Council for National Policy

CNP Action is the 501(c)(4) nonprofit affiliate of the Council for National Policy (CNP)

The Council for National Policy (CNP) is an umbrella organization and networking group for conservative activists in the United States. It has been described by The New York Times as "a little-known club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country," who meet three times yearly behind closed doors at undisclosed locations for a confidential conference.

"The Nation" has called the Council for National Policy a secretive organization that "networks wealthy right-wing donors together with top conservative operatives to plan long-term movement strategy." It was founded in 1981 by Tim Francis LaHaye as a forum for conservative Christians seeking to strengthen the political right in the United States. The Council for National Policy has been described as a "pluto-theocracy."

Membership

Marc J. Ambinder of ABC News said about the Council for National Policy: "The group [Council for National Policy] wants to be the conservative version of the Council on Foreign Relations." The CNP was founded in 1981. Among its founding members were: Tim Francis LaHaye  [then the head of the Moral Majority],  Nelson Bunker Hunt,  T. Cullen Davis,  William Cies,  Howard Phillips, and Paul Weyrich.

Members of the CNP have included: General John Singlaub, shipping magnate J. Peter Grace, Edwin J. Feulner Jr. of the Heritage Foundation, Rev. Pat Robertson of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Jerry Falwell, U.S. Senator Trent Lott, Southern Baptist Convention activists and retired Texas Court of Appeals Judge Paul Pressler, lawyer and paleoconservative activist Michael Peroutka, Reverend Paige Patterson, Senator Don Nickles, former United States Attorneys General Edwin Meese III and John Ashcroft, gun-rights activist Larry Pratt, Col. Oliver North, Steve Bannon,  Kellyanne Conway, philanthropist Elsa Prince (mother of Blackwater founder and former CEO Erik Prince and Trump Administration Secretary of Education Betsy Devos), and former California State Assemblyman Steve Baldwin.

Membership in the Council for National Policy is by invitation only. The Council for National Policy's membership list is considered "strictly confidential." Guests may attend "only with the unanimous approval of the executive committee." Members are instructed not to refer to the Council for National Policy by name to protect against leaks. The New York Times political writer David D. Kirkpatrick suggested that the Council for National Policy's secrecy since its founding was intended to insulate it "from what its members considered the liberal bias of the news media."

CNP's meetings are closed to the general public, reportedly to allow for a free-flowing exchange of ideas. The Council for National Policy meets three times per year. This policy is said to be similar to the long-held policy of the Council on Foreign Relations, to which the CNP has at times been compared. CNP's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status was revoked by the IRS in 1992 on grounds that it was not an organization run for the public benefit. The Council for National Policy successfully challenged this ruling in federal court. A quarterly journal aimed at educating the public, promised in the wake of this incident, has not substantially materialized. The Council for National Policy has a website that contains many policy speeches from past gatherings (covering the years from 2013 up to the present).

While those involved in the Council for National Policy are almost entirely from the United States, their organizations and influence cover the globe, both religiously and politically. Members include corporate executives, legislators former high ranking government officers, leaders of 'think tanks' dedicated to molding society and those whom many view as "Christian leadership."

In May 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center released a leaked (redacted) copy of the CNP Membership Directory for 2014,

[2016-05-17]  The Council for National Policy: Behind the Curtain  [local copy (html, captured 2020-09-17)]

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CNP: The Hardliners

The Council for National Policy (CNP) is a body that mixes large numbers of ostensibly mainstream conservatives with far-right and extremist ideologues, mostly from the far fringes of the religious right. What follows is a list of 18 of the hardest-line CNP members and links to information about them and their groups, when available, published in the past by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Groups designated by the SPLC as hate groups are marked with an asterisk (*).

• * Family Research Council, Washington, D.C. Tony Perkins, CNP Vice President.

• * Family Research Council, Washington, D.C. Kenneth Blackwell, CNP Executive Committee.

• * Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute  [now: Center for Family and Human Rights; anti-LGBTQ+ hate group], Washington, D.C., and New York, N.Y. Austin Ruse, CNP member.

