Hostile Takeover: The New Right Insurgent Movement, Ronald Reagan, and the Republican Party, 1977-1984 A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Stephen T. Pfeffer December 2012 © 2012 Stephen T. Pfeffer. All Rights Reserved. 2 This dissertation titled Hostile Takeover: The New Right Insurgent Movement, Ronald Reagan, and the Republican Party, 1977-1984 by STEPHEN T. PFEFFER has been approved for the Department of History and the College of Arts and Sciences by Chester J. Pach Associate Professor of History Robert Frank Dean, College of Arts and Sciences 3 ABSTRACT PFEFFER, STEPHEN T., Ph.D., December 2012, History Hostile Takeover: The New Right Insurgent Movement, Ronald Reagan, and the Republican Party, 1977-1984 Director of Dissertation: Chester J. Pach, Jr. The debates involved in the post-World War II period concerning the growth of the conservative movement center on factors such as race, a shift in public thinking to the right, a divided Democratic party, demographics, and cultural issues as a way to explain the success of conservatism in the latter half of the twentieth century. Some historians credit grassroots movements for their impact on conservatism, while others believe that influential intellectuals and conservative leaders changed the perception of the Republican brand. This dissertation examines the contentious relationship between the New Right and the Ronald Reagan’s first presidential administration. Led by Richard Viguerie, Paul Weyrich, Terry Dolan, and Howard Phillips, the New Right arose during the 1970s as an insurgent movement within the Republican Party that had become disillusioned with party elites and its moderate positions. Together, these men sought to move the Republican Party further to the right. They led fundraising groups for congressional candidates and used direct mail as a way to mobilize grassroots support for conservative political and social positions. The New Right met with some success in the late 1970s over the Panama Canal and other “hot button” social issues such as abortion and school prayer. Along with the Moral Majority, they were instrumental in attaching social and cultural issues to the 4 Republican Party platform. Despite Reagan’s support for many of the issues on the New Right’s social agenda, this work demonstrates that their relationship was fraught with contention, disappointment and distrust. Rather, diverse conservative constituencies within the Republican Party vied with each other for the president’s attention. This dissertation challenges the notion that Reagan came to office with a unified conservative movement behind him; and draws on archival research, special collections, news coverage and interviews to reassess the importance of the New Right to the larger conservative movement. Perhaps most importantly, this work will demonstrate that the long-term legacy of the New Right was to change the Republican Party into a more culturally conservative institution than it had been in the 1960s and 1970s. 5 DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to Sarah Iler, my future wife. Thank you for everything you have given me. May we have many long years together. I love you. 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge several people who have helped me along the way to completing this project. First, I would like to thank the Ohio University Department of History, and in particular, Dr. Chester Pach for all his help and guidance on this dissertation. Dr. Kevin Mattson has also provided critical insight into ways to improve my writing and analysis. My colleagues at Ohio University: Sarah Iler, Bill Knoblauch, Bill King, Jared Bibler, Jon Peterson, Matt Jacobs, Jack Epstein, Christian Peterson, and Paul Isherwood each helped in some way during my graduate career. They have been good friends and promising historians. I would also like to thank my family and friends for their support: Earl, Ellen, Holly, Brian, Anna, Kelton, Charles, Sterling, Chris, Hank, Craig, Nathan, Stephanie, Dennis, and Nancy have all been there for me in one way or another to offer support, friendship, or just a cold beer. I greatly appreciate all your patience and understanding; you believed in me when few others did, and for that I am eternally grateful. Finally, my love goes out to Gene, Paul, Peter, and Ace for providing the soundtrack to my youth; John H. and Andy Baxter for showing me how to make the most out of a workout or lunch date. Kudos. Goodnight and good luck. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract.…………………………………………………………………………………..3 Dedication .........………………………………………………………………….............5 Acknowledgements.………………………………………………………………………6 Introduction: “It’s very simple. The left is old and tired. The New Right is young and vigorous.”....……………………………………………………………………………….8 Chapter1: Defining the New Right....……………………………………………………25 Chapter 2: The Panama Canal Truth Squad: A Microcosm of the New Right’s Ability to Independently Promote Its Conservative Agenda………………………………………63 Chapter 3: The Contentious Relationship between the New Right and Ronald Reagan Presidential Campaign, 1979-81………………………………………………………....96 Chapter 4: The New Right and the Early Reagan Years…………………..…………..128 Chapter 5: The New Right Foreign Policy Agenda…………………..………………..182 Chapter 6: “On the Highway to Hell:” The New Right and the Culture Wars of the 1980…………………………………………………………………………………….212 Conclusion: Horatio at the Gates: The Legacy of the New Right ………......................249 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………...............257 8 INTRODUCTION: “IT’S VERY SIMPLE. THE LEFT IS OLD AND TIRED. THE NEW RIGHT IS YOUNG AND VIGOROUS.” 1 These words from New Right fundraiser Richard Viguerie encapsulated the attitude of the New Right movement. The New Right emerged in the 1970s as a major force in American conservatism. The New Right was an insurgent movement that saw itself existing outside the Republican establishment. While not a grassroots movement, the New Right began as a small cadre of conservative activists who wanted a more ideologically driven Republican Party. It challenged the party to become more outspoken on social and cultural issues. To achieve its aims, the New Right revolutionized fundraising through direct mail techniques and used controversial social issues to galvanize conservatives and evangelical Christians. The individuals who made up the New Right had been involved in Republican politics since the 1960s. By the 1970s, the New Right saw an opportunity to remove moderates from the party. Its organizations challenged incumbents in Republican primaries over their voting records by raising money for their own candidates. A candidate’s stance on issues, like abortion and school prayer, served as a litmus test for those running for office and in need of New Right financial assistance. By 1980, the New Right reached its peak of political and national prominence. During the early years of the Ronald Reagan administration, the New Right, in conjunction with the Moral Majority, continually pressured the administration to maintain its conservative ideals. The New Right and the White House would find 1 Richard Viguerie, The New Right: We’re Ready to Lead (Falls Church: Virginia, The Viguerie Company, 1981), 1. 9 themselves at odds over the needs of governing and remaining committed to conservative principles. The New Right’s legacy was its ability to make the Republican Party more conservative on cultural and social issues in the following decades. This dissertation confronts prevailing assumptions about the important actors in the modern American conservative movement. Much of the emphasis in the recent literature has discussed the neoconservatives and the religious right as the central political players in the 1970s and 1980s. This work will show the New Right’s contribution to the movement. The New Right is equally important, if not more, than neoconservatives and the Moral Majority in the fundamental way it changed the Republican Party. The New Right’s stature has diminished over time, but its role is essential to understanding how the far right became influential in conservative politics. Its fundraising organizations set the New Right apart from other conservative groups. This ability to generate outside money allowed it to build a base within the Republican Party, expand the conservative ranks, and shape public policy in the past few decades. The autonomy of the New Right insured that it remained outside the control of party leaders. The New Right’s lasting effect on modern American politics extended beyond the 1970s and 1980s. The New Right is also crucial to understanding the political climate in American society during the latter half of the 20th century. By the late 1960s, American liberalism had fractured over the Vietnam War and the Democratic Party was divided as well along sectional lines over Civil Rights. It became increasingly difficult to hold what Arthur 10 Schlesinger referred to as the “vital center” together.2 Conservatism had problems as well. During the 1950s and 1960s, the liberal establishment viewed conservatism as a fringe movement and a discredited ideology. Historian Richard Hofstadter described what he called the “paranoid style” of the extreme right. Essentially, when conservatives felt threatened during times of conflict or change, they used conspiratorial theories to explain the political situation. For example, the extreme right believed, according