The Texas Observer

by Josh Berthume

Drew Ryun surveys the hotel conference room and he can feel the dissatisfaction—anger, even—radiating from the 40 or so newly forged conservative activists seated in front of him.

“You are all here because you are upset about something,” says Ryun, the executive director of American Majority, whose mission is to train a national network of activists committed to limited government. “You want to know what you can do to turn the tide in this country.”

There are a few murmurs and a boisterous, “Yes!”

“We all share common values as conservatives. We all want to hold our elected officials accountable,” he says, pacing at the front of the room. “But here’s a test: Who here can name every member of your school board?”

Silence.

Ryun is practicing the ancient art of political organizing, a tradition once thought lost in the age of television campaigning. But after the Christian Right and the Obama Left reinvented personal politicking for the 21^st century, the old wizardry is making a comeback. After the Tea Parties are over and the Fox News van has skipped town, American Majority is training activists to organize their communities and win elections. When conservatives talk about taking back Congress, and eventually the White House, this is how they plan to do it.

At this Thursday night meeting in Dallas, Ryun uses the audience’s political ignorance as a teachable moment. He has demonstrated that angry chanting at Tea Parties or loud shouting at Town Hall Meetings does not an effective activist make. Like an Army drill sergeant, he’s tearing down these wannabes in order to build them back up as political warriors, with a full complement of weaponry.

“Okay. So what are you so pissed about? The people that make decisions are the ones that actually get elected to office,” Ryun says. “If you don’t know who the people are that are making  the decisions that most directly affect you, what are you so mad at?”

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Drew Ryun says he helped his twin brother Ned launch American Majority in January 2008. They are the sons of former Kansas congressman Jim Ryun, who the National Review ranked as the most conservative member of Congress in 2006. Ned, who serves as the president of American Majority, worked as a writer in the Bush administration. Drew previously ran the grassroots operation of the Republican National Committee.

American Majority’s staff includes many former Republican Party operatives and former elected officials. Nevertheless, the group claims to be non-partisan—a requirement to keep their non-profit status. American Majority’s non-partisan status is hard to accept, until Drew and Ned explain how they consider most elected conservatives to either be insufficiently conservative or, worse, falsely conservative.

American Majority intends not only to take back the government, but also to define what it means to be a conservative.

Drew Ryun says Republicans ruined the conservative brand and that’s why Democrats won in 2006 and 2008.

When I look at election losses, I see conservatives saying, ‘What’s the difference? What am I sending these guys to DC for anyways? They’re not doing anything,’” Ryun explains. “Some Republicans in DC will say, ‘Well, where else are conservatives gonna go? They have to vote for us.’ But they don’t. I think a lot of them have been staying home.”

Ryun sites a recent Gallup poll that says 40% of Americans identify themselves as conservative, and 20% consider themselves liberal or progressive. And in those numbers, he sees opportunity.

Thousands of people are attending American Majority training sessions, and so far progressives are failing to take them seriously. Progressives too often chuckle at the crazy signs they see in rally footage, and they label everyone in the opposition as Glenn Beck zealots, Birthers or Secessionists. That could turn out to be a big mistake.

Forget for a moment that the Tea Party message is a muddled mess. Likewise, forget your doubts that these activists are organized enough to do more than show up and get angry. Forget the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy–even if you believe it.

Instead consider these simple facts: American Majority has a field office in Dallas, and since it began operating in late May, the group has held 12 training sessions (half for activist trainings, half for candidates), with six more on the calendar before the end of the year. Ryan says American Majority’s goal for 2010 is to have a thousand new activists trained and engaged as well as 100 candidates running for office in Texas. At this rate they will make that goal and likely exceed it.

When asked to state American Majority’s end goal, Ryun says he will only be satisfied when American Majority candidates take over the city council in Berkeley, California. Sitting in on their training session, it becomes clear that these are not the “Crazy Uncles” you see on TV. Those in attendance are not the folks who think  Barack Obama is an Arab. These are the folks who work the call centers and block-walk. The conservative Ryun twins are savvy operatives, and they have embraced the new version of the old wizardry. They are actively rebuilding the conservative political machine from the ground up.

For more information about American Majority:

Ned Ryun at a Salina, Kansas rally

Rachel Maddow on American Majority

Ned Ryun’s Response to Rachel Maddow  

American Majority on YouTube

American Majority’s Twitter Activism guide  

By Ryland Barton

Much has been made of the rumored cuts of César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall from Texas public school curriculum, but Thursday’s State Board of Education meeting seemed to suggest that these two historical figures would be retained in Texas classrooms. The six SBOE experts, appointed to conduct a regular review of social studies material, presented their revisions on the 222nd anniversary of the Constitution’s ratification. It was fitting that on this day, the conversation strayed away from historical figures to the separation of church and state, or in this case, the so-called experts’ view that the two are inextricably intertwined.

In his review of the Texas Education Knowledge and Skills curriculum, SBOE-appointed expert Reverend Peter Marshall argues that high school classrooms should explain that critical documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are products of Christian values.  Marshall, who operates Marshall Ministries in Massachusetts, stressed his “Bible-based worldview” in which the Constitutional values of universal human equality are derived from God. His philosophy is expanded in his review of the TEKS, emphasizing: “Religion in America produced the first written civil documents of governance.” Marshall is one of two Christian advocates who were appointed as experts by the SBOE to review social studies course content.

The other is David Barton, former vice president of the Texas Republican Party. Barton did not expand on his previous comments that Cesar Chavez “lacks the stature, impact and overall contributions of so many others,” but instead gave an in-depth review of minority historical figures that would be appropriate to review in the TEKS curriculum. Barton appears to have taken a step back from his written review of the TEKS, in which he also suggested the removal of Anne Hutchinson, Carl Sagan, and Colin Powell from the historical figures list. Barton also advocated for the inclusion of religion in the program, counseling that students be taught “inalienable rights as being those rights given by God.”

It’s encouraging to see the First Amendment tested on this Constitution Day. Though our founding documents use the words “creator” and “under God,” it’s not clear we shouldn’t necessarily fasten the Constitution’s attitude of human equality to Christian origins, just as modern society doesn’t follow 18th century morality. Yes, these critical documents influence the way we think about government today, but most people consider their influences as historical information to weigh and consider instead of treating them as roadmaps and relics. For example, our founding fathers wrote in the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”  The author of the First Amendment was almost certainly thinking about their ancestors’ flight from England in which they were dissatisfied with the Church and were not permitted to practice their Puritan faith. Though Puritan states like the Massachusetts Bay Colony were established under this sentiment of “free exercise,” the intention of the First Amendment was obviously not to establish and protect Puritanism. The free exercise of faith ensures that all of America’s modern-day “pilgrims” may live in a country free of imposed religion.