This is Chapter 10/Section 2, of the 2024 Serialization of the third printing (2013) of the book by Steven Jonas: "The 15% Solution: How the Republican Religious Right Took Control of the U.S., 1981-2022. The book was first published in 1996. The 2013 version of the book (the most recent one) is available on Amazon, in print and on Kindle, at: Click Here .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Second Inaugural Address of President Jefferson Davis Hague [1]
December 25, 2008
My fellow Americans under God. I stand here before you on the birth day of our Lord Jesus Christ, anticipating in all humility the opportunity you have so graciously given me to continue to do His bidding as your President. And I can tell you that His bidding now is to continue to fight the good fight, for the Lord, and for you the American people under God.
In fighting this fight, to the best of my ability, blessed by both our Lord Jesus Christ and you, the American people under God, I am both pleased and privileged to be able to announce today the first step we of the Second Hague Administration have taken to do just that. We have converted our nation's leading political party, the Republican-Christian Alliance, the party of God-fearing people that has put you in complete control of the government here in Washington, into a brand-new entity.
This is an historic decision, comparable to the one that established the original Republican Party back in the mid-19th century. For all of us, Christian and pagan American alike, it will usher in a glorious new era of peace and harmony under the blessings of our Lord and his only son whose birthday we celebrate today, Jesus Christ.
Reflecting the spirit of our times, and the best of all American traditions, we have named our new party the American Christian Nation Party. For yes, in truth, declaring and carrying out Christian policies is the only way that we will be able to continue to fight the good fight to rescue our beloved country from the forces of sin, Godlessness, and liberalism [2] that continue to drag her down.
For inspiration, in this never-ending struggle I have turned often to the great Keith Fournier, who sat at the right hand of our beloved Rev. Pat Robertson, as the Executive Director of the American Center for Law and Justice. As he said (1994):
"The challenge I have as a Christian is to bring people to Jesus Christ, to a personal decision to accept Him as Savior and Lord, to bring them to personal repentance and conversion. But for me that is only the beginning. That salvation must be sustained, nourished, and deepened. It must also lead to personal transformation and holiness through i plantation into Christ's Body, the church. The church is not an option, an extra we can accept or reject. It is the ark, the ship of God, and her mission is to help rescue and restore the drowning. This has always been her primary mission. The church exists to evangelize and disciple to ward personal and corporate transformation, a mission en trusted to her by her Head, Master and Lord, the evangel Himself, Jesus Christ." [3]
To our friends who are not Christians we say first, join us, for the Christian Way is the Godly Way. But for those Americans who choose to continue to exercise their right as an American to freely practice the religion of their choosing, a right we fiercely defend, we say ally with us, to carry out the work of the Lord. And let me make it very clear that no one has any thing to fear from our new party or the new policies we will be carrying out, as long as he is a loyal American, devoted to God.
But let me also make it very clear that woe be to him who is God less, or worships a false God, or does not accept the Holy Bible as the innerant word of our Lord God and his only son Jesus Christ. For upon him will fall the wrath of God-- and our wrath too. Let that be known [4]. For as the great R.J. Rushdooney has said (Sloan):
"Every social order institutes its own program of separation or segregation. A particular faith and morality is given privileged status and all else is separated for progressive elimination. . . . Every faith is an exclusive way of life; none is more dangerous than that which maintains the illusion of tolerance."
Let me now turn to sharing with you the genesis of our brand new American Christian Nation Party. It sprang from the God"'inspired minds of the forefathers of our movement [5]. And it is the thinking of some of them, both great and small, that I would like to share with you now.
To set the stage as it were, I will first turn to the writings of Thomas P. Monaghan, a Senior Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (1994):
"In human existence there is only one moral order. This is an order that, through the grace of God, has been revealed to all human beings. The Lord gives us reason and faith so that at all times and in all places we are called to the good, which is ultimately God Himself. We all-- Christians, pagans, and others-- have this law engraved on our hearts, . . . The choice before us today is what it has always been: Christ or Caesar. Caesar can never give the human heart that for which it hungers. Christ can."
And how in our country, with our valued Constitution, do we reconcile Caesar and Christ? The Rev. Pat himself told us (ACLU, 1992):
"The Constitution of the United States is a marvelous document for self"'government by Christian people [emphasis added]. But the minute you turn the document into the hands of non-Christian people and atheist people, they can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society."
