Reply #17: Paul Weyrich is another scary dude

[starroute]

I've been trying to sort out the New Right recently, and it's becoming clear that there are distinct factions (even though they all work together at times.) The Weyrich faction makes the rest of them -- the fundamentalists, the libertarian/free market dirty tricksters, and even the Neocons -- look almost benign in comparison.

Weyrich, who founded the Heritage Foundation in 1975, is an ultra-reactionary and exponent of a particularly regressive brand of Catholicism. He's even an admirer of Father Coughlin, a prominent American fascist of the 1930's. Weyrich has explicitly stated that he wants to overturn democracy and return the world to rule by traditional elites. His friend Morton Blackwell (the purple heart band-aid guy) has also expressed a hankering after old-fashioned aristocracy.

Weyrich may have invented the term "culture wars." He, like Moon, clearly sees democracy and individualism as modern evils to be destroyed. This warped vision of history is what makes him particularly dangerous.

The Heritage Foundation has many ties to racists, neo-fascists, and old-line Nazi supporters. Roger Pearson, organizer of the Nazi Northern League, was on the editorial board of the Heritage Foundation's "Policy Review" in the late 70's. At about the same time, Weyrich, the Heritage Foundation, and its subsidiary the Free Congress Foundation sponsored Laszlo Pasztor and his racist Coalition of the Americas.

Much of what was going on in the 1980's involving the Reagan Administration's support of the Contras and of the most repellant Latin American dictatorships was prompted by these people and their allies. Their agenda was not merely anti-communist but actively pro-fascist and often racist. Many of the same people and groups were supporters of the South African apartheid government at the same time.

Moon has funded most of the New Right at one time or another, but the Heritage Foundation has had particularly close ties to him and to his backers in the Korean CIA.

The line-up of forces has changed somewhat since the 80's, and I don't have a clear sense of the current setup. The ties of the Heritage Foundation types to the religious right seem to be weaker, and there are more connections to former military men, the government contractors they work for, and the military-industrial complex in general. I'm currently trying to get a line on where those active connections lie.