VAST RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY 1
By Peter Fredson
Recently I had occasion to review thousands of files stored from the 1990’s. The reason to look backwards was to understand the immense progress that Conservatives, both religious and political, have made in taking control of the Republican Party specifically and the United States in general
One quickly found answer was their growing familiarity with computer abilities to construct data bases, send out endless messages, seize control of media and WWW sites, and make linkages for instant communication. The hundreds of Conservative sites (perhaps thousands) is a testament to creating organization using technology. A for-instance is the recent incident when Janet Jackson showed a bit of nipple. An outraged parson had his followers send 300,000 messages nearly overnight to Michael Powell asking for relief from this horrible deed. We have many other instances when issues like gays and abortion and reelection of a president, brought instant messaging from millions of True Believers hooked up to data bases. Previous tactics of conservatives to use stealth, deceit and misinformation have now given way to raw imposition and brute display of power.
Looking at the Reagan years, we see the growing linkage of politics to religion when Ronnie made a concordat with the Vatican, and Nancy had a Court Astrologer forecast the direction this country should take. We had an influx of preachers into halls of government, when some became installed in Congress. It soon became politically correct to defer to religious pronouncements and to avoid “alienating” sensibilities of True Believers. At this time several religious organizations began their announced strategy of destroying the Separation of Church and State which made the U.S. a true democracy.
Skipping to the Clinton Administration, we see an affable intelligent well-meaning person who was also indoctrinated into Christian dogma of Arkansas flavor and made references to Biblical passages. He allowed further intrusion of Christian pretensions into the halls of government. The Christian strategists were like the fabled Camel that thrust its nose into an Arab tent and gradually forced the owner out into the night air.
But the great thrust of the merging of Christianity with government took place because Bill Clinton got sucked into sexual situations. This infuriated the sexually repressed old Republican fogies, who exerted every effort to throw the horny rascal out of office. (Partly in revenge for what happened to Tricky Dick and losing their majority in Congress.) Their horrified fascination with fallatio created panic and consternation, probably staged. Religious Conservatives began scaring the populace with stories about Satanic connection, the Road to Hell, and tales of an imaginary deity who might again unleash destruction of the earth because of his anger toward sodomites, secular humanists, and atheists. (During the 9/11 period Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell pontificated that destruction occurred because God was angry at perverts.)
Hillary Clinton used the phrase “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy”, which caught attention. However conservative web sites soon appeared denigrating Hillary, mocking her dress, hair, clothes, speech in endless caricatures. The object was to divert attention from the actuality of the conspiracy and make it seem ridiculous. They pointed out that Hillary was a woman, which for old-line republicans was tantamount to having a Jonah on board. It was evidently unforgiveable for Republicans of the 1990’s to have to debate an intelligent logical woman who reduced them to blubbering hate-filled honkers and forced them to bring up every rhetorical gun in their arsenal. Conservatives like their women in the kitchen and bedroom, not in high levels of government. Some conservatives used the phrase to mock the Clintons, such as the Web site, The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.
Looking at the files I saw the steady and relentless organization of activist Christians with the wealthiest of Corporate Executives. Yes, there really was a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, despite Right Wing attempts to pooh-pooh the idea, confuse the issue, and cover their tracks. Christian organizations, fronts, and think-tanks profilerated. Not by dozens, but by hundreds.
Now anyone can Google for information on the Conspiracy for Christian Domination. It is NOT imaginary. The conspirators are now exultant at having won their battle to impose Christianity on the nation and they boastfully control the Republican party.
By the mid-70s, conservatives had created several foundations which poured bushels of dollars into the New Right movement coffers. In the middle 1990s the most active foundations were: Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Carthage Foundation, Earhart Foundation, the Koch Foundations, J.M. Foundation. Henry Salvatori Foundation, Philip M. McKenna and Smith Richardson Foundations.
