Ominous politics. - book reviews

Ominous Politics

John S. Saloma III was the first president of the Ripon Society, the organization of liberal Republicans that has faded from the political scene as the Reaganites took control of the GOP.

In this short book, published only in paperback, Saloma left an important legacy for everyone who is concerned about returning to a society of fairness, opportunity and progress.

Saloma, who died in 1983, pieced together the interlocking relationships of rich, radical-right-wing Americans and the various organizations they have assembled to carry out their agenda to destroy all the best liberal reforms established in the last half-century.

Simply by consulting the index, a reader can trace the connections of such angels of the right as Richard Mellon Scaife, Joseph Coors and Roger Milliken; their hired guns like Reed Larson, Richard Viguerie and Jesse Helms, and such instruments of their insidious power, the National Right to Work Committee, Heritage Foundation and National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC).

A major impression created by this carefully documented book is of the unlimited money a few individuals have to invest in promoting their reactionary program for America.

Just one example will suggest the depth and complexity of these connections: Richard Mellon Scaife, whose fortune comes largely from the Mellon Bank of Pittsburgh and one of its many coporate offshoots, Gulf Oil Corp.

Freed from the necessity to work for a living, Scaife has helped finance the Heritage Foundation, the reactionary center that has provided some of President Reagan's most notorious appointees; the Foundation for American Communications, created to improve business connections to the media and to promote conservative economic policies; Accuracy in Media, the right wing's agent for intimidating press and television, and at least 20 more organizations that promote reactionary causes. The total impact of the Saloma study is to indicate that the far right is intolerant of free intellectual inquiry, a free press, a free and strong trade union movement, diverse religious practices and any federal government action to protect these First Amendment rights.

If the subjects of "Ominous Politics" gain any more political and economic power, all of us who cherish freedom and believe we must continue to build a truly liberal, fair society are in serious danger.

COPYRIGHT 1986 AFL-CIO
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group