By: Ian Hebert Re: Oppose the Religious Right Found this item in alt.society.labor-unions;

By: Ian Hebert
Re: Oppose the Religious Right

Found this item in alt.society.labor-unions; thought it might be of
interest here, so I'm posting it for everyone's information.

============

From: expose@mainelink.net
Newsgroups: alt.society.labor-unions
Subject: Expose the Right!
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 02:05:03 GMT
Organization: Internet Maine Inc.
Message-ID: <4egufl$isq@news.mainelink.net>

To:                     The Progressive Community
From:                       Craig Brown/Expose the Right! Campaign
Date:                       January 24, 1996
Re:                     Expose the Right! Campaign in high gear.
New Web Site Unveiled:      http://www.mainelink.net/expose/

On January 16, People for the American Way/Action Fund launched a
national campaign - the Expose the Right! Campaign.  The broad purpose
of the campaign is to expose to the American people the dangerous
agenda of religious political extremists and others on the far right.
And, to force the 1996 Presidential candidates to either repudiate or
embrace that extreme agenda.

Today, January 24, the Expose the Right! Campaign has unveiled its new
web site, located at: http://www.mainelink.net/expose/.  The site will
detail the campaigns activities and will change daily for the next 4
weeks to reflect the campaign event of the day and serve as a dynamic
source of information for the larger progressive community to Expose
the Right!. (Note: The People For the American Way permanent web site
is currently under construction and will be located at:
http//www.pfaw.org/)

WE NEED YOUR HELP!   LINK TO US!

As an organization of committed progressive activists, you understand
exactly how we are all affected by the destructive agenda of the
radical right.  We must work together to expose their real agenda.

Provide a link from your organizations web site to ours.  You can do
so right now by downloading the attached .gif file and adding it to
your web page with our url address.

E-mail us at expose@mainelink.net.     Or, I can be reached at People
For the American Way in Washington, DC at 202-467-2323.  The Expose
the Right! Campaign offices can be reached at:  1-800-294-0126 in Des
Moines, Iowa, or, 1-800-294-0128 in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Let us know how else you can help.

Thanks.

WHAT IS THE EXPOSE THE RIGHT! CAMPAIGN?

Over the past few years, Americans with progressive values have
witnessed an onslaught of Christian Coalition and Religious Right
activists dominate the political arena.  They are widely credited with
shaping the outcome of the 1994 election and continue to implement
their agenda through the Contract with America and Contract with the
American Family.

On issue after issue, their well organized voices are overpowering as
they continually shut down switch boards with thousands of calls, clog
voice-mail and overload fax machines in Congress and the White House.
With each success, their momentum increases. They have now set their
sights on the 1996 Presidential campaign.

Their goal is to take over our political process and shift it
dramatically to the right.  They have been very successful doing it.
Now, the Christian Coalition has made it their priority to organize
and shape the outcome of the 1996 Presidential election.

In a recent mailing Pat Robertson said, "Our staff at the Christian
Coalition is working day and night to make sure that we generate a
record-breaking Christian voter turnout in the Iowa Caucus and New
Hampshire Primary...if we turnout at least 85% of the eligible
Christian vote in the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Primary, you can
be sure that concerns of Christians and pro-family voters will then
become the focal point of this 1996 Election Year -- a year which will
set America's direction into the next millennium."

Meanwhile, Americans with progressive values watch the rise of the
Religious Right with growing anxiety, frustration and anger.

It is time to fight back.

People for the American Way is planning to organize our activists
members, supporters and other progressives to expose and confront the
Religious Right's grip on the Presidential nomination process.

The Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary are perfect venues for the
CC to flex their muscles: small conservative rural states with strong
CC chapters and events where turning out the hard core is everything.
They will use their political power to force the winning Presidential
candidate to have a pocketful of  IOUs to the religious political
extremists.

Iowa and New Hampshire are also perfect venues for progressives to
challenge the Christian Coalition by exposing their extreme agenda and
what it will mean for America's future -- and to hold Presidential
candidates accountable who embrace those extreme positions.  That is
exactly what People For the American Way plans to do.

We intend to engage the Presidential candidates in a dialogue -- a
discussion about the Religious Right's agenda for America and what it
will mean in concrete terms for our future.

Leading a movement of progressives, we will expose the extreme agenda
and then aggressively challenge the Presidential candidates to either
embrace or repudiate it.  This will be done at every campaign stop of
every major Presidential candidate.  They will face PFAW activists
asking questions about the extreme right agenda and what that agenda
will mean for American families and America's future.  Candidates will
be asked to make a choice: stand up to the Religious Right and their
extreme positions or be clearly identified as embracing those
positions.  If they refuse to answer a question or clearly identify
their position at one campaign stop, they will face a follow-up
question at the next.  If they repudiate the Religious Right, we will
hold them to it.  If they embrace it, we'll make sure it comes back to
haunt them.

The candidate who wins Iowa and New Hampshire will probably go on to
win the Republican nomination.  Regardless of who that candidate is,
People for the American Way will have them on record, taking a clear
position on the Religious Right's agenda.  And, we will be telling a
story to the American people about what the Religious Right's extreme
agenda is and what it means for our families.

The campaign aims to expose the ways that the radical right has taken
over the Presidential nominating process, most immediately, in Iowa
and New Hampshire, and long term, throughout the country in this most
important election year.

Message composed at: 20:29:58 EST  on 1996-01-28

Ian Hebert                                         London, Ontario, Canada
Internet:  ian@braille.uwo.ca      PGP Key ID/Date:  077A2F7F / 1993/02/11
PGP key fingerprint:     A2 15 DE 22 DA FE D4 DC 0F   17 43 24 1F F2 1E 7B

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12

--- OLMS 2.53p+ [EPMAP55A]
 * Origin: Multiboard * 519-660-8981/6908 * Email * 2GB * (1:2401/0)