A good overview of the funding and ideological sources for the conservative movement can be found here:

Tentacles of Rage, The Republican propaganda mill, a brief history by Lewis H. Lapham, Harpers Magazine published September 2004.

https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/gned/laphamtentacles04.pdf

In this article you will find the names of the billionaires, the foundations they established and the Think Tanks they fund and control which is now known as “The Conservative Movement”. In summary, the Conservative Movement is NOT now, nor has it ever been a grassroots, citizen led or funded movement. Instead, “The Conservative Movement has been funded, organized and controlled by billionaires. Today’s grassroot conservatives are completely, and totally dependent on these foundations for funding, ideology, direction and organization.

The Heritage Foundation

American Enterprise Institute

Hoover Institution

Cato Institute

Hudson Institute

Manhattan Institute

Citizens for a Sound Economy

Reason Foundation

National Center for Policy Analysis

Competitive Enterprise Institute

Free Congress Foundation

Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis

To fully grasp the power of the billionaires involved, Christopher Rufo, who created the CRT fiasco, is an employee of the billionaire funded and controlled Manhattan Institute.

You can find the 5,000-word “conservative” manifesto written by Lewis Powell, mentioned in Lapham’s article here.

https://law2.wlu.edu/deptimages/Powell%20Archives/PowellMemorandumTypescript.pdf

To keep this simple, I will continue in a separate reply.