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1 Frank J. Donner, The Age of Surveillance:
The Aims and Methods of America's Political Intelligence System (New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), pp. 47-48.
2 Diamond, Roads, p. 23.
3 Leo P. Ribuffo, The Old Christian Right:
The Protestant Far Right from the Great Depression to the Cold War (Philadelphia:
Temple University Press, 1983), pp. 25-177.
4 Charles J. Tull, Father Coughlin and the
New Deal (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1965), p. 1-22;
Alan Brinkley, Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the
Great Depression (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1982), pp. 92-106.
5 Jerome L. Himmelstein, To The Right: The
Tansformation of American Conservatism, p. 14.
6 Himmelstein, To The Right. His discussion
of the practical problems of uniting the three strands into a conservative
movement is especially useful and perceptive, see pp 43-60.
7 Himmelstein, pp 43-44.
8 Himmelstein, p. 46.
9 Himmelstein, p. 49.
10 Himmelstein cites their key works in his footnote.
11 Russ Bellant, Old Nazis, the New Right
and the Reagan Administration: The Role of Domestic Fascist Networks
in the Republican Party and Their Effect on U.S. Cold War Policies.
(Boston: South End Press/PRA, 1991), pp. 33-38. Christopher Simpson, Blowback:
America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Effects on the Cold War (New
York: Macmillan Publishing Company, Collier Books, 1988), p. 219.
12 Ibid., pp. 38-39.
13 William Martin, With God on Our Side: The
Rise of the Religious Right in America, (New York: Broadway Books,
1996), pp. 25-46. Although creationists won the case, they lost public
favor.
14 Diamond, Roads, pp. 92-106; Russ Bellant, The
Coors Connection: How Coors Family Philanthropy Undermines Democratic
Pluralism (Boston: South End Press/PRA, 1991), p.125.
15 For statistical data that refutes claims made
by centrist/extremist theory about the social base of the "radical
right," see Rogin, The Intellectuals and McCarthy; Fred W.
Grupp, Jr., "The Political Perspectives of Birch Society Members;" and
James McEvoy, III, "Conservatism or Extremism: Goldwater Supporters
in the 1964 Presidential Election;" both in Robert A. Schoenberger,
ed., The American Right Wing: Readings in Political Behavior, (New
York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1969); and Charles Jeffrey Kraft, A
Preliminary Socio-Economic & State Demographic Profile of the John
Birch Society, (Cambridge, MA: Political Research Associates, 1992).
See also: Diamond: "How `Radical' Is the Christian Right?" The
Humanist, (Watch on the Right column), March/April 1994.
16 Portions of this section first appeared as
Chip Berlet, "The Right Rides High," The Progressive,
October 1994, and were later adapted in Berlet & Quigley, "Theocracy & White
Supremacy," in Eye's Right!: Challenging the Right Wing Backlash,
(Boston, South End Press, 1995)
17 Himmelstein, To the Right, pp. 31-41.
18 Martin, With God, p. 88. Diamond, Roads,
pp. 130-131. Stephen Lesher, George Wallace: American Populist,
(Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1994), pp. 463-464. Himmelstein, To the
Right, p. 82. Bellant, Coors Connection, p. 44.
19 Himmelstein, To the Right, pp. 9, 129-164.
20 Ellen Messer-Davidow, "Manufacturing
the Attack on Liberalized Higher Education," Social Text, Fall
1993, pp. 40-80; Davidow, "Who (Ac)Counts and How," MMLA (The
Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association), Spring 1994. Lawrence
Soley, "Right-Think Inc.," City Pages, (Minneapolis, MN),
10/31/90, p. 10. David Callahan, "Liberal Policy's Weak Foundations:
Fighting the `Bull Curve,'" The Nation, November 13, 1995,
pp. 568-572. Beth Schulman, "Foundations for a Movement: How the Right
Wing Subsidizes its Press," Extra! (Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting), special issue on "The Right-Wing Media Machine," March/April
1995, p. 11. "To Reclaim a Legacy of Diversity: Analyzing the `Political
Correctness" Debates in Higher Education," Washington, DC: National
Council for Research on Women, 1993.
21 Martin, With God, pp. 194-198.
22 An excellent survey of dominionism and Reconstuctionism
is Bruce Barron, Heaven on Earth? The Social and Political Agendas of
Dominion Theology, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervon, 1992).
