This Week on the Right
Tom Tancredo is Leader of the Anti-Immigrant Populist Right
Rep. Tom Tancredo, who has represented Colorado's Sixth District since 1999, has in the last six years succeeded in rallying an anti-immigrant populist revolt that brings together the nativists, religious right, cultural supremacists, militia movement, and anti-immigration policy institutes with a new anti-immigration wing of the Republican Party.
From 1993 to 1998, Tancredo served as president of right-wing think tank Independence Institute, located in Golden, Colorado. The institute weighs in on an array of state issues, including government spending, education policy, and social issues. Its board of trustees includes Jeff Coors of Coors Brewing, a right-wing philanthropist involved in right-wing foundations established by the Coors family, such as Castle Rock Foundation. Emblematic of the positions held by the Independence Institute, Tancredo said, “I do want to do away with the education department.”
Although Tancredo's own district, including the well-to-do suburbs of Denver, is not one where many immigrants live, Tancredo adopted immigration reform as his personal issue. In May 1999 he founded the Immigration Reform Caucus. Serving as the chair of this congressional caucus, Tancredo has succeeded in establishing a widening base of Republican lawmakers who believe that immigration restrictionism should be the position of the party, which has traditionally adopted the posture of its business wing favoring a ready supply of cheap labor. The caucus, which in 1999 had sixteen members, had 91 members, including one Democrat, at the end of 2005.
Before 9-11, immigration restrictionists operated in the political wilderness, ignored by the leadership of both political parties. However, by mixing issues of national security, border control, national identity, and large immigration flows, Tancredo helped make immigration one of the issues of public debate that cut across the usual red-blue political divides.
Tancredo founded Team America, “A political action committee dedicated to securing our nation's borders.” Angela “Bay” Buchanan, sister of Pat Buchanan, serves as Team America's executive director. According to Team America, “Illegal immigration is the most critical issue facing our nation today. The mission of Team America is to make this issue a significant part of the national political debate and to identify, recruit, and help elect to public office individuals who are committed to enforcing our laws and securing our borders.”
His founding of Team America notwithstanding, Tancredo is not a team player, at least when it comes to partisan politics. Like many other social conservatives who came into politics with the rise of the New Right in the 1970s, Tancredo regards politics as a fight between the grassroots and the liberal establishment, generally found on the East Coast. For Tancredo, immigration is a life-or-death issue in the culture war to save America, and he doesn't intend to let party loyalties stand in the way of battling back in the clash of civilizations. One sign of this independence as a populist has been Team America's backing of restrictionist challengers to prominent Republican incumbents, including Utah's Chris Cannon and Arizona's Jim Kolbe.
Tancredo is not alone in his assessment of the political divides in the United States. Steve Camarota, director of the restrictionist Center for Immigration Studies, said, “On immigration, there's a fundamental divide in America. It's not a left-right divide. It's a divide between public opinion and elite opinion.”
Describing himself as a “devotee” of Samuel Huntington and the thesis of his Clash of Civilizations treatise, Tancredo like many on the right—from social conservatives to neoconservatives—bases his restrictionism less on economic reasons than on cultural and racial ones. “I believe that what we are fighting here is not just a small group of people who have hijacked a religion, but it is a civilization bent on destroying us.”
“The threat to the United States comes from two things: the act of immigration combined with the cult of multiculturalism,” argues Tancredo. “We will never be able to win in the clash of civilizations if we don't know who we are. If Western civilization succumbs to the siren song of multiculturalism, I believe we are finished.”
Tancredo's political leanings and philosophy are evident in his voting record and positions on policy issues, as evaluated by political advocacy groups. In recent years, Tancredo has received the following ratings: American Conservative Union, 100%; National Right to Live, 100%; Planned Parenthood, 0%; Americans for Tax Reform, 95%; U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 95%; Public Citizen, 9%; Council of La Raza, 0%; Arab American Institute, 0%; John Birch Society, 75%; Eagle Forum, 97%; Family Research Council, 92%; Concerned Women for America, 100%; American Wilderness Coalition, 0%; League of Conservation Voters, 3%;; Peace Action, 0%; American Security Council, 100%; Center for Security Policy, 83%; National Rifle Association, 92%; Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 0%; Federation for American Immigration Reform, 100%; Network-National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, 0%; and Bread for the World 0%.
Tancredo associates with a wide range of restrictionist, nativist, and white supremacist groups as part of his anti-immigration efforts. As sources of information, he recommends NumbersUSA and the Federation for American Immigration Reform. He is a frequent speaker at regional and national anti-immigration gatherings that include speakers from various vigilante and nativist groups, including such national figures as Chris Simox, Glenn Spencer, and Barbara Coe. On Memorial Day weekend 2005, Tancredo was the keynote speaker at a Las Vegas meeting that aimed to coordinate anti-immigrant and militia operations over the summer. Barbara Coe, leader of the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, told the assembly that illegal immigrants were “illegal barbarians who are cutting off heads and appendages of blind, white, disabled gringos.” A fellow traveler with the anti-immigration organizations is the National Alliance, a white supremacist group, which had a billboard outside the meeting hall that read, “Stop Immigration.”
If other Republican candidates for the 2008 nomination don't make immigration a centerpiece issue, Tancredo has let it be known that he himself will run for the nomination on the issues of immigration and “the cult of multiculturalism” that he believes are ruining (and threatening) America. Already, Tancredo has toured New Hampshire and Iowa in meetings hosted by the Christian Coalition to check out his prospects.