• * Liberty Counsel  [anti-LGBTQ+ hate group], Orlando, Fla. Mathew "Mat" Staver, CNP Board of Governors.

• * American Family Association  [anti-LGBTQ+ hate group], Tupelo, Miss. Tim Wildmon, CNP member.

• * Pacific Justice Institute, Sacramento, Calif. Brad Dacus, CNP member.

• * Alliance Defending Freedom, Scottsdale, Ariz. Alan Sears, CNP Board of Governors.

• * Alliance Defending FreedomAlliance Defending Freedom, Scottsdale, Ariz. Benjamin Bull, CNP member.

• National Organization for Marriage  [anti-LGBTQ+ hate group], Washington, D.C. Brian Brown, CNP Board of Governors, Gold Circle.

• Eagle Forum, Alton, Ill. Phyllis Schlafly, CNP Executive Committee, CNP Action Inc.

• WorldNetDaily, Washington, D.C. Jerome Corsi, CNP Board of Governors.

• Institute on the Constitution, Pasadena, Md. Michael Peroutka, CNP Board of Governors.

• Gun Owners of America, Springfield, Va. Tim Macy, CNP Board of Governors.

• Hope Christian Church, Beltsville, Md. Bishop Harry Jackson Jr., CNP member.

• American Values, Merrifield, Va. Gary Bauer, CNP Board of Governors, Gold Circle.

• Operation Rescue, Wichita, Kan. Troy Newman, CNP member.

• Summit Ministries, Manitou Springs, Colo. David Noebel (retired), CNP member.

• * Center for Security Policy, Washington, D.C. Frank J. Gaffney Jr., CNP member.

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CNP Rules and Regulations

In order to allow "open, uninhibited remarks" from its speakers, CNP members must adhere to strict rules regarding their thrice-yearly meetings. A memorandum from former executive director and 2014 Executive Committee member Morton C. Blackwell lists the rules.

• Special guests may attend only with advance unanimous approval of the Executive Committee.

• The solicitation of funds on a one-to-one basis is prohibited at meetings.

• Council meetings are closed to the media and the general public. The media should not know when or where we meet or who takes part in our programs, before or after a meeting.

• Speakers' remarks at Council meetings are off the record and not for circulation later, except with special permission.

• Members and guests are requested to keep in their personal possession their registration packets and other materials distributed at the meeting.

• Our membership list is strictly confidential and should not be shared outside the Council.

• Fundraising from the list is also prohibited.

Members are asked to avoid organizing and attending formal meetings of other groups or organizations in the same city before, during or immediately after a Council meeting.

An undated (presumably older: likely <2003) CNP Membership list is available on the web; for example:

• AngelFire.com  (sporadically indexed 2003-2019 on the Internet Archine).
• PairSite.com  (also indexed 2019-2020 on the Internet Archine).

The membership content from the latter website -- which is free of redactions and includes detailed biographical notes on most of the included Members -- is available here (local copy).

Additional web searches reveal additional sites and discussion regarding the Council for National Policy and its members.

• Council for National Policy: Unofficial Information Page
• Trump Regime is under the influence of the notorious Council for National Policy

Conferences and political plans

Leading members of the CNP voted in a meeting at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, on September 29, 2007, to consider launching a third party candidate if the 2008 Republican nominee were pro-choice. (The candidacy of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who held liberal opinions on social issues such as abortion, gay rights and gun ownership, had disturbed the Christian right.) The CNP's statement read, "If the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate, we will consider running a third-party candidate." Attending the meeting were notable social conservatives, including James Dobson, Richard Viguerie, Tony Perkins and Morton Blackwell.

The Council for National Policy (CNP) has membership links to the Committee for the Free World, whose many other members included, among others, some members of the Unification Church of the United States, some Republican Party leaders, and counter-revolutionaries in Latin America, particularly during the 1980s. Midge Decter served as Executive Director of its Committee. Other members included Jeane Kirkpatrick, Leszek Kołakowski, Irving Kristol, Melvin J. Lasky, Seymour M. Lipset, Donald Rumsfeld, Tom Stoppard and George Will. Eugene V. Rostow, then serving as Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency under President Ronald Reagan, was a speaker at a CFW event on Poland.

