American oligarchs have evolved little since 1860
Defunding public schools has been a project of the right for at least 70 years, says Dr. Nancy MacLean, professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University, author of “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America.“
That’s just one goal of the libertarian Koch network that has worked behind the scenes for decades. MacLean appeared on the Gaslit Nation podcast published this week.
Host Sarah Kendzior provided some pull quotes via Twitter:
“Trump’s presidency was the culmination of the capture of the GOP by a far-right network of donors brought together by the Koch Brothers and the hundreds of organizations they fund.”
“The Federalist Society has captured our courts. Six SCOTUS justices have ties to it; some are there illegitimately. 7 of 8 Senators who voted against certifying Biden as POTUS had been generously funded by the Koch donor networks. This is the product of decades of investment.”
“They are using a stealth strategy to rewrite the rules of governance, up to and including the constitution, in order to enable the kind of government that prevailed in the US at the turn of the 20th century.”
“They want to operate in the dark. The more sunlight we bring to this, the more we understand it — journalists, activists, people in the trenches — the better off we are. Because this is a stealth operation to implement a transformative agenda dating back to the 1980s.”
“If you look up the 1980 platform of the libertarian party, you get an idea of what the Kochs want. No postal service, no national parks, no public schools — no basic public services. Government can have only three things: armies, courts, and police to control the social order.”
Link to that 1980 platform here.
“The Koch network realized after watching Reagan that they can’t rely on elected officials. Officials want to be popular and will back off from the most extreme agendas in order to win. That is why they turned to stealth tactics — gerrymandering, propaganda, voter suppression.”
The Kochs’ goal became to game the system for the elite few against the majority of public opinion. [timestamp 32:00]
“The goal of this far-right network was to insulate elected officials from the reaction of the public. The ultimate way of insulating them is to rewrite the constitution.”
Via a new convention of the states.
Convention of States President Mark Meckler, MacLean says, once declared their goal is to reverse 100 years of progressivism. [timestamp 36:35]
I’m just getting around to “reading” Heather Cox Richardson’s “How the South Won the Civil War” (2020). Much so far is a reiteration of the broad strokes of Reconstruction. Deliberately painted by Richardson, the parallels to today are striking.
The arguments from conservatives have not changed. Their attitudes have not changed. The poor are lazy. They are inferior, the takers. The rich are nature’s intended masters, the makers. Allow the underclass to obtain power and they will simply redistribute wealth from the natural aristocracy. The oligarchs never believed in democracy or “created equal.”
“In all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life…It constitutes the very mudsill of society,” said Sen. James Henry Hammond, Democrat of South Carolina, on the floor of the Senate prior to the Civil War.
Post-Civil War, elites put in place institutional barriers to democratic partitpation by people they considered lessers. That agenda is being reinforced 160 years later.
Regression is their program. They have evolved little since 1860.
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Request a copy of For The Win, 4th Edition, my free, countywide get-out-the-vote planning guide for county committees at ForTheWin.us.
If in a position to Play to win in 2022 (see post first), contact tpostsully at gmail dot com.