beyond the COR. As Frederick Barton’s insistence that the Bible pro- worldview to be rooted in economics.” For Clarkson noted in The Public Eye back in vides authoritative instruction for ev- Reconstructionists, she writes, the very 1994,11 dominionist thinking has prolifer- ery aspect of life, including tax policy, idea of God’s sovereignty is expressed in ated even among evangelical leaders who echoes COR’s Manifesto and Rushdoony’s terms of property rights. might disavow the Reconstructionist la- insistence that “authority is not only a Christian Reconstructionism is ground- bel. Gary North, wrote Clarkson, claimed religious concept but also a total one. It ed in the writing of R.J. Rushdoony, whose that “the ideas of the Reconstructionists involves the recognition at every point magnum opus, The Institutes of Biblical have penetrated into Protestant circles of our lives of God’s absolute law-order.” Law, was published in 1973. Rushdoony, that for the most part are unaware of the That includes economics. In The Institutes who died in 2001, was also active in the original source of the theological ideas of Biblical Law, Rushdoony says, “The homeschooling movement and founded that are beginning to transform them.” child has no right to govern his parents, the Chalcedon Foundation, a Reconstruc- Reconstructionists have integrated their the student their school, nor the employ- tionist think tank. His ideas continue to theology with Pentecostal and charismat- ees their employer.”13 be promoted by acolytes, including his ic religious networks such as the New Ap- According to this “biblical worldview,” son-in-law, author Gary North, and Gary ostolic Reformation and groups like Inter- unions and the laws supporting workers’ DeMar, president of American Vision. national Transformation Network, as well rights and ability to organize interfere In their book Christian Reconstruction: as among religious leaders who embrace with God’s economic plan. Barton says the What It Is, What it Isn’t, North and De- dominionist doctrines such as “Seven Bible disapproves of “socialist union kind Mar write, “Reconstructionists believe in Mountains” theology, which holds that of stuff.”14 a ‘minimal state.’ The purpose of getting the right kind of Christians are meant to There have been many examples of this involved in politics, as Reconstructionists control societal spheres of influence such playing out in current domestic politics. see it, is to reduce the power of the State.”7 as education, entertainment, business, In 2012, dominionists associated with Sound familiar? and government. the New Apostolic Reformation’s Refor- “Without a doubt, Reconstructionists mation Prayer Network urged “prayer have been advocates for, and activists warriors” to pray that God would “break within, the Tea Party,” Ingersoll notes. Billy Graham himself told revival the power and control” of California’s 8 North is a former staffer for Ron Paul, attendees that the Garden of largest unions and that “financial contri- and is currently helping Paul promote a butions of unions intended to manipulate Eden was a paradise with “no curriculum for homeschoolers that North the voice of the vote would be shut up and helped develop.9 That North-Paul connec- union dues, no labor leaders, no shut down.”15 tion, like the larger homeschooling move- snakes, no disease.” Christian Right leaders such as the ment—Rushdoony was an early advocate Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins of homeschooling—is one of the streams have cheered on Wisconsin Governor by which Reconstructionist thinking has Even in 1994, Clarkson argued, domin- Scott Walker’s relentless attacks on the come to pervade the Christian Right and ionism was no longer “the exclusive revo- state’s unions.16 And in February, Gary the Republican Party. And while Home lutionary vision of Christian Reconstruc- North gloated over Walker’s anti-labor School Legal Defense Association Chair- tionist extremists,” but had “achieved “right to work” legislation as representing man Michael Farris disavowed the appli- virtual hegemony over many forms of what he called “a death spiral for unions cation of Old Testament law in the U.S., Christian fundamentalism.” That certain- in America.”17 he served with a number of Reconstruc- ly holds true 20 years later. tionists on the steering committee of The David Barton is a good example. In- THE DEEP ROOTS OF ANTI-UNIONISM Coalition on Revival, a group founded in gersoll says she considers Barton “Re- This hostility toward unions has been 1984 to bridge theological divides on the constructionist-lite”12: someone heavily part of the Christian Right from the move- Christian Right. COR’s 1986 “A Manifesto influenced by Reconstructionist thinking ment’s earliest days. Author Jeff Sharlet for the Christian Church” proclaimed a even though he doesn’t publicly identify has written that Pat Robertson’s father dominionist message: that the Bible is the with the term and may depart from some was among the members of Congress who only measure of truth and applies to ev- of its more extreme positions. Barton’s were told by Abraham Vereide, founder ery sphere of life, including law, govern- rhetoric about biblical law applying to of the National Prayer Breakfast and The ment, and economics. “All theories and every aspect of life, including civil gov- Fellowship Foundation (aka The Family), practices of these spheres of life are only ernment, reflects that influence, as does that God wanted them to break the spine true, right, and realistic to the degree that his Christian-nation revisionism when it of organized labor.18 And in a March they agree with the Bible,”10 the Manifes- comes to American history. Barton has 14, 2015 commentary in The New York to argued. Among the “social evils” that plenty of company, as evidenced by the Times,19 Princeton University professor the Manifesto’s signers pledged to oppose prevalence of Reconstructionist rhetoric Kevin Kruse places Vereide within a larger was “Statist-collectivist theft from citi- about the role of government at conser- context of corporate titans recruiting re- zens through devaluation of their money vative political gatherings, such as the ligious leaders to evangelize on behalf of and redistribution of their wealth.” March 19 Pennsylvania Pastors Network unrestricted capitalism in the 1930s, ‘40s

12 • The Public Eye SPRING 2015 and ‘50s. One of them, writes Kruse, was director of the Plymouth Rock Founda- among American Latinos—this year LI- Billy Graham himself, who told revival tion, included a Christian political agen- BRE has been cheerleading30 for state pas- attendees that the Garden of Eden was a da in his book One Nation Under God that sage of “Right to Work” legislation31—and paradise with “no union dues, no labor included abolishing minimum wage laws to serve as a vehicle for deceptive adver- leaders, no snakes, no disease.” and compulsory education; instituting tising trashing Democratic candidates.32 right-to-work leg- Former National Association of Evangeli- islation; ending cals official John Mendez, who directs -LI The Christian Coalition’s 1990 leadership manual social services; BRE’s faith outreach, told ThinkProgress quotes four biblical passages of the “slaves-obey- and applying anti- last year that his job is to put LIBRE’s free- your-masters” variety, which president Ralph Reed, trust laws to trade market message “in a theological con- stunningly, used as a model for modern employer- unions.23 text.”33 As Mendez told ThinkProgress, employee relations. As Paul Weyrich “In Scripture it tells us of dependency on wrote in Conserva- God, not dependency on Man…To whom tive Digest in 1979, you’re dependent on is who you belong to. Corporate efforts to push back against “The alliance on family issues is bound to So you should not be dependent on gov- government regulation and to engage begin to look at the morality of other is- ernment.” religious leaders as public spokespeo- sues such as…the unjust power that has Mendez elaborated in an interview with ple were reenergized in the wake of a been legislated for union bosses.”24 the Pacific Justice Institute last year that 1971 memo by Lewis Powell written just Weyrich’s prediction certainly seemed “we come in and inform them and teach months before his nomination to the Su- to be true. In 1990, the nascent Chris- them on those principles of economic preme Court. In the memo, Powell warned tian Coalition published a leadership freedom and free enterprise from not only against the “attack” on the American free manual for its local leaders, co-authored a constitutional perspective, but also a enterprise system coming from the na- by its then-president Ralph Reed. In a biblical perspective.”34 tion’s campuses, pulpits, media, and arts. section titled “God’s Delegated Author- Mendez works with both Tea Party35 Powell called for an aggressive long-term ity in the World,” the manual says, “God and Christian Right groups who are orga- political, intellectual, and cultural cam- established His pattern for work as well nizing politically, offering advice on how paign by American business interests to as in the family and in the church.”25 The conservatives can reach out to Latinos. attack their critics, resist regulation, and manual quotes four biblical passages of Last year, for example, he participated in promote the idea that economic freedom the “slaves-obey-your-masters” variety, Ralph Reed’s “Road to Majority” confer- is “indivisible” from other rights.20 which Reed, stunningly, used as a model ence and took part in a “Watchmen on It is hard to imagine a memo hav- for modern employer-employee relations: the Wall”36 conference organized by Fam- ing greater impact. Powell’s manifesto ily Research Council and Vision America sparked a massive investment in right- Of course, slavery was abolished in Action.37 In 2013, he led a “prayer gath- wing infrastructure building by con- this country many years ago, so we ering” in advance of a prayer breakfast to servative funders and strategists, many must apply these principles to the way help “unite” Virginia’s clergy around their of whom came to be called “The New Americans work today, to employees state legislature and inform the religious Right.” Among them were Paul Weyrich, and employers: Christians have a re- leaders “of their biblical role and constitu- Richard Viguerie, and Howard Phillips. sponsibility to submit to the author- tional rights in shaping Virginia.”38 These strategists started building the in- ity of their employers, since they are One of the other right-wing organiza- stitutional infrastructure that still under- designated as part of God’s plan for the tions formed in the wake of President girds the right-wing movement, through exercise of authority on the earth by Barack Obama’s election is the Freedom powerful organizations like The Heritage man. Federation, a coalition of Christian Right Foundation. And, as political scientist political groups and dominionist “ap- Richard J. Meagher wrote for The Public THE NEW NEW RIGHT ostolic” ministries and organizations. Eye in 2009, they worked to bring con- Today’s equivalent of the “New Right,” Tucked among them is the Koch-funded servative evangelicals into their political one could argue, is the huge, opaque net- Americans for Prosperity (AFP), which organizing, hoping that social issues and work of political organizations funded preaches a small-government gospel.39 a “pro-family” platform could help se- by the Koch brothers and their pro-cor- The presence of AFP may explain why cure their commitment to the Republican porate, anti-regulation allies.26 The Koch the coalition’s founding “Declaration of agenda.21 brothers, who describe themselves27 as American Values” included, in addition By the end of the decade, these New libertarians uninterested in social conser- to predictably conservative positions on Right leaders had recruited Jerry Falwell vatives’ culture wars, are more than will- social issues, opposition to progressive and helped him launch the Moral Major- ing to use Christian Right voters as well as taxation. ity. From that national pulpit, Falwell mountains of cash to achieve their anti- AFP’s Tim Phillips, a former business argued that “the free enterprise system government, anti-union ends.28 partner of Ralph Reed, spoke at the Free- of profit [should] be encouraged to grow, One of the Koch brothers’ many projects dom Federation’s Awakening confer- being unhampered by any socialistic laws is the LIBRE Initiative,29 which was cre- ence a few years ago, along with anti-tax or red tape.”22 Rus Walton, the late former ated to promote laissez-faire economics and anti-government activist Grover

SPRING 2015 Political Research Associates • 13 Norquist, in order to en- courage religious conserva- tives to prioritize shrinking the size of government.40

THE MAN WHO DOESN’T WORK DOESN’T EAT Perhaps even more cen- tral to the Reconstruction- ist philosophy than oppos- ing unions is hostility to government social service spending. North and De- Mar are not out to minimize the state simply to save money or prevent govern- ment overreach—rhetoric you might hear at a Tea Par- ty function—but because they believe the Bible has delineated clear areas of jurisdiction for the family, church, and government. And, they argue, the Bible leaves charity, like educa- Star Parker speaking at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. tion, to the individual and Credit: Gage Skidmore. the church, with no biblically legitimate of the Church—God’s people—to provide version story. Her shtick is to denigrate role for government.41 this help and NOT government.”46 recipients of government assistance by A particularly clear example of what David Barton sounds similar themes. describing herself as having once been Reconstructionists call “sphere sovereign- Last July he appeared on Trinity Broad- lazy and dependent on government hand- ty”—the idea that God granted the family, casting Network’s “Praise the Lord.”47 In outs until someone confronted her that the church, and government authority addition to promoting his theories about her lifestyle was not pleasing to God. She over specific areas of life—can be found42 Jesus’s views on various taxes, Barton suggests that anyone willing to work hard in the writings of Michael Peroutka,43 a declared, “It’s not the government’s re- can make it like she did. Today, she calls former Constitution Party presidential sponsibility to take care of the poor and redistribution of wealth “a violation of candidate who runs the Institute on the needy, it’s the church’s responsibility.” He scripture.”50 Constitution. Peroutka was elected last added, “What we’re doing right now is for Parker’s rhetoric goes beyond boot- year to the Anne Arundel County Council the first time in America we have ignored straps hectoring. Like other Christian in Maryland as a Republican,44 despite the what the Bible says. The Bible says you Right activists, she portrays concerns fact that he’s argued that the Maryland don’t work, you don’t eat.” about income inequality as sinful covet- General Assembly is an invalid govern- If that has a familiar ring, it’s because ousness. Noting that African Americans ment body since it has passed laws that some Republican lawmakers quoted that are traditionally a religious group, she Peroutka believes violate “God’s law.”45 verse to support cuts in spending on food asks, “Why does a people so inclined to Peroutka also believes that, given the stamps in 2013. One of them was Rep. turn to God so readily violate the Tenth government’s only legitimate, biblically- Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, who also Commandment’s prohibition on covet- sanctioned role is to protect “God-given said, “The role of citizens, of Christianity, ousness and measure themselves in terms rights,” then “It is not the role of civil gov- of humanity, is to take care of each other, of what others have? And then use this sin ernment to house, feed, clothe, educate not for Washington to steal from those to justify violating the Eighth Command- or give health care to…ANYBODY!” in the country and give to others in the ment and give government license to steal John Lofton, the late right-wing pundit country.”48 (His rhetoric equating taxa- what others have in order to redistrib- and spokesperson for Peroutka’s Institute tion for social services with theft appar- ute?”51 on the Constitution, had a similar mes- ently did not apply to his family’s farming “Perhaps more fundamentally,” she sage in 2012, writing that “it is crystal operations, which have received millions asks, “how can a church-going people buy clear that in God’s Word He gives NO AU- of dollars in federal farm subsidies.49) into the materialism of socialism?” THORITY to civil government (Caesar) to Star Parker, a frequent speaker at Chris- It may not be surprising to hear this kind give health, education or welfare to ANY- tian Right political gatherings, similarly of language from people at the far right of BODY. If people need help, it is the role equates taxation with theft. Like many the evangelical political movement. But conservative activists, Parker has a con- similar rhetoric can be heard from people

