[Winona Online Democracy]
Hello Winona Online Democracy,
Here is a great article that appeared in yesterday's Pioneer Press.
I worry that most of us don't realize how far right we've swung in the last
25 years. What we now consider "centrist" is like calling the 20 yard line
the mid field line on a football field.
:-<
If I had said the things that this former Republican Governor had said, I
would have a cartoon made out of me in the mainstream local newspaper.
;->
We are continually warned about dangerous fundamentalists abroad but we are
blind to the growth of the fundamentalists at home, especially among the
Republican Party.
Below the Pioneer Press article I will include another article that talks
about the rise of the fundamentalist right in the Republican Party.
When people talk of the Republican Party, I wonder which party they speak
of. The Republican Party of former governor Andersen is the Party of my
grandfather and great grandfather. The Republican Party of Pat Robertson
is chilling.
Dwayne
====================
Pioneer Press
Article: "A Governor's Lament"
Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003
NICK COLEMAN, Pioneer Press Columnist
====================
FORMER MINNESOTA GOV. ELMER L. ANDERSEN
Minnesota should "get back" to where it once belonged. Gov. Tim Pawlenty
made a mistake in pledging not to raise taxes to fix the budget deficit. A
war against Iraq is a "foolhardy venture" that runs contrary to our ideals.
Public opinion that "taxes are evil" is damaging a quality of life built
over many decades of bipartisan cooperation.
Wait a minute. It isn't some left-wing radical saying these things. It is
Elmer Andersen, our oldest living ex-governor, a revered Republican and
business leader who, 40 years after leaving the governor's office, is
unhappy with what he sees happening in
Minnesota.
I paid a visit to Gov. Andersen at his Arden Hills home so I might ask him
about the passing of his rival and contemporary, Orville Freeman, the DFL
governor who preceded him in office. (Andersen beat Freeman in 1960.)
Andersen praised Freeman, who died last week at age 84 and whose cremated
remains will lie in state at
the Capitol from 5 to 7 p.m. today. But Andersen also has plenty to say
about today's state leaders.
When Elmer Andersen speaks, Minnesota should listen.
"We've gone way overboard in thinking taxes are evil or that government is
flagrantly wasteful," says the man who once led the H.B. Fuller Co., the
University of Minnesota Board of Regents and the Charles A. Lindbergh Fund.
"Taxes are the way people
join hands to get good things done. That's the tradition of Minnesota.
"We wanted to have good services and to put the common good above the
individual welfare. We are a state where people have been willing to join
hands to pay taxes for public service, a way of life and a culture of
caring."
DIFFERING VIEW
Andersen, who will be 94 in June, is the dean of Minnesota Republicans, a
virtual icon representing old-fashioned Republican values of good
government, fiscal responsibility and compassion. He doesn't see eye to eye
with the present Republican
leadership.
Last fall, in fact, he refused to endorse the GOP candidate for governor,
Tim Pawlenty. He may not even have voted for Pawlenty, whom he criticizes
for pledging not to raise taxes during his struggle to win the Republican
nomination.
"Pawlenty is a good man, and he means well," says Andersen. "I like him,
but I told him I thought he'd gone too far overboard (to get the
nomination). He asked me for endorsement, and I didn't give it. If state
expenditures are too high, Pawlenty (who was the Republican majority leader
in the House before being elected governor) was largely influential in
bringing that about, so he can't be too critical of it."
Did he vote instead for DFLer Roger Moe or the Independence Party's Tim
Penny?
"I'm withholding confession of how I voted," Andersen says. "I told
Pawlenty I thought he'd gone too far. That's all I want to say."
But he says he thinks Moe would have beaten Pawlenty if not for the
airplane crash that killed Sen. Paul Wellstone.
"Pawlenty acts like he has a mandate from the election to cut taxes, but I
beg to disagree. The election was an aberration caused by a tragic
accident," he says, referring to the crash that killed Wellstone as well as
to the controversial memorial service that followed, which he says was
"blatantly misused by well-intentioned people."
'FOLLOW A UNILATERAL COURSE'
Despite the infirmities of age that have confined him to a wheelchair,
Andersen keeps up a keen interest in politics. In the evenings, his wife,
Eleanor, has been reading David McCullough's biography of John Adams to
him. Each afternoon, he works in a
study lined by photographs of Lindbergh and President Eisenhower and
others. When I ask him who the medieval gentleman is in one portrait, he
tells me it is Erasmus, the
influential 16th-century Dutch scholar, and then summarizes Erasmus' famous
work, "In Praise of Folly":
"Human frailty is a fact of life," Andersen tells me, which I suppose we
all should know after four years of Jesse Ventura. "We should be
sympathetic and caring and understanding and not too harsh in our criticism
of others, because we're all guilty. One of my prime hopes is that we'll
get over this period of feeling the government
is the enemy and taxes are evil and that we know it all in the world and
can follow a unilateral course."
