Political Research Associates (PRA) is a non-profit research group located in Somerville, Massachusetts, which studies the U.S. political right wing, as well as white supremacists, anti-Semitic groups, and paramilitary organizations. It was founded in 1981 by Dr. Jean V. Hardisty, and has a full-time staff of six. The director is Katherine Hancock Ragsdale. Chip Berlet is the group's senior analyst. Researchers include Pam Chamberlain. Image File history File links PRAlogo. ... Seal of the city Somerville is a city located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, just north of Boston. ... Motto: Official (Latin): E pluribus unum (1789 to 1956) (Translated: Out of Many, One) In God We Trust (1956 to present) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York, New York Official language(s) None at federal level; English de facto (in practice) Government  â€¢ President... In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply The Right, are terms that refer to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of conservatism, classical liberalism, the religious right, authoritarian nationalism; or often simply the opposite of left-wing politics. ... White supremacy is a racist ideology which holds that the white race is superior to other races. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... A paramilitary organization is a group of civilians trained and organized in a military fashion. ... Chip Berlet. ...

PRA publishes a journal, The Public Eye, three times a year, which reports on specific movements or trends, and also produces special reports, past examples of which include "Calculated Compassion," which details attacks on gays and lesbians, and "Decades of Distortion," which alleged scapegoating of welfare recipients. [1] The Public Eye is, according to Chip Berlet and Linda Lotz, a "spawn" of the original CounterSpy magazine. [2] In modern society, gay is a word which can be used as either a noun or adjective. ... Lesbian describes a homosexual woman. ... The scapegoat was a goat that was driven off into the wilderness as part of the ceremonies of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, in Judaism during the times of the Temple in Jerusalem. ...

The group provides public speakers, and has staff on hand to answer queries from journalists, researchers, and activists. Its annual funding of approximately $700,000 per year comes from foundation grants, individual contributions, and the sale of research materials. Expenditures are directed toward staffing, general & administrative expenses, programs and fundraising.[3] (pdf, p. 16). Among its major donors are the Public Welfare Foundation and the Ford Foundation. The Ford Foundation is a US charitable foundation created to fund programs that promote democracy, reduce poverty and promote international understanding (see mission statement). ...

PRA is supported by a number of progressive and liberal activists, including Anne Braden of the Southern Organizing Committee, and Suzanne Pharr of the Highlander Research Center. Pharr has written that PRA "sets the standard for researchers and political analysts of integrity," and describes the group's research as "thorough, thoughtful, carefully researched, and presented within a broad context of understanding of the complex relationships and activities of the Right." [4] Political Progressivism or simply Progressivism is an ideology and political philosophy whose adherents promote policies that they believe would reform a countrys government, economy, or society. ... American liberalism (also called modern liberalism) is a political current that claims descent from classical liberalism in terms of devotion to individual liberty, but rejects the laissez faire economics of classical liberalism in favor of institutions that promote social and economic equity. ...

Criticism

Critics include Daniel Brandt, the founder of Google Watch, who has described PRA as a "private intelligence agency," a type of organization that will "generally inbreed with their adversaries and mutate into a peculiar political animal." [5]. David Horowitz's right-wing DiscovertheNetworks.org (DTN) accuses PRA of engaging in "smear tactics" and promoting a "hard-left agenda." According to DTN, PRA promotes the Marxist doctrine of "dialectical materialism," supports what DTN calls "Palestinian anti-Semitism," discourages political cooperation between liberals and conservatives "regardless of the underlying cause," calls for the end of policies that discriminate against immigrants "passed on the basis of legal status in the wake of September 11," seeks to combat "conspiracism," and promotes "progressive internationalism." [6] Daniel Leslie Brandt (born 1947) is an American activist and frequent commentator on privacy issues and the World Wide Web. ... Google Watch is a website run by Public Information Research, started in 2002 by Daniel Brandt. ... David Horowitz David Horowitz is a conservative author and political commentator. ... Discover the Networks is a research project that studies the U.S. political left wing. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... It has been suggested that Marxist philosophy of nature be merged into this article or section. ... The term Palestinian has other usages, for which see definitions of Palestinian. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... The huge plume of smoke and fire seen coming from the North Tower. ... Conspiracism is a term used by social scientists and scholars to refer to adherents of conspiracy theory and their way of looking at history and the world around them. ...

Stanley Kurtz of the conservative magazine National Review described PRA's researchers as "conspiracy mongers" for a 1994 report on the religious right. According to Kurz, PRA used guilt by association techniques to associate conservative Christians with theocratic Dominionism: "By quoting a pathetic Dominionist extremist’s desperate efforts to prove his own influence, clever liberals can now argue that the ultimate goal of all conservative Christians is the re-institution of slavery, and execution for blasphemers and witches.[7] PRA responded to Kurz by stating that the report was "a serious study of the Dominionist Christian Reconstructionist movement."[8] National Review (NR) is a conservative political magazine founded by author William F. Buckley, Jr. ... This article is on the political-religious concept of dominionism. ...

References

• Website of Political Research Associates
• PRA 2003-4 annual report, (PDF).
• Chip Berlet and Linda Lotz, Reading List on Intelligence Agencies and Political Repression, (NY:National Lawyers Guild Civil Liberties Committee, Rev. 1/14/91) [9]
• "Cyberspace Wars: Microprocessing vs. Big Brother" by Daniel Brandt, Namebase.org
• Political Research Associates profile on DiscovertheNetworks.org