CNP's membership also overlaps significantly with that of the Arlington Group, a coalition of conservative Christian organizations which spearheaded ballot initiatives banning gay marriage in thirty-two states in the 2000s; and with the second, third and fourth iterations of the Committee on the Present Danger.

In 1999, a speech given to the CNP by Republican candidate George W. Bush is credited with helping him gain the support of conservatives in his successful bid for the United States Presidency in 2000. The content of the speech has never been released by the CNP or by Bush.

In February 2007, the Council for National Policy planned to be involved in the 2008 presidential election campaign and actively sought candidate that would represent their views. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney spoke at a four-day conference that the Council for National Policy held in Salt Lake City, Utah during the last week of September 2007. The Council for National Policy scheduled a conference in late October 2007; other than Rudy Giuliani, most Republican presidential candidates pledged to appear.

On May 18, 2018 House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, gave a speech to the Council for National Policy in which he asserted that the American political climate was "increasingly belittling Christian conservatives for their beliefs" and forcing Christians "'out of the public square.'"

Leadership

The Council for National Policy (CNP) was founded in 1981 by Southern Baptist pastor Tim Francis LaHaye, author of "The Battle for the Mind" (1980) and the "Left Behind" series of books. Other early participants have included W. Cleon Skousen, a theologian within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and founder of the Freemen Institute; Paul Weyrich; Phyllis Schlafly  [see also Eagle Forum]; Robert Grant; Howard Phillips, a former Republican affiliated with the Constitution Party;  Richard Viguerie, the direct-mail specialist; and Morton Blackwell, a Louisiana and Virginia activist who is considered a specialist on the rules of the Republican Party.

The Council for National Policy's first Executive Director was Woody Jenkins; later, Morton Blackwell and Bob Reccord served in this role. Council for National Policy Presidents have included Nelson Bunker Hunt of Dallas, Amway co-founder Richard DeVos of Michigan, Pat Robertson of Virginia Beach, retired Judge Paul Pressler of Houston, former Reagan Cabinet secretaries Edwin Meese III and Donald Hodel, former Reagan advisor and President of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Kenneth Cribb, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, and current President (as of 2014) and Founder of the Salem Media Group Stuart Epperson.

Funding

The Council for National Policy is funded (in part) by the Bradley Foundation -- see, e.g., [2020-07-15]  Bradley Foundation Bankrolled Right-Wing Reopen Effort Despite Rising Coronavirus Cases.  The political pressure generated by the lobbying and litigation efforts of Bradley-funded groups and President Trump led many states to prematurely roll back stay-at-home safety measures and reopen businesses.

Mentioned at the end of Secretive Right-Wing Nonprofit Plays Role in COVID-19 Organizing (under "Billionaire Funding;" paraphrased here for clarity):  "... the National Philanthropic Trust is an institutional donor to the Council for National Policy Action (CNP Action)."

Associations With Hate, Intolerance

[2020-07-16]  American Legislative Exchange Council Backs Trump on Confederate Monuments, Policing.  ALEC's decision to align itself with a racist and divisive president marks a dramatic return to the Council for National Policy's earlier support for racist policies, and comes at a time when 90 percent of Black Americans disapprove of Trump's response to the murder of George Floyd.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a pay-to-play organization that facilitates bill writing by state lawmakers and business interests, has created a secret task force on voting and redistricting, and is dragging its corporate members back into race-related issues around police reform and protection of monuments. In a preview of what may occur at its virtual annual meeting this week, ALEC has sided with President Trump's latest Executive Orders on those issues.

On July 02 2020, ALEC's Executive Director Lisa Nelson, along with largely conservative and right-wing groups and individuals, signed a letter supporting Trump's Executive Order that instructs the attorney general to prioritize criminal prosecutions for the destruction of monuments on federal property, with prison sentences of up to 10 years. The Executive Order also directs federal agencies to withhold federal funding from cities that do not protect monuments from demonstrators.

