My political views changed, when I stopped watching the show and started looking behind the curtain.
Simply put, the Conservative Movement is NOT a people led, grassroots movement by any means or measure. For the last 52 years, the Conservative Movement was founded by, funded and controlled by billionaires.
The billionaire’s Conservative Movement started on August 23, 1971, with a 5,000-word memo (aka manifesto) written by Lewis F. Powell Jr, and, circulated by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Less than six months later, on January 6, 1972, Nixon appointee, Lewis F. Powell, took his seat on the United States Supreme Court – who served until 1987. I will return to Powell in a moment.
As Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper’s magazine wrote in 2004:
“His [Lewis Powell’s] heavy word of warning fell upon the legions of reaction with the force of Holy Scripture: "Survival of what we call the free enterprise system," he said, "lies in
• organization,
• in careful long-range planning and implementation,
• in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years,
• in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and
• in the political power available only through united action and national organizations."
“The venture capital for the task at hand was provided by a small sewing circle of rich
philanthropists—Richard Mellon Scaife in Pittsburgh, Lynde and Harry Bradley in Milwaukee,
John Olin in New York City, the Smith Richardson family in North Carolina, Joseph Coors in
Denver, David and Charles Koch in Wichita—who entertained visions of an America restored
to the safety of its mythological past—small towns like those seen in prints by Currier and
Ives, cheerful factory workers whistling while they worked, politicians as wise as Abraham
Lincoln and as brave as Teddy Roosevelt, benevolent millionaires presenting Christmas
turkeys to deserving elevator operators…” end quote…
When Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell retired, he was replaced by Reagan appointee, Anthony McLeod Kennedy – who served until 2018. When Kennedy retired, he was replaced by Trump appointee, Bret Kavanaugh (who had served as Justice Kennedy’s clerk). For the first time, ever, the Supreme Court had instituted a “line of succession.” Instead of sons, law clerks were being trained by justices to advance the conservative billionaires’ agenda and retiring during Republican administrations.
My point is simple. Voters, workers, and citizens are no match for billionaires. The Democrats have been outgunned, outmanned and outvoted by the sheer power of wealth. Billionaires buy, sell and trade people like you and me. They do not negotiate with us, try to please us, seek our approval, or ask our permission.
If you want to read more…
Tentacles of Rage, The Republican Propaganda Machine, by Lewis Lapham, Sept. 2004
https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/gned/laphamtentacles04.pdf
The Powell Memo
At least, those are my thoughts on these matters.
