THIS FAR AND NO FURTHER
A Timeline of Events Surrounding the Radical Right's Attempt to Subvert American Democracy
Written and Compiled by Black Max
1993
Early 1993
- Chief Moshood Abiola is elected to the presidency of Nigeria,
Oil profiteering and the "oiligarchy"
but a military coup led by General Ibrahim Babangida denies him the office. Instead, Abiola is jailed. Babangida is soon replaced in a coup by General Sani Abacha, who rules Nigeria as a dictator with the overt support of the US oil industry until his death in June 1998. (Contemporary African Database, BBC, Amy and David Goodman) - Neoconservative eminence Irving Kristol declares ideological war on what he calls "the liberal ethos,"
Neoconservatives
in a statement that resounds with meaning among American neocons and conservative ideologues, but is ignored, to their great cost, by liberals and moderates. Kristol writes that the demise of the Soviet Union gives the opportunity for another battle to be engaged: a battle against liberalism. "There is no 'after the Cold War' for me. So far from having ended, my Cold War has increased in intensity, as sector after sector has been ruthlessly corrupted by the liberal ethos. Now that the other 'Cold War' is over, the real Cold War has begun. We are far less prepared for this Cold War, far more vulnerable to our enemy, than was the case with our victorious war against a global Communist threat." (David Brock/Frances Fox Piven) - Jeremiah Films, the creator of glossy right-wing Christian documentaries such as The Evolution Conspiracy (which "exposes" evolution as a scientific hoax propagated by "atheists, [H]indu mystics, and The New Age")
Whitewater/Lewinsky and related "scandals"
and the anti-Halloween screed Halloween, Trick or Treat? (alleging that the holiday is a plot to entice children into practicing "Pagan Occultism") produce a 40-minute documentary attacking the Clinton economic plan. Titled The Crash: The Coming Financial Collapse of America, the film tells viewers that Clinton's proposed economic policies will, in eight years, force the US Treasury to default on the then-enormous national debt, hyperinflation will render the dollar worthless (thereby putting the US at the mercy of Japanese bankers), the inner cities will be engulfed in flames, American citizens will spend hours a day in breadlines, and American democracy will be subverted in favor of a Hitler-like dictatorship. The film gains credence among conservatives because of narration and contributions from, among others, former attorney general Edwin Meese, former House Republican William Dannemeyer, and sitting US senator Trent Lott. The film urges a "spiritual revolution" and recommends citizens stockpile food. The film's producers and backers, most notably Pat Matrisciana of the tax-exempt Citizens for Honest Government, belong to a highly secretive and influential religious/political group called the Council for National Policy. (This group is discussed in detail in the They Said It page of this Web site.) The group, founded by, among others, evangelist and author Tim LaHaye, is comprised of powerful Republican lawmakers and evangelical, fundamentalist Christians such as LaHaye, Meese, Dannemeyer, Lott, Jesse Helms, Lauch Faircloth, Don Nickles, John Kyl, Bob Dornan, Tom DeLay, Dick Armey, Dan Burton, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Paul Weyrich, Gary Bauer, Phyllis Schlafly, Floyd Brown, Larry Klayman, Ralph Reed, and Oliver North; it is subsidized largely through the largesse of right-wing financiers such as the Coors and DeVos (of Amway fame) families, and Colorado businessman Foster Friess. The CNP exists to promote Christian Reconstructionism (see the They Said It page), empower far-right Republicans, and thwart Democrats and liberals, with the ultimate goal of replacing American constitutional democracy with what is, in essence, a Christian theocracy. The CNP and Matrisciana will soon join forces with veteran Clinton-basher and con artist Larry Nichols to attack the character and the presidency of Bill Clinton. (Joe Conason and Gene Lyons) - Throughout 1993, Republican political operator Karl Rove is preparing his newest candidate, George W. Bush, for Bush's run for the Texas governor's seat.
