Remembering Paul Weyrich

Pioneering conservative activist Paul Weyrich died on December 18 at the age of 66. Though Weyrich was commonly regarded as a behind-the-scenes Beltway operator, he achieved one of his most enduring goals in the backwaters of the South.

In 1971, before the Roe v. Wade decision riveted America, the Supreme Court ruled in Green v. Connally to revoke the tax-exempt status of racially discriminatory private schools in 1971. At about the same time, the Internal Revenue Service moved to revoke the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University, which forbade interracial dating (blacks were denied entry until 1971.) The decisions infuriated a popular evangelical pastor from Lynchburg, Virginia named Jerry Falwell. "In some states it's easier to open a massage parlor than to open a Christian school," Falwell complained.

Seeking to capitalize on mounting evangelical discontent, Weyrich took a series of trips down South to meet with Falwell and other evangelical leaders. Weyrich hoped to produce a well-funded evangelical lobbying outfit that could lend grassroots muscle to the top-heavy Republican Party and effectively mobilize the vanquished forces of massive resistance into a new political bloc. In discussions with Falwell, Weyrich cited various social ills that necessitated evangelical involvement in politics, particularly abortion, school prayer and the rise of feminism. His pleas initially fell on deaf ears.

"I was trying to get those people interested in those issues and I utterly failed," Weyrich recalled in an interview in the early 1990s. "What changed their mind was Jimmy Carter's intervention against the Christian schools, trying to deny them tax-exempt status on the basis of so-called de facto segregation."

In 1979, at Weyrich's behest, Falwell founded a group that he called the Moral Majority. Along with a vanguard of evangelical icons including D. James Kennedy, Pat Robertson and Tim LaHaye, Falwell's organization hoisted the banner of the "pro-family" movement, declaring war on abortion and homosexuality. Thanks to the persistence and vision of Weyrich, a pre-Vatican II Catholic, the heavily Protestant religious right was born. Even the phrase, "moral majority," was a Weyrich creation.

While working in Colorado, Weyrich met beer baron Joseph Coors, a funder of the far-right John Birch Society and friend of California Gov. Ronald Reagan. Inspired by Weyrich's vision of a vast infrastructure of conservative institutions that would replace the liberal establishment and guide the right out of the wilderness, Coors ponied up $250,000 in 1973 to found the Heritage Foundation -- the crown jewel of Weyrich's planned counter-establishment.

The Washington think tank, which Weyrich chaired, became Reagan's unofficial idea factory as soon as he entered the White House in 1980. (Coors guided the president's personnel decisions as a member of his "kitchen cabinet.") During the George W. Bush era, Heritage has inspired White House policy on issues ranging from abstinence education to missile defense, while grooming a generation of conservative cadres for the future through its intern program.

A pre-Vatican II Catholic traditionalist, Weyrich was most passionate about social issues. He railed against abortion before the GOP was officially against it, and teamed up with anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly to torpedo the Equal Rights Amendment in 1977, warning darkly that its passage would force good Christian girls to use unisex bathrooms. Last year, Weyrich howled that "the Feminazi crowd" planned to reintroduce ERA.

In 2001, Weyrich circulated a commentary accusing Jews of murdering Jesus. When a conservative writer named Evan Gahr attacked Weyrich as a "demented anti-Semite," he learned how powerful the conservative founding father truly was. In short order, neoconservative activist David Horowitz barred Gahr from writing for his FrontPageMag and forced him to apologize to Weyrich.

Obsessed with ideological purity, Weyrich homed his most vitriolic attacks on the Republican congressional leadership. David Grann's classic profile of Weyrich as a "Robespierre of the Right," published in 1997 in the New Republic, is probably the best window into Weyrich's often destructive efforts to force the GOP to the hard right. "The problem with Gingrich," Weyrich said of the House majority leader at the time, "is that he does not have any immutable principles that he would die for." (Weyrich sued The New Republic for libel after it published Grann's article, a suit that was dismissed.)

