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He is widely considered one of the founders of the American New Right and an important strategist for the social and religious conservative movements. He is less well-known as an advocate for Mass Transit and Rail Transport ation. He is an ordained protodeacon in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church . Weyrich is a regular columnist for NewsMax . NewsMax Pundits . NewsMax.com. CONSERVATIVE ACTIVISM Born in Racine , Wisconsin , Weyrich became involved in politics while a student at the University Of Wisconsin-Madison , and was active in the Racine County Young Republicans from 1961 to 1963 and in Barry Goldwater 's 1964 presidential campaign. He spent his early career in Journalism as political reporter for the '' Milwaukee Sentinel '' Newspaper and, in Radio , as a reporter for WAXO-FM in Kenosha and as news director of KQXI in Denver . In 1967, he became Press Secretary to Republican U.S. Senator Gordon L. Allott of Colorado . While serving in this capacity, he met Jack Wilson, an aide of Joseph Coors , patriarch of the Coors brewing family. Frustrated with the state of Public Policy research, they founded Analysis and Research Inc. in 1971, but this organization failed to gain traction. FOUNDING THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION In 1973, with the financial backing of Coors, Weyrich and Ed Feulner founded the Heritage Foundation as a Think Tank to counterbalance prevailing sentiment on taxation and regulation, which they considered to be anti-business. While the organization was at first only minimally influential, it has grown into one of the world's largest and most respected public policy research institutes and has been hugely influential in advancing conservative policies. The following year, again with support from Coors, Weyrich founded the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress (CSFC), an organization that trained and mobilized conservative activists, recruited conservative candidates, and raised funds for conservative causes. Under Weyrich, the CSFC proved highly innovative. It was among the first Grassroots organizations to raise funds extensively through Direct Mail campaigns. It also was one of the first organizations to tap into Evangelical Christian churches as places to recruit and cultivate activists and support for social conservative causes. Indeed, they proved such a wellspring that, in 1977, Weyrich co-founded Christian Voice with Robert Grant and two years later founded with Jerry Falwell the Moral Majority . Weyrich coined the phrase "Moral Majority."''A Reverence for Fundamentalism'' Penny Lernoux. The Nation. Volume: 248, Issue # 0015, April 17, 1989 Over the next two decades, Weyrich founded, co-founded, or held prominent roles in a number of other notable conservative organizations. Among them, he was founder of the American Legislative Exchange Council , an organization of state legislators; a co-founder of the Council For National Policy , a strategy-formulating organization for social conservatives; co-publisher of the Magazine ''Conservative Digest''; and national chairman of Coalitions for America, an association of conservative activist organizations. The CSFC, reorganized into the Free Congress Foundation (FCF), also remained active. Under the auspices of the FCF, he founded the . Political Research Associates September 30 1999. From 1989 to 1996, he was also president of the Krieble Institute, a unit of the FCF that trained activists to support democracy movements in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union . Frustrated with public indifference to the Lewinsky Scandal , Weyrich wrote a letter in February 1999 stating that he believed conservatives had lost the Culture War , urging a separatist strategy where conservatives ought to live apart from corrupted mainstream society and form their own parallel institutions:
This was widely interpreted as Weyrich calling for a retreat from politics, but he almost immediately issued a clarification stating this was not his intent. In the evangelical magazine ''World'' he wrote: By 2004 Weyrich was reportedly more hopeful, given trends in public opinion and the reelection of President George W. Bush . In spite of his initial support for Bush, he often disagrees with Bush administration policies. Examples of disagreement include the Iraq War , Immigration , Harriet Miers and fiscal policy Name the date -- fastest rise in federal spending since FDR Paul Weyrich. Renew America, April 14 2006.. SPINAL INJURY AND DISABILITY In 1996, Weyrich was diagnosed with a Spinal Injury . Since 2001, the injury has left him in a Wheelchair and in constant pain. Complications from a fall in September 2004 required the amputation of his legs in July 2005. RAIL TRANSIT ACTIVISM Unlike many of his allies on the U.S. political right, Weyrich has a long history of ardent support for and Metro systems. He has also served on the national board of Amtrak and the Amtrak Reform Council, as well as local and regional rail transit advocacy organizations. CONTROVERSY In its , sued the magazine and others for Libel ; the case was dismissed, then remanded in January of 2001. United States Court of Appeals No. 99-7221 Weyrich opposes what he sees as Cultural Marxism 's efforts to undermine Christian culture in American society. "Letter to Conservatives by Paul M. Weyrich", February 16,1999. In response to a 1999 controversy covered by the press concerning a group of Wicca ns in the United States military who were holding religious rituals and services on the grounds of the bases they were assigned to, Weyrich sought to exempt Wiccans from the Free Exercise Clause Of The First Amendment 'Satanic' Army Unworthy of Representing United States Free Congress Foundation, June 9 1999. and bar them from serving the military altogether. Weyrich, as president of the Free Congress Foundation, led a coalition of ten religious right organizations that attempted a Christian boycott on joining the military until all Wiccans were removed from the services, saying: According to website in 2001, available through the Internet Archive . which she says calls for the use of deception, misinformation and divisiveness to allow Conservative Evangelical Christian Republican s to gain and keep control of seats of power in the government of the United States. Weyrich has publicly rejected accusations that he wants America to become a theocracy: He has also often made an issue out of what he claims are his fellow conservatives' behavior and abuse of power, and encourages a Grassroots movement in conservatism he calls "''the next conservatism''" which he says should work to "restore America" from the bottom up. Illustrating his point, Weyrich draws a comparison between "how the Christian church grew amidst a decaying Roman Empire" and "how the next conservatism can restore an American republic as a falling America Empire collapses around us." The next conservatism and power Paul Weyrich. RenewAmerica.us, July 31 2006. Weyrich has advocated a revival of the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee On The Judiciary , with the aim of identifying and removing communists from the media, which he contends still habors infiltrators from the former Soviet Union: In a recent interview NPR: Conservative Groups Call for Accountability on Foley National Public Radio, October 4, 2006 with Michele Norris of National Public Radio about the 2006 Mark Foley Scandal , Weyrich expressed his views regarding Homosexuality :
" ...the New York Times Magazine quoted Paul Weyrich, who started the Heritage Foundation, they tanks have 1,500 conservative radio talk show hosts " [http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml] Weyrich once wrote on his website before Easter that the Jew ish people killed Jesus . This unleashed a storm of protest, especially from Jewish organizations accusing him of Anti-Semitism . David Horowitz defended Weyrich against the charges. {Link without Title} Weyrich later apologized. He has generally been supportive of Israel, however. QUOTES
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