And the Rev. Pat told us how Christian governmental control is to be achieved and maintained (Freedom Writer, 2/95):
"Christians founded this nation, they built this nation, and for three hundred years they governed this nation. We can govern again. That's why I founded the Christian Coalition. . . . The mission of the Christian Coalition is sim ple: to mobilize Christians one precinct at a time, until once again we are the head and not the tail, and at the top rather than the bottom of our political system." [6]
And finally the Rev. Pat, in 1993 speaking at his Regent University law school, predicted that what we have now achieved would indeed be achieved by us (Clarkson): "One day, if we read the Bible correctly, we will rule and reign along with our sovereign, Jesus Christ."
But let me refer to other of our forefathers besides the good Reverend Pat. Being just plain forthright about it, the 1990s Republican Governor Kirk Fordice of Mississippi put it thusly (Berke, 1992): "The United States of America is a Christian nation. . . the less we emphasize the Christian religion the further we fall into the abyss of poor character and chaos. . . "
And our revered Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, the prototype of those many organizations which now militantly protect and defend God's Way, said back in August, 1993 (Foxman): "Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism."
And he said further (Porteous):
"You better believe that I want to build a Christian nation, be cause the only option is a pagan nation. . . . A Christian n tion would be defined as 'We acknowledge God in our body politic, in our communities, that the God of the Bible is our God, and we acknowledge that His law is supreme.'"
The great Rev. Jerry Falwell, writing in 1993 under the head line "America is a Christian Nation!":
"Our pledge of allegiance declares we are 'one nation under God.' Our currency states 'In God We Trust'. The Declaration of Independence says we have a God"'given right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. [7]
"Yet today, we find our religious heritage under attack. Ungodly forces in society seem intent on removing God from every area of pub lic life. . . . But despite what the Supreme Court and radical liberal activists may say, AMERICA IS A CHRISTIAN NATION!"
Mr. Robert Flood of that God"'serving organization "Focus on the Family" said in 1992 (Freedom Watch): "The Constitution was de signed to perpetuate a Christian order."
Mrs. Cheryl Gillaspie, a right"'thinking Councilwoman from that font of Right"'Thinking, Colorado Springs, CO [8], said in a November, 1994 speech to the local chapter of the Christian Coalition (Freedom Watch): "There is no validity to the doctrine of separation of Church and State . . . America was established as a Christian nation by believing Christians."
Mr. Robert Simonds, president of Citizens for Excellence in Education tells us (Freedom Watch):
"Government and true Christianity are inseparable! There can be no morality (right or wrong) without the Bible-- man's only reliable book on right and wrong. Christians can properly apply Bible principles to government, because they are the ones who read the Bible."
And finally, my friends, in an early version of Focus on the Family's Community Impact Curriculum, we are told (Freedom Watch): "[T]his was really a Christian nation and, as far as its founders were concerned, to try separating Christianity from government is virtually impossible and would result in unthinkable damage to the nation and its people."
It is this thinking and these thinkers and their successors that have provided the foundation of our new Party. But I want to tell you that our Party has not been formed with Christian leadership alone. The ACNP provides nothing if it does not provide a "Big Tent" [9] to accommodate many differing views on how we can best move our nation for ward.
Thus I am pleased to announce that we have been joined by and welcome as integral parts of our new Party, among others The Order, the Ku Klux Klan, the Leadership Coalitions for America, the Skinheads Factions, the Militias, Jews for Christ and Tradition, the Aryan Nations, the Men of Liberty, the Posse Comitatus, the Armed Survivalists, and Christian Identity.
The Republican-Christian Alliance has been strong, and it has brought us a long way. But we have yet a long way to go, and it is the American Christian Nation Party that will get us there. In closing, my friends and fellow Christian Americans, let us join together in pledging allegiance to our new Christian flag [10]:
"I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag, and to the Saviour, for whose Kingdom it stands, one Saviour, crucified, risen, and coming again [11], with life and liberty for all who believe."
Thank you my friends, God bless the God"'fearing, and good night.
A Connie Conroy Note (December 27, 2008)
We did it again! Maybe not as sintilating (sic) as the first time around, but we did it. We produced a great speech, at the last minute, again. Boy it's great to have those quotes to go to. I hope there are some left we can use next time. This time it was a brilliant stroke too to recognize that we were using that old stuff by name. No more charges of plajarism (sic) from those sticklers among us.
