An op-ed from the Baltimore Sun by Robert Koulish, the France-Merrick professor of service learning at Goucher College, found its way into my local paper.The Bush administration's proposed 2008 budget, which threatens elimination of 141 programs, is a reminder of another war - the one against nonprofits.
Since 9/11, nonprofits have been financially starved, privatized out of business and even criminalized, under the "material aid" provisions of the Patriot Act. The Bush budget attempts to escalate this low-intensity conflict against nonprofits.
The seeds for the war on nonprofits lay in the 1971 "Powell Memo" penned by corporate lawyer and future Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell. The memo instructed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to confront nonprofit critics of the business community, personified by Ralph Nader and the American Civil Liberties Union. It urged forming right-wing think tanks and philanthropies, hiring intellectuals and confronting progressives.
The Powell Memo has been credited with providing a blueprint for conservative dominance after the 1978 midterm elections as well as the surge in right-wing think tanks and civic organizations, and the "K Street Project" for conservative domination of lobbying firms.
The Bush administration has taken the Powell Memo one step further and uses the strategy to punish non-profits that aren't run by conservative christians. A quick check shows that Bush has proposed a $28 million increase for faith-based 'abstinence-only' programs, while no increase is proposed for other family planning measures.
In fact, in providing services to communities, the Bush administration always prefers 'faith-based' programs. And no group other than christian groups have ever gotten any of this money...
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Tags: news | politics | religion | religious right | christian | Bush | conservative | republican | propaganda