14 • The Public Eye SPRING 2015 widely considered to be among the rea- The social gospel—a strain of progres- Justice Lewis Powell urged more than 40 sonable centrists of the evangelical com- sive-minded Christianity concerned with years ago. Among the highlights are anti- munity. Rick Warren is often held as the the promotion of social and economic gay activist Bishop Harry Jackson’s writ- model of moderate, politically engaged justice—particularly annoys religious ing that the minimum wage is a form of evangelicalism (although PRA readers conservatives. And that can play out even coercion that “reminds me of slavery,” know to treat that notion skeptically52). within the Republican Party. In January, and WORLD magazine editor-in-chief Warren told NPR in 2012, “The primary Ohio’s Republican Governor John Kasich Marvin Olasky’s argument that “[t]hose purpose of government is to keep the cited Matthew 25, in which people facing who esteem the Bible should also applaud peace, protect the citizens, provide op- the final judgment are asked whether they St. Milton Friedman and other Church of portunity. And when we start getting into fed the hungry and clothed the naked, to Chicago prelates, because their insights all kinds of other things, I think we invite defend his decision to accept Medicaid amplify what the Bible suggests about greater control. And I’m fundamentally expansion in the state. Some conserva- economics.”61 about freedom.”53 More pointedly, as tives and right-wing activists were beside journalist Sarah Posner noted that same themselves.57 A POWERFUL COMBINATION year, Warren has called the social gospel Gary DeMar responded to Kasich by Advocates for social and economic jus- 54 “Marxism in Christian clothing.” saying, “Jesus is not describing the devel- tice who watch with dismay as right-to- opment of government programs…Gov- work laws take effect in formerly strong THE MEANING OF “SOCIALISM” ernments can’t legitimately be charitable labor states,62 as Republicans propose “Socialism,” one of the chief rallying and magnanimous with other people’s savage cuts to social spending,63 and as 58 cries against health care reform, gets money.” He continued, “They are orga- inequality skyrockets in the wake of tax thrown around a lot by conservatives nizing politically to impose the covetous- giveaways to the wealthy—what David grousing about the Obama administra- ness prohibited by the tenth command- Barton might call biblically-mandated re- tion and progressive policies in general. ment.” wards for profit-makers—are up against a Ingersoll offers a useful insight into the The notion that looking to government brutally powerful coalition. Christian Right’s use of the term: for economic assistance is a form of idola- For more than half a century, groups of try is an idea we have heard elsewhere in pro-business, anti-regulation, anti-social When scholars, or liberal activists and the public arena, notably in the ultimately spending conservatives have built an in- commentators, hear the label “social- unsuccessful Senate campaign of Sharron frastructure designed to gain and hold po- ist,” they understand it to mean a po- Angle, who said entitlement programs litical power and have enlisted religious 59 litical and economic system where the “make government our God.” Also a leaders as spokespeople for laissez-faire government centralizes ownership few years ago from then Sen. Jim DeMint, economic policies. Their efforts have and control in the hands of the state, who told The Christian Broadcasting Net- been buttressed by the parallel rise and eliminating private property. When work’s David Brody that many Tea Party spread of dominionist theology, ground- the Reconstructionists use the term, members may have been motivated by “a ed in Christian Reconstructionist ideol- they mean a system in which salvation spiritual component”: ogy that unrestricted free-market capi- (in its earthly historical manifestation) talism is mandated by the Bible and that is thought to be found in government I think some have been drawn in over God grants no role for the government and in politics; a system that by its the years to a dependency relationship in education or care for the poor. This very nature seeks to replace God. In with government and as the Bible says ideology provided fertile ground for the this view the legitimate role of gov- you can’t have two masters and I think anti-government zealotry of the Tea Party ernment in the economy is limited to as people pull back from that they look and the belief that a radically limited role ensuring that people deal honestly more to God. …The bigger God gets for the federal government is not only a with one another. Tea Partiers and the smaller people want their govern- constitutional mandate but also a biblical Reconstructionists see socialism in ment because they’re yearning for one. Any long-term strategy for rebuild- 60 the “government takeover” of major freedom. ing progressive political power and re- functions of other institutions. But it claiming the legacy of the New Deal must DeMint now heads The Heritage Foun- is also much broader than this, as so- grapple with the realities and motivating dation, a right-wing marketing behemoth cialism is understood as a systematic power of these intertwined economic, 55 that is among the institutions that seek to world and life view. ideological, and religious ideologies. merge the philosophies and organizing North, notes Ingersoll, sees the world energies of the Christian Right and the economic right-wing. One manifestation as a binary: “either faith in God or faith Peter Montgomery is a Washington, D.C.- of that work is “Indivisible: Social and in man. It is either Christianity or Marx- based writer and editor. He is a senior fellow 56 Economic Foundations of American Lib- ism.” In this conceptualization, writes at People For the American Way and contrib- erty,” a publication and project devoted Ingersoll, “‘socialism’ is when the civil utes to its Right Wing Watch blog, and he is to convincing conservative activists that government usurps authority ‘legitimate- an associate editor for online magazine Reli- free-market conservatism and traditional ly granted’ to the individual, the family, gion Dispatches. and the church.” values conservatism go hand in hand, as