And I like the way we slipped in those old Far Right groups at the end. Boy, some of them are really crazy! But we need them. Things are starting to get a bit rough out there. Some times we've just got to have some un-official "off the shelf" [12] muscle to get things done we just can't ask the cops or the FBI or the Federal marshals to do. Those other guys can do it and sometimes do do it for us. Better to have them in side than out.
Interesting. Some people have already noticed that the Prez specifically didn't mention the American Nazi Party, which has been growing by leaps and bounds over the last few years. Well, for the record, that's for our Jews. I'm not sure what the final answer is going to be on the Jew Question. But for now anti-Semitism is official ly out, no matter what the bastards do.
The Prez sez that "our Jews" have been too important to us and our growth to chuck them out now. He says that's why we won't have anything to do with the Nazis or with the swastika [13]. Not only the Nazis but several of the groups in our new coalition use it as their symbol. Well, our Jew allies understandably don't like it. Also, and not too many people know this, the Nazi swastika is simply the reverse of an old American Indian symbol that meant good luck. Well, we certainly wouldn't want to be associated in any way with a symbol used by one of the inferior races.
Anyway, the Prez sez we are officially not anti-Semitic. Naturally, from time to time we do have some flare-ups of that stuff on the street. But they almost always involve liberal n-word-lover Renegade Jews, not Real Jews [14]. So nothing to worry about there. Our Jews stay with us, and with a wink and a nod [15] we let the boys have their fun.
The Prez does acknowledge, privately and publicly, that many out standing Jewish thinkers made very important contributions to the political doctrines underlying our system of government. He likes especially to hark back to a Right-Wing Jew organization called "Toward Tradition" (1994), formed during the election of '94 that created the famous "Freshman Class" of which he is so proud.
Anyway, big win, great speech, if I do say so myself. On wards and upwards!
Author's Commentary
And thus on a fateful Thursday, President Jefferson Davis Hague delivered his Second Inaugural Address from the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. Although it would indelibly set the future course of the nation under his leadership (which would last until the final over throw of the NAR), one wouldn't have known that fact from the speech. Departing from a Presidential tradition, Hague did not address the major problems faced by the country at that time, even to the limit ed ex tent he had in his first Inaugural.
That critical problem list included:
"A standard of living that still continued to fall for most Americans, and a gap in both income and wealth between the very rich and every one else that still continued to widen. Both patterns, as noted on several previous occasions, had been established during the Transition Era (Bradsher; Thurow; and see Chapter one). They were firmly entrenched by R-CA Federal tax, fiscal, and regulatory policies of the early Fascist Period, policies that echoed that of the infamous 1994 Republican "Contract on America" (HRC).
" The continuing decline of manufacturing in America, caused by continuing "globalization," a cosmetic term that really meant the export of capital and the jobs that accompanied it.
The massive economic and social impact of the decline in manufacturing was left untouched by what had been touted to replace it: the old Tofflerian "Third Wave/Information Age." That was a notion that somehow the processing of an intangible, "information," could replace the production of tangible goods and services as the regular, reliable, adequate source of income for any significant number of people.
Further, the now long"'discredited notion held that somehow the processing of information could meet real, tangible needs of every day life of the people for goods and services. For everything from survival to the full enjoyment of life, people need food, clothing, shelter, transportation, health care and education, entertainment, cultural activities, athletics, and so on, not information about them. In the real world, where needs for tangibles are tangible, the "Third Wave" notion simply didn't work. But it had made for good political theater.
" The virtual disappearance of governmental investment in "infrastructure:" roads, bridges, tunnels, railways, and airports; public health care facilities, schools, colleges, universities, and research institutions; water supply and sewage disposal systems; flood control, irrigation networks, and other waterway maintenance projects; the air traffic control system, national parks and forests and wilderness areas (soon to disappear entirely); seashore maintenance and coastal navigation systems; and the like.
What remained for the most part was only that which had been "privatized" and then survived. The result was a very spotty system. To be sure, the rich and others living in the growing number of walled communities guarded by private armed forces did well (Egan). And, as noted in Chapter eight, the prison system flourished, continuing a pattern established in California in 1995"'96 when for the first time spending on the state prison system had exceeded that on the state's two university systems (Butterfield). The prison system had been "privatized" to a significant degree, and provided huge profits for those connected to the new Prison/Industrial Complex (see also Chapter three).