Which brings us to Iraq. Andersen was governor during the Cuban missile
crisis in 1962 and remembers President Kennedy inviting him to a briefing
where he was shown surveillance photos of nuclear-tipped missiles in silos.
"Here were those missiles, pointed at us, and yet Kennedy held out for a
diplomatic solution that saved a war and the lives of many people," he
says. "Iraq is a foolhardy venture. It's wrong for the U.S. to make a
pre-emptive strike. It's not our country's way
to start wars. For us to embark on a sole course of war is out of character
for our country."
RIVALS YET FRIENDS
Talk of war brings us back to Gov. Freeman, a World War II veteran who
suffered a severe battle wound and went through a long recovery before
becoming the DFL's first governor and (after Andersen defeated him) serving
as secretary of agriculture in the
Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
When Andersen assumed office, he kept some of Freeman's appointees in
place. And before that 1960 election in which Andersen unseated Freeman,
when Andersen was a Republican leader in the state Senate, he and Freeman
agreed to fix a
school-district taxing problem by forcing undertaxed districts to raise
taxes to a fair level ? and to refrain from using the issue against each
other in the coming campaign.
"He kept his word and never mentioned it in the campaign," says Andersen,
who plans to attend Freeman's funeral Friday. "We enjoyed a great
friendship. He was largely responsible for many accomplishments (the credit
for which) sometimes went to others. I've always admired Orville Freeman as
one of the best, even though we were rivals."
Talking about men named Orville and Elmer is a clue, I suppose, that we are
talking about a bygone era. But even more of a tip-off is the fact that
these are men who knew how to put aside partisan differences in the best
interests of the state. So I decided to ask Elmer L. Andersen what message
he would give today to the state's political leaders.
He thought for a bit and then gave it to me, fast and furious, in a whole
paragraph that I wouldn't mind seeing chiseled on the Capitol someplace:
"Get back to the traditions of Minnesota as a progressive, thoughtful,
sensible community of people that addresses issues as they come up in a
bipartisan setting and with due regard to economic stabilization and a
caring concern for the education of future generations and the ultimate
well-being of those less able to compete."
Works for me. And it used to work for Minnesota pretty darn well. But that
kind of attitude could get Andersen in hot water with leaders of his own
party these days.
"That's all right," he says. "At my age, I'd rather be in hot water than
nowhere. I remind people I want to be known as a liberal Republican. If
that's a dirty word, so be it."
===========================
Democracy and the Religious Right, a project of the Center for Religion,
Ethics, and Social Policy at Cornell University
By Joan Bokaer
Last Update February 24, 2003
"We are talking about Christianizing America. We are talking about simply
spreading the gospel in a political context."
Republican Strategist Paul Weyrich, 1980
=============================
Winning the War
"We need to find ways to win the war" Karl Rove, President Bush's
political
director told a gathering of the Family Research Council in March, 2002.
Family
Research Council is one of the most powerful lobbying organizations of the
Religious
Right today. Rove wasn't talking about the war on terrorism. He was talking
about the
war on secular society.
This web site features links to articles, particularly from the New
York Times, that
document a systematic effort on the part of the Bush administration and
Republican-controlled Congress to overturn the separation of church and
state and bring
the government under religious control. While the United States public is
focused on
Iraq, our government is undergoing a conversion unlike any in its history.
In the short time since Republicans won majorities in both houses of
Congress, the
federal government has issued an executive order allowing discrimanation in
hiring,
then another allowing government funds to be used to build churches, both
orders in
clear defiance of a separation of church and state.
The Justice Department, under John Ashcroft's guidance, is supposed to
be focused
on the war on terror. At a time of huge and ever-increasing budget
deficits, the Justice
Department has been spending its funds to challenge Oregon's assisted
suicide law and
California's medicinal marijuana law. It is insisting that Attorney
Generals from New
York and Conneticut use the death penalty more frequently. It is
interferring with
academic freedom by investigating the choice of a university biology
professor to refuse
to recommend students who don't believe in evolution.
You will find in this website links to newspaper and magazine articles
documenting
the federal government's actions. Ironically, Ashcroft and almost his
entire staff belong
to the Federalist Society (Topic 3b) which advocates a weaker federal
government and
stronger states' rights (Topic 10).