In 1996, Weyrich was diagnosed with a debilitating spinal injury. Five years later, the injury consigned him to a wheelchair. He spent the last years of his life in constant pain, and took heavy doses of painkillers. In 2004, after a bad fall, Weyrich's legs were amputated. But he soldiered on, addressing conservative conferences and pumping out a steady flow of commentaries urging the Republicans to stay tethered to their right-wing base.

In September 2006, foreshadowing Rep. Michelle Bachmann's notorious remarks about her congressional colleagues two years later, Weyrich called for an FBI investigation of reporters who harbor subversive attitudes and the resurrection of Joseph McCarthy's House Un-American Affairs Committee.

By the time Weyrich died, the conservative movement he created had grown so vast his imprimatur on its agenda was no longer apparent. But his impact is undeniable. Thanks to his efforts and those of the thousands of cadres he recruited and cultivated, the Republican Party is more ideologically extreme, more disciplined -- and more politically marginalized -- than at any time since the Goldwater Era. And that might be just where Weyrich wanted it. In his heart he knew he was right.

Comments (15)

1. Fascinating history lesson.

   Now, if the proverbial pendulum could please swing to the left --without the hubris and hardheaded idiocy of course.

   One brief note on the current state of the progressive movement (if we can call it that) is the interesting item of the moment. Namely, the pressure now building on Barack Obama to dump Pastor Rick Warren for his inaugural celebration.

   It would be a damn sweet breath of fresh air if an equal or greater uproar could be created for such "lesser" issues as Obama's promised Afghanistan troop surge, and/or a host of other probable bear traps that Obama is likely to get us into given the tenor of his campaign after he clinched in June, and the Clintonista cabinet he just ordered up.

   YO PROGRESSIVES!

   Is anybody out there?!

   Just cuz Chimpy and the Gimp are on their way out doesn't mean we can, like, coast.

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 12/19/2008 @ 11:02pm

2. I would like nothing better than to have Obama lead us back into the promised land of peace and freedom, especially the freedom from Republican Kooks and their greedy agenda, but I'm beginning to believe that it's gonna take a major backlash and surge of liberal idealism to change anything in this country.

   Well, let's not wait for our leaders to change. Let's make them change and do it quickly. Bush has spent eight years flushing freedom down the sewer and it started decades ago.

   Revitalize Education, renew Liberties, and restore the middle class by letting your elected officials know that this needs to be done and do it today. Freedom from religion should be recognized as well. This last item isn't as pressing as the economic and education agendas but I am sick of religious morons and their screaming hatred. Let them worship on their own, but if they get marginalized, then what did they expect? They have been used by every confidence man the Far Right could find and the result has been war, hatred, fear, and injustice.

   The only way the pendulum is going to swing back is when it gets pushed there and nailed to the wall! Obama may try to govern from the Center, but we should define that spot for him and not the neocons and their amoral lackeys, the Moral Majority!

   Posted by squidboy6 at 12/20/2008 @ 02:20am

3. "The problem with Gingrich," Weyrich said of the House majority leader at the time, "is that he does not have any immutable principles that he would die for."

   Hmmmmm.

   Posted by Mask at 12/20/2008 @ 07:37am

4. Hooray for the party of the Deep South, Wyoming, and Idaho!

   Posted by onthehelm at 12/20/2008 @ 11:15am

5. Thank God Weyrich was never really very "pragmatic" and now has pushed the Republican Party into a corner where they feel they cannot abandon their "conservative" principles, even if it means falling off the cliff politically.

   They are still under the delusion that this is a "center-right" country and that most Americans are "closet conservatives".

   What Weyrich and his ilk never really understood is that Reagan's optimism and hope about America is what "moved" people to the right, not the "conservative" principles of the Republican Party.

   Most Americans want to feel good about their country, and want to be inspired. Obama understood that this want could just as easily be satisfied from the left, and that is why he is president.