"The continuing growth of interpersonal violence accompanying the repeal of any limits on gun ownership that had occurred early in the Pine Presidency.
"The public and political prominence of public and personal racism, homophobia, misogyny, and xenophobia, and their continued exploitation by the forces of Right_Wing Reaction.
"The constantly spreading personal alienation and destruction of the basic interpersonal fabric of society resulting from the incessant promotion by Right-Wing Reaction of the philosophy of 'every-man'' for-himself-and-the-devil-take-the-hindmost," otherwise known as "self-responsibility" (see Chapter seven for an excellent Transition Era summary of this philosophy by the Right-Wing philosopher Michael Levin).
" The failure of any of the measures adopted through the Constitutional Amendment process since the ratification of the 28th (the first Balanced Budget Amendment) to materially affect in a positive way any of the underlying economic or social problems faced by the old United States.
Because they in no way addressed those underlying economic or social problems, to summarize, primary among them being capital disinvestment, the dis-accumulation of labor from capital (Judis) as a result of technological change (Wright), and institutionalized racism, the "solutions" could not have been expected to work. Nor were they in tend ed to.
In fact, as often noted, they were often intended to do nothing more than distract the American people from what the real problems of the society were. In that, this consciously planned and carefully executed strategy had from the beginning of the Transition Era been very successful for Right-Wing Reaction, in both increasing the wealth of the wealthy and maintaining its own political power.
The primary tangible outcome of the "solutions" for the most part was either to cause problems in the first place or seriously aggravate them, that is if the negative outcomes were not ones actually desired by Right"'Wing Reaction. (For more on this subject, see the Alex Poughton letter at the end of this chapter.)
In his address, Hague did not outline his plans for the conduct of his Second Term (most likely because at that time, as events would show, it was in Hague's best interests to keep them secret). In any case, like his political forebears, such as his original patron former House of Representatives Republican Speaker Newton Gingrich and former Senate Republican Minority then Majority Leader Bob Dole, Hague's strengths were in politics and power, not policy. Thus it is understand able that Hague devoted the bulk of his speech to announcing the conversion of the Republican"'Christian Alliance into the American Christian Nation Party, and giving his rationale for so doing.
Hague and the "Christian Nation" Concept
In analyzing and understanding the Hague approach to that issue, it is important to note that neither in this speech nor elsewhere did he ever officially declare or decree the U.S. to be a "Christian Nation." Note too that as noted above the quotes from "The 15% Solution's" Godfather Pat Robertson that Hague chose to include, themselves never referred directly to the concept but only alluded to it. In fact, Robertson was usually quite careful not to use the words direct ly, even though most of his followers and most of his allies had the "Christianizing of America" right at the top of their agenda, and just "knew" that Pat did too. But not using the phrase gave the Reverend Reaganesque "deniability."
Following this pattern, Ralph Reed, Jr., the first Executive Director of Robertson's Christian Coalition, during the Transition Era periodically had tried to obscure its true agenda. For example, addressing a group of national Jewish leaders in 1995, he said "that it was a 'blatant wrong' for some on the religious right to talk of the United States as a 'Christian Nation'" (Niebuhr). Reed "also said his group was commit ted to the separation of church and state" (Time).
One wonders how Reed would have reconciled that claim with the statements his boss, Robertson, had previously made, quoted by Hague in his Second Inaugural. Contemporary observers raised the question (Rich). But there is no record of Reed ever having been able to achieve such a reconciliation. Nor is there any evidence that Reed ever dis avowed statements like one the activist Mrs. Gillaspie made to a Christian Coalition chapter, quoted by Hague. In reality Reed was just "blowing smoke," as they used to say back then. But the smoke helped to keep the Right-Wing Reactionary Jews on board. As Conroy noted, in 2009 that was still a vital interest of the Hagueites.
Following this pattern of obscurantism, even the New American Republics would not be officially designated a "Christian Nation." In practice, of course, both the NAR and the old U.S. under Hague and the Republican"'Christian Alliance were "Christian Nations" as the term was understood by those who had promoted the notion during the Transition Era, and their ideological successors. But by never saying so in so many words, and never making "Christian Nationhood" official policy, Hague was always able to deny that that was indeed the case, a politically useful maneuver.
The same "mis-direction play" was later used to deal with the question of whether or not the New American Republics was a fascist state. Certainly the NAR was by definition a fascist state (see Appendix II). Nevertheless, the ACNP which founded it and became its only legal political party officially continued to deny that it was. This "being-but-denying" approach followed the pattern established by the old Republican Party during the Transition Era, discussed by Dino Louis in Appendix II, p. 372. As Louis so eloquently said: "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck."
The "Rightward Imperative"
The "Rightward Imperative" I mentioned in an "Author's Note" to the Hague Address (see p.xxx) described a pattern of a constant rightward policy shift that could be observed in the old Republican Party during the Transition Era, and then in the R"'CA/ACNP during the pre"'NAR Fascist Period. First on economic issues, then on social ones, so"'called "moderates" were read or ridden out of the Republican Party, unless they radically moved their positions to the Right on both economic and social issues. For example, the Republican Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole of Kansas did that in the run"'up to the 1996 Presidential election (Kramer) (see be low).
It became de rigeur in the 1980s to recite the mantra of "tax cuts/balanced budget amendment/free market" that would have horrified old-line "mode ate" Republicans like Nelson Rockefeller, former Governor of New York and Jacob Javits, former Senator from New York. Even former President Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush, before he be came Ronald Reagan's Vice-President, had problems with certain sections of that agenda.
Then came the '90s mantra of "ban abortion/prayer in the schools/no civil rights for homosexuals." This was designed specifically to appeal to the growing Religious Right and the Rev. Pat's Christian Coalition. They formed the core vote of an ever"'rightward moving Republican Party, they were the constituency which made "The 15% Solution" possible. They had to be kept in tow.
During the Transition Era the Rightward Imperative was perhaps best personified by Senator Dole (mentioned above). He had been a Nixon Republican, tough on rhetoric in practice but relatively progressive on domestic issues (Berke, 1995). He had, for example, introduced the Nixon health care reform plan in the Senate in 1973, a plan that had much in common with the (Pres. Bill) Clinton Health Plan that Dole played a major role in defeating, primarily for political reasons, in 1994.
For most of his career, Dole had downplayed the Right"'Wing Reactionary "social issues" such as banning freedom of choice in the out come of pregnancy, requiring voluntary prayer in the schools, and introducing censorship into the entertainment industry. In 1995-6, running for President in a Republican Party already well under the spell of the Christian Coalition, he quite suddenly became a supporter of their position on these matters and related ones. He was being realistic. As he said (Berke, 1995): "Any survey research you or I have seen shows that these are the issues that [far-right Republican] primary voters care about or are motivated by."
The Stirring of Political Violence
Once "The 15% Solution" had succeeded, during the pre-NAR Fascist Period Right-Wing Reaction found that its policies did not indeed solve problems, as noted above. It also found that there was, there fore, an increasing amount of labor and racial unrest. Too, there was potential political trouble, as various groups tried to reinvigorate the still Democratic Leadership Council-led Democratic Party or set up some left alternative to it. Political violence, unofficial to be sure, increasingly became the order of the day. The Rightward Imperative continued to operate.
Political violence was to be intensified by the formal establishment in 2009 of the force known as the Helmsmen. This was part of the campaign to promote and enforce the Proclamation of Right (see the next chapter). An important prototype for the Helmsmen was the German Nazi dicta tor Adolf Hitler's Sturmabteilung (SA), the Storm Troopers. The SA was a private army of thugs used primarily to terrorize the center and left opposition before Hitler's official takeover of the German government in 1933.
Preparing the way for the formation of the Helmsmen, a number of the groups that Hague welcomed into the official American Christian Nation Party at the time of its founding had armed wings. While uncoordinated to be sure, for the R"'CA in its later stages and the ACNP in its early one they generally served the purpose that the SA had for Hitler in pre-Nazi Germany. Faced with increasing although unfocussed resistance, the Hagueites needed armed support for repressive purposes. By officially recognizing and indeed embracing them, the successors of the old Republican Party were just continuing at a different level the Rightward Imperative it had experienced for the previous three decades.
The Exclusion of Anti"'Semitism
As discussed by Conroy, the exclusion of anti-Semitism at least from the public ideology of the ACNP if not at the street level, was regarded as essential by the leadership. (It is interesting to note, however, the perhaps unconscious anti-Semitism that slipped into Conroy's prose.) But Right Wing forces had changed their positions on various religions a number of times throughout U.S. history.
