Though much has been penned about the American Religio-Political-Conservatism too little has been laid out about George Benson and his seminal work in pulling together Conservative Christian Values and Free Enterprise Economics.
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In 1964 semi-retired Ronald Reagan delivered a zinger of a speech for Barry Goldwater. That speech put Reagan on a path to 'sainthood' become the hero of the "stricken" Christian Conservatives of the American South. They were to find a new "media savvy" front man in Reagan - who became the "savior of conservative ideology" on into the 1980's.---------
The sudden shift of the Religious-Conservatives away from Jimmy Carter, who was too soft on race for the newly emerging Republicrats, created a giant opening for Ronald Reagan; he was to fill the gap and beyond for the South crushed and angry over the Civil Rights advances under Democrat President Lyndon B. Johnson. This turning was the handiwork of Ronald Reagan, who found a way to substitute himself into national Republican politics and take advantage of the beginnings of the New Religious Right, the coalition that would propel Reagan into the presidency and mount what was then called THE REAGAN REVOLUTION - a spin off of the CULT OF REAGAN.
President Jimmy Carter, an active, genuine Southern Baptist "bornagainer," had activated the hope amongst religious conservatives and Old South diehards that there would be a "revival" of morality in the presidency following the moral debacle of the Richard Nixon Watergate and its cover-up disaster and resignation.
However, Carter failed to deliver on a long list of items of great interest and importance to the "New Religious Right." Carter quickly lost favor. The reaction of Fundamentalist on the ascendency in the Southern Baptist Convention and other aggressive politicos seeing real advantage in the 180 turn the south had taken following the Voting Rights and forced integration edits of the Federal government were aroused to a "white" heat. Nothing since the uptick of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1920's could produce such a rapid and indelible political "loyalty reversal" as first against Lyndon Johnson, and then the final slippage coming under Jimmy Carter.
It was the residue and angst of Carter that helped gin up the social conservatives and the old Dixicrats now coming on board with support for the smooth talking radical, Ronald Reagan. Reagan did not fail. One giant and profound signal was sent immediately following the 1980 convention when Ronald Reagan went to the selfsame county in Mississippi where civil rights workers were notoriously murdered and made his carefully crafted states' rights statement (part of a insidious Southern Strategy begun under Dick Nixon). The switch-over was "set" with that event. The Dixicrats had found their new man!
Resentment festered around the fact that Carter did not strongly attack the critical problems facing the South such as establishing "segregation academies" and other "moral" issues facing the nation and especially the South. This angst "helped to break down the long-standing feeling among Evangelicals that electoral politics was not the proper realm for Christian activity." Prior to this time, scripture shibboleths were etched on the minds of the faithful: a.) "Avoid the very appearance of evil (politics)." b.) "Do not be unequally joined together with unbelievers." These biblical admonitions were enough to keep "real Christians" out of politics and partisanship.
Carter had failed to stack his administration and the federal system with enough evangelicals and Fundamentalists, Carter did not actively make a move to overturn Roe V. Wade, he did not stand sufficiently in the way of forced busing for the purposes of integration. Advocates for church academies were hell bent to receive tax exemption for church schools which sufficed as the neo-segregation academies. Jimmy Carter appeared unable or unwilling to stop the spread of "secular humanism" seen as running rife in the public schools and the nation.
The capstone seen as the key to moral disaster ignored the up-whelming cry to reinstate prayer in public schools.
Concurrently, at one critical interval, three secular New Right operatives/strategists began a bold crusade. They were: 1.) Howard Phillips 2.) Richard Viguerie 3. Paul Weyrich. They named their non-denominational creation, "THE MORAL MAJORITY" a clever all-inclusive coalition that quickly became the hub of radical political actions.
An assemblage of notable religious right captions and generals included: 1.) D. James Kennedy 2.) Jerry Falwell 3.) "Pat" Robertson 4.) Ed McAteer 5.) James Robison
At a precisely opportune moment during the August 1980 Presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan, speaking to a large gathering of like-minded religious far righters (over 15K), spoke these words:
"When I hear the First Amendment used as a reason to keep traditional moral values away from policy making, I am shocked...The First Amendment was written not to protect the people and their laws from religious values, but to protect those values from governmental tyranny." Reagan deserves credit for choosing a speech writer who could strike this once lost, then found, lost cord with the values voters gathered. And to cap off his remarks, Reagan added "I want you to know I endorse you and what you are doing."
That was that, Reagan became their man of the hour, he went on with abundant help from the religio-political-economic Right to win the presidency. And as they say, "The rest is history."
George Benson, The Gipper's Far Right Mentor and Divine
For years in the unseen background, the little-known George Benson was building his National Education Program. He was there prior to 1980, with the Gipper, helping to present and hone a specific work, THE TRUTH ABOUT COMMUNISM, a film where Reagan and Benson had cooperated. Benson's lifelong cause was to be wed to that of the new leader, Ronald Reagan. As a later newspaper editorial put it:
"GEORGE BENSON WAS A MEMBER OF THE MORAL MAJORITY YEARS BEFORE THERE WAS ONE. In an era when most Fundamentalist clergymen would as soon be seen hoisting a highball with the local madam as become involved in something as worldly and tawdry as politics, Benson was laying the foundation for what become known as the Religious Right."
(emphasis added)
Source: Mike Trimble Arkansas Times, July 1986.
And so "the Vote Values show" hits the road again this weekend. It's latest attempt to hornswoggle the nation, via the GOP and the U.S. Presidency, marches out of the minds of a crafty and deceitful group of religious leaders - still besmirched with the vetting and endorsement of the preemptive warmongering George W. Bush on their hands.
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