George W. Bush
In an interview with reporters, Bush tells a seemingly off-the-cuff anecdote about his conversion to born-again Christianity, and in the process, says that he believes that to reach heaven, a person must accept Jesus Christ as his savior, period; he even spoke at length with evangelical Christian minister Billy Graham, and, according to Bush, everything Graham told him validated his beliefs. After the anecdote is published in the Houston Post, Bush endures heavy criticism from a number of Jewish leaders and organizations, particularly the Jewish Anti-Defamation League. Following Rove's advice, Bush refuses to back off from his explicitly Christian espousal. This is a calculated political move by Rove: of the 10 million people in Texas, only 100,000 of them are Jewish, and Christian fundamentalists are emerging as a powerful political force, particularly on the right. Rove's simple math tells him that Bush can win thousands of Christian fundamentalists' votes for the relatively small cost of alienating the politically less important Jewish voters in Texas. - In the long run, however, Bush's hardline Christianity, and its implied intolerance of other faiths, will prove more troubling politically, and Rove is perfectly aware of this. Rove's long-range goal is to run Bush for president in 2000 after having Bush serve two terms in Austin, and to do this, he wants to secure significant support from the more conservative elements among the Jewish electorate. He plans to achieve this, not by having Bush express a public acceptance of Jewish beliefs, but by tilting Bush, a complete naif when it comes to foreign affairs, towards a total acceptance and support of Israel, which will attract some Jewish voters as well as play well with the conservative Christian base Rove is building for his candidate -- said Christians believing that Israel is vital to the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. But this is too much for Texas in 1994. Instead, Rove plays to the Christian base in Texas by having Bush quietly endure the criticisms of the ADL, the American Jewish Congress, and even the influential American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
- In 1999, when Rove is working towards garnering Bush the Republican nomination for president, he has Bush change his tone. Bush begins expressing a more accepting outlook towards Jewish beliefs, saying that he "generally agree[s]" with the Bible's injunctions of the necessity of accepting Christ as one's savior. Interestingly, his story of his discussions with Graham even changes: now Graham is said to have warned Bush, "I want to remind [you] to never play God," which Bush translates for the public, "Listen to the New Testament but don't be harshly judgmental of others." When it is politically expedient for Bush to dismiss the Jews as religiously incorrect, he does so, and that stance helps him win the governorship in 1994. When it becomes more expedient to stop excluding Jews, Muslims, and others from salvation five years later, he will become "troubled if people misinterpreted his remarks to indicate anything other than his great respect for people of different faiths." In 1998, Bush tells the head of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, that he "regrets having said it" and "regrets even more the way it was interpreted." But Bush, on Rove's advice, doesn't go public with his belated mea culpa: that might work against him with the all-important Christian voters. Instead, Bush writes a letter to Foxman and the ADL that works to keep the story out of the national media, but discreetly gets the word out to Jewish voters. Bush tells Foxman in the letter that he is "troubled that some people were hurt" by his declaration that only Christians can get to heaven.
- The letter works for many, but not all, Jewish organizations, but Rove decides that the letter is enough to shore up Bush's battlements, and he begins working on raising Bush's profile on Israel. In 1998, Bush is not only thoroughly ignorant of foreign affairs, but completely uninterested, having limited his experience with foreign leaders to occasinal meetings with Mexican leaders who shared some of his concerns over economic issues along the border. He has two years to establish himself as an ardent supporter of Israel; more than enough time for Rove to do his work. But Bush slips again in an interview with the same reporter from 1993, Ken Herman (who himself is Jewish). Bush and Herman have built a chummy, frat-boy relationship with one another; Herman has an irreverent wit, and Bush feels comfortable making wisecracks and asides with the reporter that generally never make it into print. But, at a campaign event in New Orleans, Bush makes a wisecrack that he may have meant as self-deprecating. "You know what I'm going to tell those Jews when I get to Israel, don't you?" he asks, and answers himself, "I'm tellin' 'em they're all going to hell." Herman laughs, but on reflection, feels bound to report the aside. Bush's wisecrack, self-mocking as it may have been, is on the public record, and such unguarded comments often reveal more about the politician than a thousand scripted speeches and press conferences. (And Bush is far more scripted than any politician in Herman's experience.)
- Herman doesn't report the comment immediately, but later reports it, burying it deep in a story he files for the Austin American-Statesman. Nevertheless, the story attracts the attention of Karen Hughes, Bush's communications director, who summons him to the governor's mansion for a "chat." Bush isn't angry with Herman, but tells him indirectly that their relationship has changed. Bush has learned, somewhat, that he can't have that kind of relationship with Herman or any reporter, where he can make off-color and questionable comments of any kind and expect that none of them will be reported.
- The wisecrack disturbs Foxman, whom Herman calls for a comment. It shakes Foxman's hope that Bush had grown past his intolerance of other faiths. Foxman tells the reporter, "Religion is serious. This is a religious country. People take their beliefs seriously. Comedians can joke about it. I think serious people, people in leadership positions, people who set a role model for behavior and values cannot. That's something not to joke about."
