In a long lecture hall flanked by television screens, I sit surrounded by many variations of the species homo reaganus. In a crowd of over one hundred, I see clean-cut college men, middle-aged midwestern men, tanned men in golfing polos, Texan men wearing cowboy boots, men in their navy best, and, unexpectedly, seven women. It is the introduction period at the Leadership Institute, a training center for conservative leaders. I first heard a man running for state representative who boasted of marrying the prettiest homecoming queen of his graduating class, and then another aiming for the senate who stated that he came here to reclaim America from the "liberals who have hijacked it." I expected a more political remark from the first woman who introduced herself. Young, blonde, suited in proper navy blue and hailing from Texas A&M, she began with a giggle, "Well, I don't want to run for office myself or learn to be a good candidate... I'm really just here because someday I want to be a good candidate's wife." At this, the audience erupted into applause, howling approvingly at her display of traditional female subservience and good ol' family values. The leadership Institute is housed in a six story office building just inside the Beltway in Arlington, VA. Founded in 1979 (right before the Reagan era), it was the brainchild of Morton Blackwell, who went on to serve on the White House Staff as Special Assistant for Public Liaison to President Reagan, its current president. I was there as a spy, posing as a prospective candidate at the top-rate Candidate Development School. Noting the fact that conservative youth needed a centralized training camp to combat the troops of the Left, Blackwell established the Institute, which identifies, trains and places its students in high ranking public service positions and mass produces freshman Republican candidates. It boasts itself as the "premier training ground for tomorrow's conservative leaders." The Alumni Hall on the building's third floor is a Who's Who in American Conservatism portrait gallery. Graduates like Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and the superstar of American Tax Reform, Grover Norquist, beam smiles of gratitude toward a triumphant Blackwell. The hall served to inspire the students who hoped that four days of ensuing training might lead them to their own career worthy of a place in the Institute Pantheon. Seminars offered nationwide on topics such as Starting Conservative Campus Publications, Public Speaking, Youth Leadership, Foreign Service and Candidate Development have trained over 14,500 ambitious right-wingers. These seminars are reasonably priced and travel conveniently to liberal-dominated universities. The Institute also offers semester-long internships for college students and graduates, many of whom are later employed with the help of the Institute's Employment Placement Service. They become staff assistants to congresspeople, assistant editors of right-wing publications or program directors at the Institute itself. Some of them go on to "fight the Left" at their universities. One student sued the University of Wisconsin for its "immoral policy" of allocating student funds to gay campus organizations. In addition, the Institute just launched an interactive web-site (http://www.lead-inst.org) and a new Internet Training School to try to stay hip and current to accommodate the swelling ranks of conservative youth in America. The organization receives funding entirely from donations, though President Blackwell is a primary source. Notable contributors, including the late Dr. Robert Krieble, mogul of the Free Congress Foundation, become members of the Edmund Burke Society (you can tell a member, or rather, an "insider" by their society tie!). At monthly gatherings, this Society listens to favorite speakers like Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-ID) and columnist Robert Novak under a formidable oil portrait of the philosopher-statesman Burke. Other benefactors make up the Congressional Advisory Board of 70 members, among them the revered Sen. Jesse Helms, who helps to advise the educational directions of the Institute. I was attending the Candidate Development School because it promised to educate prospective candidates about campaign procedure and present key issues in conservative politics that would help me win my election. Most enticing, it advertised a "ready-made network of powerful new friends." Over the four days, I was indoctrinated into conservative thought, hearing speakers from the National Review, the Heritage Foundation and the Republican Victory Specialists, among other think-tanks and associations. I observed the acclaimed "network" in action, as men and their new friends traded budget slashing secrets, planned church services for members of Congress and crooned at an attractive intern who, despite the fact that she was 19 was fawningly told that she "could easily pass for 25." I met Bret Winters, running for the U.S. Congress in the 19th district of Illinois. He told me that he didn't know why he went into politics, considering that politics means many and ticks are blood sucking bugs that gorge themselves and hold on for dear life. I learned that the sure way to make conservatives feel comfortable is to mention the hilarious word "homosexual," which, if said with a slight lisp is certain to evince a self-satisfied snicker from audience members. The most cogent advice came from Rep. Cooksey of Louisiana who told us eager candidates that "the most important thing about being a candidate is... To win." Though President Clinton was denounced as a draft dodging, unethical, immoral philanderer, we were instructed to emulate his speaking style as it was much admired by public speaking experts. They explained that it was only the President's fresh image and open-hearted candor that defeated the more dyspeptic, yet righteous Dole in the '96 debates. Not surprisingly, great encomiums to Reagan ("the entertainer", "the includer") accompanied every speech, and in four days, only cavalier remarks about Bush and Nixon were voiced. The students were well-fed and watered, and we were also treated to party favors from most of the speakers: newsletters, magazines, comic strips. A 500 page resource book for candidates details the complexity of campaign law for any elected office and offers helpful suggestions for publicity, coalition building and "how to walk in a parade." Addressing us on the first day was Frank Gaffney, the director of the Center for Security Policy. For one hour, Gaffney adumbrated the scary situation the United States is caught in, between fundamentalist rogue regimes with nuclear weapons and the imminent threat of communist resurgence in the former Soviet Republics. Citing the fact that Yeltsin was once a member of the Communist Politburo, Gaffney pleaded his case for less U.S. involvement in Mother Russia's market. "The KGB is just as active as it ever was," he warned. An even greater menace than Russia is apparently posed by deadly hordes of "Chicomms", Gaffney's code word for Chinese Communists. Appearing benign, thousands of such Chinese students studying in the States are actually the