Connecting the dots... Howard Phillips and the right wing

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Howard Phillips (born February 6, 1941) is a three-time United States presidential candidate who has served as the chairman of The Conservative Caucus, a conservative public policy advocacy group founded in 1974.

A 1962 graduate of Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was twice elected chairman of the Student Council, Phillips is president of Policy Analysis, Inc., a public policy research organization which publishes the bimonthly Issues and Strategy Bulletin.

Jewish by birth and a native of Boston, Massachusetts, Phillips converted to evangelical Christianity in adulthood[1] and has been associated with Christian Reconstructionism.

Phillips and his wife, the former Peggy Blanchard, reside in Fairfax County, Virginia in the Washington, D.C., suburbs.

1 Republican years

2 Conservative Caucus

3 Constitution Party years

4 Writings

5 References

6 External links

Republican years

During the Nixon Administration, Phillips headed two federal agencies, ending his Executive Branch career as director of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity in the Executive Office of the President for five months in 1973, a position from which he resigned when U.S. President Richard M. Nixon reneged on his commitment to veto further funding for Great Society programs begun in the administration of Nixon's predecessor, Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson.

Nixon's appointment of Phillips as Director of OEO in January 1973 touched off a national controversy culminating in a court case in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Williams v. Phillips, 482 F.2d 669) [2] challenging the legality of Phillips' appointment.

Conservative Caucus

Phillips left the United States Republican Party in 1974 after some two decades of service to the GOP as precinct worker, election warden, campaign manager, congressional aide, Boston municipal Republican chairman, and assistant to the Chairman of the Republican National Committee. In 1978, Phillips finished fourth in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. Paul Tsongas won the primary and defeated the incumbent, a liberal African-American Republican, Edward Brooke, in the November general election, who had been first elected in 1966.

The Conservative Caucus, a nonpartisan, nationwide, grass-roots public policy advocacy group, has been in the thick of battles, in opposition to the Panama Canal treaties and the Jimmy Carter-Leonid Brezhnev SALT II treaties in the 1970s, in support of the Strategic Defense Initiative and major tax reductions during the 1980s, and in the vanguard of efforts to terminate Federal subsidies to activist groups under the banner of "defunding the Left."

In 1982, Phillips joined the Houston, Texas, political activist Clymer Wright in an unsuccessful effort to convince U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan to dismiss Houston attorney James A. Baker, III, from the position of presidential chief of staff. Phillips and Wright claimed that Baker, a former Democrat and a political intimate of then Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush, was undercutting conservative initiatives in the Reagan administration. Not only did Reagan reject the Wright-Phillips request, but in 1985, he named Baker as United States Secretary of the Treasury, at Baker's request in a job-swap with then Secretary Donald T. Regan, a former Merrill Lynch officer who became chief of staff. Reagan also rebuked Phillips and Wright for waging a "campaign of sabotage" against Baker.[3]

Other Conservative Caucus campaigns have involved opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization, support for a national version of California's Proposition 187 (to end mandated subsidies for illegal aliens), as well as continuing efforts to oppose publicly-funded health care, abortion, and gay rights. Phillips is the host of Conservative Roundtable, a weekly public affairs television program.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Phillips coordinated efforts to build private sector support for anti-Communist "freedom fighters" in Central America and Southern Africa. He played an instrumental role in the leadership of the New Right, as well as in the founding of the religious right in 1977. Phillips has led fact-finding missions to Eastern Europe, the Baltic States, South America, Central America, Western Europe, and the Far East.

Constitution Party years

He is one of the founders of the U.S. Taxpayers Party (which changed its name to the Constitution Party in 1999), a third party associated with conservative, pro-life issues, and constitutional government ideas on both social and fiscal issues. He was that party's presidential candidate in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 elections for President of the United States. Phillips first campaign for president in 1992 ended in a seventh place finish. The campaign received 43,369 votes for 0.04% of the total vote. In 1996 the Phillips campaign finished sixth with 184,656 votes for 0.19% of the total vote. In the 2000 election he received 98,020 votes for 0.1% of the total vote and a sixth place finish. In the 1996 campaign, Phillips also endorsed the Republican U.S. Senate nominee, Woody Jenkins in Louisiana, defeated by the Democrat Mary Landrieu, in a close outcome which Jenkins unsuccessfully disputed before the senators.

