Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 25, 1993 TAG: 9305250551
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SPRINGFIELD LENGTH: Medium
The mail-order business sells merchandise such as Attila the Hun neckties; Contra Coffee; and T-shirts, bumper stickers and buttons, including one that proclaims, "I Love Animals . . . They're Delicious."
Dennis Hoffman started the business in March 1992 "definitely in response to the PC movement."
"I was a customer of a politically correct store because their merchandise was funny," said Hoffman, who does public relations and advertising for conservative public policy organizations. "I realized there was nobody doing this from the right, so I decided to do it from the politically incorrect view.
"People are tired of being told by the yuppie elite that what they believe and think is somehow wrong," he said.
The company has been criticized by the National Organization for Women; a congressman who tried to keep The Right Stuff's stuff off Capitol Hill; and Hoffman's girlfriend, "who calls herself a liberal," said Hoffman.
But that's all part of the business, which Hoffman said is booming.
The Right Stuff's sales have quadrupled since President Clinton took office, said Hoffman, 27. "He's the best thing that we possibly could have asked for."
Among the anti-Clinton items are the slogans "Impeach Hillary" and "Don't blame me, I voted for Bush-Quayle."
Sales don't just reflect customer dissatisfaction with the current administration, they indicate conservatives' hopes for the future.
"Kemp in '96" items make up a large percentage of sales, Hoffman said.
"Phil Gramm is in last place - only one person has bought anything."
Hoffman and his partner, 29-year-old lawyer Geoffrey Fosdick, are trying to establish The Right Stuff merchandise at newsstands and country stores. The next step is to open their own retail store.
Politically incorrect items have appeared at The Right Stuff's liberal counterpart, Politically Correct Clothing in Washington.
The store recently began to display several Republican pins beside its own "Flush Rush" and "Leave Chelsea Alone" merchandise.
Profits from the GOP buttons go to the local chapter of the radical gay group ACT-UP, owner Jose Rodriguez said.
"We started to get a lot of requests for politically incorrect stuff," said Rodriguez, who sells the right-wing pins for $5 and PC pins for $1.
". . . If they want it they can pay a lot for it."
by CNB