largest group of active U.S. intelligence leakers, posing a "counter-intelligence problem of the first order." "I don't want to be racist here," Gaffney snorted, "but these people are really good at the hard sciences, and are under threat of harm to their families back home if they do not release all of their class notes and diagrams of nuclear technology, hitech computers and current defense information to their governments when they go home." He adds that the Chinese are buying out American politicians and with the leverage of their enormous population, they can commit any crimes they please while attracting unprecedented numbers of investors and garnering Most Favored Nation status. All of this rhetoric culminated in Gaffney's last pitch in favor of SDI, Reagan's Star Wars anti-nuclear missile defense system. It was refreshing to overhear later that afternoon, a conversation of two interns who felt that Gaffney had perhaps been a little xenophobic, and if not that, then a tad over-reactive. The next day I had the opportunity to speak with Becky Dunlop, the Secretary of Natural Resources for the state of Virginia. She and her husband George spoke together about the advantages of free-market environmentalism, wise use, and conservative enviro-groups like the National Wildlife Institute, which calls itself the "voice of reason on the environment." Wondering why conservatives were always the bad guy when it came to the environment, the Dunlops researched and formulated methods for conservative candidates to inoculate themselves against the "deadly disease" of environmental issues, certain to be sprung upon them from their opposition. Defining environmentalism as the answer to the liberal question "how can we stop economic activity?", the Dunlops showed that, to the contrary, a sound environment is always concomitant with properly managed growth. Capitalist societies have markedly cleaner environments than other countries- just look at Russia- the most polluted country on Earth!! And here in the States, they waxed Panglossian, "Everywhere you look, the environment is getting better!" Without a single mention of impending threats like proper nuclear waste storage, acid rain, or global warming, the Dunlops lauded the free market as the sure path to wise management of natural resources. They contended that there are no "global" environmental issues; all problems are site- and situation-specific. Just as Newt urged photo ops at the zoo, the couple urged prospective candidates to join groups like Ducks Unlimited and the Wild Turkey Federation to pre-empt their liberal opponent's attack that they "have not done anything to help the environment." After the talk, when I asked Ms. Dunlop how a candidate with constituents living on an American Indian reservation could elicit their support for conservative environmental policy, she looked at me with her green eyes and green suit and said, "Well, some American Indians are pantheistic, which mean that these people actually worship nature, and you can't work with them. And in general, reservations are pretty socialistic enterprises." She explained that despite this, one just needs to stress the principles of technology, factual science and wise management to these populations. Even if you, the candidate, support a company that wants to mine Indian territory - with proper information about risk assessment and wise use - "Indians can realize that mining is to their economic advantage, and vote for you." Grover Norquist is an unforgettable image, probably because he looks like a caricature of himself. Chunky, bearded, and sporting monstrous spectacles, he plasters his picture all over his publication, the American Tax Reformer. As the director of the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation, Mr. Norquist has worked hard to calculate exactly how many days an American works before he or she has earned the amount they will pay in taxes that year. This year the date fell on May 9th. He spoke on this topic, outlining conservative rhetoric about why taxes equal theft and why citizens should have the liberty to spend their own money. While talking about how to build a tax reform coalition of Christians, homeowners, and gun advocates, Grover voiced this choice aphorism: "If you can just keep the Christians from taking guns away from the NRA and keep the NRA from throwing condoms at the Christian kids, you'll be able to band together in the common fight against the Left." (I realized that conservative political contests are militarized; one always hears talk of battles, fights and victories over the Left.) The topic of affirmative action was never broached, but a lecture on Minority Outreach was given by the director of BAMPAC, the Black American Political Action Committee. However, this was the only institutional mention of the importance of minority outreach during a campaign, and African Americans were the only population addressed! This was probably innocently overlooked by the Institute, seeing as how there were only five "minority" attenders at the training. During sessions dealing with how to set up various campaign committees, we were told by Rep. Cooksey that "women make good campaign staffers," apparently because "women are more detail-oriented than men." Karen Miller of the Heritage Foundation told us never to refuse help on a campaign from anyone who genuinely wants to help, even if their values and activities do not agree with yours. This includes undesirables like dim-witted high school students, street people and even Log Cabin Republicans - members of the conservative gay organization that often volunteer to work for Republican campaigns. Miller also advised that if a district is predominately working class, it helps if the candidate works several different jobs for a brief amount of time before declaring candidacy. The candidate can then use these work experiences to show that he is "just a working man" because he's been down in the coal mine and in the auto factory and knows how life is for his constituents. She urged candidates to get heavily involved in church activities and service clubs as well, because all of these things demonstrate commitment to a community. To hear it from Leadership Institute speakers, the conservative takeover of America has been in great part achieved by a standardized dress code that commands respect, and most importantly, votes. Having calculated the telegenic properties and psychological implications of color, the Institute teaches that navy blue suits are the only appropriate attire for men. Accompanied by a white or light blue shirt and a "boring symmetric tie," the GOP candidate-to-be can't go wrong. Any other apparel would not be stable or honest enough to establish visual ties of trust between the candidate and the voter. Women are urged not to wear pastels or bright colors. In fact, the only colors women should think about wearing are navy blue, red and yellow. Skirt suits are always better than pant suits and if a woman must wear accessories they should be gold and nearly invisible. Now, as a proud graduate of the Leadership Institute, I'll never wear purple again. |
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