This diary is really at least five diaries. But alas, I have no time to thoroughly develop them! But a little more time than the short items in the Front Pate Open Threads. I do these once or twice a week at Talk to Action, but don't usually crosspost 'em here. But for those who want to take your minds off of Super Duper Tuesday for a few, here is a bit of a diversion, but not too far..
Table of Contents: Conservative movement entrepreneur Richard Viguerie ISO a rightwing man on a white horse to save the day (or where have you gone, John Wayne?); How the Heritage Foundation got religion; Why "the family" is an issue in the culture war; Jim Wallis whiffs again; Janet Folger founds a pro-Huck front political committee; What the religious right is up to in Texas; And Ben Stein's stealth marketing campaign for his pro-creationism documentary film.
Details on the flip:
Richard Viguerie, one of the early leaders of the religious right and indeed of the wider modern conservative movement, says hard core conservatives are unhappy with the GOP presidential field. Yes, each has their strengths, but each has distinct flaws from where he sits. He wants a movement conservative to ride in from nowhere to "save the day." His candidates for conservative savior?
Former Sen. George Allen (R-VA); Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) or Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina. Perhaps most remarkably, Viguerie writes:
"...if the goal of a last-minute conservative candidacy is to rally the movement and build for the future, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma could get into the race. Coburn could be the Barry Goldwater of his generation - someone who plants the seeds for a future flowering of conservatism, as Goldwater planted the seeds of the Reagan Revolution."
Viguerie has also solicited his entire email list for suggestions.
Pam Chamberlain at The Public Eye explains how the Heritage Foundation got religion. And Adam Smith delves into the question of the defeintion of the family at the center of many of the battles of the culture war:
"Models of idealized family structure lie metaphorically at the heart of our politics," writes linguist George Lakoff in his 2002 book Moral Politics. "Our beliefs about the family exert a powerful influence over our beliefs about what kind of society we should build."
Certainly, many Christian Right leaders would agree with him.
Jim Wallis strikes again. This time he repeats the same silly claim we have heard from columnist Bill Press and most recently from political scientist Laura Olsen:
Q: You write and talk of the decline of the religious right. But Huckabee has been doing very well, it seems, largely because of the support of the religious right.
A: Huckabee is a sign that what I'm saying is true. Because religious right leaders don't support him.
In fact, many religious right leaders do support him. To name but a few: Tim and Beverly LaHaye, Don Wildmon, Michael Farris, David Barton and Rick Scarborough.
Indeed. RightWingWatch reports that Huck supporter and religious right leader Janet Folger has started a 527 political committee which specializes in attacking Huckabee opponents, Romney and McCain, and claims will be the conservative answer to MoveOn.com. (Much as I appreciate RWW, I don't understand why they rarely, if ever, link to other blogs.)
Some erstwhile progressives have been claiming that the culture war is over; and seem to think that merely saying it will make it so. (It is a close corollary to the claims that the religious right is dead.) Perhaps they should tell that to the Texas Freedom Network -- which has has a detailed report on the activities of the religious right in their state government in 2007. I am sure they will be relieved to hear the good news.
God's Lawgivers? Carrying the Water for the Religious Right in Texas Government
This 2007 Texas Freedom Network Education Fund report takes a close look at state officials who carry the water for the religious right in Texas. The report describes how Terri Leo, R-Spring, and other far-right bomb throwers on the State Board of Education are dragging our public schools into the culture wars. It also profiles key legislators - including newly elected state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, and state Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford - who are leading the assault on religious freedom and individual liberties at the Capitol.
The report also includes:
-- A comprehensive history of proposed state legislation relating to key parts of the religious right's agenda, including promoting private school vouchers, opposing responsible sex education, attacking stem cell research and censoring public school textbooks.
-- A listing of Texas groups associated with the religious right, including data on each group's finances, leadership and activities
Huh. I wonder what evidence those who claim the culture war is over have for their position?
Meanwhile former Nixon speechwriter and current rightwing Hollywood screenwriter Ben Stein, has a new film out. But The Orlando Sentinel is unimpressed. Or at least, shall we sat, differently impressed.
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. It's a rabble-rouser of a doc that uses all manner of loaded images, loaded rhetoric, few if any facts and mockery of hand-picked "weirdo" scientists to attack the those who, Stein claims, are stifling the Religious Right's efforts to inject intelligent design into science courses, science curricula and the national debate.
He was showing the movie to what he and the producers hoped would be a friendly, receptive audience of conservative Christian ministers at a conference at the Northland mega-church next to the dog track up in Longwood. They're marking this movie, which they had said, earlier, they'd open in Feb. (now April) the same way they pitched The Passion of the Christ and The Chronicles of Narnia, said Paul Lauer of Motive Entertainment, who introduced Stein.
In other words, a stealth campaign, out of the public eye, preaching to the choir to get the word out about the movie without anyone who isn't a true believer passing a discouraging judgment on it.
They postered the Orlando Sentinel with email invitations, then tried to withdraw the one they sent to me. No dice. They also passed out non-disclosure "statement of confidentiality" agreements for people to sign. I didn't.