23 Fred Clarkson, "Christian Reconstructionism:
Theocratic Dominionism Gains Influence," chapter in Eyes Right!
Challenging the Right Wing Backlash, Chip Berlet, ed. (Boston, South
End Press, 1995) p. 60-61.
24 Dinesh D'Souza, Falwell: Before the Millennium,
(Chicago: Regnery Gateway, 1984), pp. 105-118; Martin, With God on Our
Side, pp. 200-201; Sara Diamond, Spiritual Warfare: The Politics
of the Christian Right, (Boston: South End Press, 1989), pp. 49-63.
The first attempt to build a broad Religious Right movement failed in part
because Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, with its Baptist roots and pragmatic
fundamentalist Protestant aura, had only a limited constituency; it failed
to mobilize either the more ethereal charismatic and Pentecostal wings
of Christianity or the more moderate branches of denominational Protestantism.
Apart from the abortion issue and other themes of sexual morality, it had
little appeal to conservative Catholics. But as early as 1981 Falwell,
Weyrich, and Robertson were working together to build a broader and more
durable alliance of the Religious Right through such vehicles as the annual
Family Forum national conferences, where members of the Reagan Administration
could rub shoulders with leaders of dozens of Christian Right groups and
share ideas with rank-and-file activists. This coalition-building continued
through the Reagan years.
25 The genius of the long-term strategy implemented
by Weyrich and Robertson was their method of expanding the base of social
conservatives. First, they created a broader Protestant Christian Right
that cut across all evangelical and fundamentalist boundaries and issued
a challenge to more moderate Protestants. Second, they created a true Christian
Right by reaching out to conservative and reactionary Catholics. Third,
they created a Religious Right by recruiting and promoting their few reactionary
allies in the Jewish and Muslim communities. A useful introduction to these
issues (with extensive bibliographic-laden notes), is John C. Green, Understanding
the Christian Right, (New York: The American Jewish Committee, 1996).
26 Himmelstein, To the Right, pp. 80-94;
Diamond, Roads to Dominion, pp.127-138; Michael Kazin, The Populist
Persuasion: An American History. (New York: Basic Books, 1995), pp.
255-260.
27 Diamond, Roads, pp. 127-131, 179-180.
28 Diamond, Roads, pp. 261-262
29 This section is adapted from a draft of Chip
Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons, Too Close for Comfort: Right Wing Populism,
Scapegoating, and Fascist Potentials in US Political Traditions, (Boston:
South End Press, 1997).
30 George Johnson, Architects of Fear: Conspiracy
Theories and Paranoia in American Politics (Los Angeles: Tarcher/Houghton
Mifflin, 1983), pp. 169-173; Diamond, Spiritual Warfare,
pp. 84-87, 233.
31 Marsden, Understanding Fundamentalism and
Evangelicalism, pp. 109; see also: Diamond, Roads, pp. 246-248;
William Martin, With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right
in America, (New York: Broadway Books, 1996), pp. 194-198, 331-333,
344-347.
32 John Stormer, None Dare Call it Treason...25
Years Later, paperback, (Flourissant, MO: Liberty Bell Press, 1992
(hardcover, 1990)).
33 Martin, With God on Our Side, pp. 194-197;
Dallas A. Blanchard, The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Rise of the
Religious Right, (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994), p. 97. Francis
A. Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto, revised, (Westchester, IL: Crossway
Books, 1982 (1981)), pp. 117-130; Franky Schaeffer, A Time for Anger:
The Myth of Neutrality, (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1982), pp.
15-25, 76-78; John W. Whitehead, The Stealing of America, (Westchester,
IL: Crossway Books, 1987), pp. 31-59; Tim LaHaye, The Battle for the
Mind, (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1980), pp. 141-179.
34 Clarkson, Eternal Hostility: The Struggle
Between Theocracy and Democracy, (Monroe, ME: Common Courage, 1997),
125-138.
35 Jean Hardisty "Constructing Homophobia," in Eye's
Right!, pp. 86-104.