SPRING 2015 Political Research Associates • 15 BY ALEX DIBRANCO

Who Speaks for Conservative Women? “Feminisms” for Life, Liberty, and Politics

hen the planned vote on a harsh and Ellmers and Blackburn had received new 20-week abortion ban honors from the libertarian Independent Wwent off the rails in January, Women’s Forum in 2014. liberal news outlets gloated while conser- As an Indiana state legislator, Walorski vative commentators fumed over what killed a hate crimes bill by adding fetuses they respectively called a Republican con- as a protected class, and called for an in- gresswomen “revolt” or “mutiny.” vestigation of Planned Parenthood for al- At the beginning of the year, GOP legedly covering up rape.4 Ellmers joined leadership scheduled a high-profile vote Congress in 2010 on a Tea Party wave, on the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Pro- endorsed by Sarah Palin, and was an en- tection Act” to coincide with the 2015 thusiastic participant in the Koch-backed March for Life, the annual protest of attack on healthcare reform.5 Blackburn Roe v. Wade. They had a Congressional boasts an unblemished record of over majority and expected smooth passage a decade of anti-abortion votes in Con- of the bill. But, to their surprise, female gress. And they all appeared untroubled House representatives balked at the bill’s by voting for the “No Taxpayer Funding draconian rape and incest exemption, for Abortion Act,” the bill Republicans which would have forced survivors to instead passed for the Roe anniversary. file a police report before they could ac- In other words, these women were not cess an abortion. The Republican dis- the RINOs—Republicans In Name Only— senters—primarily women, joined by a whom you might expect to block an anti- couple of moderate male allies—thought abortion bill. evance over the years, better than infa- the provision was tone-deaf and would The controversy’s significance lies in mous anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly, by turn off women and millennial voters.1 pitting Republican congresswomen not demonstrating its adaptability in toning The memory of Todd Akin’s “legitimate only against the majority of their male down strident anti-feminist language rape” gaffe loomed in the background. colleagues—who, as Abby Scher writes and laying claim to pro-life feminist argu- Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) chastised her in The Progressive, rely on them as “front- ments when convenient, as when a CWA party, arguing that Republicans could no women to sell [the party’s] regressive poli- publication asserted in 2003, “Today’s longer afford to appear “harsh and judg- cies”6—but also against the major conser- feminists wrongly claim kinship to femi- mental” now that they control both the vative women’s movement organizations nism’s founders, thereby cloaking their House and Senate.2 Marsha Blackburn and female anti-abortion advocates who radicalism in the early movement’s popu- 7 (R-TN), the legislation’s lead co-sponsor, backed the reporting requirement. And it larity and moral authority.” In Righteous passionately criticized her party for yet was not the only incident in the last year Rhetoric: Sex, Speech, and the Politics again letting insensitivity about rape de- that put female politicians and advocacy of Concerned Women for America, reli- rail Republicans’ agenda.3 leaders from organizations such as CWA gious studies professor Leslie Dorrough Most strikingly, the female opposition and SBA at odds, as part of a legitimacy Smith explains the shifting rhetoric was was led by anti-abortion stalwarts with contest over who speaks for conservative spurred by the need “to appear progres- strong right-wing credentials, namely women. sive and yet simultaneously traditional, a Ellmers and Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN). move perhaps motivated by its need to re- None of the dissenting congresswomen CONSERVATIVE WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS cruit and maintain younger members as identify as pro-choice; all had received In 1979, the rise of feminism and the well as to prove its political relevance” in approval from the Susan B. Anthony List Equal Rights Amendment motivated con- a society which likes what feminism has (SBA) and Concerned Women for Ameri- servative evangelical Beverly LaHaye to accomplished even if it doesn’t always ac- 8 ca (CWA)—two powerful and well-funded found Concerned Women for America, cept the movement itself. right-wing organizations—for their solid established as an overtly anti-feminist Sarah Palin’s 2008 vice presidential track records on limiting abortion rights; female voice. Yet CWA has clung to rel- candidacy and membership in the

16 • The Public Eye SPRING 2015 ploy when deployed by organizations like CWA or SBA. Political Research Associ- ates’ Defending Reproductive Justice Activ- ist Resource Kit describes how Christian Right organizations like CWA, the Na- tional Right to Life Committee (founded by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bish- ops), Family Research Council, and the extensive crisis pregnancy center net- work market themselves as concerned for women—not just fetuses—through extensive misrepresentations of the med- ical hazards of abortion and a fabricated “post-abortion syndrome.”13 (The Chris- tian Right deployed a similar strategy in coopting the ex-gay movement in the 1990s to put a more compassionate face on their homophobic agenda.14) FFL’s $300,000 budget—far greater than other small feminist pro-life groups, such as the tiny coalition of secular and Democratic anti-abortion organizations that rallied at the margins of the 2015 March for Life15—is negligible compared to the five or six million dollars in the coffers of Christian Right organizations like CWA (which has millions more in its PAC), SBA, and the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) and American Life League (single-issue anti-abortion orga- nizations both led by women). Anti-abor- tion advocates point to their marginal- ized pro-life feminist groups as evidence A young woman takes part in the 2015 March for Life in front of the Supreme Court of the United of the movement’s pro-woman nature, States. Photo via Flickr and courtesy of Elvert Barnes. while actually giving most funding to or- organization Feminists for Life brought that took over the “protect women” ganizations where concern for women is increased attention in recent years to frame as a convenient (albeit substance- no more than a marketing device.16 Even “conservative feminism,” a movement free) marketing strategy as Schlafly’s though Palin’s FFL membership brought that says it represents the true legacy brand of traditional anti-feminism lost attention to the phenomenon of conser- of “the original feminists,” claiming appeal. The Independent Women’s vative feminism, organizations like SBA for itself the banner of the women’s Forum (IWF) has pushed a brand of free and CWA swiftly coopted both the brand suffragists—rather than that of the market feminism, also known as equity and the cash. (This includes donations 10 conservative women who fought voting feminism, since 1992. For the Right from the Koch brothers, who fund Chris- rights. Importantly for Republicans, Wing to appear legitimate, women’s and tian Right movement organizations with whose base trends older and male, women-led organizations must be at the the mobilization capacity and willing- the brand was seen as resonating with forefront of opposition to abortion rights ness to support “free enterprise” along 9 11 youth and women. The appeal of and other policies affecting women. with their culture wars agenda.) conservative feminism neither began nor The Susan B. Anthony List—named for ended with Palin’s failed campaign. For FEMINISTS FOR LIFE: COOPTING THE one of conservatives’ favorite “reclaimed” decades, there have been two streams of BRAND historical feminists—illustrates the fi- conservative movement “feminism”— “Since 1973, it’s been the same thing: nancial rewards of using feminism as a one for life, and one for liberty. Feminists One side of the abortion wars yells, ‘What brand rather than an ideology. In 1992, for Life (FFL), founded in 1972, was about the woman?’ Instead of yelling FFL leadership founded SBA as a bipar- the original “pro-life feminist” group, back, ‘What about the baby?’ Feminists tisan, anti-abortion counterpart to EM- touting its history of supporting women’s for Life answers the question,” FFL presi- ILY’s List, which helps elect women poli- rights initiatives such as the Equal dent Serrin Foster explains, insisting ticians. But after former FFL president Rights Amendment and the Violence that their feminism is not a “strategy” and SBA co-founder Rachel MacNair left Against Women Act (VAWA). FFL never or “ploy.”12 But the anti-abortion move- for graduate school in the mid-1990s, achieved the prominence of better- ment’s pervasive “abortion as harm to she says, “Republicans took over.”17 Co- funded Christian Right organizations women” frame looks very much like a founder Marjorie Dannenfelser, a former

