Eliot Sherman: Far right in the wrong

In this day and age, we almost take it for granted that the extreme right is much more politically powerful than the extreme left. Limousine liberals aside, it's a sure bet who would win in a fight: "praise the Lord and pass the ammunition" versus "crank Phish on the stereo and let's ignite this spliff." Liberals are tree-hugging, pinko apologist crybabies. Conservatives are gun-toting, Bible-thumping, redneck rampagers. All stereotypes aside, the extent to which the far religious right has crept up and put a stranglehold on American politics while the left has rolled over and died is much greater than most people think. Starting at the top, the president is a fundamentalist. This is a bad thing, because a fundamentalist anything is bad; from fundamentalist militant Islam to fundamentalist vegetarians, anyone who utterly refuses to compromise and rejects everything but a narrow view of reality is difficult to deal with, to say the least. Fundamentalism in a president, however, is nothing short of crippling. In 1993, Bush told an Austin reporter that only people who accepted Jesus as their savior were going to heaven. What does that say for the Middle East peace process? Are the Israelis good and Palestinians evil, or vice versa? Maybe we shouldn't even bother, since none of them are going to heaven anyway. Two days after Sept. 11, on Pat Robertson's television show, Rev. Jerry Falwell declared, "God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve." Robertson concurred, and Falwell went on to blame the attack on abortion, homosexuals, feminists and the ACLU. Falwell sincerely believes that he is on a mission from God to purge America of everyone he disagrees with. It may be easy to dismiss these attitudes as the solitary opinions of the far right, but that would be incorrect. Do not underestimate this constituency; Bush the first did, and it cost him. Bush the second will not make that mistake. A clear case for this is the Rebekah Home for delinquent girls in Texas, first reported on by Texas Monthly. For years, the institution has served as a bizarre combination of cult and concentration camp, a biblical re-education center for girls whose parents often had no idea of the true nature of the place; it was sold as a boarding school with an emphasis on religious teaching. There were listening devices placed in every room, mail and phone calls censored and regulated and everything worldly (that is, non-scriptural) was strictly forbidden. Punishments included beatings, being forbidden to speak for weeks and the dreaded "lockup" for weeks or months at a time, a solitary confinement chamber with no windows or furniture into which the evangelical headmaster's sermons were piped 24 hours a day. Rebekah was allowed to reopen in 1999 (after being previously shut down under suspicions of abuse) because then-Governor Bush bullied a provision through the Texas legislature by which "faith-based" facilities were exempted from state licensing and review. Fortunately, the Texas legislature later reversed that decision, against the expressed wishes of its governor. At the edge of this extreme sits the Council of Conservative Citizens, promoting a mild form of white supremacy: KKK light, if you will. Indeed, in its heyday, many members overlapped both institutions. One of these men was Byron De La Beckwith, a charming man who shot activist Medgar Evers to death on his doorstep while his family watched. While the CCC is less radical religion and more racism, its extremist, uncompromising views and powerful political influence make it a similar beast. It claims 20,000 members nationwide, who have been called "sharks in the mainstream"; instead of dressing in hoods and burning crosses, they dress in suits and set policy. John Ashcroft and Trent Lott have both been criticized for meeting with the group (Lott allegedly wrote a column for its publication for a year or so before proceeding to vehemently deny that he knew anything about its ideology when confronted.). I like to think of Republicans as the noble opposition. Sure, we disagree, but only in the realm of politics. Find me and Rick Santorum at Veterans Stadium, and we'd probably agree on a lot of things. Republicans, I know how you think. You work hard for your money, so you like to keep it. You are more socially conservative, but you're not trying to get back to the Stone Age. You think Gore is a weenie and like identifying with Cheney and Bush because they just might blow the crap out of a foreign nation if the Rangers don't make the playoffs (and, don't kid yourself, they won't). The groups I have described above are not your people. They make you look bad the same way Al Sharpton makes me look bad, only to the nth degree. Al Sharpton will not get elected president, but the stranglehold that the extreme right has over the Republican Party will only become greater unless someone develops the guts to stand up and oppose it. So why don't you do it? Eliot Sherman is a sophomore from Philadelphia, Pa.

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