User:Mackenzievisser/sandbox

American Conservative Union:

• Activities
  • Expand information about Battleline
  • Can expand information about CPAC
• History
• FedEx Controversy
  • This section could be expanded to include the information about David Keene's wife's embezzlement
• Lobbying
  • Expand section to include where their financial contributions were sent
  • Candidates they support
• New section: ACU Foundation, which is the political arm of the ACU, with a focus on education and policy influence
  • Center for Criminal Justice Reform
  • Center for Arts and Culture
  • Center for Human Dignity
  • Center for Statesmen and Diplomacy
  • Center for 21st Century Property Rights
  • Family Prosperity Initiative

The American Conservative Union was one of many conservative organizations formed in the 1960s as part of the rising of the New Right. During a time of increasing polarization between liberals and conservatives, activists began to build a build a well organized conservative movement, forming organizations such as the John Birch Society and Young Americans for Freedom as well as the ACU. As conservative activist M. Stanton Evans predicted, "Historians may well record the decade of the 1960s as the era in which conservatism, as a viable political force, finally came into its own."

The American Conservative Union was founded in December 1964 as a reaction to conservatives' loss of political power following the defeat of Barry Goldwater. Founders included Frank S. Meyer, William F Buckley Jr, and Robert E. Bauman, who organized the initial meeting. In the initial meetings, a 50-member board of directors was appointed, whose members included Lammot Copeland, Peter O'Donnell, John A. Howard, , and John Dos Passos, and Donald C. Bruce, who was elected chairman. Membership grew to 7,000 within 9 months, and reached 45,000 by the end of 1972.

The ACU distanced itself from groups such as the John Birch Society, in an effort to appeal to the more moderate conservative majority.

David A. Keene was Chairman from 1984 until 2011, succeeded by Al Cardenas.

The ACU launched its first publication, the Republican Report, in ___. In 1971, the name was changed to Battleline.

Conservative Victory Fund:

Action Now:

Diana Hubbard Carr, ACU's former administrative director and ex-wife of David Keene, pleaded guilty in June 2011 to embezzling between $120,000 and $400,000 from 2006 to 2009, during her time as bookkeeper for the group.

Opposition to SALT I

The ACU estimated that it would cost roughly 1.8 million to defeat SALT II. Having found the technique of mass mailing to be successful during its pro-family campaigns, the ACU used this same technique to oppose SALT II, reaching roughly 500,000 people with this strategy. Additionally, they produced a half-hour long anti-SALT television program which was aired on 200 television stations around the country.