Date: Tue, 30 Jan 96 02:55 EST
From: Maggie Heineman <maggie@critpath.org>
Subject: Expose the Right - Please link and repost 

Local Webmasters are being asked to link to this page
We are also being asked to repost far and wide.

Maggie Heineman  -- maggie@critpath.org
Fight the Right Network  http://www.critpath.org/ftrn/

======================================================

To:	                    The Progressive Community
>From:	                    Craig Brown/Expose the Right! Campaign
>Date:	                    January 24, 1996
>Re:	                    Expose the Right! Campaign in high gear.
>New Web Site Unveiled:      http://www.mainelink.net/expose/
>
>On January 16, People for the American Way/Action Fund launched a
>national campaign - the Expose the Right! Campaign.  The broad purpose
>of the campaign is to expose to the American people the dangerous
>agenda of religious political extremists and others on the far right.
>And, to force the 1996 Presidential candidates to either repudiate or
>embrace that extreme agenda.
>
>Today, January 24, the Expose the Right! Campaign has unveiled its new
>web site, located at: http://www.mainelink.net/expose/.  The site will
>detail the campaigns activities and will change daily for the next 4
>weeks to reflect the campaign event of the day and serve as a dynamic
>source of information for the larger progressive community to Expose
>the Right!. (Note: The People For the American Way permanent web site
>is currently under construction and will be located at:
>http//www.pfaw.org/)
>
>WE NEED YOUR HELP!   LINK TO US!
>
>As an organization of committed progressive activists, you understand
>exactly how we are all affected by the destructive agenda of the
>radical right.  We must work together to expose their real agenda.
>
>Provide a link from your organizations web site to ours.  You can do
>so right now by downloading the attached .gif file and adding it to
>your web page with our url address.
>
>E-mail us at expose@mainelink.net.     Or, I can be reached at People
>For the American Way in Washington, DC at 202-467-2323.  The Expose
>the Right! Campaign offices can be reached at:	1-800-294-0126 in Des
>Moines, Iowa ,or,
>1-800-294-0128 in Manchester, New Hampshire.
>
>Let us know how else you can help. 
>
>Thanks.
>
>WHAT IS THE EXPOSE THE RIGHT! CAMPAIGN?
>
>Over the past few years, Americans with progressive values have
>witnessed an onslaught of Christian Coalition and Religious Right
>activists dominate the political arena.  They are widely credited with
>shaping the outcome of the 1994 election and continue to implement
>their agenda through the Contract with America and Contract with the
>American Family.
>
>On issue after issue, their well organized voices are overpowering as
>they continually shut down switch boards with thousands of calls, clog
>voice-mail and overload fax machines in Congress and the White House.
>With each success, their momentum increases. They have now set their
>sights on the 1996 Presidential campaign.
>
>Their goal is to take over our political process and shift it
>dramatically to the right.  They have been very successful doing it.
>Now, the Christian Coalition has made it their priority to organize
>and shape the outcome of the 1996 Presidential election.
>
>In a recent mailing Pat Robertson said, "Our staff at the Christian
>Coalition is working day and night to make sure that we generate a
>record-breaking Christian voter turnout in the Iowa Caucus and New
>Hampshire Primary...if we turnout at least 85% of the eligible
>Christian vote in the Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Primary, you can
>be sure that concerns of Christians and pro-family voters will then
>become the focal point of this 1996 Election Year -- a year which will
>set America's direction into the next millennium." 
>
>Meanwhile, Americans with progressive values watch the rise of the
>Religious Right with growing anxiety, frustration and anger.
>
>It is time to fight back.
>
>People for the American Way is planning to organize our activists
>members, supporters and other progressives to expose and confront the
>Religious Right's grip on the Presidential nomination process.
>
>The Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary are perfect venues for the
>CC to flex their muscles: small conservative rural states with strong
>CC chapters and events where turning out the hard core is everything.
>They will use their political power to force the winning Presidential
>candidate to have a pocketful of  IOUs to the religious political
>extremists.
>
>Iowa and New Hampshire are also perfect venues for progressives to
>challenge the Christian Coalition by exposing their extreme agenda and
>what it will mean for America's future -- and to hold Presidential
>candidates accountable who embrace those extreme positions.  That is
>exactly what People For the American Way plans to do.
>
>We intend to engage the Presidential candidates in a dialogue -- a
>discussion about the Religious Right's agenda for America and what it
>will mean in concrete terms for our future.
>
>Leading a movement of progressives, we will expose the extreme agenda
>and then aggressively challenge the Presidential candidates to either
>embrace or repudiate it.  This will be done at every campaign stop of
>every major Presidential candidate.  They will face PFAW activists
>asking questions about the extreme right agenda and what that agenda
>will mean for American families and America's future.  Candidates will
>be asked to make a choice: stand up to the Religious Right and their
>extreme positions or be clearly identified as embracing those
>positions.  If they refuse to answer a question or clearly identify
>their position at one campaign stop, they will face a follow-up
>question at the next.  If they repudiate the Religious Right, we will
>hold them to it.  If they embrace it, we'll make sure it comes back to
>haunt them.
>
>The candidate who wins Iowa and New Hampshire will probably go on to
>win the Republican nomination.  Regardless of who that candidate is,
>People for the American Way will have them on record, taking a clear
>position on the Religious Right's agenda.  And, we will be telling a
>story to the American people about what the Religious Right's extreme
>agenda is and what it means for our families.
>
>The campaign aims to expose the ways that the radical right has taken
>over the Presidential nominating process, most immediately, in Iowa
>and New Hampshire, and long term, throughout the country in this most
>important election year.  
>
>
>