Phillips was chosen by an overwhelming majority of delegates at the National Convention of the U.S. Taxpayers Party, in San Diego, California, on August 17, 1996 to serve as its presidential candidate. After the 1992 National Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana, it was discovered that Michael Skaggs, the party's first convention manager, was fired by Howard Phillips because Skaggs did not vote for Phillips at the convention for president. Skaggs, who was also a delegate representing the District of Columbia and was not informed that his vote for president was a requirement for his having remained employed with the Conservative Caucus, instead voted for former Governor Evan Mecham of Arizona, who had been wrongly impeached by his state's legislature and removed from office. As a result of voting for Mecham, Skaggs was dismissed from the Conservative Caucus. He sued for wrongful termination, and the case was settled out of court for a small amount of money. The story was reported to a number of conservative news outlets, including Human Events, The New American and Southern Partisan.

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The Conservative Caucus

The Conservative Caucus, or TCC, is an American public policy organization and lobbying group emphasizing grassroots citizen activism and headquartered in Vienna, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1974 by Howard Phillips, who continues to lead it today. Most of the organization's $3.8 million budget comes from the efforts of New Right fundraising gurus Richard Viguerie and Bruce Eberle. [1] The organization produces a weekly conservative television program, Conservative Roundtable, which is hosted by Mr. Phillips. Howard Phillips is also President of The Conservative Caucus Research, Analysis and Education Foundation (TCCF), a 501©3 tax deductible organization.

Issues of focus

TCC promotes an uncompromisingly conservative line on a wide range of issues. The following are a few it has emphasized.

TCC opposes illegal immigration and legislation characterized by TCC as an amnesty for illegal immigrants, such as S. 2611. The organization supports measures to secure the Mexican border, including a complete fence.

TCC opposes the North American Union (NAU), which the TCC sees as the merging of the United States with Mexico and Canada. TCC also opposes the NAFTA Superhighway which it sees as facilitating smuggling, terrorist infiltration, and bypassing American port workers by using cheaper Mexican ports. TCC held a news conference on October 25, 2006 announcing formation of a coalition to oppose the NAU, which was featured by Lou Dobbs on CNN. The NAU is connected to the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). TCC is a founder of the 'Coalition to Block the North American Union', and held a news conference in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in August 2007 at the time of the SPP summit in Montebello, Quebec with the leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada. Participating were representatives of many United States organizations as well as Connie Fogal, the Leader of the Canadian Action Party. The news conference was covered by Fox, CTV, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and other U.S. and Canadian media outlets.

TCC is opposed in principle to what is called excessive or unlimited free trade, seeing such policies as being dangerous to the economic well-being of the American middle class, the manufacturing sector, and of the United States as a whole. TCC also specifically opposes various trade treaties, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and others as being threats to US sovereignty.

Throughout the Cold War, TCC took a strong anti-communist stance, favoring active U.S. involvement around the world to undermine or overthrow pro-Soviet governments and bolster anti-Soviet allies. TCC often voiced concerns that the U.S. and its allies had fallen behind the Eastern bloc in the arms race to a position of military inferiority, not merely quantitatively but qualitatively as well.

TCC sees the People's Republic of China as a major military threat to U.S. security and interests. It suspects China of seeking to gain strategic control of the Panama Canal through a front company, Hutchison Whampoa. It also opposes Permanent Normal Trade relations with China and China's membership in the World Trade Organization.

TCC opposed the Panama Canal Treaties which transferred control of the Panama Canal from the U.S. to Panama. To this day it lobbies to return a limited American military presence to protect the Canal due to its strategic importance in trade and defense. TCC also fears that the Canal is vulnerable to terrorism.

TCC supports a U.S. withdrawal from the UN, perceiving the organization as having ambitions to be a world government hostile to US interests and sovereignty, and which routinely votes against American interests.

TCC supports strict constructionism and original intent when it comes to constitutional interpretation. In its view, the majority of federal agencies and activities are unconstitutional. Through its 'Constitutional Education Program', TCC seeks to educate citizens on the Constitution and its importance in protecting the liberty of all Americans. TCC sponsors an annual 'Constitution Day' educational event on the anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution (September 17, 1789), which in 2006 was televised on C-SPAN.

A major focus of TCC activism in 2009 and 2010 was opposing President Obama's health care reform bills and any greater government involvement in health care. Following passage, TCC is campaigning for the repeal of the enacted reform bill.

