And Democratic targets fear the bombardment
Block the SALT treaty? "We'll fight it to the end," says Howard Phillips, 38, a husky Bostonian who heads one of the ultraconservative groups that are raising millions to oppose ratification. "In the long run we lose only if we fail to fight."
Unite Protestant fundamentalists and Catholic ethnics into a political bloc by emphasizing emotional "family" issues? "A year or two ago nothing was happening," says Paul Weyrich, 36, a former TV reporter who leads another right-wing organization. "Now we're moving."
Chop down some of the Senate's most prominent Democrats? "Of course, we can do it," says Terry Dolan, 28, chairman of a third ultraconservative organization.
"We are out to destroy the popularity ratings of several liberal Senators, and it's working. Frank Church is screaming like a stuck pig, and I don't blame him."
Brash young leaders with small offices and big dreams—these are the centurions of the movement that claims the title of America's New Right. Its general goals, a drastic reduction in domestic government activity and a hard anti-Communist line abroad, are familiar enough. So is its rhetoric. But the New Right has developed some fresh, effective tactics. It scored a few surprising electoral upsets last year, and now it smells blood.
Kentucky Senator Wendell Ford, lead of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, warns that his party's control of the upper house is under serious threat for the first time in a quarter-century. Party Tactician Terry O'Connell, observing that House Democrats are also worried, says: "Everyone I know is scared to death of this thing." Senior Correspondent Laurence I. Barrett explored the reasons for this anxiety. His report:
Conservatives who succeeded in nominating Senator Barry Goldwater for President 15 years ago sought power through control of the Republican Party. In the mid-'70s, there was a feeble effort to unite diverse factions into a national conservative party. Today's New Right has different priorities. It stresses 1) the creation of coalitions among special interest groups, 2) support or opposition on specific legislation and 3) concentration on Senate and House seats that can be won. Says William Rusher, publisher of National Review and an admiring expert on the movement: "These are the first conservative groups that really have got down to electoral and legislative nitty-gritty."
Though the organizational network is loose and right-wing groups must compete with each other for contributions, the leaders often confer on policy and tactics. Frequently the host is Richard Viguerie, 45, the direct-mail conglomerateur whose enterprises in Falls Church, Va., are expected to gross nearly $20 million this year. Viguerie, who said last week that he will work for the John Connally campaign, is at once an adviser, technician and promoter for the New Right. In his mass mailings and monthly Conservative Digest—an indulgence that ran up a $1.5 million loss last year—Viguerie plugs the newest and most active groups.
Several of them are his paying clients. The three most important organizations have all been formed since 1974. They are: