The War on Women serves many purposes. That’s why rich wingnuts are funding it.
by digby
Just when it seems like everyone is trying to convince everyone that business is no longer funding right wing causes now that Ted Cruz proved that Republicans are big fat losers, along comes Adele Stan with a blockbuster piece at Rh Reality Check to blow that assumption to smithereens:
There is little doubt that the rash of anti-choice measures that flooded the legislative dockets in state capitols in 2013 was a coordinated effort by anti-choice groups and major right-wing donors lurking anonymously behind the facades of the non-profit “social welfare” organizations unleashed to tear up the political landscape, thanks to the high court’s decision in Citizens United.
While similarly classified groups exist in progressive circles, they have nowhere near the funding provided to right-wing groups by wealthy, business-focused donors. Of the top-ten outside spending “social welfare” groups engaged in the 2012 elections, all but one were either right-wing or conservative.
Helping to drive the right-wing offensive in the states and in Congress is a network of deep-pocketed business titans convened by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, principals in Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held corporation in the United States. Like the Kochs themselves, many of the donors in the brothers’ networks signal disinterest in fighting against women’s rights or LGBTQ rights, yet anti-choice groups have seen their coffers swell with millions of the network’s dollars.
“If you want to promote a pro-corporate agenda, you’re only going to get so far,” Sue Sturgis, the Durham, North Carolina-based editorial director of the progressive website Facing South, told RH Reality Check. “But when you start weaving in these social issues like abortion and other reproductive rights issues, then you’re gonna appeal to a broader range of people, and a very motivated voting bloc. They will turn out. So it serves your larger cause.”
Keep in mind that the Koch Brothers alone are worth 75 billion dollars. So, even if a couple of corporate CEOs ostentatiously speak out against the “wacko-birds” and the Chamber of Commerce issues a few tepid threats, there’s still plenty of money to throw at far right politics.
Lee Fang at the Nation also refuted this growing meme that the far right billionaires are backing away from the GOP. Seriously, it’s silly. They’ve been at this for a long time and they know what their goals are. Why would they give up when they’re achieving them?
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