SPRING 2015 Political Research Associates • 17 Heritage Foundation employee, assumed tend to be more liberal than their male In the world of pro-life feminism, FFL the SBA presidency and aligned the orga- counterparts within the same party.”21 demonstrates, it doesn’t pay to live up to nization with a network of well-funded In order to successfully pursue a hardline the label. Christian Right organizations.18 SBA al- agenda against women’s bodily integrity, most completely stopped backing Demo- SBA abandoned its woman-centered FEMINISTS FOR LIBERTY: IF AYN RAND crats and began diverting funds to male founding purpose and updated its WERE A FEMINIST candidates running against pro-choice mission to include electing “pro-life men” In her 1994 book Who Stole Feminism? women, prioritizing a hard-right stance who “oppose pro-abortion women”—a How Women Have Betrayed Women, Chris- over the founding mission of cultivating policy that would inevitably decrease tina Hoff Sommers applauds the achieve- female candidates.19 the total number of women elected ments of women suffragists as “classi- In 2013, NARAL Pro-Choice America representatives. cally liberal” feminists, but argues that and the American Bridge Project FFL lost control not only over its child now U.S. women have achieved equality published a joint report on SBA, finding organization, SBA, but the entire “pro- of opportunity. Equity feminists—Som- an extensive anti-woman track record. life feminist” brand. Today, CWA and mers’ term for a form of free market or The organization backs candidates who SBA have spawned a new generation libertarian feminism—support legal rights for women but deny the existence of structural forces constricting women’s advancement. They chalk present-day disparities in the U.S. up to intrinsic sex differences, condemn “war on women” rhetoric as infantilizing, and argue that valid feminism must focus on “real” op- pression in less developed countries.26 Equity feminists accuse “gender femi- nists”—by which they mean mainstream feminists—of lying about statistics on vi- olence against women and exaggerating rape culture as part of a victimhood nar- rative. They imply that female students often lie about being raped when they regret “hooking up,” attracting media at- tention by offering dissident women’s cri- tiques of the rapidly growing movement against campus rape.27 On the other hand, equity feminists suggest that American boys and men U.S. Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee speaking at the 2015 Conservative Political suffer at the hands of gender feminists. Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. Credit: Gage Skidmore. In 2013, concern over boys’ educational oppose legal abortion even in cases of of young pro-life “feminists,” beloved achievements brought Sommers’ mes- rape or incest, who support criminalizing by the anti-abortion movement, like sage to mainstream media outlets includ- women for obtaining abortions, and who Lila Rose, who published an opinion ing The New York Times, TIME, and The voted against equal pay legislation and piece in Politico in 2012 titled “Battle Atlantic. Their hostility toward gender VAWA. SBA supported candidate Todd Hymn of the Anti-Abortion Feminist.”22 feminists and skepticism of rape sur- Akin after he stated that “legitimate Her organization, Live Action, vivors dovetails alarmingly with—and rape” cannot lead to pregnancy, as well exploits concern for women and girls gives the legitimacy of women’s voices as Indiana Tea Party senatorial candidate to promote its Planned Parenthood to—the misogynist ideology of the Men’s Richard Mourdock when he called sting videos, accusing the clinics of Rights Movement.28 pregnancies that result from rape a “gift enabling “gendercide,” rape, and human The free market feminist belief in indi- from God.” Then SBA launched a training trafficking.23 Rose capitalized on the vidual empowerment shares ideological program to prevent Republican men tragic death of a 24-year-old following similarities with neoliberal feminism, from continuing to make these public an abortion procedure, calling her “the exemplified by works such as Sheryl gaffes—a far cry from their founding goal true face of the ‘War on Woman.’”24 Sandberg’s Lean In, and some adherents of electing women representatives to Her hardline positions on abortion and (including Sommers herself) identify as fight for women’s interests.20 In Righting contraception belie her claims to care Democrats,29 although the movement Feminism, Ronnee Schreiber suggests about women, as she blithely opposes organizations all sit within the conser- that one reason right-wing women’s even life-saving abortions as “never vative network. An American Enterprise organizations like CWA and SBA eschew medically necessary.”25 In its few years Institute (AEI) article, reposted by the “the strategy of getting more women into of existence, Live Action already has Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), ar- public office is that empirical studies more than double the budget of FFL, with gues, “Feminists hate Lean In because, as suggest that women elected officials 2013 revenues of nearly a million dollars. Republican Party activist Ann Stone com-

