Ralph Reed is the executive director of the Christian Coalition. Founded in 1989, the Christian Coalition is a conservative political interest group which targets religious Christians and members of the electorate at large interested in preserving fam
ily-oriented politics and small government. With 1,700 local chapters in all 50 states, the Coalition has grown to 1.7 million members.
As the 1996 Republican primary season moves into full swing, the influence of the Christian Coalition and other conservative interest groups may help shape the Republican campaign.
After speaking before a packed Calhoun Master's Tea and the Yale Political Union, Reed took a few moments to answer our questions. Yale Herald: What are the general goals of the Christian Coalition, and how does it carry them out? Ralph Reed: We play the same role for people of faith that the unions do for workers, that the Veterans of Foreign Wars does for veterans, and that the League of Women Voters or the National Organization for Women plays for women voters. We educate them, mobilize them, train them, and turn them out to the polls in record numbers. We serve as a permanent representative and a permanent voice for evangelicals, Roman Catholics, and Greek Orthodox who share our values at every level of government. YH: Newsweek magazine named you as one of the most influential political figures in the country at the moment. How do you respond to this? Reed: I think that the Christian Coalition represents a large and important voting block. It's not a so-called moral majority. We do not represent a majority of voters, but we clearly represent somewhere in the neighborhood of one out of every 10 to one o ut of every three voters. It is a voting block that is too large and too significant to be ignored by either political party. YH: Which issues do you think need to be focused on the most in the 1996 Republican presidential campaign? Reed: Well, I think that the Republicans need to talk about the issues that the voters care about and they obviously need to be talking about how to balance the budget and reduce the deficit, how to create jobs and cut taxes, how to get the economy moving again from what is a growing and deepening Clinton recession. They also need to talk about how to strengthen families, how to make schools work, how to improve eductation, and how to reform welfare. YH: What more needs to be done to improve on the legislation passed by the two years of the "Republican Revolution" in the 104th Congress? Reed: I think that the Congress needs to address some of the issues that we've raised to the forefront of the debate. I think they need to pass a religious freedom amendment to ensure that no one is discriminated [against] based on their religious beliefs . They need to pass a parental rights act to give parents the right to control the education and health and protection of their children.
And they need to return control of education to the local level by downgrading the Department of Education to an agency, and returning most of the money to local school boards and states that is currently spent in Washington, D.C. We know that educati on is most effective when it's closest to students, and I believe that a lot of the money that's spent on bureacracy and overhead can instead be spent on schoolbooks and tuition vouchers and other things that will actually help children. YH: Has the Christian Coalition endorsed a candidate for the Republican nomination? Reed: No, and we will not. YH: In light of the recent primary results, do you see a split in the Republican party? Reed: No. I think that the party is strong, and will defeat Bill Clinton in November of 1996. I think that after tonight, it is almost certain that Bob Dole will be the nominee, and that he'll be able to unite the party.
Copyright 1996, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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