Burnt Orange Report

Must Read Article in Salon

By Andrew Dobbs

Salon has a must read article today about Howard Ahmanson, Jr. Ahmanson is to the religious right what Richard Mellon Scaife is to the business right- an extremist with loads of cash who bankrolls various socially conservative movements. I've learned a lot from the article and it comes highly reccomended.

Ahmanson belongs to a movement known as Christian Reconstructionism- a theological and political school that holds the idea that America ought to be ruled by Biblical law. This isn't some sort of conservative lip-service to "traditional values"- the founder of this movement, Ahmanson's mentor Rousas John Rushdoony, according to Salon's quotes of his masterwork Institutes of Biblical Law- said that:

According to biblical law, he writes, segregation is a "basic principle," and slavery is permitted "because some people are by nature slaves and will always be so." Those who don't comply with Rushdoony's rules -- disobedient children, "pagans," adulterers, women who get abortions, repeat criminal offenders and, of course, homosexuals -- would be executed. Mrs. Ahmanson, who described Rushdoony as "quirky in some ways," qualified his extremism: "To impose the death penalty you need two witnesses. So the number of executions goes down pretty quickly."

Ahmanson's protege was another Reconstructionist- Marvin Olasky, the coiner of the term "compassionate conservativism" and one of the Bush Administration's cheif domestic policy architects. Rushdoony was one of the originators of the policy of "Faith Based Initiatives" and Olasky designed the office established by President Bush for that purpose. For more information that will make the hair on your neck stand up, check out the late Rushdoony's think tank, the Chalcedon Foundation.

It is clear that the Bush Administration has based much of its policy on a series of radical movements. Its social policy is designed by those that believe that the Constitution is a Satanic document and that America ought to be a theocracy. It's economic policy is designed by those that believe that the tax burden ought to fall only on earned wages rather than wealth and that regulation of any sort is communist. It's foreign policy is designed by those that openly promote the idea of American Empire. It's overarching philosophies are those that claim elitism and abuse of power as positive goods. Bush is a very dangerous man and if this article does not lead you to fight every waking moment for a new vision in November then nothing probably will.