To understand the war on secular society, we should go to the man who
has been
perhaps the most influential in taking control of the Republican Party and
giving the
Republicans a majority in both houses of Congress: Pat Robertson, founder
of Christian
Coalition. Robertson told the Denver Post in 1992 that his goal was to
"take working
control of the Republican Party." He defined the war on secularism in 1991
at a
Christian Coalition rally. "It's going to be a spiritual battle," Robertson
declared.
"There will be Satanic forces.... We are not going to be coming up just
against human
beings, to beat them in elections. We're going to be coming up against
spiritual
warfare."
Robertson named his enemies in a 1992 newsletter, Pat Robertson
Perspective. The
list includes, among others, the National Organization for Women, the
National
Education Association, the National Council of Churches, the Gay-Lesbian
Caucus, as
well as People for the American Way, and Americans United for a Separation
of
Church and State. They are lumped together as the "radical left."
"The strategy against the American radical left should be the same as
General
Douglas MacArthur employed against the Japanese in the Pacific...Bypass
their
strongholds, then surround them, isolate them, bombard them, then blast the
individuals
out of their power bunkers with hand-to-hand combat. The battle for Iwo
Jima was not
pleasant, but our troops won it. The battle to regain the soul of America
won't be
pleasant either, but we will win it." (from the book, The Most Dangerous
Man in
America? by Rob Boston).
The Dominion Mandate
Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates, an organization that
monitors the
Religious Right sums up their goals in one word: dominion. Sara Diamond in
her book
Road to Dominion is credited with recognizing dominion as a political goal.
"Our aim"
according to Pat Robertson at a banquet in 1984 "is to gain dominion over
society."
Authors Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell have written an influential
textbook
for Christian schools titled America's Providential History. "The Puritans
are prime
representatives of this "spirit of dominion," they explain, holding out the
Puritans as
examples of good government. "They recognized the scriptural mandates
requiring
Godly rule, and zealously set out to establish that in all aspects of
society." Dominion is
described by the president of Family Research Council, Kenneth L. Conner as
a society
that "reflects, in the final analysis, the sovereignty of the Lord over all
aspects of our
daily life."
The term dominion means control over; in this case control over all
of the
democratic institutions in this country. The Republican Party has been the
key vehicle in
the drive for control. Now that the Religious Right controls both Congress
and the
Presidency, they are highly focused on the one remaining branch of
government: the
courts.
"Judges are the basis of the land's righteousness, " said David
Barton, a 'Christian
nation' activist and Vice Chair of the Texas State GOP, who is dedicated to
overturning
the separation of church and state. Barton was speaking about the coming
2002
elections. "We have a Senate election here in Texas. The only issue that
should matter is
judges. "*
David Barton was speaking at Worldview Weekend, April, 2002, an event
whose
aim is to teach fundamentalists how to gain political influence and bring
government
under religious control. Another speaker at that event was the new House
Majority
Leader, Tom DeLay, but it was Barton's speech that captured the spirit of
the 2002
elections: "The only issue that should matter is judges."
In his speech Barton was urging the audience to vote for any
Republican Senator,
even moderates. Since Republican leadership is firmly in the hands of the
Religious
Right, the strategy was to insure a Republican majority in both houses. The
section on
Government in this web page, Topic 2, goes into more detail about who the
Republican
leaders are in Congress.
Who is the 'Religious Right'?
This web page is not about Religion. Many religious leaders, including
those from
mainline Christian churches are deeply concerned about the Religious Right.
The
Interfaith Alliance, as stated in its website, "is a non-partisan,
clergy-led grassroots
organization dedicated to promoting the positive, healing role of faith in
civic life and
challenging intolerance and extremism."
This web page is not about Christianity. The Religious Right does not
view mainline
Christians as true Christians. In the words of Pat Robertson on his
television program,
the 700 Club: "You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and
the
Presbyterians and the Methodists, and this and that and the other thing.
Nonsense! I
don't have to be nice to the spirit of the antichrists." (Pat Robertson,
the Most
Dangerous Man in America?, Rob Boston)
The term "Evangelical" is sometimes used to refer to the Religious
Right, but that is
a mistake. Evangelicals cover the whole political spectrum as we can see in
the former
President Jimmy Carter, an evangelical who is considered a liberal
Democrat. The
Evangelical Environmental Network, a coalition of Christian groups is
deeply
committed to stewardship of God's creation. They have been running
advertisements
asking the question " What would Jesus drive?" (Answer: not an SUV.) Topic
6 of this
web page, Religious Institutions, discusses different belief systems.
This web page is not about Republicans. During the 2000 Presidential
primary John
McCain claimed that the Religious Right was "destroying" the Republican
Party. Time
magazine quoted John Moran, Bob Dole's financial manager during his bid for
the
presidency, as saying that Christian Coalition had "hijacked" the
Republican Party.
