Crofton Online: Election News Analysis
The Republican Dilemma

Extreme 'Religious' Right Controls Much of GOP

The extreme right wing of the Republican party, represented by groups such as the 'Christian' Coalition and the Rutherford Institute, are posing a serious dilemma for Crofton area Congressman Wayne Gilchrest and elected Republicans everywhere.

These extremist groups have provided both funding and vocal encouragement to fundamentalist Republican Kenneth Starr and his 'morality' driven attacks on the President's private life.

Mr. Gilchrest has repeatedly expressed his support for Mr. Starr's attacks on privacy rights.

The problem faced by Gilchrest and other elected Republicans is that these right wing groups now constitute a majority of active Party members, and therefore have the power, now clearly being exercised, to force the GOP down the road of no return.

If the sexual witch hunt continues, elected Republicans as well as Democrats who don't pass the morality tests of Pat Robertson will be subject to exploitation by a tabloid press eager to increase its hold on political power in this country.


Let's be blunt. These groups support abolishing (yes, abolishing!) public education in this country, to be replaced by segregated, taxpayer-funded private religious schools. If they succeed here, you can kiss quality public education goodbye.

They are violently against reproductive choice. They believe that the male is the head of household and that the woman should accept her subservient role. If they succeed, not only will the right to choose be abolished, countless physicians will be jailed.

They are anti-gay and anti-lesbian. Some leaders of these groups have even advocated the death penalty for homosexuals!

These views are well known. But they hold other views, many of them not so well known. Hold on, as we provide a quick refresher on the views of the people behind Ken Starr, supported so vocally by our Republican congressman, Wayne Gilchrest.

Mr. Starr, and the group financing the Paula Jones lawsuit, are being funded and supported by a variety of right wing conservative 'Christian' groups that fall under the general umbrella of "Christian Recontructionists."

Rousas J. Rushdoony, the founder of the "Reconstructionist" movement, calls democracy a heresy. He writes, "Christianity is completely and radically anti-democratic; it is committed to a spiritual aristocracy." He believes that the Bible requires the death penalty for blasphemers, adulterers, homosexuals, idolaters, and "incorrigible" children. He also insists that the Bible condones some forms of slavery.

Rushdoony compares the spread of Christian Reconstructionism in America to the rise of the militant Shiite Moslems in Islamic nations. Both are a reaction to the modern world that unite religion and politics into one seamless authoritarian philosophy.

Christian Reconstructionists believe that anyone espousing theological error has no claim to religious freedom and may properly have their rights denied by law. Religious toleration in America and open religious dialogue are abhorrent to CRs because, they say, "It affords people an opportunity to be exposed to theological error."

Rushdoony goes on to say, "In the name of toleration, the believer is asked to associate on a common level of total acceptance with the atheist, the pervert, the criminal, and the adherents of other religions as if no differences existed." He calls democracy the "great love of the failures and cowards of life."


And what about Lucianne Goldberg, the "book agent" who sent Republican Linda Tripp on her famous, and illegal, taping adventures?

Lucianne Goldberg was paid $1000.00 per week by Richard Nixon's "Dirty Tricks" campaign in 1972. Her job was to report on the McGovern campaign that fall.

"They were looking for really dirty stuff," she says. "Who was sleeping with whom, what the Secret Service men were doing with the stewardesses, who was smoking pot on the plane -- that sort of thing." Lucianne Goldberg was also the book agent for Leo Damore, who wrote "Senatorial Privilege," an expose about Senator Ted Kennedy and the Chappaquiddick incident. And she ghost wrote former FBI agent Gary Aldrich's memoirs, a favorite book of Clinton haters.

So, do we continue the sexual witch hunt?

Should Republican Congressman Dan Burton, who called the President a "scumbag," be forced out of office because he not only had an affair, he fathered an illegitimate child?

Should Republican Congressman Henry Hyde, who is chairing the committee "investigating" the President, also be forced out of office for his long running affair while married, with a woman who was also married? That affair resulted in the destruction of the other woman's family.

And should Republican Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth, who attacked her election opponent for being sexually immoral, now resign from her office since she has been forced to admit she also had a long running extramarital affair?

There are only two groups who are benefiting from these McCarthy-style investigations: the media, which has gained the power to blackmail any public official who does not bow before it; and the right wing of the Republican party, whose views, when publicized, have been repeatedly rejected by the voters.

Enough is enough. Any Republican office holder who does not stand up, now, before the election, and condemn the outrageous Starr Inquisition, should be thrown out of office by the voters this November.

How about it, Mr. Gilchrest?

Republican Congressman Wayne Gilchrest is running for reelection in November. He represents a portion of Crofton in the U.S. House of Representatives.


Some of the text and several pictures contained in this news analysis are from a web site maintained by A. J. Weberman, an associate of Congressman Henry Gonzalez.

Read what noted author and media critic Jon Katz says about the battle between the press and the public.


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