TCC opposes efforts to create a full voting seat in the House of Representatives for the District of Columbia, based upon the Constitutional provisions that only states can have Congressional representation, and the Founding Fathers' intention to keep the nation's capital a neutral territory where all states may meet without fear of undue influence. TCC also opposed efforts to make the city into a state.

TCC favors abolishing the income tax and replacing it with a low revenue tariff. This would eliminate the need for the Internal Revenue Service.

TCC is strongly pro-life and opposes gay marriage. It favors school prayer and championed former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore for his stance favoring the display of the Ten Commandments.

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Constitution Party

The Constitution Party is a paleoconservative political party in the United States. It was founded as the U.S. Taxpayers' Party by Howard Philips in 1991.[3] Phillips was the party's candidate in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 presidential elections. The party's official name was changed to the Constitution Party in 1999; however, some state affiliate parties are known under different names. The party's goal as stated in its own words is "to restore our government to its Constitutional limits and our law to its Biblical foundations." [4] The party puts a large focus on immigration, calling for stricter penalties towards illegal immigrants and a moratorium on legal immigration until all federal subsidies to immigrants are discontinued.[5] The party absorbed the American Independent Party, originally founded for George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign. The American Independent Party of California has been an affiliate of the Constitution Party since its founding; however, current party leadership is disputed and the issue is in court to resolve this conflict. It has some substantial support from the Christian Right and in 2010 achieved major party status in Colorado.

According to the editor of Ballot Access News, which periodically compiles and analyzes voter registration statistics as reported by state voter agencies (only 29 states and DC tally voter registration by party), it ranks third nationally among all U.S. political parties in registered voters, with 438,222 registered members as of October 2008.[6] 370,405 of these members belong to the American Independent Party in California, with 67,817 members in the remaining states.[6]

The Constitution Party advocates a platform which aims to reflect the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Bible, and the Bill of Rights.

In 2006, Rick Jore of Montana became the first Constitution Party candidate elected to a state-level office,[7][8] although the Constitution Party of Montana had disaffiliated from the national party a short time before the election.

On April 26, 2008, Chuck Baldwin was nominated as the Constitution Party candidate for President of the United States in the 2008 election.

According to Ballot Access News, in 2010 the Constitution Party received the third highest gubernatorial vote total, with 872,498 votes. They also finished in fifth place for both the U.S. House and Senate, with 251,741 and 338,593 votes, respectively.

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists the party as a "'Patriot' Group".[9]

Affiliates and other similar parties

The Michigan affiliate has kept the U.S. Taxpayers Party name to retain ballot status. In Connecticut the affiliate is the Concerned Citizens Party; in Nebraska the affiliate has recently changed its name from "The Nebraska Party" to "The Nebraska Independent Party".[10]

Reports that the Constitution Party discussed a merger[11] between several third parties such as the Reform Party, Independent American Party, American Independent Party, and the America First Party have been refuted by other accounts of the events.[12] Nevertheless, all of the aforementioned parties except for the Reform Party endorsed Constitution Party's Michael Peroutka as their presidential candidate in 2004. There is now a drive to get the Constitution Party ballot qualified in Alaska, but the current state affiliate for Alaska is the Alaska Independence Party.

Notable persons

Pat Buchanan threatened in 1996 to run as the U.S. Taxpayers Party candidate if Bob Dole chose a pro-choice running mate. Dole later chose pro-life Jack Kemp and received Buchanan's endorsement. Buchanan's 2000 Reform Party running mate Ezola B. Foster switched her membership to the Constitution Party in 2002. Buchanan stated on the September 7, 2004 edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews, "There is a chance I would vote for [Michael] Peroutka."[13] However, he later penned an endorsement of President George W. Bush in the pages of The American Conservative.[14]

U.S. senator Bob Smith announced his switch from Republican to the U.S. Taxpayers Party in 1999 to seek its 2000 presidential nomination. Smith later claimed that anti-New World Order ideologues within the party resisted his candidacy due to his Roman Catholicism. He continued his campaign as a non-partisan independent but ceased the campaign soon thereafter and returned to the Republican party to assume a Senate committee chairmanship. In 2008, he began writing editorials on the Constitution Party's web page, fueling speculation that he would seek its presidential nomination again, although he had endorsed Rep. Duncan Hunter for the Republican nomination. He requested that his name be withheld from consideration in a March 2008 letter to CP supporters.

