Freedom Writer - April 1994 [ref001] Guerillas in our midst By Holly Gunner In many commun

Freedom Writer - April 1994

[ref001]

Guerillas in our midst

By Holly Gunner

In many communities across the country, parents and others who care 
about the quality of their schools have mounted strong opposition 
to local groups promoting the Religious Right line, simply because 
they were appalled by a number of strategies used by these groups. 
Most offensive have been the groups' intimidating, aggressive, and 
bitterly polarizing tactics, their attempts to mislead the public 
about the school program they are attacking, and their systematic 
efforts to deceive the public about their outside affiliations.

Most people strongly support each person's right to express his or 
her views, and to organize like-minded people. But many mainstream 
citizens have had strong negative reactions to Religious Right tactics 
because they insert ingredients into local politics that most of us 
aren't used to. These ingredients include: using rhetoric and misrepresenting 
school programs or groups of people that play on people's fears for 
their children; calling opponents, public officials, and educators 
nasty names; polarizing and inhibiting thoughtful dialogue; and hiding 
their outside affiliations from the public.

The problem is not that these individuals HAVE outside affiliations; 
but rather that they hide them, even when running for public office. 
The problem is not that they have a particular point of view, but 
rather that they try to win with tactics aimed at arousing fear and 
intimidating their opponents.

These tactics pose a problem that is not limited to people who disagree 
with them. People who share their views on an issue, but are not aggressive 
extremists, often find that Religious Right activists have created 
a highly charged and polarized environment that makes it difficult 
for others to hear what they think is best for their children. This 
is a very sad and unproductive situation that makes it all the more 
important to reclaim the arena of public debate for thoughtful people 
of varying views who want to participate in reasoned and mutually 
respectable dialogue based on truth.

A central tactic of the Religious Right is "stealth" -- running candidates 
without identifying their affiliations with organizations outside 
local communities -- sometimes not even engaging in standard campaign 
and voter information activities -- to conceal their true platform 
and positions from voters.

According to Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed, it 
is "...just good strategy. It's like guerilla warfare.... It's better 
to move quietly, with stealth, under cover of night... It comes down 
to whether you want to be the British Army in the Revolutionary War, 
or the Viet Cong." At a Religious Right conference in Denver last 
year, participants were instructed in tactics that include:

	_
	Hide your affiliation and true agenda
	Use the gay issue to raise funds for the cause
	Always cover your tracks; always use local front men -- a wacko if 
        necessary
	Appeal to people's fears of society and change
	Appeal to American's worst impulses
	Remember that "tension will provide the winning edge for candidates"
	Lie, if necessary
	_

In some cases, Religious Right candidates don't run typical mainstream 
campaigns. They give vague answers to, or fail to return, League of 
Women Voters questionnaires, and avoid candidate forums. Often they 
go to churches, synagogues, centers for elderly people, and approach 
people just moving into town to ask for votes. Religious Right activists 
also work to establish good relations with local newspaper editors 
and sometimes TV news people. If you face an election, you must cover 
these bases, too.

To get their candidates elected in a "stealth" campaign, Religious 
Right groups count on the apathy or disinterest of mainstream voters. 
If voter turnout is low, and they can work behind the scenes without 
being visible for most voters, they can win by getting enough votes 
through their own networks. The best way to counteract this is to 
work on getting out a large, mainstream vote, providing information 
on candidates, or slates of candidates, to voters. It is also important 
to get the press to report on which candidates do and don't participate 
fully in voter information activities.

In some elections, only a small number of Religious Right candidates 
will be running in a field of mainstream candidates. The mainstream 
candidates may vary in their experience and views, but share certain 
qualities with other mainstream candidates: they will tend to be open 
about why they are running, about their background and affiliation, 
and will not be bound to the viewpoint that "my way is God's way and 
is the only way."

Religious Right candidates, on the other hand, have often attempted 
to hide their religious or educational views and organizational affiliations 
from public scrutiny. In the words of Clay Mankameyer, at the South 
Weymouth, Massachusetts Christian Coalition leadership school for 
potential Religious Right candidates, "You are not obligated to say 
all things to all people.... You don't have to answer every question, 
and if you do so you're going to get yourself in trouble."

Indeed, in an atmosphere of low voter interest and little investigative 
journalism about candidates for local office, it can be quite easy 
for stealth candidates to run without being detected. And given conditions 
of low voter turnout, candidates can often win election by quietly 
mobilizing a few groups of committed voters, often completely bypassing 
the normal voter information and education processes that most local 
voters expect to be in operation. In the words of Ralph Reed, "You 
don't know it's over until you're in a body bag. You don't know until 
election night."

To combat the Religious Right's election tactics, encourage many groups 
in your community to sponsor candidate forums, and be sure the press 
and local cable are there to report on the events. Local political 
party committees, churches, synagogues, PTAs, and elderly centers 
might do this. Carefully identify Religious Right candidates by asking 
people about groups they've been active in. Publicize in the press 
the absence of candidates who don't show up for the candidate forums, 
as well as the exact words of those who do. In some towns, Religious 
Right candidates have made many extreme, nonsensical, or factually 
incorrect statements. Getting their own words out to the public is 
often an effective way to defeat them.

If you encounter stealth candidates, spare no efforts to provide voters 
with information about which candidates are, and which candidates 
are not affiliated with the Religious Right. Then, the critical task 
is to get out the vote of people who support the mainstream candidates.

To identify candidates with Religious Right affiliations, you can 
also compare signatures on nominating papers, looking for the same 
signatures on the papers of several candidates and comparing signatures 
to names on prior letters to the editor that sensationally attack 
a school program, or to those of people you know have Religious Right 
connections.

Work through the normal political channels to support candidates in 
whom you have confidence. Work hard enough to ensure high voter turnout, 
using mailings, phone-banking, slate cards, and anything else that 
works in your town and that's grounded in truth. By taking the political 
high ground mainstream voters and activists can win.

Holly Gunner heads the Lighthouse Institute for Public Policy, publishers 
of Meeting the Challenge of the Religious Right in Massachusetts. 
Their address is P.O. Box 5039, Cochituate, MA 01778.

_
Sidebar: [ref002]Buzzwords
Sidebar: [ref003]Questions for candidates
Sidebar: [ref004]Tactics of the Right
_

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Copyright 1995 IFAS
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