   Posted by Metteyya at 12/20/2008 @ 12:57pm

6. >>>Obama may try to govern from the Center, but we should define that spot for him and not the neocons and their amoral lackeys, the Moral Majority!

   Posted by squidboy6 at 12/20/2008 @ 02:20am<<<

   I am tired of this "Obama will govern from the center" nonsense.

   Obama will govern from the left, but recast these progressive issues in non-ideological or "centrist language" - just like he has always done.

   And for anyone who doesn't believe this, go STUDY Obama's record in the state senate in Illinois and understand the political brilliance of this man.

   Posted by Metteyya at 12/20/2008 @ 1:06pm

7. "but we should define that spot for him and not the neocons and their amoral lackeys, the Moral Majority!"

   You missed my point, we need to define where Obama stands, not the Republicans (they are still in charge of our gov't), nor have I ever dismissed or doubted Obama's brilliance but he's shifted way over to the Right since I decided to vote for him and the Right will never be openly pleased about it so why bother trying?

   The point is the Right is still defining the issues and it's because we have let them, not Obama, so contact the other important elected officials and let them know where you stand and where they should go.

   Wherever Obama was in Illinois is very different from the White House so I expect him to evolve. Give him your input, but don't expect Obama to do it alone. He won't. He is a politician, you know.

   Posted by squidboy6 at 12/20/2008 @ 1:29pm

8. I spoke with George W. Bush the other day and he told me that what he wanted for Christmas was "an old shoe".

   If you'd like to send him one, he can still be reached at:

   The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington DC 20500

   Posted by BushCamWildlife at 12/20/2008 @ 1:41pm

9. "Obamanation has NO mandate for those unable to face reality. Face it, this is the Clinton LITE administration and is doomed to failure in 4 years!"

   Posted by comanchenation 12/20/2008

   That you, RIO_WARREN_JEFFS?

   How are affairs in your nostalgic rightwing David_Koresh_istan compound? Are the young 'uns being taught to fear g*d (or they won't be unchained from the radiator this week)?

   As for failure, elaborate which of the following you consider to be the most Jeffs-like triumphs of metrosexual failure George W. "Hell No, I Won't Go!" Loser:

   __ W Loser's wise installation of an AG (fundie freak Ashcroft, fresh off his losing his senate seat to a cadaver) who was too busy putting clothing on statues to notice AlQ chatter that pointed to a spectacular atatck on the homeland.

   __ Loser's courageous and manly readings from a book on goats and joking around with reporters for 1/2 hour, even as thousands of Americans were being slaughtered by rightwing religionists (mainly from LVLIBERTY's ideological lodestar, Saudi Arabia, where G*d rules the public square and women are covered up so as to not impudently stick their t*ts in men's faces).

   __ The $3 trillion vanity invasion, as estimated by Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz (that the freakshow rightwing continues to justify with...comments alleged to have been uttered 10 years ago by BJ Clinton) while W Loser's aloof metrosexual indifference to the spiral of savagery for the Iraqi civilian and the US soldier extends into its sixth year.

   __ The booming Bush economy that eclipses the breadlines, horse-drawn carts, and entire regions of the US without electricity or water we recall from the Clinton era. Half a million jobs vaporized last month (or, to the drooling disciple of Koresh, more triumph).

   Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 12/20/2008 @ 2:52pm

10. "...unable to face reality..."

    Posted by comanchenation 12/20/2008

    Here is reality:

    If you hate America with a blinding passion...

    ...You will absoulutely love (looooove) what George W. Failure and his righwingers cronies can do to it.

    ...You will love the blood-soaked people in the streets of New York because the metrosexual loser failed to protect the homeland against rightwing religous freaks while busy posing for cameras at his fake ranch all August (and you will also love his admin's manly courage in facing the big, bad 9/11 Commission)...

    ...And you'll love the nation's finacial treasure pissed away and its young men's legs being blown off by roadside bombs in a place they should never been sent to in the first place, while the Bush insiders are transporting contracts for their fellow aristocrats at Halliburton by the wheelbarrow...