Minuteman Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist ran for Congress with the American Independent Party in 2005, but has since rejoined the Republicans.[15]

Author and WorldNetDaily columnist Jerome Corsi launched a brief campaign for the 2008 nomination but in July 2007 decided to return to writing.[16] Former Reagan Administration official and Christian activist Alan Keyes had actively sought the Constitution nod after ending a bid for the GOP nomination.[17]

The party has also attracted notables in the anti-abortion movement such as Dr. Gregory Thompson,[18] Lon Mabon,[19] Paul deParrie, and Missionaries to the Preborn leader Pastor Matthew Trewhella.[20] However, many such notables were involved in the below-mentioned disaffiliation efforts over abortion, and it remains unclear on what effect the movement has upon the current reorganized rump affiliates.

A 2008 candidate for the Republican nomination, Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas), endorsed several third party candidates shortly after bowing out of the race. Ultimately, he would go on to endorse 2008 Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin.[21] The unaffiliated Constitution Party of Montana replaced Baldwin with Paul for president and Michael Peroutka for vice president. Paul requested that Montana remove his name from the ballot, but the Secretary of State of Montana denied his request, stating that the request was sent too late.[22]

In 2010, former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo ran for governor of Colorado as a Constitutionalist. He received 36.8% of the vote finishing in 2nd place. Despite losing the election, Tancredo managed to secure major party status for the Constitution Party in Colorado as that state requires a party to surpass 10% in a gubernatorial election to qualify for such status.[23]

In 2010, former Republican Representative Virgil Goode (VA-5) accepted an appointment to the National Executive Committee of the Constitution Party.[24]

Platform

The preamble of the Constitution Party platform "gratefully acknowledges the blessing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as Creator, Preserver and Ruler of the Universe and of these United States,"[25] and supports the Constitutional provision in Article VI, Section 3 that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States" and calls on all those who love liberty and value their inherent rights to join with them in the pursuit of their goals.

Fiscal policy

The Constitution Party supports reducing the role of the United States federal government through cutting bureaucratic regulation, reducing spending, and replacing the income tax with a tariff-based revenue system supplemented by excise taxes. Its leaders are among the strongest advocates of abolishing most forms of federal taxation, especially the income tax; they view most current regular federal expenditures, such as those for health care, education, and welfare, as unconstitutional under Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution and the Tenth Amendment. The party also takes the position that the "imposition […] of Federal income, payroll, and estate taxes […] is an unconstitutional Federal assumption of direct taxing authority."[26] The 16th Amendment to the US Constitution does grant Congress the power to "lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration,"[27] however, the party disputes the validity of the Amendment's ratification.

The party supports paying off the federal debt through a systematic elimination of further borrowing, programs, and agencies it considers unconstitutional such as the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. The party opposes foreign aid, asking that no further funds be appropriated for any kind of foreign aid program, and encourage the idea that the United States terminate its participation in international lending institutions, such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the Export-Import Bank. It also urges the government to immediately terminate all subsidies, tax preferences, and investment guarantees that encourage U.S. businesses to invest in foreign property; and to seek to collect all foreign debts owed to it.

Foreign policy

The Constitution Party favors a noninterventionist foreign policy. It advocates reduction and eventual elimination of the role the United States plays in multinational and international organizations such as the United Nations, and favors withdrawal of the United States from most current treaties, such as North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the World Trade Organization. The party takes mercantilist positions in supporting protectionist policies on international trade.

The party also believes in exercising a tariff system to counteract the U.S.' increasingly negative balance of trade.[28] The tariff system would levy additional import costs, the amount of which would vary proportionally with how much less the exporting country's production costs are compared to that of U.S. companies. The Constitution Party has stated that this system would give U.S. companies a better chance at competing with countries, like Mexico and China, which have lower labor costs. In 2007 the US took in only about $25 billion in import tariffs, while at the same time running a $70 billion per month import deficit.

