Politics: Dobson and the GOP
Norquist, Grover G.
POLITICS by Grover G. Norquist Dobson and the GOP ii e are very pleased with the leadership of the House and Senate," says Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life...
...The National Rifle Association formed in 1876 has 2.7 million members and a budget of $ioo million...
...Weyrich talked to most of the participants afterward and found that many felt they had been "listened to for the first time...
...Other pro-family spokesmen have echoed Dobson's complaint...
...The National Federation of Independent Businesses was founded in 1967 and has zoo employees and a budget of $73 million...
...Dobson denounced Jesse Helms for not stopping foreign aid subsidies for family planning and Pennsylvania Sen...
...The American Farm Bureau, founded in 1919, has 4.8 million members through 5o state affiliates and a budget of $15 million...
...The PAC has one million on hand and this year spent $250,000 in support of Tom Bordonaro (in California), $75,000 for Peter Roskam (in Illinois), and $25,000 for radio supporting Charlie Gerow (in Pennsylvania...
...The so-called religious right, as Paul Weyrich explains, came into being in The evangelical right and the art of politics...
...Since 1990 the Christian Coalition has trained 52,300 community activists, 18,000 in 1996 alone...
...We have high praise for Trent Lott and Newt Gingrich...
...Joseph Pitts of Pennsylvania ment of the Arts (a previous attempt hav- way that they'll be strong enough to elect was chosen to chair the Values Action ing passed the House but died in the another thirty-five Republicans to the Team (VAT) of eight congressmen and Senate...
...The PAC has endorsed 5o candidates in 1998...
...Now, if those who would don his mantle choose to compete to see which of them can elect the most candidates and out-organize their competitors, the Democrats will be finished...
...The religious right began to take form in new institutions...
...This is not surprising...
...In the early seventies, Southern and Midwestern evangelicals still viewed politics as worldly and corrupt— a distraction from family life, community, and church...
...The Catholic Alliance, originally created within the Christian Coalition, became independent in 1996 with a membership of 28,00o and now boasts 128,00o members primarily in targeted heavily Catholic states...
...Ernest Istook, that was voted on June 4 in the House...
...Georgia Sen...
...And the Jewish conservative group Toward Tradi- Congress...
...So which is it...
...Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum was founded in 1972, has a PAC that spent $700,000 on candidates in 1994 and has 8o,000 members...
...The Moral Majority began in 1978 (it closed down nine years later when Jerry Falwell chose to concentrate on running Liberty Baptist University...
...and to work to eliminate the House and another ten to the Senate...
...I want you to know that he is a Catholic and if anyone doesn't like it they should leave now...
...Republican strategists point out that the social conservatives can move in one of two directions...
...For two hours on May 8, the Republican congressional leadership listened to seventeen pro-family leaders—and only after listening did Republican leaders speak...
...At first there were theological obstacles to cooperation, for instance between fundamentalists and charismatics...
...The plan may have been imaginary, but it was widely believed...
...Jerry Falwell then made the formal introduction and explained that religious conservatives could all work together to fight against big government: "When you are drowning and someone throws you a rope, you don't ask his religion...
...The American Spectator • July 19 9 8 61 These meetings should prevent frustra- leadership and outside groups established tion, believes the "Values Summit" led tions from building up and allow activists three priorities: to override President activists to focus on one truth: The most and members to communicate directly Clinton's veto of the partial-birth abor- important thing social conservatives can rather than through the filter of the liberal tion ban...
...On the same day, the coalition distributed 700,00o fly-44 Congressmen have less time for those whose contributions consist merely of advice...
...Conservative groups that come with well-defined legislative agendas, and participate in winning elections and passing legislation, are pleased with the Republican leadership...
...a scholarship worth $3,000 to attend the private or religious school of their choice passed the House 214-206 and the Senate on voice vote...
...The Traditional Values Coalition was founded in 1981 by Reverend Lou Sheldon and focused initially in building a network of African American conservative churches...
...Today the TVC works with 32,000 churches and sends out voter guides...
...The coalition gathered 69,000 signatures, identified 100,000 pro-family households and goo activist churches in a campaign and won despite being outspent eight to one...
...James Dobson, the head of Focus on the Family, give a speech in Phoenix, Arizona, on February 7 in which (according to the New York Times) he "warned that if the Republican Congress continued to 'betray' conservative evangelical voters, he would abandon the Republican Party and 'do everything I can to take as many people with me as possible.'" The Times reported that the harsh speech to 450 conservative and religious leaders was "interrupted by applause and standing ovations by about two thirds of the crowd...
...The Heritage Foundation's Nina Shokraii, who tracks school choice, is delighted that parental choice recently passed both the House and Senate in two forms...
...News & World Report...
...When he built and ran the Christian Coalition, Ralph Reed chose the first path...
...First, Dick Armey's voucher/scholarship program to give 2,000 students in Washington, D.C...
...to abolish the National Endow- do is organize their supporters in such a media...
...They have less time for those whose contributions consist merely of advice...
...62 July 19 9 8 • The American Spectator...
...Or are grassroots leaders publicly expressing outrage at being "betrayed" and "ignored" by Republican leaders...
...pro-family groups take a lead in accomevery Thursday to plan "real action" in Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of the plishing this, their agenda will sail through support of the legislative agenda...
