Why Team Anna needs to be more like the Christian Right

Okay, so it’s over. Part One of the Anna Hazare saga has drawn to an ignominous end. There is still the promise of a sequel, a lot of ‘To be continued’ rhetoric that rings hollow coming from a leadership that’s lost the plot. The most recent ‘plan’ is to campaign in the upcoming elections — not against Congress a la Hisar — but to educate the people on Lokpal-related issues. The problems with the parliamentary version, strengths of theirs, etc. etc. etc. Quick prediction: This is too will be a resounding flop. All such efforts are doomed as long as Team Anna ignores the basic rule of democracy: it’s all about the gaddi. Power vests in he who can influence the outcome of an election – be it by rigging the ballot, appealing to caste/communal loyalties, offering bribes, from blankets to quotas, or by sheer dint of popularity. It doesn’t matter if you are a local goonda, caste leader or a revered Gandhian. In Ram Lila maidan, Anna Hazare looked powerful. Now he does not. Why? Because a leader who cannot bring out the people to attend a fast will not be able to get them to the polling booth. It’s the reason why Team Anna stands betrayed by all the parties, and not just the UPA. The BJP was willing to use them to embarrass the Congress, but felt no obligation to actually support the Jan Lokpal bill in Parliament. And there will be no consequences in the coming elections because all parties are equally guilty of bad faith. The very fact that Team Anna will not campaign against or for any party is an admission of their weakness. They know that they cannot influence the outcome. Ergo, they do not matter. So what now? The answer may lie in the unlikeliest of places – in the Bible belt of the United States, the heartland of conservative America and bastion of the Religious Right. Over the past thirty years, Christian conservatives have slowly, relentlessly, inexorably pushed America to the right. From electing presidents to restricting abortion rights to shaping school curriculum, they have been the most powerful and enduringly successful grassroots movement in modern US history. Those Occupy Wall Streeters will come and go but the Religious Right is here to stay. Liberals organise protests; conservatives organise change. And there’s a lesson in that difference for the Hazare movement. [caption id=“attachment_180241” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Danish Siddiqui/Reuters”]  [/caption] In 1979, Richard Viguerie, Paul Weyrich and Howard Phillips created the Moral Majority to “defend the free enterprise system, the family and Bible morality” by unifying religious conservatives of all stripes – including Jews, Catholics and Mormons – into a cohesive voting block. This brain-child of the New Right marks the beginnings of what Hillary Clinton would later describe as the “vast rightwing conspiracy, i.e. a hugely influential network of organisations, leaders, and communities – extending from the school board to mega-churches to DC think tanks to major news channels – working toward a common cause. This spectacular success rests on the following three simple mantras – mantras that Team Anna will do well to master. One, all politics is local. For all the strum and drang of liberal protests, conservatives are the masters of grassroots politics. They have changed America one district at a time. And they did it by sweating the small stuff. Their churches and other organisations are visibly present and active in local communities across the nation, running soup kitchens, prayer meetings, job counseling workshops and more. They run for local elections of every kind. Where the Moral Majority relied primarily on a network of community churches – including the ministry of the hugely popular Jerry Falwell – their members control everything from the school board to the chamber of commerce in countless towns across America. Come Election Day, no one can get out the vote quite like the Religious Right – and in key constituencies that have often determined the outcome of a presidential election. As they did in 2004 when John Kerry lost Ohio and therefore the White House, running against a president mired in a hugely unpopular and expensive Iraq war. Two, money, money, money. The stuff is the lifeblood of politics in the modern era. New Right founder Richard Viguerie reinvented American politics by leveraging his direct mail business to create enormous electoral clout. The member organisations of the Moral Majority combined their mailing lists to create a giant pool of potential donors and voters. They reportedly added 3 to 4 million new voters to the registration rolls during the 1980 presidential elections, delivering victory to their chosen candidate, Ronald Reagan. At their peak, they raised up to a million dollars a day and claimed a constituency of 50 million christian conservatives. Barack Obama may have outmatched the Republicans in 2008, but the Religious Right remains unmatched to raise staggering amounts of money, year after year. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family took in 142.2 million dollars in 2006, while his Focus on the Family Action took in 14.6 million dollars. And at a time when the media was already writing the obituary for the Religious Right. Three, control the medium, control the message. Perhaps the most visible success of the Religious Right has been the creation of its own media empire. Franky Schaeffer started a holy crusade to take over the American media with his fiery suggestions that religious conservatives “buy a network,” purchase a wire service and take “controlling stock interest in a newspaper.” Where the Moral Majority relied on Falwell’s television ministry and simple direct mail newsletters, the religious media empire today includes countless dedicated radio stations and news channels – not including national syndicated shows aired on non-Christian networks. Schaeffer would be proud. So what does any of this have to do with Anna Hazare’s Plan B? For starters, it reveals the flimsy foundations of the Hazare movement. They have no real constituency, no money, and are entirely reliant on the whims of the mainstream media to communicate with their own base. The success of the Ram Lila protest was a one-time fluke – a perfect storm that will be impossible to replicate. And parachuting into small towns in UP isn’t going to make a whit of difference. Continues on the next page For the Hazare movement to survive it will have to create a truly grassroots organisation with real electoral clout. This upcoming round is a lost cause. But there will be other elections and the time to prepare for them is now. Step one: Forget Delhi or Mumbai or Bangalore. Stay away from national politics and politicians. Lay low, out of view from the television cameras. Expand your political clout from bottom up. And reclaim your original identity as an anti-corruption movement. The name is India — not Anna — Against Corruption. Step two: Take out a map of India and mark all the toss-up states, the kind that are not reliably Congress or BJP. Note the political constituencies where the candidates are weak or where IAC has a strong local connection. Step three: Create a transparent, individual donor-based fundraising network using the internet to tap into that urban middle class base. Small donations can add up to staggeringly huge amounts. Use money for step three. Step four: Create local chapters headed by respected local figures who can organise volunteers for small anti-corruption initiatives. For starters, since a vast portion of corruption occurs either at the land registration office or the police thana. IAC can create local support organisations that help individuals file complaints or gain redress. The aim is to become a trusted source of authority in the village or district. Clout that can be leveraged in panchayat and other local elections. In other words, create an army of mini-Annas who can rule the roost in their very own Ralegan. Step five: Forget about blogging. It is too impersonal and places the burden on the reader to look for the information. Email newsletters instead to local IAC leaders who can translate it into the local language and share it with the local villagers. The most famous anti-feminist Phyllis Schafly once urged religious broadcasters, “Give your listeners the daily news through the eyes of those who believe in God.” Or those who believe in democracy, in this case. When its time for the next round of state elections, unleash that Anna army and watch the politicians dance to the anti-corruption tune. He who delivers the votes, wins. Next stop: The Lok Sabha.