The major driving force behind this movement is the Centennial Institute:
http://www.ccu.edu/centennial/blog/post/2009/04/28/Fiscal-Follies-of-Obamas-100-Days.aspx
This is promoted as a champion of academic freedom and promotes the spirit of 1776.
Here’s the mission as outlined by their home page:
The Centennial Institute sponsors publications, research, and events to enhance public understanding of the most important issues facing our state and nation. By proclaiming Truth, we aim to foster faith, family, and freedom, teach citizenship, and renew the spirit of 1776.
Who are the people behind the Centennial Institute? Two Republican politicians.
John Andrews
Director, Centennial Institute
In addition to his role as director of the Centennial Institute, John Andrews hosts Backbone Radio, is a TV commentator, blogs for PoliticsWest.com, and is a columnist for The Denver Post. He was previously president of the Colorado Senate, chairman of the State Policy Network, and director of TCI Cable News. He has also served on a foreign scholarships commission for President George W. Bush, was a speechwriter for President Nixon and an education appointee under President Reagan, was a republican nominee for governor of Colorado, and founded the Independence Institute, a free-market think tank in Golden, Colorado.
As a state senator from 1998 to 2005, Andrews served as minority leader and led the GOP back to majority control. Then as senate president, he helped pass bills establishing education vouchers at the K-12 and college levels, expanding charter schools, extending tort reform, cutting the capital gains tax, reducing union control of state employees, outlining a statewide water policy, drawing permanent congressional districts, requiring parental notification when a minor seeks an abortion, and restoring the Pledge of Allegiance in classrooms. He also helped place into law the School Sunshine Act to keep teacher unions accountable, the Read to Achieve program for school improvement, and Colorado’s Defense of Marriage Act.
“I’m committed to defending the permanent things,” Andrews states. “We must reassert the timeless political principles of the American founding, together with the moral and spiritual truths of our Judeo-Christian heritage.”
Andrews has been honored as National Legislator of the Year by the American Legislative Exchange Council and as Family Legislator of the Year by the Rocky Mountain Family Council. The Colorado Union of Taxpayers saluted him as a defender of TABOR, the state’s tax limit.
William Armstrong
Chairman, Centennial Institute
President, Colorado Christian University
William Armstrong served for 18 years in the nation’s capitol, six in the House of Representatives and 12 as a U.S. senator. He was a member of the Senate Banking, Senate Finance, and Senate Budget committees and for six years was chairman of the Senate Republican Policy Committee.
A successful businessman, he has started or purchased four mortgage banking firms and was formerly chairman of Cherry Creek Mortgage Company, which grew 4,000 percent under his guidance. Armstrong has been a director of six public companies and chairman/owner/operator of 13 private companies, including radio and television stations, a daily newspaper, investment firms, a real estate brokerage company, and a title insurance company. He is the chairman of both the Denver-based Oppenheimer Funds and software developer Blueberry Systems, director of oil and gas drilling contractor Helmerich & Payne, and was for 17 years a board member of Campus Crusade for Christ.
During his years in the Senate, Armstrong established a reputation as a principled, issue-oriented legislator and was prominently “mentioned” as a potential candidate for the U.S. presidency or vice presidency. Relentlessly opposed to big government and excessive regulation, he championed lower taxes, political reform, balanced budgets, and the G.I. Bill. The New York Times described him as “a man whose restless intellect is admired by his foes as well as his friends” and The Denver Post praised his service in the Senate, pointing out that his decision not to run in 1990 came despite the fact that “reelection was virtually guaranteed.”
Armstrong became president of Colorado Christian University (CCU; Lakewood, Colo.) in 2006. “I feel a great sense of destiny about the opportunity to help educate a new generation of leaders,” he says. “It is the most significant, energizing, and rewarding work I have ever undertaken.”
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