>From NLNS Packet 2.9 - 11 May 1992 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Right Wing Populism Invades Oregon Scot Nakagawa, The Student Insurgent (NLNS)--As Oregonians prepare to face off with the Oregon Citizens Alliance over the Abnormal Behaviors Initiative, it is critical that we take the time to look at the history of the OCA, understand how they have built a power base in Oregon, and examine the implications of their larger agenda. While we understand the OCA's attacks against gay men, bisexuals, and lesbians to be abominable, we cannot afford to fall into the trap of moralizing over political issues. Democracy needs facts; it is up to us to provide the facts necessary to empower Oregonians to make informed decisions regarding the OCA. The information provided here is a first step in that direction. Over the past few years we have witnessed the collapse of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, lurid sex and financial scandals involving the T.V. ministries of the Bakkers and Jimmy Swaggart, and locally, the fall from grace of the (prescription) dope-taking and gunslinging Drew Davis, the one-time Oregon representative of the American Freedom Coalition. Many hoped that the Christian right-wing movement was mortally wounded. Groups like the Oregon Citizens Alliance which share the fundamentalist beliefs of much of the Christian Right leadership became associated with these scandals, and were dismissed by many as a fanatical fringe organization. But while the Moral Majority has faded and the scandals died down, new leaders of the drive to the right have arisen. These new leaders coordinate the activities of politically committed and ideologically trained Christian Right activists, involving them in a form of jihad,or religious war, against the deterioration of the economic base and social life of American society. For these activist Christian right-wingers, the source of the national economic crisis, the changing structure of the American family, the proliferation of drug trade and abuse, social violence, and AIDS can be traced to homosexuals, feminists, the poor, people of color, and communists. These groups, Christian right-wingers say, want "special rights," and the demands they feel are made on this basis are, in their view, sowing the seeds of destruction of society. The Oregon Citizens Alliance is the premier Christian Right group in Oregon. The following reveals some preliminary findings of the Coalition for Human Dignity concerning the Oregon Citizens Alliance. The Oregon Citizens Alliance grew out of Joe Lutz's 1986 GOP senatorial campaign in which Lutz lost in the primary to Bob Packwood after garnering 42% of the vote. Lutz, together with his campaign aides Lon Mabon [who now directs the OCA], Dick Younts, and T.J. Bailey, officially founded the OCA in 1987 in Klamath Falls, Oregon. T.J. Bailey was then chair of the Oregon Republican Party. The original mission of the OCA was to act as a group which could support the candidacies of Christian Right activists. Originally, the OCA was headquartered in the Klamath Falls home of Lon and Bonnie Mabon. During this period, the OCA was a significant force in the Oregon Republican Party, but by no means a major force in the state. However, OCA activists did for a brief time control the selection of delegates to the Republican National Convention in 1988. While their base within the Oregon Republican Party has diminished somewhat, their efforts outside the party have grown greatly. On May 1, 1988, the OCA moved its headquarters to its present location in Wilsonville, Oregon, where it was felt the organization would be strategically positioned at the halfway point between Salem (the seat of State government) and Portland. Since their founding, the OCA has been involved in a number of different organizing efforts. The OCA has opposed a state-aided pre-kindergarten program on the grounds that it interfered with the family; they opposed state divestment from corporations active in South Africa on the grounds that divestment would hurt minorities; and they opposed parental leave as anti-business. All these measures passed in spite of OCA opposition. In 1988, however, the OCA introduced a campaign we now remember as Ballot Measure 8. The goal of the campaign was to rescind then governor Neil Goldshmidt's executive order banning discrimination against gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals in public employment. After several delays, the OCA initiated their drive to collect the 63,578 signatures necessary to support the ballot measure. They gathered 118,000 signatures in 68 days, with top signature gatherers posing for pictures in t-shirts bearing slogans like "I love Jesus." This homophobic campaign would eventuate in the first major victory for the OCA. The Oregonian polled voters early in the Measure 8 campaign and found that 58% of voters polled agreed with Goldschmidt's executive order banning discrimination against lesbians and gay men in public employment, and 60% said they would support state laws banning most discrimination based on sexual orientation. Despite these poll results, the OCA won with Measure 8 passing by a margin of 626,751 to 561,355 votes. This would not be the last time someone underestimated the political impact of the Oregon Citizen's Alliance. In 1989, the OCA sponsored House Bill 3211, which would have prevented gay men and lesbians from being certified as foster parents. The bill was blocked in committee and never came to a vote. However, in the course of this campaign, the OCA was further able to develop and consolidate its anti-lesbian and gay constituency through educational campaigns linking homosexuality with child molestation and the deterioration of "family values." In 1990, the OCA sponsored a ballot measure to eliminate what they call "convenience abortions." The measure lost, but not before further eroding support for choice in Oregon. During these same elections, the OCA introduced their vice-chair Al Mobley as a "pro-life" Independent in the Oregon gubernatorial race because, they claimed, Republican candidate Frohnmeyer, and Democrat candidate Roberts, both pro-choice, "give voters practically no choice in political philosophies," and are "far to the left" of voters. Through these efforts the OCA has demonstrated that it has built a strong and relatively well-organized base in Oregon. One way in which the OCA has been able to build their organization has been through the use of radio and print media. This year the OCA brought in new communications director Scott Lively to manage a campaign called The Media Project. As a result of the project, the publication of the OCA's newspaper went from quarterly to monthly, and began using commercial and classified advertisements. Concurrently, the OCA's capacity to pressure the media has risen. The OCA's tactic of harassing the mainstream media has also been successful. Most recently, The Oregonian gave front page coverage to the new influence of Lon Mabon and the OCA in Oregon politics. The story followed a call to boycott the newspaper. Numbers of subscribers who have as a result boycotted the paper has not been released by The Oregonian. The ideological positions expressed throughout the OCA newspaper, and the campaigns which the OCA has run, are largely developed and tested by nationally-based Christian Right-wing groups that provide leadership to grassroots groups like the OCA throughout the U.S. While the OCA itself has a relatively small treasury, millions of dollars annually from corporate donors and evangelical ministries go into the major think tanks of the Christian Right from which emanate political strategies like the "traditional family values" and "No Special Rights" campaigns. These same think tanks are extremely active in the foreign policy arena (aid to the contras; opposition to sanctions against South Africa, etc.) and on environmental issues. Most single issues, from prayer in schools and anti-choice activism to opposition to Euthanasia and strong support for private property are explored through these think tanks and put forward by the OCA and its array of single issue groups. The OCA serves as the legislative vehicle and political umbrella for bringing political institutions under the discipline of Christian fundamentalism. In January 1991, the OCA announced that the Rutherford Institute, one of the most influential right wing legal groups in the U.S. with chapters in 31 states, had landed in Oregon. OCA attorney Melanie Mansell is president of the Oregon chapter. The Rutherford Institute shares the Christian Right movement's anti-choice, anti-gay, and anti-democratic political agenda. The group has been active in introducing prayer in public schools, and works to diminish separation of church and state. The Rutherford Institute has also been a powerful force in the fight to undermine National Endowment for the Arts funding for feminist, gay male and lesbian artistic expression, and art forms which are critical of fundamentalist Christianity. In particular, the institute has filed suit against the NEA to bar a multi-media exhibit by David Wojnarowicz called "Tongues of Flame," and opposes all funding for what it characterizes as "blasphemous and sacreligious hate material." Other national right-wing groups to which the OCA is connected include the Heritage Foundation and the American Freedom Coalition, a front group for the Unification Church ("Moonies"). Although visible OCA leadership is overwhelmingly male (chauvinist), women also play an activist role within a number of OCA connected groups. The OCA is the primary organizer of the Coalition of Women for Traditional Values. The coalition includes Sandra Nelson, Oregon president of the Eagle Forum, and Julie Birdseye, Oregon president of Concerned Women for America. Also represented in the coalition are the Valley Prayer Chain, and the OCA, through their Director of Research Pat Smith. The Eagle Forum is a national organization headed by anti- feminist reactionary Phyllis Schlafly. The Eagle Forum has been credited with playing a critical role in the defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment. More influential, however, is Concerned Women for America, headed nationally by Beverly LaHaye, who has been instrumental in bringing women into an active and militant role within Christian Right groups. The Concerned Women for America has provided leadership among women and youth in the "pro-family" movement, and has been active in the foreign and military policy arena, supporting contra aid and right wing propaganda ministries in Asia and and Latin America. Concerned Women for America has also been active in the fight against "secular humanism" in public institutions, and against legalized abortion, pay equity for women, and gay and lesbian rights. CWA's budget for 1987 was six million dollars and their organizational structure is grassroots, with "kitchen table activists" organized into prayer groups and phone trees, and members committed to performing simple but effective tasks like phoning and writing government officials. The OCA is also tied to the Oregon Association of Evangelicals, organizer of Pastors' Day at the Capitol, and Advocates for Life, Oregon's largest anti-choice lobby. OCA member and Oregon Alliance columnist Paul DeParrie is a writer for the national anti- choice magazine The Advocate, which is based in Portland. Many campaigns such as the Abnormal Behaviors Initiative are loosely coordinated by major right wing think tanks among which is the American Coalition for Traditional Values. ACTV was founded in 1983 as an umbrella group for registering evangelical Christian voters for the 1984 Reagan-Bush reelection committee. At that time the group was funded largely by TV ministries. Tim LaHaye, husband of Concerned Women for