18 • The Public Eye SPRING 2015 mented from the audience, Sandberg different paths to the same position. For Despite a meeting between the male ‘stuck a knife in the breast of [female] instance, On the Issues summarizes the Republican leadership and the group of victimhood big-time.’” One of the larg- vehement opposition to VAWA as falling concerned congresswomen—it’s rare for est groups in the movement, the IWF— into “two broadly ideological areas—that women legislators to rate so much time of which Sommers is the advisory board the law is an unnecessary overreach by with the leadership—the impasse be- chair—developed out of a group formed the federal government [free market fem- tween these two influential bodies of con- to help defend Supreme Court nominee inism], and that it represents a ‘feminist’ servative women, the elected officials, Clarence Thomas against Anita Hill’s al- attack on family values [pro-life femi- and the organizational leaders, thwarted legations of sexual harassment.30 nism].”34 CWA also draws on the equity compromise.40 Today organized free market feminism feminist justification for opposing equal The January upset came within a year is a small and closely interlinked net- pay legislation—that wage disparities re- of another schism that pitted Republican work that, thanks to its economic con- sult from women’s “choices,” and govern- congresswomen against Christian Right servatism, reaps support from right-wing ment regulations that address the income women’s organizations. In May 2014, groups like the massive AEI and substan- gap would thus interfere with women’s Blackburn, Ellmers, Walorski, and all tial donations from the Koch family foun- exercise of choice—demonstrating the but two of the Republican women then dations or through Donors Trust/Donors shared free market influence that helps in Congress ended up on the opposite Capital Fund, which Andy Kroll at Mother Christian Right organizations win the side of CWA and SBA over legislation for Jones calls “the dark-money ATM of the Koch brothers’ largesse and protects eq- a National Women’s History Museum. right.”31 IWF received $1.8 million from uity feminism from total isolation.35 (One of the museum’s two female oppo- Donors Trust/Capital in 2012 and also re- nents was Tea Party favorite and then- ceives funding from the well-known con- THIS IS WHAT A CONSERVATIVE FEMINIST representative Michele Bachmann, who servative Bradley and Scaife foundations. LOOKS LIKE? herself appears in an exhibit.) Along with In March 2015, IWF demonstrated sup- When Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) first in- Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, the Family port for another infamous Koch-funded troduced the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Research Council, and Heritage Action, organization, the American Legislative Protection Act in 2013, he modeled the the conservative women’s organizations Exchange Council (ALEC), in honoring legislation after the NRLC’s proposed bill, denounced the proposed museum as a CEO Lisa B. Nelson in its “Modern Femi- which lacked any rape and incest exemp- biased “national shrine to abortion” that nist” feature.32 tion. Defending this, Franks asserted would “fuel the radical feminist move- Like those who claim “pro-life femi- that “the incidence of rape resulting in ment for decades to come.” Blackburn, nism,” free market feminist organiza- pregnancy are very low,” triggering swift the lead Republican co-sponsor of the bi- tions recognize the value of reaching a comparisons to Todd Akin’s famous faux partisan bill, offered CWA president Peg- younger generation. Sommers’ carica- pas in 2012. Republican House leader- gy Nance a seat on the museum’s board to ture of gender feminism—as exaggerat- ship went into damage control mode, attempt to win the conservative organiza- ing the oppression of U.S. women—con- putting their female colleagues in charge tion’s support. Nance refused unless she tinues to attract female students 20 years of the floor debate to deflect criticism, or another right-wing leader could serve later, while the Clare Boothe Luce Policy with Blackburn as lead co-sponsor.36 as chair.41 IWF and its sister organiza- Institute ($1.5 million budget) trains They also added a rape and incest exemp- tions stayed out of the fight, but a couple young women to “take back feminism.” tion, modified with the police-reporting of connections suggested a measure of The small Network of enlightened Wom- requirement to satisfy anti-abortion support for the museum: IWF has praised en (NeW), whose president is an IWF organizations including SBA and CWA as a “modern feminist” one of the muse- fellow, also works on campuses. And in (which, an Ellmers aide told a constituent um’s three founders, Ann Stone, who still 2013, AEI refreshed the equity brand by on tape, insisted on its inclusion).37 sits on the museum’s board along with a publishing Sommers’ new book, Free- But compromise came with a cost. Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute board dom Feminism: Its Surprising History and Though NRLC accepted the weakening member.42 Why It Matters Today, as part of a Values of their model bill, its Georgia chapter When the museum bill passed with an & Capitalism series for Christian college was outraged by the deal and broke away overwhelming majority, Sarah Mimms students. to form the even more hardline National at the National Journal summarized the IWF avoids culture war issues such as Personhood Alliance.38 This loss of face moral: “The message from the Republi- abortion and LGBTQ rights, though it de- likely contributed to the NRLC’s refusal can majority to the outside groups oppos- fends gun rights and opposes education to compromise further and risk denun- ing the bill is clear: You’re not helping.” on climate change, which can encourage ciation from their right flank. NRLC She warned that, given the widening gen- restrictions on the free market. Though president Carol Tobias vehemently con- der gap between the parties, “Republican primarily affiliated with conservative demned the congresswomen and men opposition to a bipartisan legislation for organizations, equity feminists include “who metaphorically stabbed a knife in a museum celebrating the accomplish- individuals who identify as pro-choice, the back of all the pro-lifers who voted for ments of women” would backfire at the secular or atheist, or Democratic.33 This them.”39 Some abortion opponents advo- polls.43 keeps them from playing with—and re- cated returning to the original bill, sug- Despite the conflict over the museum, ceiving funding from—the larger and gesting that the reporting requirement Ellmers, Walorski, and Blackburn looked more powerful Christian Right opera- would not be a problem if they removed like they followed the Palin brand until tions like CWA. But they at times follow the exemption altogether. this January, when the battle over Franks’