Immigration policy

The party opposes illegal immigration and also seeks stricter controls on legal immigration. It demands that the federal government restore immigration policies based on the policy that potential immigrants will be disqualified from admission to the United States on the grounds of ill health, criminality, low morals, or financial dependence, believing that they would impose an improper burden on the United States, any state, and citizens of the United States. The party has stated a long term goal of a moratorium on future immigration, exempting extreme cases where it would be necessary.[29]

Additionally, it opposes welfare subsidies and other taxpayer-supported benefits to illegal immigrants, rejecting also the practice of bestowing U.S. citizenship on children born to illegal immigrant parents while in this country (jus soli). It also rejects any extension of amnesty to illegal immigrants. The Constitution Party calls for the use of U.S. troops to protect the states against an influx of illegal immigrants.

Social policy

The party opposes euthanasia and abortion including in cases of rape and incest.[30][31]

The party supports the ability of states to administer the death penalty to those convicted of "capital crimes":[32]

Our support of a State's option to impose the death penalty is limited to those who have been convicted of capital crimes. This is consistent with protecting innocent life because the death penalty would only be applied to those who have proven to be a threat to innocent life.

The party opposes same-sex marriage, and believes state and local governments have the right to criminalize "offensive sexual behavior".[33] The party further opposes pornography, believing it to be, at worst, "a destructive element of society resulting in significant and real emotional, physical, spiritual and financial costs to individuals, families and communities," distinguishable from the American citizen's "cherished First Amendment right to free speech."

While expressing its belief in the individual responsibility of citizens and corporations, the party maintains that government plays a "vital role" in establishing and maintaining the highest level of decency in America's community standards.[34] The party opposes all government sponsorship, involvement in, or promotion of gambling,[35] and in keeping with the spirit of Article 1 Section 8 and Amendment 10, opposes federal anti-drug laws while maintaining that the federal government may have a role in limiting the import of drugs.[36]

The party supports the right to bear arms in accordance with the Second Amendment. The party believes that any attempt to make laws barring the second amendment are unconstitutional. It has taken a stand against the USA PATRIOT Act.

The Constitution Party believes that charitable giving is most effective when conducted by private parties. Because the authority to administer charity has not been granted to the government in the Constitution, the party maintains that the government has no business being involved in such endeavors.[37]

The party opposes federal restrictions on, or subsidization of, medical treatments.[38]

The party supports English as the official language for all governmental business, opposes bilingual ballots, and insists that those who wish to take part in the electoral process and governance of the U.S. be required to read and comprehend basic English as a precondition of citizenship.[39] The party also opposes the federal Voting Rights Act, which prohibits literacy tests as a requirement for voting.

Federalism

The party supports the repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment, which allows Congress to tax income, and the Seventeenth Amendment, which requires the direct (popular) election of Senators.[40] The party holds that each state's membership in the Union is voluntary,[41] this stance is known as the Compact theory.

2006 state disaffiliations

In early 2006, Christopher H. Hansen, the gubernatorial candidate of Independent American Party of Nevada (the Constitution Party state affiliate in Nevada), and candidates in Colorado and Idaho, publicly expressed support for excepting abortions in the cases of rape, incest, and for abortions performed to save the life of the mother, which were contrary to the official Nevada platform.

At the party's April national convention in Tampa, Florida, the assembly voted not to disaffiliate Nevada, citing that affiliate's official position on the issue and national party policy against dictating the internal affairs (such as electing leaders) of any affiliate. They also made it more difficult to introduce a disaffiliation resolution.

However, the Oregon and Montana affiliates voluntarily disaffiliated from the party later that year, and to this date remain independent of the national party. The Colorado and Idaho affiliates remain affiliated.

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Alaskan Independence Party

On September 2, 2008, reports surfaced that according to the Alaska Division of Elections Todd Palin, husband of then governor Sarah Palin, had registered as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party in 1995. He remained registered with the party until 2002.[8]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Independence_Party

[Funtimental]

Sorry if this is a dupe, I did a search and couldn't find anything. Doug's father died a couple of days ago. Many obits including ones heralding him as "a paladin of conservatism". I think my favorite quote was: "His love for his wife and six children was always on display, even if he at times had trouble remembering all the children’s names." Oi. Google his name to read the complete pieces.

[gustava]

We do have a thread on his death where some of this info is available, though not all

[FlorenceHamilton]

Clearly, Howard was Doug's gateway drug into right wing fundydom. It is very interesting how so many of the fundy "royalty" are connected by far right wing political ideology. There is even some connection to McCarthyism. I will look that up, but I think it is via Rushdoony. The thread connecting fundamental Christianity, racism, far right politics, and the theocratic agenda, including removing women's rights goes way way back.