For example, during the 20 years prior to the First Civil War, there had existed a far-Right Wing party popularly known as the "Know-Nothings." Officially (and ironically in light of the ethnic group to which the name came to be applied in the latter half of the 20th century), the party was called the Native American Party. Its colloquial name came into use because its members refused to publicly answer questions about what they stood for. This party was violently xenophobic, focusing especially on Irish-Catholic immigrants fleeing the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s.
During one of its periodic resurgences, in the 1920s, the traditionally anti-black racist Ku Klux Klan was also virulently anti-Catholic. It focused especially on relatively recent Catholic arrivals from Italy as well as on Catholic Americans of Irish descent. By the 21st century, however, the ultimate political achievement of Right-Wing Reaction, the American Christian Nation Party, would itself be led by an American Catholic of Irish descent.
On the other side of the coin, in one of the more striking ironies of American history, what some historians consider the best speech ever on the issue of the separation of church and state, the one I quoted from at length at the end of the last chapter, was given by a great American of Irish descent, the first and only Catholic President of pre-fascist times, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Alex Poughton letter
December 31, 2008
Dear Karl,
You may recall that I wrote to you just four years ago this date, commenting on Hague's First Inaugural. I don't know which ad dress, the first or the second, will be considered more depressing by future historians. But I am depressed enough think ing that this poor benighted country has another four years of this guy to endure [16]. The formation of this new "American Christian Nation Party" comes as something of a shock, although I suppose using the retrospectroscope you could have seen it coming. The good news? Hague straddled on the "Christian Nation" issue itself. The bad news? The official welcoming into the party of the goon elements that have been unofficially been providing Hague and his men with street"'muscle for a few years now.
The worst news, I suppose, is that Hague had to form the party at all. He wouldn't have done it if things had been going well here. Noticeable by its absence in his speech is any consideration of the myriad current problems this country faces. Noticeable also by its absence is any presentation, even in the most general terms, of policies he intends to follow to try to deal with them. And he's got to have something in mind, because everything major they've tried so far, each of course supposed to "solve the problem" and "set the country on the right track" hasn't worked. (He could have talked about that too, but somehow I don't think he would have.)
And so, going back with these guys to the 90s, the first Balanced Budget Amendment was supposed to do it; then Term Limits; then the "Real War on Drugs" (the subject of my very first letter to you); then ending that "burdensome immigration" with the Preserve America Amendment; then getting that "meddle some" Supreme Court out of the way with Anderson v. Board of Education; then putting into the Constitution the definition of "when life begins," what can and cannot be taught to kids about sex, a full legal sanction for homophobia, and outlawing freedom of choice in the outcome of pregnancy; then ending any form of "welfare;" then repealing the income tax, having another go at trying to get to a balanced budget by amending the Constitution, making any tax increases virtually impossible, and ensconcing the line"'item veto; then giving the President decree powers (which he has yet to use) and ending the Constitutional prohibition on unreasonable search and seizure (that one, I hear, is being widely used-- but even there, to deal with the apparently rising unrest, they have been rumored to be making use of these unofficial "militias"); then making the "Law of God" supreme, and finally Constitutionally putting God "back in the schools" (although he, or she, has firmly been there since Anderson v. Board of Education).
And of course, nothing "did it" because none of these policies ad dressed any of the underlying problems of this country, that I wrote to you about earlier this year during the election campaign. (And ah yes, the election campaign. The Democrats still didn't get it. They still haven't learned that "me too" doesn't work. And the real left? "Oy," as my Jewish friends are wont to say.)
So anyway, Hague needed some new distraction, and the formation of the ACNP is it. We'll see what comes next, but I can not imagine it will be anything good. At the rate he's going, it could be a full-blown police state.
Well, enough gloom and doom for now.
Your friend, Alex
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Parthenon Pomeroy Diary Entry (January 1, 2009)
We did it, we did it. We're finally going to get on the right track in this country. We've finally got the Party we need. And we're going to have a party. We've got some muscle, if you know what I mean. Now we're going to really be able to deal with the niggers, and the spics, and the f*ggots, and the yids (I don't care what the President says about them, a Jew is a yid and a yid is a yid). We've always known God is on our side. And now we've told Him so. This is going to fix things up all right. This is what we need to get America to where it ought to be, to what it can be, to what it always was and always will be. Thanks, God, and thanks Pat, too.
References:
ACLU: American Civil Liberties Union fundraising letter, quoting Rev. Pat Robertson, 1992.