Right Wing think tanks organized to control damage from critics were the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Hoover Institution, the Cato Institute, the Citizens for a Sound Economy, and many others. The Free Congress Foundation, runs a conservative cable channel, Hollywood’s Center for the Study of Public Culture and the Accuracy in Media foundation, sees liberal biases everywhere, Judicial Watch filed 18 lawsuits against the Clinton Administration. The Independent Women’s Forum planted female conservatives into the media. Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh became the hate mongers of the Right Wing. Then the True Believers started their own legal school and branch, the ACLJ, to counter the effects of the ACLU.
The Right Wing succeeded in dominating the Republican Party, controlling government agencies and in capturing control of Congress. It framed issues like abortion and gays seemingly to distract attention from failed attempts to actually run the country with tax-cuts and eliminating restrictions on environmental matters. The Right Wing successfully parleyed people’s fears about sin, Hell, Heaven, Morality, sodomy, fellatio, the seeming loss of Traditional Values and the perception that their God and Bible was being neglected into cash contributions, votes and computer technology. Homophobia, women’s rights, and a yearning for White Christian Supremacy appealed to the ignorant sheep-like masses of True Believers, who thought they were helping Jesus or God. The entire strategy of the Right Wing appealed to fear, not to reason. Racial resentment, bigotry and intolerance became mighty swords for the new crusaders.
Part of the Right Wing strategy was to undermine the entire system of public education and to Biblize the curriculum. School Prayer, Pledges Under God, Creationism, 10 Commandments and other religious slogans and dogma were passed into legislation by True Believer senators with an eye for the fast buck and assured votes.
Organizing works.
I urge anyone who wishes to know the extent to which religiosity has infiltrated government to read some of the following:
Try accessing: http://publiceye.org from Political Research Associates, or try: The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party from TheocracyWatch.org or The American Way or the ACLU. There are several dozen sites that will give you accurate information on the aims, strategy, tactics and logistics of this Conspiracy. Look up Americans United for Separation of Church and State site for accurate information on fundamentalist intentions and actions: http://www.au.org
Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates, that monitors the religious right, sums up the goals of the movement in a word: dominion. Sara Diamond in her book Road to Dominion is credited with recognizing dominion as a political goal. She defines Dominion Theology in an article for Z Magazine in 1985. Read it!
Katherine Yurica’s article, The Despoiling of America provides a comprehensive overview to Dominionism, the Bush administration, and the Neoconservatives. This is an especially important article. Look up: EXPOSÉ: THE “CHRISTIAN” MAFIA, By Wayne Madsen
Meanwhile several blog sites like Stupidevilbastard have been showing the Machiavellian maneuvers of the Far Right, and trying to ameliorate the incessant attempts to impose a theocracy on everyone. Conservative blog sites abound, that attempt to show that everything is jim-dandy and honkey-dorey, no conspiracy, no fascism, just love of Jesus, Bush is really wonderful, our troops are magnificent, and Saddam had intentions to destroy us. They wave flags, thump bibles, hold up crucifixes, holler “Hallelujah” and “Praise the Lord.” They believe that if they say “Under God” this takes the curse off the nation and everybody can waft off peacefully to wherever Heaven for White Christians might be located. They plan to change the constitution and the nation into their idea of what God wants.
Unbelievable?
Posted on 03/17/2005 at 07:24 PM 
So when conservatives are covertly active, they are using “stealth, deceit and misinformation,” while when they are overtly active, they are using “raw imposition and brute display of power.” Huh.
The main drawback to the “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy” theory (aside from the general implausibility of conspiracy theories in general, whether it’s the Commies, the Fundies, the Tri-Lateral Commission Illuminati, or whatever) is that the “Vast” “Right Wing” is as riddled with divisions and conflicts as the Left. That groups within them have (gasp) organized better than they used to be doesn’t mean they are any more unified.
After all, if there really *were* a VRWC, you’d think they’d be a lot better at it, that we’d already, in Year Five of the Bushies, have invaded at least a dozen more countries, battened down the country under martial law, imposed Handmaiden’s Tale-style breeding laws, and locked up all the gays, dissidents, and Sierra Club members.
Certainly the Right, to the extent you can use that label, is dominent over the Left, same caveat, in this country at the moment. Some of that will be short term, some longer term, but breaking out into conspiracy theories over it isn’t going to be any more productive today than when it was the Birchers doing it in the 50s.