Early in 1984, a man contacted Alan Gottlieb with an idea looking for a sponsor. The man was Ron Arnold and the idea became the Wise Use Movement. The initial letters are always capitalized, just like any good commercial slogan.
"He [Arnold] came to me with the Wise Use stuff and in sitting and talking with him a light bulb went on over my head," says Gottlieb.
Author David Helvarg has written a comprehensive study of the Wise Use Movement, The War Against The Greens. In this book, Helvarg describes Wise Use as
"...a militant new force on the political Right that has the power to impede and occasionally sidetrack attempts at environmental protection, intimidate politicians and local activists, and polarize or misdirect needed discussions over jobs, health and natural resources."
Gottlieb, the consummate capitalist, recognized an opportunity when he saw one. In this case, the idea was to build a political movement to halt the impending destruction of industrial civilization by out of control environmentalists. Over four years of planning and organizing would occur before the project was launched. It was a long-term investment, since the payoff took an additional five years to materialize in the 1993 local elections.
But what a payoff. The 1994 congressional mid-term election dramatically changed the face of politics in the United States.
The key to the New Right strategy to reshape American politics was based on a simple formula: fear, hate and revenge. The New Right crystallized around issues upon which there was no compromise: the Panama Canal treaty, opposition to abortion, "gun rights," and the Wise Use Movement.
Note: For the early history of the New Right, see: Alan Crawford, Thunder on the Right: The "New Right" and the Politics of Resentment, Pantheon Books, 1980.
Wise Use and "gun rights" have been Alan Gottlieb's contribution to the New Right. These are issues where it is possible to play on people's fears, turn that fear into hate, and then offer action as a means of taking revenge.
Originally working with the American Freedom Coalition -- Rev. Sun Myong Moon's unsuccessful attempt at gaining hegemony over the Christian Right -- the strategy of Wise Use was two-fold. First, establish a funding base from industry, then create a constituency to carry the banner for the industry interests. Where Wise Use has succeeded in gaining political power, the base of support began with upper-middle class businessmen who then organized lower-middle class people.
This "downward growth" of Wise Use through economic interests is remarkably consistent in different areas. In timber communities, the same corporations devastated the local economy with a short-sighted policy of raw log exports and organized the distressed timberworkers whose jobs they had destroyed. Likewise, in mining, grazing and farming areas, the same people who had destabilized the economy turned to Wise Use to redirect the anger and outrage that they had created onto environmental scapegoats.
In northern Puget Sound, the issue was a new one for Wise Use: land speculation. Where land prices and the tax base had been profoundly disturbed by speculative development, unplanned growth, and the conversion of land from productive use, Wise Use activists found a ready audience of older citizens with a "nest egg" in property. These people were experiencing a sudden rise in property taxes as the result of the hidden costs of unplanned development being passed on to the taxpayers.
The result was that these solid, taxpaying property-owners watched a sudden rise in property values -- and accompanying tax assessments -- that sparked both their avarice and fear. Avarice, because the sudden boom seemed to imply a possibility of cashing in their nest-egg property -- if only they could benefit from the direct and indirect subsidies that the government was so bountifully providing. Fear, because if they didn't sell their property soon, the rise in value would threaten their economic security through a continuous spiral of rising taxes -- to pay the hidden costs of the land boom.
This fear was the necessary ingredient for the Wise Use strategy: find something for people to fear, turn that fear into hate and then offer an opportunity for revenge. The retirees' fear of losing their investment property -- when rising taxes began to eat into their fixed incomes --was turned into hatred against the Growth Management Act (GMA) and the "preservationists" who supposedly produced it. In point of fact, the GMA was the result of local and state governments working together in an attempt to curb the inflationary spiral of developer's subsidies. As shocking as it may seem to the targets of Wise Use propaganda, the GMA is a tax-abatement law.
Facts never got in the way of Wise Use, because the drive for revenge on the selected scapegoats successfully derailed all examination of the real causes of the economic dislocation. The resulting frenzy then carried Wise Use candidates into public office, where they have tried to recreate the initial speculative boom.
Politics runs on money. Wise Use needed money in order to "prime the pump" for their political machine. Wise Use also needs funds to support its lobbying efforts at the local, state and federal levels. Much of this money is funneled through business-oriented 501(c)3 tax-exempt organizations.
