There isn't one, but maybe there is something like it… I subscribe to the RSS feeds for Family Research Council’s (FRC) “Alerts,” and I was struck recently by the 6 new ones that appeared in my inbox:

• “Volunteers for Virginia Marriage Amendment needed”
• “Volunteers need to help pass marriage amendment in Wisconsin”
• “South Dakota faces ballot initiatives on marriage, abortion, and gambling”
• “Tennessee marriage amendment needs your help”
• “Effort to defend traditional marriage underway in Idaho”
• “South Carolina elected officials need to support the marriage amendment”

This is not the FRC PAC sending out these messages. This is FRC’s main office for the 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is legally bound from engaging in partisan electoral activities. Ballot initiatives are technically apolitical — after all, it is not inherently Republican to want to ban gay marriage and abortion (wouldn’t both be an exercise of “big government” intrusion?). They have been the means for political engagements for non-profit organizations in the past, but I don’t know that I’ve seen such a clear example of this scale of activism until this one.

Last week, I wrote about the increasing tendency of far-right extremists to polarize moderates (even staunch conservatives), and the accompanying trend away from a united national political effort toward an almost anarchic pursuit of their ends at every level of government, from school board races and county zoning committees to state legislatures and United Nations caucuses.

Add ballot initiatives to that list, perhaps before all the rest. Freed from federal spending limitations on these “apolitical” ballot items, citizen initiatives have officially emerged as a preferred tool of choice for the conservative agenda.

Through them, organizations like Family Research Council are attempting to co-opt the governing institutions that influence American lives. Under the guise of conservatism and a (feigned?) commitment to its ideals, they are working with a national agenda, working with a single purpose across state lines. Perhaps this is their attempt at the “New Federalism?”

Whatever the attempt, it is symptomatic of the kind of “policy anarchy” that is being enacted by this set: there are less-known rules and fewer precedents with ballot initiatives and local politics, and activists are approaching them from every angle in the hopes that they might be true loopholes that allow political activism.

The reproductive health community has become familiar with “marriage amendments,” parental consent measures, and even abortion bans coming in this form. What will be next? Parental consent laws for contraceptives? (Now that FDA has approved Plan B with an age restriction for over-the-counter sales, will conservatives attempt to extend age restrictions to other drugs? They love to mention that Plan B is a higher dose of common birth control pills.)

This is an interesting breed of political activism that needs be watched carefully, particularly as it takes on national scale with increasingly centralized leadership. We’ll be looking at several specific ballot initiatives facing votes around the country this election season – stay tuned for more.