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No Mercy: How Conservative Think Tanks and Foundations Have Changed America's Social Agenda
No Mercy How Conservative Think Tanks and Foundations Have Changed America's Social Agenda Author:Jean Stefancic, Richard Delgado During the sixties most of America trod a turbulent, but progressive path toward social and political freedom. The Civil Rights Movement, protests over the Vietnam War, and even cultural experimentation were evidence of a population moving towards the political Left. While the liberals took to the streets, the conservative elite, in small but po... more »werful groups, were developing an agenda of their own. In 1968, the Nixon presidency brought moderate conservatism back into vogue. In the 1980's Ronald Reagan successfully united the economic and religious Right. Today, Newt Gingrich's "contract with America" verges on becoming legitimized in a dominant Republican Congress while the Left is struggling to gather its resources, reevaluate its policies, and discover a new avenue of public support to battle the well-oiled conservative machine. What happened? In their book No Mercy, Jean Stefancic and Richard Delgado provide an incisive analysis of the Right's rise to power. The authors show that, since the sixties, the Left has had little to do with setting the country's agenda and that conservative think tanks and foundations have been systematically abetting a conservative revolution by funding a variety of issue-oriented studies and programs. The authors focus on seven areas in which this battle has been waged and won by the powerful conservative coalition: English Only, Proposition 187 and immigration reform, IQ/race and eugenics, affirmative action, welfare, tort reform, and campus multiculturalism. How has the Right managed to gain the advantage in these traditionally liberal campaigns? How can this be stopped? During their research, the authors found themselves in partial admiration of the dedication, economy of effort, and sheer ingenuity of the conservative forces. But Stefancic and Delgado seek to inform the American public about how the juggernaut operates--not to celebrate but to combat it. They challenge the Left to adopt the same sort of strategic focus and issue-orientation as the Right to bring this country back to the center--before it's too late.« less