In theory illegal, but in practice quite simple, the result is a financial network known by New Right activists as the "Iron Triangle." This consists of three interlocking organizations: a 501(c)3 foundation (which takes tax-deductible contributions, but is forbidden from engaging in electoral activity or lobbying); a 501(c)4 tax-exempt organization (whose contributions can be written off as a business expense and can engage in limited lobbying and electoral activity); and a political action committee (PACs are the prime vehicle for election funds and lobbying).
The "Iron Triangle" is a quasi-legal money laundry which allows industry and trade associations to receive a tax subsidy for political activity. The result is that ordinary citizens -- whose political activities don't receive such a tax benefit -- end up indirectly subsidizing special interests' lobbying and electoral campaigns.
Note: An indirect subsidy is when you have to pay taxes and someone else does not. You are giving a subsidy by paying more, while they are receiving a subsidy by paying less.
Wise Use makes the public pay for political campaigns that benefit polluters, developers, and the resource extraction industries such as mining, grazing and timber.
The kick-off for the Wise Use Movement was the August 1988 Multiple-Use Strategy Conference at the Nugget casino/hotel near Reno. The name "Wise Use" hadn't been unveiled yet, so the conference title used an already existing phrase in one of Charles "Chuck" Cushman's organizations, the Multiple-Use Land Alliance. The purpose of the Conference was to define the common ground on which to fight environmentalism. The 250 delegates invited by Gottlieb and Arnold, represented two main groups - industry and lobbyists. There was a sufficient sprinkling of small grass-roots organizations' names in the roster to provide some cover, though very few of the small groups listed in the conference report actually attended. This would become the familiar trade-mark of Wise Use: little guys carrying the banner for the big boys.
The companies were mainly from the west's "big four" natural-resource industries - timber, mining, energy and ranching. They included The American Mining Congress, the National Cattlemen's Association, the DuPont Co., Exxon Co., USA, Louisiana Pacific Corporation, Northwest Independent Forest Manufacturers, Willamette Forestry Council, and Timber Association of California.
The lobbyists, promoters, flacks and "leaders" were industry supporters like Gottlieb and Arnold with CDFE; Cushman's National Inholders Association; Clark Collins' Blue Ribbon Coalition; James Watt's Mountain States Legal Foundation; Grant Gerber's Wilderness Impact Research Foundation; Ted Cowan's Public Land Users Society; Montana PLUS; Consumer Alert; Columbia Gorge United; James D. Peterson, a forest industry public relations consultant; and the Northwest Legal Foundation formerly headed by Jeannette Burrage.
The little guys were represented in the "Index to the Wise Use Movement" by property owners associations and recreational clubs such as Bremerton Cruisers, Eastern Washington Dirt Riders, Roadrunners Motorcycle Club, Skagit Motorcycle Club, Tacoma Motorcycle Club, the Idaho Gem and Mineral Society, the Magic Valley Trail Machine Association, the Arizona Bowhunters' Association, and the Yakima Valley Dust Dodgers. Most of the organizations listed did not attend, but rather "supported the Wise Use Movement" through their participation in umbrella organizations like the Blue Ribbon Coalition or the Public Land Users Society. It is questionable if the members of these organizations approved of, or even knew what the Wise Use Movement is all about. These are the spear carriers, the foot soldiers, the grass-roots.
In a June 1993 interview, Gottlieb said,
"In the first part, basically, is organizing, getting people together. The rebellion is what has helped mostly in that area, in building it, and eventually you don't really start putting your agenda together-- that you're really proposing-- and really pushing on a positive side until you've hit your movement to be mainstream, basically. And that's just about where the movement is right now. Part of it has its foot in the mainstream camp and part of it doesn't, quite.... Last year [1993] was the turning point. But, it all hasn't turned the corner yet, I mean we're half on both sides of the corner, but it was last year...."
The corner is the last phase of a movement, where the movement becomes part of the establishment. Gottlieb talks about the early years of Ronald Reagan's term with wistful longing: to be in power in the White House again, to have Jim Watt back as Secretary of Interior, to have control of the country's environment and public lands again. The recent capture of Congress by a populist Republican majority is the prelude to the 1996 presidential campaign.
Wise Use has frequently been misunderstood by environmentalists, the press and even the movement participants themselves. Where most social movements start as isolated grass-roots groups responding to a change in the social climate, Wise Use emerged as a top down organization.