    ...You will find yourself aroused by the Department of Justice being re-fashioned as an instrument of partison electoral politics, most notably in the case of Gov Don Siegleman, since "justice" is all totally relative anyway for the sloped forehead, drooling rightwinger...

    ...You will thrill to people like yourself evicted from their houses by the laissez-faire shitmess of an assclown who spent his life being affirmative action'ed into schools and cashing in family privilege prior to retirement to a gated community. That is, when their houses did not simply wash out into the Gulf of Mexico while the pampered metrosexual flies over the little people, a few miles overhead

    ...And if you hate America with every ounce of your soul, you will feel hardened in your perfectly realized love for George W. Bush as for 8 yrs he welded the stretegic "Kick Me Hard!" sign on America's back in the international forum...

    Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 12/20/2008 @ 3:21pm

11. Hmm...paralysis and amputation couldn't have happened to a bigger douche. My hope is that all anti-science, anti-research rethugs have such a nice outcome. Obama is republican lite, as I've said to friends and family for two years, and now we will all see it. The U.S. needs another party, folks. I voted for him because my only other option was voting for the neo-nazis, which didn't sit well with me. I am sick of weenie democrats refusing to realize they have the power. Who cares about perception??? REALITY is all that matters. FORCE progressive measures through. DON"T allow debates or amendments. Be the jerks that the repugnantcants were when they were in charge. WHO CARES what they think?!? Quit trying to win them over and enact progressive policies. I can't understand why he's kissing so much butt---YOU WON! Wake up and be the bully. Show dems to be the party of strength for a change. SCREW repugnantcants and those that voted for them. SCREW uniting us. Do what is actually best for the country. The majority voted for you--this is your mandate. WAKE UP!

    Posted by lawlady at 12/20/2008 @ 3:58pm

12. Posted by comanchenation at 12/20/2008 @ 4:12pm

    Anyone up for a game of Whack-A-Troll?

    Posted by yutsano at 12/20/2008 @ 10:12pm

13. Posted by comanchenation at 12/20/2008 @ 10:50pm

    :: wipes spittle off face ::

    So therefore you have an issue with the unitary executive theory and the extensive usage of signing statements to countermand the will of Congress?

    Posted by yutsano at 12/20/2008 @ 11:37pm

14. Posted by comanchenation at 12/20/2008 @ 10:50pm

    COMMANCHE-WARREN-JEFFS-ISTAN,

    Tell us who you think will write the most warm, loving letter to George W. Failure as he winds down his inside job on America?

    __ bin Laden? He can give thanks for W Loser having let America's guard down on a certain Septmeber morn, followed up by the disasterous stratgeic blunder of invading and ocupying Iraq that assures a steady stream of recruits to the muj cause.

    __ The Mullahs fo Iran? They cannot help being deeply appreciative for the strategic gift of undreamed of influence in Shi'ia majority Iraq.

    __ Chavez? Evo? Correa? Lulu? With CharlieBrown-ish loser Bush wearing a "Kick Me in the Ass HARD!" sign on his back wherever he goes, Chavez and the rest of the Latin left have been able to maneuver around Washington's feableness under Republican rule to an extent that the 1980s Sandinistas could never have even dreamed about. While one can be glad that Latin Americans are realizing some of their own aspirations, the degree to which the US has far less pull here and is regarded as an enfeebled dinghy in a vast sea with George W Loser as skipper is stunning.

    Even reporters in Iraq can read the aforementioned "kick me" sign given the unprecedented weakness that the world percieves in George W. Failure as Amercia's totem --- weakness that rightists like COMMANCHE-JEFFS love in their depthless hatred of America and its freedoms.

    Posted by PhilMcCrevice at 12/21/2008 @ 07:28am

15. Little child in London.

    There's the light of a delicate child in the country, near a grand piano; I wait for the side of a weeping, and I love you, my care, while the plain disappears...

    Francesco Sinibaldi

    Posted by Sinibaldi at 12/21/2008 @ 10:02am