SPRING 2015 Political Research Associates • 19 ENDNOTES

abortion bill took the underlying conflicts to a new level. While Justice in the Age of Terror, p.2 says-agency-bowed. Christian Right women’s organizations reacted to the Republican 1. Jaime Fuller, “Everything You 13. Heidi Beirich. Southern Poverty Law Center. Inside the DHS: Former congresswomen’s actions as a betrayal, and free market feminist Need to Know about the Long Fight between Cliven Bundy and the Top Analyst Says Agency Bowed to organizations steered clear of the debate, that doesn’t mean the Federal Government.” Washington Political Pressure. January 1, 2011. dissident GOP congresswomen are simply more closely aligned Post, April 5, 2014. Online at http:// Online at http://www.splcenter.org/ www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ get-informed/intelligence-report/ with free market feminism. While the less-funded free market the-fix/wp/2014/04/15/everything- browse-all-issues/2011/summer/ or equity feminist network might benefit from embracing the you-need-to-know-about-the-long- inside-the-dhs-former-top-analyst- says-agency-bowed. congresswomen’s position, they were founded on and continue fight-between-cliven-bundy-and-the- federal-government/. 14. Personal Communication with to promote a dismissive approach to sexual harassment, rape 2. Valerie Richardson, “Cliven former DHS Agent. culture, and violence against women. Contrast that with con- Bundy Taunts Feds by Enjoying the 15. The FBI’s official definitions gresswomen like Ellmers, who has gone against the conserva- ‘freedoms’ to Graze His Cattle on of terrorism differentiate only Disputed Land.” Washington Times, between “international terrorism” tive grain to co-sponsor proposed legislation addressing campus December 29, 2014. Online at and “domestic terrorism,” however sexual assault. Even on VAWA, while Blackburn, Ellmers, and http://www.washingtontimes.com/ the list of “terrorism” cases formerly news/2014/dec/29/rancher-cliven- available on the DoJ website includes eight other Republican congresswomen voted no on reauthori- bundy-still-grazing-his-cattle-on- 28 cases considered “homegrown” and zation, Walorski and the majority of female GOP representatives d/?page=all. no cases involving the radical right. (including all female senators) bucked their party and both con- 3. David Horsey, “Cliven Bundy’s Online at http://www.fbi.gov/about- Militamen Are Neither Terrorists nor us/investigate/terrorism/terrorism- servative movement feminisms to vote yes. Patriots.” Los Angeles Times. April definition. The divide among conservative women seems to speak to a 22, 2014. Online at http://www. 16. Congressional Research Service. latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/ The Domestic Terror Threat: Background larger sense among GOP congresswomen of what their party la-na-tt-cliven-bundys-militiamen- and Issues for Congress. By Jerome P. must do to appeal to women—a serious concern given that “polls 20140421-story.html. Bjelopera, January 27, 2013. showed women tend to see Republicans as ‘intolerant, lacking in 4. Chase Hoffberger and Michael 17. Department of Justice. Introduction compassion and stuck in the past.’”44 In December 2014, Black- King, “Shooter Had ‘Hate in His to National Security Division Statistics Heart.’” Austin Chronicle, December on Unsealed International Terrorism and burn joined Rep. Susan Brooks (R-IN) and then Rep.-elect Bar- 5, 2014. Online at http://www. Terrorism-Related Convictions. 2010. bara Comstock (R-VA) in a panel at Politico’s Women Rule Sum- austinchronicle.com/news/2014-12- Online at https://fas.org/irp/agency/ 05/shooter-had-hate-in-his-heart/. doj/doj032610-stats.pdf. mit (co-sponsored by the Tory Burch Foundation and Google), 5. Paul Shinkman, “Obama 18. Southern Poverty Law Center. titled “Conservative Feminists: Why It’s Not an Oxymoron.” Continues Push to Separate Islam, Terror From the Right: Plots, Conspiracies During the discussion, Brooks, who hails from the same state Extremists.” US News & World and Racist Rampages Since Oklahoma Report, February 19, 2015. Online City. January 1, 2012. Online at http:// as candidate Richard Mourdock, was asked to comment on his at http://www.usnews.com/news/ www.splcenter.org/get-informed/ remarks on rape. “We took a stand as Republican women, and articles/2015/02/19/amid-criticism- publications/terror-from-the-right. obama-continues-push-to-separate- 19. “Homegrown Extremism 2001- said, ‘This is not our party,’” Brooks said, adding that Republi- islam-extremists. 45 2015.” New America Foundation. cans shouldn’t allow the GOP to be branded by such remarks. 6. Congressional Research Service. Online at http://securitydata. This was a marked departure from SBA’s decision to stand be- Countering Violent Extremism in the newamerica.net/extremists/analysis. hind Mourdock despite his offensive comments. United States. By Jerome P. Bjelopera, html. February 19, 2014. 20. NYU School of Law Center for A conservative women’s movement prioritizing bipartisan 7. Office of Intelligence and Human Rights and Global Justice. work to promote women’s accomplishments and taking a more Analysis. Sovereign Citizen Extremist Targeted and Entrapped: Manufacturing Ideology Will Drive Violence at Home, the “Homegrown Threat” in the United positive approach to sexual violence—whether motivated by During Travel, and at Government States. 2011. Online at http://www. branding or substance—would significantly break with the ex- Facilities. Dept. of Homeland nlg-npap.org/sites/default/files/ isting right-wing base, even if it otherwise retains stringently Security, February 5, 2015. targetedandentrapped.pdf. anti-choice and free market positions. 8. “Deadly Attacks Since 9/11.” 21. “Homegrown Extremism 2001- New America Foundation. Online at 2015.” New America Foundation. Since Christian Right women’s organizations cater to a male- http://securitydata.newamerica.net/ Online at http://securitydata. dominated movement in holding a hardline stance, their posi- extremists/deadly-attacks.html. newamerica.net/extremists/analysis. html. tion is unlikely to soften. The Republican congresswomen test- 9. Southern Poverty Law Center. Terror From the Right: Plots, 22. Human Rights Watch and ing out this third way risk incurring the wrath of influential Conspiracies and Racist Rampages Columbia Law School Human Rights female Christian Right leaders (and their male backers) who Since Oklahoma City. January 1, 2012. Institute. Illusion of Justice: Human Online at http://www.splcenter.org/ Rights Abuses in U.S. Terrorism stand for ever more extreme right-wing policies. When the get-informed/publications/terror- Prosecutions. July 2014. Online at Franks bill ultimately failed, anti-abortion blogger Jill Stanek from-the-right. http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/ and Students for Life America president Kristan Hawkins 10. Office of Intelligence and files/reports/usterrorism0714_ Analysis Right Wing Extremism: ForUpload_0_0_0.pdf. promptly organized young women to protest at Ellmers’ office Current Economic and Political Climate 23. NYU School of Law Center for during the March for Life, countering Ellmers’ stated concerns Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization Human Rights and Global Justice. and Recruitment. Dept. of Homeland Targeted and Entrapped: Manufacturing about losing millennial votes with a “new poll,” from right-wing Security, April 7, 2009. the “Homegrown Threat” in the United Catholic group Knights of Columbus, purporting to show that 11. “DHS’ Domestic Terror Warning States. 2011. Online at http://www. millennials are “a pro-life generation.”46 Asked whether Ellmers Angers GOP.” CBSNews. April nlg-npap.org/sites/default/files/ targetedandentrapped.pdf. would face a primary challenge, SBA president Dannenfelser re- 16, 2009. Online at http://www. cbsnews.com/news/dhs-domestic- 24. Human Rights Watch and sponded decisively: “That tidal wave has already begun.…That’s terror-warning-angers-gop/. Columbia Law School Human Rights going to happen, and she deserves it.”47 12. Heidi Beirich. Southern Poverty Institute. Illusion of Justice: Human Law Center. Inside the DHS: Former Rights Abuses in U.S. Terrorism Alex DiBranco studies social movements and nonprofit organizations Top Analyst Says Agency Bowed to Prosecutions. July 2014. Online at http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/ as a sociology Ph.D. student at Yale, analyzing the U.S. Christian Political Pressure. January 1, 2011. Online at http://www.splcenter.org/ files/reports/usterrorism0714_ Right and reproductive rights and justice movements. She is a Public get-informed/intelligence-report/ ForUpload_0_0_0.pdf. Eye editorial board member and has been published in outlets includ- browse-all-issues/2011/summer/ 25. Southern Poverty Law Center. Terror From the Right: Plots, Conspiracies ing The Nation, Alternet and RH Reality Check. inside-the-dhs-former-top-analyst-

