Richard A. Viguerie Company, Inc.

I received a two-page solicitation letter last week from "President Donald J.Trump." So the letter said. To be correct, Trump is "Former President Donald J. Trump."

I read two pages, front and back on a single sheet, signed by Trump on the second page, and received two envelopes to return $25.00 in August and $25.00 in September, to help, he writes, "make certain Crooked Joe Biden is sent packing back to Delaware."

Further into the letter, he gives out his standard MAGA points, that, "[W]e are a country that is failing." He mentions "Far-Left overlords," "Fake News Media," and that Biden's policies will "ruin our nation," with "their Marxist schemes."

I read these words, and I wonder, where is his proof, his documents, his evidence for his slanderous comments, his name-calling, so unlike most other U.S. Presidential candidates?

I also wonder, why I should send former President Donald J. Trump $50.00 to "send Joe Biden packing back to Delaware," when Joe Biden is no longer campaigning for re-election?

Richard A. Viguerie is not a well-known name across these fifty united states, but within arch-conservative circles, his name ranks high, and has since 1964.

I knew nothing of Viguerie until this past week, when I happened to hear his name mentioned when I listened to the audio version of Joe Conason's new book, "The Long Con."

Following Barry Goldwater's defeat in 1964, Viguerie learned how "Young Americans for Freedom" (YAF), had built an "automated 'Robotype' machine to send out fundraising pitches.

"Viguerie's eyes widened. He had found his life's calling."

That year Viguerie started his own company, Richard A. Viguerie, Inc.

At the Capitol, Viguerie asked the Clerk of the House of Representatives if he could "copy down names and addresses in longhand of those who had donated fifty dollars or more to a presidential campaign."

He "captured some 12,500 addresses of the most ardent right-wingers in the nation."

Years later, Viguerie explained, "That list was my treasure trove, as good as the gold bricks at Fort Knox, as I started 'The Viguerie Company' and raised money for conservative clients."

That was only a beginning.

A journalist named Rick Perlstein wrote in a November 2012 article, that for Viguerie,

"[T]he lists got bigger, the technology got better: 25 million names by 1980, destination for some one hundred million pieces a year, dispatched by some three hundred employees in boiler rooms running twenty-four hours a day. It brought the message of the New Right to the masses."

Yet, both Perlstein and Conason insist that Viguerie and Company was a hustle, a swindle.

Perlstein says, "Typically, only 10 to 15 percent of the haul went to the intended beneficiaries. The rest went back to Viguerie's company.

"In one too-perfect example, Viguerie raised $802,028 for a client seeking to distribute Bibles in Asia, who paid $889,255 for the service." In other words, the company owed more money to Viguerie's company than their mailing raised in funds, leaving nothing to purchase the Bibles.

The conservative columnist George Will described Viguerie and company as "quasi-political entrepreneurs who have discovered commercial opportunities in merchandising discontent."

Indeed, Viguerie's message is about discontent, or fear, or terror, or hate, and people respond.

Conason describes a typical Viguerie letter from the 1960's, "If the enemies of America were permitted to run amok, union bosses would order firefighters to let your house burn down.

"The United Nations would force you to pay your kids minimum wages for household chores. Diplomats would negotiate arms control and surrender to the communists. In short, your world is ending-so send money now!"

Next month Richard Viguerie will mark his 91st birthday, and he lives in Texas.