Do You Want A Member of the ACLU as the Next President of the United States?

“I’m a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union.”

- Michael Dukakis
New York Magazine
August 17, 1987

What is the ACLU?

• It’s founder, Roger Baldwin, said this in 1920: “I am for socialism, disarmament, and ultimately for abolishing the State itself as an instrument of violence and compulsion. I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and the sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.”

What does the ACLU stand for?

• Among many other things, the ACLU has worked tirelessly for many years to oppose employee drug testing, to abolish the death penalty, to remove laws against homosexual marriage, and to guarantee homosexual couples the right to adopt children. The ACLU also defends the right to distribute child pornography, and opposes the right of governments to conduct covert operations or any other form of clandestine intelligence gathering.

• The Los Angeles chapter of the ACLU recently filed a lawsuit to require the Big Brothers of America to admit homosexuals into its mentor program for fatherless boys.

• The Illinois chapter of the ACLU has defended the “constitutional rights” of a doctor who has AIDS to continue to perform invasive medical procedures on patients.

• The Official Policy Guide of the ACLU, available upon request, spells out its clear agenda for America. Policy Number 242 argues that no one should go to prison, except for such crimes … so serious as murder or treason.

• The ACLU, which receives funding from the Playboy Foundation, has even argued in a Supreme Court case that child pornography is a form of free speech.

• Policy Number 211 states that the ACLU supports the decriminalization of prostitution and opposes state regulation of prostitution.

• The ACLU, in the name of “privacy rights,” also opposes such things as curfew ordinances for juveniles (Policy #206), sobriety road checks (#217), locker searches in high schools for illegal drugs (#76), and searches of people boarding airplanes (#270). The ACLU wants to remove all metal detectors in airports.

• Policy Number 18 states that the ACLU does not like the “restrictive impact on the marketplace of ideas” brought on by the current motion picture rating system, which designates movies G, PG, PG-13, R and X. The ACLU would like to abolish the code. The Guide states that “ … experience has shown that ratings inevitably have serious chilling effects on freedom of expression.”

• Policy Number 84 expresses the ACLU opinion that the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance are a “violation of the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.” They want to remove the phrase.

• Policy Number 210 says that “the introduction of substances into one’s own body” is a civil liberty, and therefore proposes that all drugs, including crack and angel dust, be legalized.

• Professor William Donohue, author of the Politics of the American Civil Liberties Union, states that the ACLU policy manual also favors the removal of “In God We Trust” from all coins – a position taken by Madalyn Murray O’Hare and her American Atheists organization.

How closely connected to the ACLU is Michael Dukakis?

• Dukakis’ campaign manager, Susan Estrich, is a member of the ACLU’s National Board. A long-time ACLU supporter, Estrich is the author of a chapter in the book Our Endangered Rights, an ACLU publication. Her essay, entitled “Sexual Justice” (written with Virginia Kerr), promotes “same sex” marriages and defends the rights of homosexual couples to gain custody of children.

• Estrich, the first woman to ever run a major presidential candidacy, served as an advisor to presidential candidates Ted Kennedy and Walter Mondale. According to Newsweek (June 27, 1988), Estrich’s views are “more liberal than Dukakis.” Her former colleagues describe her as a “redistributionist” who wants to “take from the haves and give to the have nots.”

• Newsweek asked the question, “What would happen to Estrich if Dukakis is elected? She would probably be a prime candidate for attorney general or domestic policy advisor.”