Berke, R.L., "Religion Issue Stirs Noise in G.O.P. Governors' 'Tent," The New York Times, Nov. 18, 1992.
Berke, R.L., "Dole Works on Expansion Of a Conservative Resume," New York Times, April 12, 1995.
Blumenthal, S., "Christian Soldiers," The New Yorker, July 18, 1994, p. 31.
Bradsher, K., "Gap in Wealth In U.S. Called Widest in West," New York Times, April 17, 1995.
Butterfield, F., "New Prisons Cast Shadow Over Higher Education," New York Times, April 17, 1995.
Clarkson, F., "Neither a Juggernaut Nor a Joke," Freedom Writer, October/November, 1993.
Egan, T., "Many Seek Security in Private Communities," New York Times, Sept. 3, 1995, p. 1.
Falwell, J., "America is a Christian Nation!," Drawing Closer, Vol. 1, No. 7, 1993.
Foxman, A.H., Fund"'raising letter, New York: Anti"'Defamation League, Jan., 1994.
Freedom Watch, "Exploring the Myth and Reality of 'Christian America'," Vol. 4, No. 3, March, 1995.
Freedom Writer, "Reed Masks Coalition's True Agenda," Feb. 1995, p. 3.
HRC, House Republican Conference, Contract With America, Washington, DC: September 27, 1994.
Fournier, K.A., A House United?, Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress, 1994, p. 33.
Judis, J.B., "The Jobless recovery," The New Republic, March 15, 1995, p. 20.
Kramer, M., "Will the Real Bob Dole Please Stand Up?" Time, November 30, 1995, p. 59.
Monaghan, T.P., "Nosophobia," Law and Justice (American Center for Law and Justice) Vol. 3, No. 1, 1994.
Niebuhr, G., "Gramm, on Stump, Invokes the Second Coming of Christ," New York Times, September 20, 1995.
Porteous, S., "OR founder calls for a 'Christian nation,' " Freedom Writer, Sept., 1995, p. 1.
Rich, F., "Bait and Switch, II," New York Times, April 6, 1995.
Sloan, J., "A hidden agenda?" Freedom Writer, April, 1995, p. 1.
Thurow, L. C., "Companies Merge; Families Break Up," New York Times, September 3, 1995.
Time, "Chronicles: An Olive Branch," April 17, 1995, p. 16.
Toward Tradition, "Should Jews Fear the 'Christian Right'?" (an advertise ment), New York Times, August 2, 1994.
Wright, R., "Who's Really to Blame?" Time, November 6, 1995, p. 33.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author's Notes:
1. There is no indication or evidence that the Christian Coalition, Keith Fournier, R.J. Rushdooney, Thomas P. Monaghan, the Rev. Pat Robertson, Kirk For dyce, Randall Terry, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Mr. Robert Flood, Mrs. Cheryl Gillaspie, Mr. Robert Simonds, Focus on the Family, or any other organization, or any of the other historical personages mentioned in the "Hague Second Inaugural," else where in this chapter or elsewhere in this book in a similar manner, would have sup ported or approved of any of the thoughts, positions, or actions taken by Jefferson Davis Hague or any member, employee, or associate of his government, either of the U.S. or the NAR, or of any of the events that occurred in the United States or the New American Republics subsequent to the delivery of the Hague Second Inaugural Address and the implementation of the policies carried out pursuant to it.
2. "Liberalism," however one wanted to define it, had long"'since lost whatever force it once had to influence the direction the country was taking. Nevertheless, it and its supporters, the "liberalniggerlovers" as Curley Oakwood liked to call them, were still blamed by the Right-Wing Reactionaries for virtually all of the ills of the time they cared to identify. As noted previously, during the Transition Era Right"'Wing Reaction had used something they called "The Counter"'Culture" in much the same way.
Right-Wing Reaction's common political strategy, described previously, was to first demonize and then blame "the other" for whatever troubles they wished to focus the public's attention on. At the same time, as we have noted previously, they neither de fined precisely what they were talking about as "the enemy" nor proved in any way that whatever or whomever the identified enemy was had in fact caused the harms Right"'Wing Reaction identified with it.
Whatever the "Counter"'Culture" really was or had been, by the time of the Reagan Presidency it had lost whatever national influence it had had. However, absent people and absent movements both find it difficult to either defend or pro mote them selves. That was the case for both the "Counter"'Culture" and the "liberals" during the times they were, respectively, the leading targets for Right"'Wing Reaction. But my, what convenient targets they did provide.