America leader Beverly LaHaye, founded ACTV. Tim LaHaye was the first president of the Council for National Policy, a highly secretive coalition which includes the major New Right corporate executives, ranking government and military leaders, legislators, TV preachers, and Christian Right intellectuals. The ACTV has close ties to the Heritage Foundation, the most influential right wing think tank in the U.S., which was founded by union buster and John Birch Society member Joseph Coors . It is interesting to note that although the Christian Right nationally is supported by major corporations, the Coors Corporation and Hunt Silver notably among them, the OCA itself is supported mainly by smaller businesses and middle income individuals. The OCA's budget is relatively small (they started out with the Abnormal Behaviors Initiative campaign about $10,000 in debt) and they are not well networked into the usual status quo conservative corporate circles. However, this could change rapidly if they develop a broader base of support in Oregon. During the recent war in the Gulf, the OCA was the organizer of a series of rallies to demonstrate support for U.S. military intervention in the Middle East. This was possibly the most significant step they have yet taken in broadening their organizing tactics, scope of issues, and base of support. Where other, more mainstream Oregon Republicans and Democrats confined their support for the war to speechifying, votes and an occasional television spot, the OCA took to the streets through their "Homefront Coalition." The OCA has never mobilized so many people. By July 4th, the OCA had managed to bring out thousands and they were rewarded with a portion of the city government backing their "Defenders of Liberty Parade." In the same way as a portion of the white supremacist movement postures as a radical, grassroots defender of the white worker or small business person who feel overtaxed, under-represented and debt-ridden, the OCA is clearly in a position to solidify its right to be the standard-bearer of "Traditional Family Values."--at least how they, and others of the fundamentalist variety, define such values. On May 21,1991, the OCA publicly announced their intention to start a petition drive to collect the 89,000 signatures necessary to support the Abnormal Behaviors Initiative. Based on our research on the Christian Right nationally, and the OCA locally, there are a number of conclusions we can draw about this latest effort. In the most immediate sense, this campaign seems to be an effort to discredit Senate Bill 708. More generally, we believe this initiative is one more step along the road towards permanent institutional change in Oregon, across issues as diverse as separation of church and state, the relative rapacity of capital, Affirmative Action, immigration, and of course control over women's bodies. The OCA seeks to do this by capitalizing on their success with Measure 8 two years ago, and using this latest initiative to consolidate their constituency, building a solid, organized anti-gay block. This block may represent a minority of voters, but it can be used strategically to affect outcomes that will give the OCA more power than the actual size of its constituency may seem to merit. The gubernatorial candidacy of Al Mobley is an example of this tactic. The OCA ran Mobley as an independent to punish the republican party candidate Frohnmeyer for not taking anti-choice and anti-gay positions. By doing so, they gave the election to Barbara Roberts, who won the battle but lost the war, with the majority of votes going to more conservative candidates. As a result, the OCA has now formed an alliance with republican Bob Packwood. Packwood has made concessions to the OCA's radical right wing agenda, while the OCA has promised not to run a candidate against him. Packwood, reading the proverbial writing on the bathroom wall, scampered to the right to save his constituency from jumping ship if the OCA were to run a candidate in his upcoming Senate race. Packwood's capitulation to the divide and conquer tactics of the OCA has a parallel in Louisiana. There, the Republican party has condemned David Duke, the former American Nazi Party member and Klansman who has held a seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives, while simultaneously moving closer to Duke's Nazi political agenda to maintain their support among white voters. As long as Duke consistently brings in the white vote, his ability to affect mainstream politics will extend far beyond his ability to win elections. Similarly, whether or not the OCA gets the majority of votes in this campaign, we could lose, both politically and ideologically. The efforts of the OCA's pro-democratic opposition should not be aimed at winning by a hair, because in the ways we have described above, this would most likely consolidate the OCA's strategic position vis-a- vis other Republican forces. The OCA can lose in numbers but win politically. Additionally, opposition forces must be aware that by making such overtly bigoted statements, the OCA threatens to change the character of political discourse concerning gay and lesbian equality by pushing the terms of the debate to the right and making reactionary anti-gay bigotry a more legitimate form of political expression. Through this campaign, the OCA is contributing to the growing problem of anti-gay and lesbian violence by popularizing and legitimizing the bigotry expressed by bashers. Sources: CHD Research Associates, Center for Democratic Renewal (Atlanta, GA), Political Research Associates (Cambridge, MA), Spiritual Warfare: The Politics of the Christian Right, by Sarah Diamond, The Data Center (Oakland, CA). Scot Nakagawa is Program Coordinator of the Coalition for Human Dignity,P.O. Box 40344, Portland, OR 97420. The Student Insurgent can be reached at University of Oregon, EMU Suite 1, Eugene OR 97403; (503) 346-3716.