This web page is about Republican strategists who target
fundamentalist, Pentecostal
and charismatic churches as a way to expand the base of their Party, and
about a very
specific group of Religious leaders who are using the Republican Party as a
way to gain
"dominion" over society.
Of course, not all fundamentalist, Pentecostal and charismatic
churches join in the
effort to gain control of the U.S government, but those groups are targeted
by Christian
Coalition organizing efforts. While the Mormon Church does not necessarily
participate, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Ut) a Mormon who chairs the Senate
Judiciary
Committee has been perhaps the most influential person in Congress in
helping the
Religious Right gain dominion over the courts (See topic on Judiciary).
U.S. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is a good example of the Religious
Right in
government. He spoke at a Christian Coalition rally, October 11,
twenty-five days
before the 2002 election. "Get the few liberals out" he told the crowd
talking about the
U.S. Congress. "You will be doing the Lord's work, and He will richly bless
you for it."
Pat Robertson's mission, Operation Blessing, was richly rewarded. Just
before the
election it received a grant of $500,000 from the Presidents Faith-base
Initiative.
An Estimate of Political Strength
This drive for "dominion" is underestimated by the media and political
analysts.
Karl Rove estimates the number of people from the Religious Right who voted
for Bush
in 2000 to be about fifteen million, and he talked about raising that
number to 19
million. With the Religious Right's passion to gain control of the federal
court system,
and it's ability to send followers to the polls by the bus load, Rove's
estimate is probably
modest, and its number as a voting bloc could exceed twenty million.
A bill defeated in the House of Representatives on October 3, 2002,
was drafted with
help from Pat Robertson's law school. Its purpose was to bypass campaign
finance
reform and allow houses of worship to collect money for political
campaigns. This bill
was opposed by a strong coalition of religious groups, and lobbied for
intensively by
virtually all the key organizations of the Religious Right, for it would
have allowed
unrestricted campaign contributions to be made through the collection
plate. These
contributions would have been both anonymous and tax exempt.
Since virtually everybody except the Religious Right opposed the bill,
it was a good
measure of their numbers in the House. Roughly 43% of those who voted
supported the
bill (178 for, 239 against). Religious Right backed candidates won sixteen
new seats in
the House of Representatives and the bill, along with other legislation
designed to make
the United States a 'Christian Nation' will be introduced in the next
session of Congress.
Karl Rove was disappointed with a turnout of 15 million voters in
2000, but that
number is not trivial, especially at times of low voter turnout. Their
strength becomes
magnified when the Religious Right joins forces with other groups over
specific issues.
Even after the tragedy at Columbine High School, a Million Mom March did
not
produce significant gun control legislation when the Religious Right,
adamantly opposed
to any form of gun control joined lobbying efforts of the NRA.
They join with corporations to lobby against legislation designed to
regulate
industry. As quoted from the Texas 2002 GOP Platform: "A strong and vibrant
private
sector [should be] unencumbered by excessive government regulation." The
'government regulations' they want to abolish protect the environment and
workers.
Those who believe that biblical prophesy forecasts the return of all
Jews to Israel
before the final Apocalypse has lead some leaders of the Religious Right
into an alliance
with the Likud Party in Israel. Falwell has been helping fund settlements
in the West
Bank and Gaza since 1979. Jewish voters in the U.S. are divided about the
question of
Israeli expansion, but those that support the Likud Party have formed an
alliance with
the Religious Right to oppose the withdrawal of settlements from
Palestinian areas.
Ironically, the Green Party has helped swing elections to the
Religious Right by
challenging Democrats in a political system that doesn't have run-off
elections. Helping
Republicans win the Presidency and three key House seats in 2000, and then
additional
House seats in 2002, the Green Party has inadvertently helped the Religious
Right win
control of the White House and House of Representatives.
With a champion in the White House and strong leadership in both
houses of
Congress, the courts have taken on a special importance, for they have been
the greatest
barrier to dominion. Throughout this web page there are references to times
the higher
courts, in support of a separation between church and state have overturned
decisions by
lower courts, state legislatures, and state boards of education."The only
issue that should
matter is judges. "*
The rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party is perhaps the
most
important story in modern politics. The battle for "dominion" over society
is being
waged in all major institutions including government, the courts, schools,
mainline
Protestant churches and the media. This web page will describe the impact
of the
Religious Right on our major institutions and how they have found in the
Bush
administration a strong ally. Section 13 of the Topic List offers a look at
the State of
Texas GOP Republican Platform. This web page is a wake-up call to citizens
of the
United States who believe in a democratic, pluralistic society.
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