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The Big Picture
We have resisted the official dogmas of radical feminism. We have done the same thing with regard to gay and lesbian liberation... we have resisted the fad of Afro-centrism. We have not fallen into the clutches of the multi-culturalists. We recognize that Western culture, so-called, is in fact a universal culture.
- John Silber, president of Boston University, in his annual Report to the Trustees, April 1993
Opposition to education programs has not just been a passing fancy for conservative politicians; it has been a centerpiece of the Right's agenda. In 1991, President George Bush devoted a major address to denouncing "political correctness" in higher education. In 1995, Newt Gingrich won approval in Congress for a $10 billion cut in student aid, while newly elected governors trimmed education and expanded prisons. Every major Republican presidential candidate in 1996 said he would abolish the Department of Education.
Why is the Right so opposed to education? The reasons are apparent once we define what we mean by "Right Wing." For the purposes of this guide, we will define the Right as "those who want to limit democracy" - individuals or groups who want to limit participation and preserve privilege in our society, who believe corporate dollars should have more weight than people's votes. We will also define the Right as "those who want to limit pluralism" -- individuals or groups dedicated to ensuring that the ideas, language, culture, and values of white, English-speaking, heterosexual, Christians have a monopoly in our society.
While there are individuals who qualify as "Right-wing" by this definition in both the Republican and the Democratic party, the Right's power as a political force depends on unified leadership that exists outside either party. This leadership today is a not-so-easy alliance between economic conservatives (big business), and Christian Conservatives (fundamentalists and white nationalists). While these factions disagree on some issues, such as free trade and banning abortion, they agree on attacking government. By reducing the government's role in regulating commerce, providing a safety net, and advancing the status of women and people of color, more people will be dependent on the church and the "private sector."
Given this definition, the Right's virulent opposition to education is more easily understood. Education gives people the ability to learn more about the world, make decisions for themselves, and participate in the democratic process. And higher education - especially public higher education - is a democratic institution which competes with the hierarchical Church and corporate America. The battle over what is taught in higher education, who gets access to it, and the way in which students are acculturated on college campuses is both symbolically and practically a battle for the hegemony of the society at large.
This guide focuses on right-wing activities on campus because the Right has decided that its message will be most effective if it comes not only from conservative politicians but also from within the halls of academia. When working within a campus, the Right aligns itself with traditionally conservative elitist forces within the university, and focuses on "wedge issues" that divide liberal opinion. On campuses, creationism would be a hard sell. But free-market economics, attacks on affirmative action, and opposition to codes regulating hate crime are effective.
Backed by over $4 million each year from conservative foundations, this strategy is very effective at diminishing the role of universities as a democratizing force in our society. Wherever academia gives students exposure to alternative political and economic ideas, the Right is there to see that traditional ideas are reinforced. Many of the conservative students and professors cultivated and trained by the Right go on to fill leadership positions within the Right-wing movement.
In the past three years, the campus Right-wing has undergone some significant changes. The Madison Center and its network of student newspapers was absorbed by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which moved to Delaware. The First Amendment Coalition was absorbed by the Individual Rights Foundation.
Support for economic conservatism on campus declined as a result of Republican attacks on education spending and activism against the Contract with America. The president of the conservative Young Americas Foundation took notice, writing in 1995 that "I have never seen the left more galvanized and focussed [sic] than they have become since the fall of 1994." Conservative organizations found that the charge of "political correctness" no longer carried the punch it once had. The Right reacted by increasing efforts to organize conservative alumni and trustees, through groups such as the National Alumni Forum.
Meanwhile, Christian conservatives gained in campus influence. And the Religious Right successfully manipulated the court system to win school funding for religious propaganda at the expense of funding for progressive organizations, through the court cases of Rosenberger v. University of Virginia and Smith v. Regents in California.
Attacks against marginalized groups, minority student associations, and ethnic studies and women's studies programs gained momentum. Howard Ehrlich wrote in Campus Ethnoviolence: A Research Review, "The opponents of 'political correctness' argue for their own freedom from bigotry [by redefining] as bigots the advocates of ethnic and feminist studies and multiculturalism in curricula." In using this strategy, the Right has attempted to appropriate the terms "civil rights" and "feminism" as part of initiatives to abolish programs which serve people of color and women.
The Right has also tried to win widespread legitimacy for such efforts through bigotry disguised as "science." This is not new: we saw this with nineteenth century eugenicists and later, Nazi scientists. In 1995, the argument that that I.Q. is an important determinant of one's social and economic class swept across the US with the publication of The Bell Curve. This kind of scholarship continues to enjoy a wide audience, fueling a bipartisan war against the poor in which even Democrats may express enthusiastic support for welfare reform.
Finally, the publications apparatus of the Right continued to regurgitate the same myths to undermine progressive activists and discredit the power of the academic voice on social and economic issues:
With the end of the Cold War, the Right has demobilized. Energy directed by conservative groups against the Soviet Union has been redeployed domestically, with the universities as a primary target.
A dangerous fallacy held by some activists is that paying attention to the Right Wing is a waste of time. If we wish to do more than preach to the converted, we must strategize about how ideas spread by the Right affect the response of new people we are trying to organize. What tactics are we using that worked before Right-wing groups got organized, but which no longer work today? We encourage all groups to reevaluate their strategy to address the Right's presence.
The right's goals are well understood. They want to siphon off popular political energy and prevent the development of the movements for democracy and equality. How can we encourage members of our communities to see through the facade of "populist" groups who use coached tactics and glossy brochures extolling "freedom," even as they take orders from their corporate bosses? How can we free ourselves from the influence of propaganda campaigns designed to convince us that racism, sexism, and environmental problems have been fixed; that if we are queer we are sick; that if we sell out we'll get ahead?
Organizing can still succeed. The battle to save student aid of 1995 and 1996 demonstrated the power of collective action, and that when exposed for all to see, the Right-wing agenda is very unpopular. However, the Right remains strong. This publication offers tools to better understand the struggle that we face, so that we can continue making our campuses useful places to learn about both ourselves and those around us. We can't afford to allow a backlash to obstruct our path.
- Rich Cowan, Nari Rhee