Religious right architect dies at 72

[DonViejo]

Last edited Tue Apr 23, 2013, 04:46 PM - Edit history (1)

Religious right architect dies at 72

The born-again Christian and co-founder of the Moral Majority was a major power player in conservative politics

BY HATEWATCH STAFF

This article was originally published by The Southern Poverty Law Center.

Howard Phillips, one of the main architects of the Moral Majority and, more generally, the American religious right, died Saturday at the age of 72. According to the Christian News Network, he had been suffering from dementia.

Phillips had a long history in conservative and right-wing movements, including three runs as a third-party presidential candidate. He sat on the board of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) and worked on Barry Goldwater’s unsuccessful 1964 presidential campaign. He then went on to get involved in the administration of Richard Nixon, who appointed him head of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO).

According to left-leaning sociologist Sara Diamond, Phillips was convinced that the OEO was a vehicle for radical leftist recipients, so he encouraged Nixon to appoint other conservative activists from YAF and the American Conservative Union with the aim of eliminating many OEO programs. He launched a public relations campaign, eliminated the OEO’s regional offices, and de-funded anti-poverty programs — until a federal court ruled his actions illegal because his appointment had not been confirmed by the Senate, sparking Phillips’ resignation. Phillips went on to found or help found several key right-wing organizations and networks, including Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority.

During the Reagan Administration, Phillips founded and headed the influential Conservative Caucus. He was a founding member of the secretive and influential conservative Council for National Policy, and served as a senior editor at the Conservative Digest. By the 1990s, Phillips had grown dissatisfied with the Republican Party (it wasn’t right-wing enough) and founded the U.S. Taxpayers Party in 1992. USTP later morphed into the still-extant Constitution Party, whose goal is to implement Biblical law in America and to “limit the federal government to its Constitutional boundaries” and on whose presidential ticket Phillips ran. The party platform includes pushing states to “proscribe sexually offensive behaviors” including homosexuality; calling on U.S. troops to protect states against invasion by immigrants; opposing abortion in any circumstance; banning pornography; abolishing the IRS and the Department of Education; preventing the federal government from restricting the acknowledgement of God as the sovereign source of liberty, law, and government; and returning all lands “held by the federal government without authorization of the Constitution” to the people.

full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/23/howard_phillips_architect_of_the_religious_right_dies_at_72_partner

[HughBeaumont]

1. What did Clarence Darrow once say?

. . . with a smile . . .

[sharp_stick]

2. It's nice to see so many

of the moron majority reaching an age where we will no longer have to see them. The religious right is aging and I'm hoping they continue to do so.

This guy was a really nasty fucking piece of work.

[Populist_Prole]

6. They're dying off at a faster pace than they're being replaced by new blood

Home schooled "quiver-full" movement notwithstanding.

[LeftofObama]

16. That was exactly my thought as I was reading the article.

Good riddance!

[MotherPetrie]

3. Good riddance.

[undeterred]

5. So how could they tell when he started suffering from dementia?

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[LibertyLover]

7. He started to quote Gandi

and read the Prose Edda?

[cliffordu]

18. I am in awe.

You win the Internet for today...

[GoneOffShore]

8. Please send me a new keyboard....

[wryter2000]

11. I often thought the same thing about Reagan

He was always as stupid as a stump.

[Cha]

9. I've never heard of this guy.. but, I have to wonder how

anyone gets so self-absorbed and wants to inflict it on others. Talk about fundamentalists. Emphasis on mental.

[Apophis]

10. Good riddance.

[rrneck]

12. ...

[hootinholler]

13. HALLEFUCKINGLUIAH n/t

[Hekate]

14. Now he can explain himself to the Goddess

I trust it will be an uncomfortable conversation for him.

[Taverner]

15. One less asshole...

Leaving in his wake death and destruction without any reckoning...

[cliffordu]

17. Weird.

I thought they opened THAT circle of hell only on Easter.

Wonder what they'll do with him till then...genpop??