See Right Web Profile: Tom Tancredo
For More Information on Immigration Debate
Reframing the Immigration Debate: The Actors and the Issues
We at the IRC strongly believe that this is a critical moment for immigration reform in the United States. For several years, we have watched with consternation as restrictionist forces have gained ground in communities, public policy, and political discourse. While there have always been brave voices to protest the violation of immigrant rights, we have seen a relative weakness in mounting a unified and coherent defense of immigrants and building a compelling call for reform. Here is a series of articles on immigration to engender dialogue and provide food for thought on the issues. Several of the articles are written by IRC Policy Director Tom Barry, while others come from collaborators on both sides of the border.
The Right's Rule of Law
What's the right-wing society that brings together Kenneth Starr, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, John Ashcroft, Antonin Scalia, John Bolton, Paula Dobriansky, John Roberts, and a cast of thousands of right-wing zealots? The Federalist Society, founded in 1982 as part of the New Right's strategy to tear down all dimensions of the “Liberal Establishment,” has become one of the most influential organizations of the right. See Right Web's Federalist Society profile.
Established in 1982 by a small clique of conservative law students and lawyers based at three universities—University of Chicago, Yale, and Harvard—the Federalist Society has grown into one of the country's most powerful legal associations. “In the 1980s and 1990s, the society would become central casting for the biggest names in Washington's ideological wars—Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, Kenneth Starr,” according to Nina Easton, author of the Gang of Five. (10)
Among the founders and early supporters of the Federalist Society were Edwin Meese, Irving Kristol, Antonin Scalia, and David McIntosh. In its early days, it was regarded as the right-wing counterpart to the National Lawyers Guild.
Samuel A. Alito, a longtime Federalist Society member, was nominated by President Bush to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. He moderated a panel discussion about the Patriot Act at the society's November 2004 national conference, introduced a debate on the independent counsel law at the 1989 national conference, and has addressed the society on other occasions. An article he wrote on the role of the lawyer in the criminal justice system, based on a speech he made at the 1997 convention, was published in one of the society's newsletters.
Despite the strong conservative leaning of the Supreme Court, many Federalist Society members complain that the court strays too far into liberal territory with its decisions. “What is there to be jubilant about?” asked Edward Whelan, the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “We have a Supreme Court that has been essentially lawless in so many respects for decades now, and a lot of work has to be done to restore it to its proper role.” (9)
“Membership in or participation in Federalist Society events doesn't disqualify someone from office but it can help people understand the judicial philosophy of the nominee,” said Ralph Neas, president of the People for the American Way. “The Federalist Society likes to pretend it's just a debating club, but for last 20 years it has been at the forefront of the efforts to push a right-wing counterrevolution in the courts and undo decades worth of precedent.”
See Right Web Profile: Federalist Society
Letters and Comments
(Editor's Note: We encourage feedback and comments, which can be sent for publication through our feedback page, at: http://rightweb.irc-online.org/form_feedback.html. We reserve the right to edit comments for clarity and brevity. Be sure to include your full name. Thank you.)
Re: Tom Tancredo Leads Anti-Immigrant Populist Movement
TO BE OR NOT TO BE
For Tom Tancredo
Tom
I want you to know that
I am Illegal,
that my parents were Illegal,
that they came to this country
with a MEXICAN DREAM
that life would be better
there would be an abundance of justicia!
They raised ten Illegal
children who fought and returned
from those unlawful wars
only to be more Illegal
than when they left.
If that's not enough,
I want you to know
my siblings have multiplied
and all sobrinos y sobrinas
they are all Illegal.
I want you to know that
I am Illegal,
that we're the ones who
renovated your home, raise your children,
clean up after people like you
maid your houses, garden your flowers.
work your fields, your orchards
construction sites & restaurant kitchens
doing the cheeeeeap hard labor
your kind refuses to do.
I want you to know that
I am Illegal.
We are all Illegal Americans from
North, Central & South America
We are all proud of being Illegal Americans.
I want to know
with a name like yours
if there are skeletons in your closet …
if they are Illegal
& did you ask for their pink cards
after all, people who live in glass houses
need to be extra careful.
Tom Tancredo
I am Illegal,
I'm proud of being Illegal.
Your Gestapo immigration
can't f _ _ _
with my MEXICAN/CHICANO sueño
for a better life lleno de justicia
NOT the—just us—American dream
that you look for …
a life without people
who are different than you
in color and size and even better than you.
Tom
I want you to know
there are no Illegal people,
there are only Illegal governments.
I m sure you will say
writing this poem is Illegal.
It's against the law
because it's the fashionable thing to be.
I want you to know
you will never understand
being Illegal is fun
being a wetback is cool
being a mojado es la moda
because being Illegal
is being different than you
and is the best thing
I know how to be!
—Trinidad Sánchez, Jr.
Re: Neocons Down But Not Out
I read Michael Flynn's article with much interest. He should now read “U.S. Hardliners Grab North Korea Policy Reins” (Financial Times, December 20, 2005) by Guy Dinmore and Anna Fifield. Their article opens with this ominous lead: “Hardliners in the Bush administration appear to be winning an internal struggle for control over policy towards North Korea...” They also note that, “... the office of Vice President Dick Cheney [is] driving this tougher approach...” No surprise here.
—Murray Polner
Re: Gertrude Himmelfarb
Gertrude Himmelfarb has just written an article in The New Republic which sounds like support for Intelligent Design. Is she simply trying to support the ass-kissing of the Christian Right pioneered by her son Bill Kristol?
—Norman Ravitch
