On Monday night, I wrote a
diary encouraging dKos readers to contribute to
Bruce Roemmelt, an educator and retired firefighter who is running a great grassroots campaign against one of the most radical right-wing religious zealots in the Virginia House of Delegates,
Robert Marshall.
My diary on Monday featured information on Marshall's extreme anti-abortion zealotry. He's the former Executive Director of the American Life League, which opposes abortion in cases of rape, incest, and even to save the life of the pregnant woman.
In today's diary (below the jump), I discuss the growing mainstream acceptance of right-wing radicals like Marshall.
In Monday's diary comments, 13 new donors joined Bruce's campaign - Virginians who learned more about this race and Kossacks around the country who know that taking back America in 2006 starts with taking back VA in 2005! Thank you to everyone who joined the campaign!
Bruce is now just over $1,000 away from his fundraising goal for his first financial reporting period in the campaign. My goal is to inspire 10 more donors to contribute to Bruce tonight!
How to Make an Extremist More Palatable to Average Voters: Robert Marshall's Advice
When many of us talk about re-building a strong progressive Democratic party base, we often talk about how important it is for progressive Democrats to run for office at all levels.
As Howard Dean has recognized, the Christian Coalition and other radical so-called-Christian fundamentalist groups realized decades ago that they needed to gain credibility by running for lower offices (while keeping their extremism in check), build name recognition, ascend to higher office, and then pursue their radical ideology.
Even before Robert Marshall ran for office himself, he counseled other anti-abortion zealots in how to be successful politicians. In 1976, he wrote a book called Bayonets and Roses: A Comprehensive Pro-Life Political Action Guide. (You've got to check out the cover image. Disturbing.)
A 1996 article in the Virginian-Pilot called "The New Politics of the Christian Right", mentions Marshall in the context of abortion opponents employing the conscious strategy of disguising their extremism in order to be more palatable to average voters:
The abortion issue provides a perfect example of the effective use of mainstream rhetoric. The Christian Coalition state legislative strategy booklet advises candidates to ``run smarter'' on the issue
by downplaying the differences between pro-life and pro-choice and instead emphasizing ``sub-issues'' (for example, no taxpayer funding, parental notification and waiting periods). The goal of such appeals is to make pro-choice advocates sound ``extreme'' for not backing widely supported restrictions such as parental notification.
This strategy does not envision any change in principle. It merely advocates that the pro-life viewpoint, according to the strategy booklet, ``is communicated in a reasonable manner.''
GOP House of Delegates member Robert Marshall - also the executive director of the American Life League - is the author of a pamphlet that advises conservative Christian activists on how to effectively handle questions about a pro-life candidate's views. He advises, for example:
- Be hesitant to go beyond what is requested. Don't answer questions that are not asked.
- And when you do talk, you are under no obligation to exhaust your information on a topic.
- And even the Lord did not always answer questions directly.
- Also, it is morally permissible to answer a question with a question.
A second strategy is to emphasize issue appeals beyond controversial social ones.
Leaders in the movement believe that a key to their long-term success is being accepted as mainstream conservatives who care as much about economic issues as abortion and cultural values.
Oftentimes, this strategy entails taking controversial social issues out of their context. Some movement leaders now claim that they want Roe vs. Wade overturned on grounds of federalism: that is, let the issue of abortion be decided by the states in order to guarantee a diversity of approaches.
In a 2003 American Life League interview (worth a read in its entirety), he confirmed this advice (emphasis mine):
Q: What advice would you give to people who want to become more involved in the political side of the fight to establish a Culture of Life?
A: Do it indirectly, but get involved at the local level, in your community. Maybe a homeowner's association, or be concerned about traffic safety and things like that. And then it shows that you truly are concerned about people and their "real problems." And then you will get the opportunity to meet people who you would normally not deal with; and then they might see that you have a little lapel pin that is a flower or the precious feet. Not everybody is called to run for office. But I can't do this by myself. I was able to beat opponents who spent almost four times what I did because I had such a huge cadre of volunteers. These people were the "social values" people. These people are more dedicated than the average citizen to spend time to get someone elected.
Now that Marshall has been in office since 1992 (and is so accepted as an incumbent that he didn't even have a Democratic challenger in 2003), he is not as worried about moderating his views. Oh, he still tries to pass himself off as a reasonable person, but his recent legislation reveals his extremism.
Of course, Marshall's not stepping up to introduce extreme legislation in pursuit of the American Life League's goals to ban all abortions in all circumstances, ban use of emergency contraception, and, in fact, ban all artificial contraception at all as ALL espouses, but he has let his extremism slip through in bills such as HB1807, which essentially would have made it a felony to for a mom to provide birth control to a teenage daughter who had been raped. This bill, luckily, failed. But many of Marshall's others have succeeded.
How You Can Help
Most voters in the 13th district really have no idea what Robert Marshall is up to. Becuase the Virginia General Assembly only meets for two months early in election years, many voters don't remember important legislative issues by the time November rolls around.
There are many progressive activists in Virginia who will be working hard to expose Marshall's extremism this year and remind ordinary voters of what he's been up to as we grow closer to election day.
But revealing the truth about the incumbent is not enough - we need a good candidate to replace him. And we have one in Bruce Roemmelt. I haven't written much about Bruce in this diary, but his Web site will give you a great idea of what kind of candidate he is and the great grassroots campaign he is running.
Your donation to Bruce today will go a long way to reversing the trend of the gaining power and mainstream acceptance of extremists like Robert Marshall.
Will you please donate today?
A Note on My Role (or lack thereof) with the Roemmelt Campaign
These diaries on Bruce Roemmelt are not authorized or endorsed by any candidate or committee. I don't work for Bruce Roemmelt and I'm not compensated in any way for these diaries. (I got an email about this last time, so just wanted to make this clear!)
If anyone feels like sending me money for them, though, I'll take it! :-) Nah, just donate to Bruce.