August (Web-only) 2004

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The Religious Right's Nader
Today's Washington Post has a lengthy profile of Constitution Party presidential candidate Michael Peroutka. But unless Peroutka has an unwavering belief that all publicity is good publicity, he's unlikely to be pleased with the treatment. The Post basically suggests the party is full of racist theocrats, and that its candidate is a drunken fool.

One would think that a major profile of the Constitution Party might focus on its attraction to religious conservatives who are adamantly opposed to the Iraq war. If the letters to Christianity Today are to believed, there is a substantial group of evangelicals who would line up with much of the Constitution Party's platform: staunchly antiabortion, skeptical of the faith-based initiative, and troubled by both the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq. (We almost never hear from readers on many of the party's other issues, like abolishing the IRS.) Could the Constitution Party, properly marketed, be the 2004 Bush campaign's equivalent to Al Gore's 2000 challenge from Ralph Nader?

It's an obvious question, so the Post seems bored by it. Better to unearth the seamy underbelly of the party. The Post's Matthew Mosk writes,

Some ideas at the heart of Peroutka's campaign have also drawn the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights law firm that tracks hate groups. Mark Potok, editor of the center's monthly intelligence report, said his group took note when Peroutka received a rare national endorsement from the League of the South, which he describes as a coalition of hard-line, "neo-Confederates" who espouse racist, anti-gay and anti-immigrant ideas.

The League of the South and the Constitution Party are "intimately ...