36 Green, along with, James L. Guth and Kevin
Hill, wrote a study entitled Faith and Election: The Christian Right
in Congressional Campaigns 1978-1988. They found that the Religious
Right was most active -- and apparently successful -- when three factors
converged: (1) the demand for Christian Right activism by discontented
populations; (2) the supply of resources for such activism by religious
organizations; and (3) strategic choice in the deployment of such
resources by movement leaders. The authors see the Christian Right's recent
emphasis on grassroots organizing as a strategic choice by the Christian
Right, and conclude that "the conjunction of motivations, resources,
and opportunities reveals the political character of the Christian Right:
much of its activity was a calculated response to real grievances by increasingly
self-conscious and empowered traditionalists."
37 "The New Populism," Business
Week, March 13, 1995, p. 73.
38 Kevin Phillips "The Politics of Frustration," The
New York Times Magazine, April 12, 1992, pp. 38-42.
39 Hans-Georg Betz, Radical Right-wing Populism
in Western Europe, New York: St. Martins Press, 1994.
40 Betz, Radical Right-wing Populism in Western
Europe, pp. 106-108, 174; "America's New Populism," Business
Week, cover story, March 13, 1995.
41 "Portrait of an Anxious Public," in
special report on "The New Populism," Business Week, March
13, 1995, p. 80.
42 In the 1980s far right Christian Patriot and
Constitutionalist movements interacted with apocalyptic survivalists to
spawn a number of militant quasi-underground groups. During the height
of the rural farm economic crisis in the early 1990s, one of these groups,
the Posse Comitatus, captured a small but significant number of
sympathizers among farmers and ranchers. Other groups such as Aryan Nations
emerged, and soon a loose network was constructed linking tax protesters
to groups as far to the right as various Ku Klux Klan splinters and neonazi
organizations. The major glue that bound many of these disparate groups
together was a theological ideology called Christian Identity, which argues
that White US Christians were the heirs of God's Biblical covenant, and
that Jews were agents of Satan and people of color "pre-Adamic" creatures
that were not fully human. For in-depth coverage of the far right, see
generally; James Corcoran, Bitter Harvest: The Birth of Paramilitary
Terrorism in the Heartland, (New York: Viking Penguin, 1995 (1990));
Frank P. Mintz, The Liberty Lobby and the American Right: Race, Conspiracy
and Culture, (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985); James A. Aho, The
Politics of Righteousness: Idaho Christian Patriotism, (Seattle: Univ.
of Washington Press, 1990).
43 Kenneth S. Stern, A Force Upon the Plain:
The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate, New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1996; Philip Lamy, Millennium Rage: Survivalists,
White Supremacists, and the Doomsday Prophecy, (New York: Plenum,
1996).
44 Devin Burghart and Robert Crawford, Guns
and Gavels: Common Law Courts, Militias & White Supremacy, (Portland,
OR: Coalition for Human Dignity, 1996).
45 Lucy A. Williams, "The Right's Attack
on Aid to Families with Dependent Children," The Public Eye,
Vol. X, Nos. 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 1996, p. 18.
46 Jean V. Hardisty, "The Resurgent Right:
Why Now?" The Public Eye, Fall/Winter 1995, pp. 1-13.
47 James William Gibson, Warrior Dreams: Paramilitary
Culture in Post Viet Nam America, (New York: Hill & Wang, 1994);
Barbara Ehrenreich, Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions
of War, (New York: Henry Holt, 1997).
48 Stephen O'Leary, Arguing the Apocalypse,
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 225-228; Lamy, Millennium
Rage, pp. 253-267; Jeffrey Kaplan, Radical Religion in America:
Millenarian Movements from the Far Right to the Children of Noah, (Syracuse,
NY, Syracuse Univ. Press, 1997), pp. 164-177.
49 The Heaven's Gate group suicide in 1997 merged
prophetic visions from the Bible, the prophesies of Nostradamus, and the
literary genre of science fiction. On renewed popularity in Nostradamus,
see for example: Henry C. Roberts (updated by Robert Lawrence), The
Complete Prophesies of Nostradamus, 1994 (1947); Stefan Paulus, Nostradamus
1999: Who Will Survive [A Comet is Hurtling Toward Earth...], 1997; and
Jean-Charles de Fontbrune, Nostradamus: Countdown to Apocalypse,
1985 (1983). A contemporary version of the comet prophesy is Tom Kay, When
the Comet Runs: Prophecies for the New Millennium, published in February
1997.
50 O'Leary, Arguing the Apocalypse; pp.
4-14, 178-179, 218-224; Richard Landes, working papers for the Center for
Millennial Studies, on file at PRA.
51 O'Leary, Arguing the Apocalypse; pp.
221-222.
52 Mary Rupert, "The Patriot Movement and
the Roots of Fascism," in Susan Allen Nan, et. al. eds., Windows
to Conflict Analysis and Resolution: Framing our Field, (Fairfax, VA:
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, 1997), p. 96.
53 Hardisty, "The Resurgent Right."
54 This section is adapted from a draft of Berlet
and Lyons, Too Close for Comfort.
55 John B. Judis, "The Republican Splintering:
A preview of the San Diego zoo," The New Republic, 8/19/97,
pp. 32-36.
56 Berlet & Quigley, "Theocracy & White
Supremacy," in Eye's Right!, pp. 15-43; Diamond, Roads,
p. 298.
57 Diamond, Roads, pp. 165-172.
58 Surina Khan, "Gay Conservatives: Pulling
the Movement to the Right," The Public Eye, Vol. X, No. 1,
Spring 1996, pp. 1-10.
59 Hanna Rosin, "Walking the Plank: Henry
Hyde's abortion problem," The New Republic, 8/19/97, pp. 16-20;
Judis, "The Republican Splintering," p. 35.
60 Phyllida Burlingame [with Children's Express], Sex,
Lies, and Politics: Abstinence-Only Curricula in California Public Schools,
Applied Research Center, 5/97.
61 See Holly Sklar's discussion of Huntington's
elitism in Holly Sklar, ed., Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission
and Elite Planning for World Management, (Boston: South End Press,
1980), "Trilateralism: Managing Dependence and Democracy," pp.
3, 35-43.
62 Ronald Steel, "The Hard Questions," [review], The
New Republic, 12/30/96, p. 25.
63 Diamond, Roads, p. 310.
64 Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The
Bell Curve, (New York: Free Press, 1994).
65 Jasone DeParle, "Daring Research or 'Social
Science Pornography?'," The New York Times Magazine, 10/9/94,
p. 48.
66 Charles Lane, "The Tainted Sources of
'The Bell Curve'," The New York Review, 12/1/94, pp. 14-19;
Bellant, Old Nazis, pp. 60-64; Bellant, Coors Connection,
pp. 38-39, 54, 75.
67 Adam Miller, "Professors of Hate," Rolling
Stone, 10/20/94, pp. 106-114.
68 Joel L. Kincheloe, Shirley R. Steinberg, & Aaron
D. Greeson, III, eds., Measured Lies: The Bell Curve Examined, (New
York: St. Martin's Press, 1996). See also the informative reviews of other
books critical of The Bell Curve, in Contemporary Sociology,
May 1997, Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 311-316.
69 Diamond, Roads, pp. 279-286.
70 Diamond, Roads, pp. 279-280.
71 Diamond, Roads, p. 284.
72 Richard Bernstein, "Magazine Dispute
Reflects Rift on U.S. Right," New York Times, May 16, 1989,
pp. 1,8.
73 See for example the June 1992 Rothbard-Rockwell
Report, which defends the Paleocons. For a look at the Neocon view
of Buchanan and the Rockford crowd see the May 1992 issues of First
Things published by Neuhaus ("The Year that Conservatism Turned
Ugly"), and Commentary ("Buchanan and the Conservative
Crackup").
74 Sam Francis, "Principalities & Powers
(column): Stupid and Proud," Chronicles, 9/93, p. 9.
75 Gregory Pavlik, [review of Gottfried's The
Conservative Movement, revised], Conservative Review, V. 4,
N. 5, Sept./Oct. 1993, p. 37. Note that the Independent Institute and
the Independence Institute are separate entities.
76 Pavlik, pp. 36-37.
77 Diamond, Roads, pp. 179, 202.
78 Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit
of Capitalism, (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1930).
79 Diamond, Roads, p. 180.
80 Jacob Heilbrunn, "Neocon v. Theocon," The
New Republic, 12/30/96, pp. 20-24.
81 See, for example, the newspaper Culture
Wars with its motto: "No social progress outside the moral order."
82 Fred Clarkson, Eternal Hostility: The Struggle
Between Theocracy and Democracy, (Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press,
1997), pp. 33, 104-106, 117-119, 153. Previous | TOC | Print |