Wise Use starts with an organizational plan that is filled in at the top and blank below. First come the umbrella organizations, which then recruit member groups. The member groups evolve and spawn other groups. By the time the process is finished, the resulting network of loose affiliations looks like grass-roots movement. The participants noisily proclaim their "grass-roots" status, but the process by which the organizations are built is anything but grass-roots. The Wise Use Movement consists not of a single organization or coalition, but literally hundreds, perhaps even thousands of these loosely affiliated groups.
A picture of Wise Use looks like three concentric circles. In the middle are organizations like Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, Mountain States Legal Foundation, Alliance for America, American Land Rights Association, and other organizations that play broad roles at the national or regional level. These central groups transmit more information than they receive, which puts them in a position of relative authority and command. They broadcast coherent messages consisting of books, articles, legal strategies, speeches, and position papers. The movement participants in the central area derive most of their income and support directly through their participation and fund-raising on behalf of their movement organizations. They are recognized as movement leaders. It is only at this level that substantial direct industry funding can found.
Wise Use's middle level is composed of intermediary individuals and organizations. These are frequently acting out of a business interest in the movement goals. The individuals are usually businessmen with a financial stake in resource extraction or land development. These are the people who call on the movement leaders to establish Wise Use groups to lobby for their particular interests. They frequently act as the founding members of the outer level organizations, but often recruit others to fill in the organization after the group has gotten started. The middle level of Wise Use is typically populated by small lumber mill owners, trucking firm operators, realtors, developers, cattlemen, mine operators, and lobbyists for industry groups.
The outer layer is the most numerous, in term of sheer numbers. These are the local "grass-roots" participants. The people who join the property rights, recreational vehicle, or other membership organizations often do not know of the relationships that exist between themselves and the inner levels. This is also the major funding base for most Wise Use activities. The members of the local groups are contributors to Gottlieb's Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, and the other Wise Use leadership groups. These are also the people who run the letter writing campaigns, the petition drives, the fax-attacks and phone onslaughts, the rallies and protests, the meeting packing and the harassment and intimidation of opponents.
Movements are defined by the shared values of followers. These values are not the normative values of society but rather the values of a loosely linked sector of society in opposition to an establishment. The most commonly shared value of the Wise Use groups is their determination overturn or weaken environmental laws and open up public and private lands for unrestricted development and exploitation.
The Wise Use Movement is riddled with contradictions. The different levels of the movement have goals directly in conflict with each other. For example, many of the people that are attracted to the property rights and county secession groups in the western Cascade foothills are drawn by slogans such as "Protect Our Rural Heritage" and "Lower Taxes." The middle level organizers of these groups are mostly developers and large real estate speculators who want to suburbanize these areas. Not only will this remove the rural character, but the added long term infrastructure costs will inevitably raise property tax assessments and revenue budgets. Likewise, out on the Olympic Peninsula, the large timber corporations exporting raw logs played a far greater role in closing the small mills than environmental regulations.
It is the hallmark of Wise Use to play on these tensions, heighten the fears and exacerbate the problems. The aggressive scapegoating of regulations and targeting of environmental activists for hostility serves to provide a distraction from the contradictions. In full cry, the Wise Use activists often succeed in suppressing or intimidating any opposition, thereby preventing the open discussion that would lead to the exposure of their hollow program.
Now that the grass-roots supporters of Wise Use have elected new governments in Whatcom and Snohomish Counties, some are beginning to find that Wise Use may not be all that wise. In Whatcom County, the Wise Use elected county council majority in has been unable to pass a legal version of the Critical Areas Ordinance, the initial issue that pole-vaulted the Wise Users into power. This has had two main effects. It directly benefitted developers and land speculators who owned property inside the city of Bellingham, since they were not hamstrung by the legal train-wreck that the Critical Areas Ordinance referendum created in unincorporated areas. Secondly, Whatcom County now stands to have substantial funds from state sources cut off for non-compliance with the Growth Management Act.
The last year has seen a change in attitudes around environmental issues. One year ago, Wise Use was still largely successful in its "stealth" tactics. Recently, there have been clear signs that the deception is over. In late July, 1995, a conference in Portland, Oregon featured some sessions on Wise Use. For the first time ever, community activists from an eight-state region accurately described the structure, organizations and tactics of Wise Use in their areas. In previous years, Wise Use had been a subject of mystery and misunderstanding. It is too early to predict what the political effects of this new understanding will be, but it is absolutely certain that the "stealth" era of Wise Use is coming to an end.
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