...

In addition to ALEC's Executive Director Lisa Nelson, other signers of the letter supporting Trump's order include anti-LGBTQ hate figures such as Tony Perkins (President of the Family Research Council), Rob Chambers (Vice President of the political arm of the American Family Association), and Frank Wright (CEO of D. James Kennedy Ministries).

Several leaders of the secretive Council for National Policy, which has had ties to multiple white supremacists, signed the letter, as did Koch operative   Sean Noble (President of American Encore).

Many of the same signers of the Conservative HQ letter also signed a June 12 2020 letter, including Al Regnery, Chairman of the Council for National Policy's Conservative Action Project. The letter, which called for "justice, not chaos" after the George Floyd murder, "rejects the sweeping claim that all of law enforcement is racist."

Al Regnery's own cousin, William Regnery, is a white nationalist who has funded multiple white nationalist groups run by alt-right leader Richard Spencer.

...

[2020-05-23]  Secretive Right-Wing Nonprofit Plays Role in COVID-19 Organizing

[2020-05-23]:  United in Purpose:  Inside the Influential Evangelical Group Mobilizing to Reelect Trump

Although not listed in the Wikipedia article for the Council for National Policy, closeted homosexual Terry Dolan was a member of the Board of Governors os the Council for National Policy.

Uncloaking the Secrecy Shrouding the Council for National Policy

Internet Archive: Council for National Policy- [screenshot 2020-09-17].
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Google search: Council for National Policy- [screenshot 2020-09-17].
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Additional Reading

[NewYorker.com, 2019-11-11]  Briefly Noted Book Reviews.  "The Lost Art of Scripture," "Shadow Network," "The Revisioners," and "The Book of Daniel."

Shadow Network (2019), by Anne Nelson. Having grown up in Oklahoma and gone East for college, the author of this account of "the secret hub of the radical right" saw the dismay of friends back home at the gutting of environmental regulations and public education, and a marked deterioration in public health. She lays the blame with the Council for National Policy (CNP), a group that -- though rooted in the oil-producing states of Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma -- has national reach. Nelson describes the CNP, founded in 1981, as a "pluto-theocracy" -- an alliance between evangelicals and wealthy funders, including the Koch,  Mercer,  and DeVos families. Alarmed at declining numbers of white Protestants, the CNP has advocated privatizing public education and replacing it with schools that promote a "biblical worldview."

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• Ann Nelson (2019), "Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right."

  In 1981, emboldened by Ronald Reagan's election, a group of some fifty Republican operatives, evangelicals, oil barons, and gun lobbyists met in a Washington suburb to coordinate their attack on civil liberties and the social safety net. These men and women called their coalition the Council for National Policy. Over four decades, this elite club has become a strategic nerve center for channeling money and mobilizing votes behind the scenes. Its secretive membership rolls represent a high-powered roster of fundamentalists, oligarchs, and their allies, from Oliver North, Edwin Meese III, and Tim Francis LaHaye in the Council for National Policy's early days to Kellyanne Conway,  Ralph Eugene Reed, Jr.,  Tony Perkins, and the DeVos and Mercer families today.

  In "Shadow Network," award-winning author and media analyst Anne Nelson chronicles this astonishing history and illuminates the coalition [Council for National Policy]'s key figures and their tactics. Anne Nelson traces how the collapse of American local journalism laid the foundation for the Council for National Policy's information war, and listens in on the hardline broadcasting its members control. And Anne Nelson reveals how the group has collaborated with the Koch brothers to outfit Radical Right organizations with state-of-the-art apps  [Koch-funded Lincoln Network] and a shared pool of captured voter data -- outmaneuvering the Democratic Party in a digital arms race whose result has yet to be decided.

  In a time of stark and growing threats to our most valued institutions and democratic freedoms, "Shadow Network" is essential reading.

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