How Coors Family Philanthropy Undermines Democratic Pluralism RUSS BELLANT South End Press Boston, MA A Political Research Associates Bcx>k Political Research Associates 678 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 205, Cambridge, MA 02139 (617) 661-9313 Political Research Associates is an independent research institute which collects and disseminates information on right-wing political groups and trends. Centralized in its archives is a continuously-updated collection of over one hundred right-wing publications, including newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and direct mail appeals. The institute's library contains hundreds of volumes relating to the political right wing. Also maintained are extensive files of primary and secondary material on individuals, groups, and topics of interest to those researching the right wing. Political Research Associates offers classes on the American right wing, provides speakers for groups and conferences, publishes educational posters, and prepares, on request, specific research repl)rts l)n topics pertaining to the pl1litical right wing. The Political Research Associates T apical Report Series, co-published with South End Press, prl1vides background infllrmatiL1n Lln subjects Llf current interest tLl chose interested in understanding the right wing in the United States. Political Research Associates Srnff: Jean V. Hardisty, DiRECTOR Chip Berlet, ANALYST Margaret Quigley, RESEARCHER/ARCHIVIST Copyright© by Russ Bellant 1988, 1991 Any properly footnoted quotation of up to 500 sequential words may be used without permission, so long as the total number of words does not exceed 2,000. For longer quotations or for a greater number of total words, authors should write to South End Press for permission. IO 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I Design, production & type by dg graphics Cover design by David Gerratt Cover photograph by Deborah Bright Manufactured in the USA Support for this report was provided by The Funding Exchange/National Community Funds, and many individual donors. UBRAR Y OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Bellant, Russ, I949- The Coors connection: how Coors family philanthropy undermines democratic pluralism/ by Russ Bellant. - 2nd ed. p. cm. "A Political Research Associates Book." Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-89608-417-5 (cloth): $25.00. - ISBN 0-89608-416-7 (paper): $9.00 I. Conservatism-United States-History-20th century. 2. Coors family-Poliucal activity. 3. United States-Politics and government-1945- I. Political Research Associates. II. Title. E839.5.B4 3 1991 320.5'2'0973-<lc20 9I-JS24 CIP South End Press, 116 St. Botolph St., Boston, MA 02115 ·C@;>- ' L I' ii The New Right feeds 011 discontent, anger, insecurity, and rese11tn1e11t, and flourishes 011 backlash politics. Through its i11terlocki11g network, it seeks to veto whatever it perceives to threaten its way of life-busing, wo1ne11 's liberation, gay rights, pomogrophy, loss ofthe Pono1na Co11al -and promotes o beefed-up defense budget, lower taxes, and reduced federal regulotio11 ofs1nall business . ... ii The New Right network suppo!ts whoever shares its desire for radical politico/ change and its resentments ofthe status quo. As such, the New Right is anything but conservative . ... ii 1/ze reploce111e11t [in 1979 of the] choin11a11 of the A111erico11 Conserootive Union was a reflection of 011 otte111pt by traditio110/ conservatives within the lVnshi11gto11, D.C., area to 111i11i111ize the influence of 1Vew Right leaders like Colorado brew:er Joseph Coors, his lVoshi11gto11 politico/ operative Paul lVtJ•rich, andf1111draiser Richard Viguerie . ... 1/ze otte111pt by New Right lenders to control the orgo11izatio11 con be traced to Coors' decision i11 1971 to bankroll right-fi!,·ing organizations." Alan Crawford Th1111drr 011 rhr RiKhf 1980 Ill ----------- PREFACE BY CHIP BERLET oors family philanthropy aims a financial silver bullet at the heart of Cdemocratic pluralism in the United States. The Coors family members have financed an interlocking network of ultra-conservative and far-right institutions which have gained respectability during the past decade. Few average citizens have read even a tiny portion of the mountain of literature produced by these rightist groups. Some who have acquainted themselves with these writings and their conclusions, however, have been horrified at the narrow and spiteful view of America and Americans enunciated by these zealous ideologues. Those who have benefited, directly and indirectly, from Coors family generosity include persons whose views reflect not only traditional conser­ vatism, but also nativism, xenophobia, theories of racial superiority, sexism, homophobia, authoritarianism, militarism, reaction, and in some cases out­ right neo-fascism. These charges may seem shocking, but consider that Holly and Jeffrey Coors serve on the national board of the rightist Council for National Policy along with a former Ku Klux Klan leader and others who championed segregationist policies. In one notable case, a Coors-funded New Right leader, Paul Weyrich, sponsors