Vast right-wing conspiracy: Difference between revisions

Thatcher-era Britain produced its own crop of paranoid left-liberal films. ... All posited a vast right-wing conspiracy propping up a reactionary government ruthlessly crushing all efforts at opposition under the guise of parliamentary democracy. [Emphasis added.][6]

An Associated Press story in 1995 also used the phrase, relating an official's guess that the Oklahoma City bombing was the work of "maybe five malcontents" and not "some kind of vast right-wing conspiracy."^[7]

Popularization

1995 memo

A 332-page memo titled "Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce" was commissioned by

The Today Show interview

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In response to ongoing accusations surrounding the Clintons' investment in a real estate development known as

The Drudge Report

. Despite swift denials from Bill, the media attention grew.

On January 27, 1998, Hillary appeared on

Clinton elaborated by decrying the tactics "and the kind of intense political agenda at work here." Bob Woodward recounts in his book The Agenda (1994) that the first lady claimed that when her husband was making his decision to run for the presidency in 1991, he reported receiving "a direct threat from someone in the Bush White House, warning that if he ran, the Republicans would go after him. 'We will do everything we can to destroy you personally,' she recalled that the Bush White House man had said."^[1]

Later uses

Specific claims of such funding have been made against conservative Republican supporter and billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife.^[13] Scaife played a major role in funding the Arkansas Project investigating President Clinton; former Clinton White House Counsel Lanny Davis claimed Scaife was using his money "to destroy a president of the United States." Scaife claims to be public about his political spending (q.v.^[14]). CNN stated in a study the news outlet conducted on Scaife, "If it's a conspiracy, it's a pretty open one."^[15]

Hillary wrote in her 2003 autobiography, "Looking back, I see that I might have phrased my point more artfully, but I stand by the characterization of Starr's investigation [regardless of the truth about Lewinsky]."

Bill, when asked on Meet the Press (September 27, 2009) whether the "vast right wing conspiracy" was involved in the attacks on President Barack Obama, said "Oh, you bet. Sure it is. It's not as strong as it was, because America's changed demographically, but it's as virulent as it was … when they accused me of murder and all that stuff."^[2]

Two other figures who have used the phrase are Nobel laureate economist

In some of his books, Krugman has used the phrase ("Yes, Virginia, there is a vast right-wing conspiracy"[20]) to refer not to a conservative Republican-leaning campaign against Clinton (or Obama), but more generally to "an interlocking set of institutions ultimately answering to a small group of people that collectively reward loyalists and punish dissenters" in the service of "movement conservatism." The network of institutions provide

obedient politicians with the resources to win elections, safe havens in the event of defeat, and lucrative career opportunities after they leave office. They guarantee favorable news coverage to politicians who follow the party line, while harassing and undermining opponents. And they support a large standing army of party intellectuals and activists.^[21]

In Krugman's view, the network of foundations that fund conservative scholarship, the national and regional think tanks and advocacy groups, talk radio media outlets, and conservative law firms through which they pushed their agenda to move the Republican Party to the right, far surpass in funding, size, inter-connectedness or influence anything the Democratic Party or the American political left/liberal movement have at their disposal.

2014 reemergence

In April 2014, the Clinton Presidential Center published the original 1995 memo on the alleged conspiracy.^[9] The memo's author, Chris Lehane, wrote, "As for the premise of the memo, I absolutely stand by it. Not only was it right about the right wing then, it is more accurate than ever today."^[22]

2016 reemergence

In 2016, Hillary said she still believed in the "vast right-wing conspiracy ," adding that it was "even better funded" 18 years later.^[3][23] However, she opined, "At this point it's probably not correct to say it's a conspiracy because it's out in the open."^[3]

In October, after

Eugene Volokh's blog The Volokh Conspiracy is said to have derived its name from as a reference to the "Vast right-wing conspiracy" statement.^[28]

The term "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" continues to be mocked by conservatives.^[29][30]

See also

• Clinton crazies
• Basket of deplorables

References

Notes