- Interestingly, Rove, who sets about mending fences with the offended Jewish community, realizes that the gaffe has won Bush points with the Christian conservatives, so Rove, who has already scheduled a trip to Israel for his candidate, makes sure Bush doesn't offer any public apologies or retractions. Instead, Rove ensures that Bush is photographed at Jerusalem's Western Wall, wearing a traditional yarmulke, and cancels a planned visit to a Jewish settlement in the disputed West Bank. Bush makes a highly public visit to the Holocaust Museum and a photo-op visit with Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon. The visit to Israel is widely viewed as Bush's first campaign event of his as-yet-unannounced bid for the presidency, though publicly he still insists he hasn't made up his mind about any such candidacy. When he returns from Israel, he writes another letter to Foxman, backing away more overtly from his previous insistence that heaven is just for Christians. "I regret the concern caused by my statement and reassure you and the Jewish community that you have my deepest respect." Foxman is properly mollified, telling reporters, "The matter of his 1993 statement is now behind us."
- The anti-Jewish gaffe turns out to be a "strategically positive mistake," in the words of authors James Moore and Wayne Slater, "because it had increased turnout of Christian fundamentalist voters in Texas." Rove is walking a narrow line between mobilizing Christian leaders to exhort their flocks to vote for Bush -- leaders like Bailey Smith, one of Pat Robertson's co-founders of the Christian Coalition, who publicly said, "God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew," and many other Christian activists, including Robertson, who frequently are accused of anti-Semitic stances -- and conservative, pro-Israel Jews who are routinely and deeply offended by the hateful anti-Semitic comments and statements from the Christians whom Rove considers Bush's base. But both fundamentalist Christians and many Jews are strongly behind the pre-eminence of Israel (though for very different reasons, with Jews desiring the restoration of Jewish influence and power in the world, and fundamentalist Christians seeing the 1946 creation of Israel as a harbinger of the End Times), and the electoral joining of these two quite disparate blocs of voters will help Bush win the presidency. Perhaps more importantly, American Jews, who make up only 2% of the population, are one of the most important sources of campaign contributions to Democrats. Interrupting that flow of money is a key element of Rove's campaign strategy.
- To make this happen, in 1995, shortly after Bush begins his first term as Texas's governor, Rove sends Christian political leader Ralph Reed into the Jewish community to mend some fences on Bush's behalf. Reed has made his own share of inflammatory and anti-Semitic remarks, but in 1995, Reed tells Jewish leaders that many religious conservatives have been "insensitive and have lacked a full understanding of the horrors experienced by the Jewish people," a carefully nuanced message designed to placate Jewish leaders without alienating Christians. Indeed, Reed juxtaposes the suffering of Jews with the "oppression" experienced by Christians, and says, "Let me be clear: the Christian Coalition believes in a nation that is not officially Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. A nation where the separation of church and state is inviolable," a far cry from his earlier, more intolerant and overtly Dominionist remarks. He even quotes liberal Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas in saying that America is made up of "a religious people whose system of government presupposes a Supreme Being," but seeks to cast the fight in mutual terms as a battle that "requires all the hands it can find."
- Reed's speech is broadcast over C-SPAN, and not any of the national news carriers, but the message resounds in the American Jewish community. "It was an extraordinary moment," says author and researcher Frederick Clarkson, an expert on America's religious right. "The media was asleep on that one. A detente was struck. And you can't really overstate its importance."
- After Bush wins the presidency, and Rove begins working the 9/11 crisis for maximum political gain, Bush will become even more pro-Israel. Before the attacks, Bush had kept his distance from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After the attacks, he begins extolling the virtues of a strong and secure Israel in almost Biblical terms. One moment illustrates Bush's new intemperance on the Palestinian question. When Ariel Sharon visits the White House during their initial meeting, Bush asks Sharon bluntly if Israel plans to assassinate Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. "No, you can't do that," Bush tells Sharon, who is taken aback by the question. "If you do, you make an enemy of the United States, immediately, for the rest of your life. I'm telling you, you can't do that." Bush then says, "If he needs killing, I'll do it." Now Bush's default position for anything in the Middle East is to support Israel. Rove's plan to have Bush transform himself into an aggressively pro-Israel world leader (regardless of Bush's empty threat to Sharon) has succeeded. Bush has won both votes and campaign dollars from American Jews, and at the same time has raised his stock with the religious right. This also fits nicely with the neoconservative goal for America to become a dominant military power and influence in the Middle East. "It was a dangerous, provocative approach to shoring up domestic political support for the president," Moore and Slater observe. But it wins elections for Rove. (James Moore and Wayne Slater)
