Research

The Public Eye Quarterly Nominated for the 2006 Utne Independent Press Award

The Public Eye, a quarterly published by Political Research Associates covering the US Right, is a finalist for the 2006 Utne Independent Press Award in the category of General Excellence (newsletters).

Press Release

Laying Siege to the Last Abortion Clinic in Mississippi

A Mississippi License plate that says "Choose Life"

On Tuesday, July 18th, for the first time in ten years, protesters arrived on Dr. Joseph Booker’s block in Jackson, Mississippi. They went door to door, ringing bells and telling people that their neighbor, the state’s last abortion provider, is a…

Article

Rights Groups call on Romney to Denounce Bigoted Statements

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Political Research Associates, American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action call on Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney to condemn bigoted statements made by…

Press Release

Running Against Sodom and Osama

The Christian Right, Values Voters, and the Culture Wars in 2006

Chip Berlet and Pam Chamberlain explore how the Christian Right fused together an external threat of “Islamofascism” and an internal boogeyman of gay rights to try to help right-wing candidates in the 2006 elections.

Ballot Initiatives on the Right: 2006

In 2004, the Right deployed state ballot initiatives opposing gay marriage to pull out socially conservative voters on Election Day. While this tactic apparently only enjoyed success in the key state of Ohio, it nonetheless helped frame the national…

Article

Cruising on Military Drive

"Good" Latinos and "Bad" Latinos in the Age of Homeland Security and Global War

Men in a military uniform, sitting with their backs to us.

If you want to understand how Homeland Security influences us, go to south Texas and take a walk around neighborhoods whose streets were paved by the “clash of civilizations” in cities and towns at or near the border. One such street is San Antonio’…

Article

The Art of the Slur

From Joe McCarthy to David Horowitz

David Horowitz, a white man with his hands raised in the air, in front of a mic stand.

Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter: these are perhaps the best known of the right-wing commentators who seem to have trouble with the truth — although their lies have little impact on their careers. The list also includes David Horowitz,…

Article

Back to the Future: GOP Revives Anti-Gay Marriage Campaign for ‘06

As George Bush’s approval ratings on the Iraq war and the economy continue their slide downward, the Republican Party is determined to use the gay marriage issue and other punitive anti-gay measures to retain control of Congress in the 2006 mid-term…

Article

White Power Cyberculture

Building a Movement

Two computer screens on a desk in a dark room. The light is focused on the computers

My bro N I went to our first Aryanfest this last weekend in Phoenix. It was just mind blowing on the amount of brothers and sisters out there all living, breathing, and working for the cause. And here I thought we were alone LOL.

Article

Politicized Science

How Anti-Abortion Myths Feed the Christian Right Agenda

Three women at a prochoice rally holding signs that say "Safe, legal abortion on demand. No apologies!" and "Abortion is a right. No Going Back."

The anti-abortion movement uses B.A.D science and agenda-driven journals to back up false claims about abortions, in an effort to make abortions illegal.

Article

Designs on the Culture

A teacher looking at a classroom of students, with one student's hand in the air

Commentary Dover is over, for now. Beginning in 2004, an elected school board attempted to change the Dover, PA, science curriculum so that it cast significant doubt on the evolutionary hypothesis. The board tried to substitute a textbook,…

Article

When Adversaries Become Allies

The Fight Against the Patriot Act and the Surveillance State

T. Allen (Terry) Hoover, a gun rights advocate and former deputy sheriff, once had a pink submachine gun made as a gift for his wife. He is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. And in Idaho, he was a member of a right/left coalition…

Article

The Battle for Mainline Churches

“Make no mistake,” wrote Avery Post, the national president of the United Church of Christ in 1982, “the objectives of the Institute on Religion and Democracy are the exact opposite of what its name appears to stand for. The purpose of its leaders…

Article

The Globalization of an Agenda

The Right Targets the UN with its Anti-Choice Politics

A banner at a protest that says "Pro Choice, Pro Child, Pro Family"

This article is derived from the PRA report UNdoing Reproductive Freedom: Christian Right NGOs Target the United Nations. In June 2004…

Article

The Rise of Dominionism

Remaking America as a Christian Nation

When Roy Moore, the Chief Justice of the Alabama State Supreme Court, installed a two-and-one-half-ton granite monument to the Ten Commandments in the Alabama state courthouse in Montgomery in June of 2001, he knew it was a deeply symbolic act. He…

Article

George Wallace and the Rightward Turn in Today's Politics

A Black person in a yellow T-shirt holding a sign that says "voter suppression is violence"

In the spring of 2005, Georgia’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a law requiring all voters to appear at their proper polling place carrying either a Georgia driver’s license or an official photo ID issued by the Georgia Department of Motor…

Article

Thinking about Elephants

Toward a Dialogue with George Lakoff

A man with grey hair and grey beard wearing spectacles

Since last November’s election, George Lakoff’s book, Don’t Think of an Elephant!,¹ has deservedly captured the imagination of mainstream Democrats and of many progressives as well. He offers us the promise that we can achieve…

Book Review

The Montana Human Rights Network

Fighting the Far Right with Research

In April 2005, Kevin McGuire, an engineering student at the local state university, ran for the Bozeman, Mon. elementary school board. He was a newcomer in town, hailing from Santa Rosa, Calif., and part of the white flight flowing into the state.…

Article

Conservative Campus Organizing

Growing Pains or Arrested Development?

Two students holding a banner that says "Shut down Coulter. Wed 7 PM Wheeler Hall."

“A few years ago,” the Washington Times reported in a story last year, “Jeff O’Holleran said he began to realize that he was different from the other boys he knew…. Yesterday, he said, it was time to come out of the closet. In the middle…

Article

The Extreme Right in Europe: Fascist or Mainstream?

A woman with a scarf holding a sign that says "open the borders"

Parties of the extreme Right now have a role in the governments and/or the parliaments of several European countries, including Flanders (northern Belgium…

Article

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