20 • The Public Eye SPRING 2015 and Racist Rampages Since Oklahoma in U.S. Terrorism Prosecutions. July 2014. Research%20Brief_Jan%202015.pdf. Involvement in State and Local Fusion City. January 1, 2012. Online at http:// Online at http://www.hrw.org/sites/ 52. Steven Chermak, Joshua Freilich, Centers. October 3, 2012. www.splcenter.org/get-informed/ default/files/reports/usterrorism0714_ and Michael Suttmoeller, “The publications/terror-from-the-right. ForUpload_0_0_0.pdf. Organizational Dynamics of Far-Right Biblical Economics, p.9 26. Southern Poverty Law Center. 39. Steven Chermak, Joshua Freilich, Hate Groups in the United States: 1. (2015). “The Iowa Capital Project.” Terror From the Right: Plots, Conspiracies and Michael Suttmoeller, “The Comparing Violent to Nonviolent The Family Leader. Online at http:// and Racist Rampages Since Oklahoma Organizational Dynamics of Far-Right Organizations,” in Studies in Conflict and www.thefamilyleader.com/the-iowa- City. January 1, 2012. Online at http:// Hate Groups in the United States: Terrorism. Routledge, 2013. capitol-project/. www.splcenter.org/get-informed/ Comparing Violent to Nonviolent 53. Jeffrey Monaghan, “Security Traps 2. Ibid. publications/terror-from-the-right. Organizations,” in Studies in Conflict and and Discourses of Radicalization: Terrorism. Routledge, 2013. 3. “Barton’s Bunk: Religious Right 27. Human Rights Watch and Columbia Examining Surveillance Practices ‘Historian’ Hits the Big Time in Tea Party Law School Human Rights Institute. 40. Human Rights Watch and Columbia Targeting Muslims in Canada.” America.” People for the American Way. Illusion of Justice: Human Rights Abuses Law School Human Rights Institute. Surveillance and Society, vol 12(4). 2014. Online at http://www.pfaw.org/rww- in U.S. Terrorism Prosecutions. July 2014. Illusion of Justice: Human Rights Abuses 54. 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22 • The Public Eye SPRING 2015 National Journal. Online at http://www. usenet/americast/twt/news/596. 35. Concerned Women for America ‘Indoctrinate’ Visitors Into Feminism, nationaljournal.com/congress/gop- 20. “Susan B. Anthony List’s Anti- staff . (2014). “Paycheck Fairness Act CWA’s Nance Demands To Chair leaders-pull-abortion-bill-after-revolt- Choice Machine.” NARAL Pro-Choice (S.2199) Opposition Letter.” Concerned Museum’s Board.” Right Wing Watch. by-women-moderates-20150121. America. (2014). Online at http://www. Women for America. Online at http:// Online at http://www.rightwingwatch. 4. Bill Browning. (2009). “The nexus: prochoiceamerica.org/elections/sba- www.cwfa.org/paycheck-fairness-act- org/content/after-complaining- Abortion zealot Jackie Walorski and list-report/. s-2199-opposition-letter/. women-s-museum-will-indoctrinate- Indiana’s hate crimes legislation.” 36. Kathryn Smith and Ginger Gibson. visitors-feminism-cwas-nance- 21. Ronnee Schreiber. (2008). 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Miranda Blue. (2014). “Spurned listen-20140507. 7. Leslie Dorrough Smith. (2014). 24. “Defending Reproductive Justice: Righteous Rhetoric: Sex, Speech, and the Georgia Group Launching Even More 44. Abby Scher. (2015). “The New Face Activist Resource Kit.” Political Extreme Rival To National Right To Of Republican Women in Congress.” The Politics of Concerned Women for America. Research Associates. Online at http:// Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 121. Life Committee.” Right Wing Watch. Progressive. Online at http://www.pro- www.politicalresearch.org/resources/ Online at http://www.rightwingwatch. gressive.org/news/2015/03/188022/ 8. Ibid. reports/full-reports/defending- org/content/spurned-georgia-group- new-face-republican-women-congress. 9. Abby Scher. (2008). “Post-Palin reproductive-justice-activist-resource- launching-even-more-extreme-rival- kit-2/. 45. “Conservative Feminism: Why it’s Feminism.” Political Research national-right-life-committee. not an oxymoron.” Politico. 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The Art of Activism Spotlighting the efforts of artists and organizations who are engaged in the struggle for social justice and are helping build the movement through their work.

Helen Zughaib came to her longtime office, and was frequently labeled a Mus- home in Washington, D.C., by way of many lim and criticized for not wearing a flag other nations. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, pin—as though those things made him she also lived in Iraq, Kuwait, Greece and “somehow less patriotic than other candi- France, before coming to the United States dates.” Zughaib created “Abaya with Flag to earn her BFA at Syracuse University in Pin” as a rejoinder: a way of saying that 1981. That intricate itinerary brought with “Arab Americans are just as patriotic and it lessons about what it means to live and grateful to be in this country.” work as an Arab American artist in the U.S. Zughaib’s recent work has included Zughaib began her series of paintings, paintings and mixed-media fabric piec- “Changing Perceptions,” after the wars es related to the Arab Spring—both its in Afghanistan and Iraq began, hoping to hopes and disappointments—as well as a bring together the abaya—the loose over- more personal series, “Stories My Father garment worn by many Muslim women— Told Me,” with themes drawn from her with iconic Western artists like Picasso and father’s childhood in Lebanon and Syria. Kahlo. Although Zughaib was raised in the “I think that many artists are activists Orthodox Christian tradition, she watched in some way or another,” Zughaib says. as the abaya was used as a symbol of “nega- “They reflect their times, their environ- tivity and oppression” after 9/11 and the ment, visually recording what happens wars that followed. In her work, she sought around them. The work that becomes im- to synthesize images of East and West into portant has its finger on the critical issues new representations that could provoke of the day. …I feel my message is more discussion of the abaya and Arab Ameri- Helen Zughaib, © Abaya with Flag Pin, able to be heard if my painting is lovely cans. to look at. Even though my message may be gouache on board, 2008, collection of Although she didn’t set out to create a series quite devastating, at least I have come close Maymanah Farhat and Athir Shayota addressing Islamophobia, she says, “It ended to opening up a point of view, creating that up speaking to that issue” as negative media dialogue that can possibly result in mutual representations of Arabs and Arab Americans persisted. While understanding, or at least inching towards that goal.” she was working on the series, President Obama was running for -Kathryn Joyce

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