...A dozen or so did leave...
...In 1989, Pat Robertson took the large mailing lists he had built in his 1988 presidential race and created the Christian Coalition, bringing Ralph Reed in as executive director...
...A fter all the press coverage of the Dobson speech —and after several bumpy meetings among Dobson, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, House GOP whip DeLay, and conservative back benchers — Republicans and the pro-family groups are convinced better communication is vital...
...But those that seek amorphous goals such as "getting Congress tospeak out about moral issues," but aren't involved in electing congressmen or passing legislation, are unhappy...
...POLITICS by Grover G. Norquist Dobson and the GOP ii e are very pleased with the leadership of the House and Senate," says Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee...
...Gary Bauer chairs the new Campaign for Working Families PAC that began in November 1996 and already has 40,000 donors raising $2 million in 1997 and $1.5 million so far in 1998...
...Or the religious right can use Jesse Jackson as the model—constantly threatening to stay home or leave the party if they feel "disrespected...
...T o understand the future relationship between social conservatives and the Republican Party it's instructive to recall how religious conservatives became politically active and organized back in the 1970's...
...In his February Phoenix speech, Dobson recalled going to a forty-minute meeting with Phil Gramm in 1995—hoping Gramm would be his candidate for the presidency—and being subjected to a 3o-minute speech...
...Rick Santorum for supporting Republican Christine Todd Whitman in her re-election as Governor of New Jersey...
...Paul Coverdell and Speaker Gingrich's A plus education accounts that would allow parents to save tax free for their children's private school tuition passed the House and Senate and is headed to the president's desk...
...Bauer also runs American Renewal, a 5o1(c)4 group that can push legislation...
...Weyrich tells of being invited by the Reverend James Robison to address a rally of 12,000 in the Dallas Reunion Arena in 1979...
...60 July 1.998 • The American Spectator response to two threats from the Carter administration: the IRS's effort to close down private Christian schools, and a supposed plan by the FCC to regulate Christian radio stations...
...Because FRC is a 501(c)3 foundation it can legally spend 20 percent of its budget on lobbying, but doesn't get involved in electoral politics...
...ers in Oklahoma to defeat casino gambling in the state two to one...
...Falwell received a standing ovation...
...The affiliated RTL PAC spent more than $2 million in 1996...
...After the speech (which Dobson himself sent to the Times), Dobson landed interviews on "Meet the Press" and "Larry King Live," and a cover story in U.S...
...Clinton vetoed the scholarships on May 2o...
...Even with the diminished numbers in the House we have been able to accomplish our major goals this year...
...Is a pro-family agenda being advanced with the support of the Republican leadership in Congress...
...Andrea Sheldon, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, finds progress being made in another area: School prayer, which had not seen a vote in the Senate since 1983 or the House since 1971 is now a part of the GROVER G. NORQUIST iS president of Americans for Tax Reform...
...Three action items were agreed to on May 8: Speaker Gingrich announced the same group will meet four times a year...
...The 1997 budget was $17 million dollars with a staff of 85, and in this year's off-year elections the coalition will distribute 45 million voter guides...
...but the threat from the secular left gradually created a more ecumenical right...
...FRC has recently run major campaigns in support of fatherhood, teenage abstinence, and stronger marriages, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on each...
...James Dobson's Focus on the Family was founded in 1977...
...Today the Christian Coalition has one million donors, 1.5 million activists, and 2,000 local chapters that distributed 66 million voter guides in the 1996 election cycle...
...The coalition organizes through issue campaigns such as in Maine, where in 1987 they backed a successful initiative campaign to repeal a "gay rights" law...
...Bauer also runs the Family Research Council, which he took over after serving in the Reagan administration...
...Now I'm asking Paul Weyrich to speak," said Robison in his introduction...
...Religious Freedom Amendment, sponsored by Oklahoma Rep...
...Randy Tate, executive director of the Christian Coalition, points out that this year the Republican Congress will have acted on nine of the ten items in the Contract with the Family that was signed in May 1995 by House and Senate leaders and pro-family activists...
...To put these numbers in perspective: The Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1912 and has a budget of $72 million and 700 employees...
...Well, both...
...The FRC recently bought a five-story building in downtown Washington and has an annual budget of $14 million and noemployees...
...But if these groups choose instead to compete for press attention by seeing who can complain the loudest, it's the GOP that will be in real trouble...
...But the Christian Coalition is only one of a broad range of religious right and pro-family groups...
...Focus on the Family does not endorse candidates or have a PAC...
...The NRA PAC spent $5 million in 1996...
...The religious right can model its relationship with the Republican Party after the labor unions' relationship with the Democratic Party: a major organized force within the party...
...If twenty to thirty activists, who will meet "marriage penalty tax...
...Even the Supreme Court's ban on school prayer in 1962 and legalization of abortion in 1973 did not spur them to enter politics...
...It has 2.4 million donors, a 1998 budget of $116 million, 1,300 employees, publishes 13 magazines, and has a daily radio program that draws up to 5 million listeners...
...The National Right to Life Committee founded in 1973 has 3,000 affiliates and a budget of $12 million...
...Congressmen seek out activists who help them win elections and legislative battles...
...Why then did Dr...
Vol. 31 • July 1998 • No. 7