the work of a convicted Nazi collaborator, Laszlo Pasztor, a Hungarian-American who built a political network of persons and groups with fascist, racist, and anti-Semitic backgrounds. The Coors family comes to its political activis1n after having established a well-deserved reputation for aggressive (some would say cutthroat) busi­ ness acumen, 1nost visibly through the Coors brewery and its widely adver­ tised beers. That the Coors name apparently opens doors in Washington, D.C. was noted in the August 7, 1989 issue of Newsweek in an article on the v Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) scandal. Along with a picture of Joe Coors, Newsweek ran the caption: "After a letter to [HUD Secretary] Pierce from the conservative Colorado brewer, HUD approved more than $16 million in Denver rent subsidies that had seemed doomed." The Coors family members not only fund the New Right and Religious Right but also are identified by influential Republicans, ranking conservative congressional representatives, and key executive agency ap­ pointees as having personal clout in the electoral political arena. There are other powerful New Right funders. Richard Mellon Scaife, heir to the Mellon fortune, has funneled more than $8 million to the right­ wing Free Congress Foundation (FCF) through the Scaife and Carthage Foundations. Other major FCF funders include Robert H. Krieble, retired chairman and honorary director of the Loctite Corporation; Michael and Helen Valerio of the Papa Gino's restaurant chain; and Mr. and Mrs. Roger Milliken of Milliken & Company, makers of the trademarked Visa fabrics, a product featured in full-page, full-color advertisements in John Birch Soci­ ety publications. Yet it is the Coors family, primarily Joe, Holly, William, Jeffrey (and Peter at the Coors Foundation), who time and again appear in leadership roles in New Right institutions, offering a guiding hand along with their signed checks. The Coors family's seminal and continuing influence on the politics of the New Right and Religious Right is undeniable. They are among the most powerful bloc of New Right funders and leaders; and are seen as being in the front rank of U.S. conservative power brokers by critics and compatriots alike. With the thawing Cold War melting long-standing alliances among a variety of conservative and right-wing constituencies, the views of the major funders of the largest New Right institutions will to a large degree shape the nature of conservative and reactionary activism in the coming decades. To study the past actions and ideas of the Coors family provides an imperfect yet useful glimpse into the future of the U.S. political Right. At the same ti1ne, the influence of the Heritage Foundation and Free Congress Foundation, both of which represent and reflect the views of the Coors family in Washington, D.C., continues to remain strong. For in­ stance, both institutions helped coordinate the recruitment and selection of conservatives for political appointment by the Bush Administration, and a number of key Bush Administration appointees regularly correspond with and solicit advice from the FCF's Paul Weyrich. Yet there is another, more subtle reason to study the Coors family. With owners who are such unabashed defenders of an unfettered free enterprise economy, it is understandable that the Coors Corporation would seek to increase profits by promoting the increased sale of its beers to new consum- VI ers; and thus Coors has sought to develop new markets among women, African-Americans, Hispanics, gay men, and lesbians. Ironically, the Coors family uses their share of the beer sale profits to promote theories that would roll back the political and social gains made in the past thirty years by persons in these same social groups. The Coors beer label displays a vivid example of this irony-a symbol certifying that Coors is a Kosher product. Many potential critics of the policies promulgated and promoted by the Coors family members seem mesmerized by the positive images projected in the slick Coors Corporation advertising campaigns. In this report, Mr. Bellant demonstrates the dramatic divergence between Coors corporate imagery and Coors family ideology as reflected by the family's funding of rightist networks. While the Coors Corporation press office tells reporters that Coors family funding of rightists is all in the past, the fact is that these funding patterns are both longstanding and ongoing. Joe Coors, the ideological leader of the Coors clan, is a latter-day Lone Ranger urging us to return once again to those glorious (if romanticized) days of yesteryear, where men were men and women's role was to deliver their healthy babies; where there was never any doubt as to what was good and what was evil; where minorities had the good sense to live within their God-imposed stereotypes, and godless heathens could be expeditiously dealt with because they had no souls. There is no question that Joe Coors is morivared by passionate patrio­ tism. The question is what price the majority of us in this country will have to pay in order for Joe Coors and his energetic family to realize their backward vision.