3. At the time Fournier wrote this passage, the "church" he was referring to was the Catholic Church, a fact omitted from the quoted pas sage. But by the time Hague was quoting the text, the dominant Christian Church in the old U.S., supported by most members of the old Religious Right, Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish, was that of the homogeneous, but definitely Far Right, New American Religion.
4 As a past chairman of the House American Morality Committee (see Chapter six), Hague would speak with special feeling on this point.
5. Hague was referring here not to the traditional "forefathers" from the time of the founding of the nation, but rather to prominent Transition Era figures representing Right"'Wing Reaction, especially of the religious variety.
6. Some extensive sleuthing found Robertson originally making this statement on a 1990 Christian Coalition recruiting video called "America at the Cross roads." The nascent campaign Robertson was describing lead directly to the development of "The 15% Solution." The creation of the ACNP can be seen as the eventual, logical, outcome of the whole process.
7. Neither the Pledge nor the currency said precisely which or whose God was being referred to. The Declaration mentions God but once, in the context of Nature, but emphasizes "our Creator," a rather different concept, popular with the Deists who wrote and signed the document. But that didn't stop Falwell from making a leap of faith from "Creator" to "God" to a "Christian God" to a "Christian God with the characteristics I, Jerry Falwell, attribute to Him." And it was a "him," you can be sure.
8. Colorado Springs was a central focus of Right-Wing Reactionary activity in the old U.S. For example, it was the home of the organization that in 1992 put together the famous homophobic "Amendment 2" that became the prototype for much of the homophobic legislation that spread nationally over the following two decades (see the next chapter.) Colorado Springs was also home to the courageous early Constitutionalist organization, the "Citizens' Project."
9. During the Transition Era, some members of the old Republican Party had developed the "Big Tent" concept in an at tempt to keep both pro- and anti-freedom-of-choice-in-the-outcome-of-pregnancy but otherwise r actionary elements in the party. That attempt ultimately proved to be in vain, as the "Rightward Imperative" (see below) took effect. This second Big Tent strategy of Hague's was much more successful.
10. The "Christian flag" at this time was the old U.S. flag with a Christian cross emblazoned on the field of red and white stripes. At a January, 1994 training conference for Religious Right activists called "Reclaiming America," looking at such a flag, a former Vice-President of the old U.S., J. Danforth Quayle, lead the crowd in reciting the Pledge with which Hague concluded his speech (Blumenthal).
11. The apocalyptic concept of the "Second Coming" of Jesus Christ, based on the Book of Revelation and part of the theology of many an evangelical preacher like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, had begun to make its appearance in the rhetoric of Republican political candidates late in the Transition Era. For example, Senator Phil Gramm, a Far Right candidate for the 1996 Republican Presidential nomination, said in a 1995 fund"'raising letter (Niebuhr): "I ask you to fight tirelessly and when you are too tired to go on, re member that there is only one person who has ever lived whose values we would be willing to see imposed on America. And when He comes back, He's not going to need Government's help to get the job done."
12. "Off the shelf" is a term the arch Right-Wing Reactionary William Casey, President Ronald Reagan's first Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, used to describe an extra-legal right-wing foreign insurgency instigation and support group he had put together during his tenure at the CIA.
13. The swastika or hakenkreutz ("crooked cross" in German) was the symbol of the German Nazi Party between 1933 and 1945.
14. The Hagueites commonly referred to that tiny, but very visible, vocal, and influential minority of the American Jewish community that supported Right"'Wing Reaction as "Real Jews." Their leading organization by this time, "Jews for Christ and Tradition," was officially welcomed into the ACNP coalition by Hague in his speech. The traditionally Constitutionalist Jewish community, representing a majority of American Jews, was referred to as "the Renegade Jews."
15. The phrase "a wink and a nod" came from the practice President Reagan had used to give his approval for "unofficial" governmental activities of questionable legality without committing anything to paper, and oftentimes not saying anything directly at all to those on the operational level, even privately.
16. Poughton had no way of knowing that the country would have coming many more than four more years of Hague.
(Article changed on Jun 03, 2024 at 5:52 PM EDT)
(Article changed on Jun 03, 2024 at 9:30 PM EDT)
(Article changed on Jun 04, 2024 at 8:19 AM EDT)
