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Decades of Distortion - Page 13

Complex Agendas Within The Right

The success of the Right's campaign against welfare stems from its ability to weave together diverse anti-welfare themes from different submovements, creating a powerful synergism and unity among many sectors of the Right. AFDC proved a common theme that captured for the Right the resentment generated by the country's conservative religious revitalization, the contraction and restructuring of the economy, and white race resentment and bigotry.⁶⁸ That is not to say, however, that there is always agreement over welfare reform among the Right's submovements.⁶⁹ For example, I have discussed earlier the ongoing tension over the proper role for women. The dominant formulation- housewife and mother for middle class women and wage-laborer for poor women, especially poor Black women- is not universally supported within the Right.

A spokesperson for the California-based Traditional Values Coalition criticized Governor Wilson's proposed welfare cuts because one result might be an increase in abortions among poor women.⁷⁰ Yet the Christian Coalition criticized the "welfare reform" plan proposed by the National Governors Association in 1995 because it was "too soft on out-of-wedlock births."⁷¹

Representative Newt Gingrich, then a member of the Conservative Opportunity Society (COS), a group of "young Turk" Republicans in the House, argued in COS's "manifesto", Window of Opportunity, for tying welfare benefits to desirable patterns of behavior,⁷² but stated that "[r]unning a cheap welfare state cannot be our goal."⁷³ The libertarian publication, Reason, criticized how "COS members have worked assiduously, often in alliance with the Moral Majority and other New Right groups, to erode individual freedom in several areas."⁷⁴

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Decades of Distortion - Page 13

Complex Agendas Within The Right

Decades of Distortion

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