If U.S. politics, especially in this election year, don’t make your blood pressure rise and your hair fall out from stress, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by award winning writer and journalist Jane Mayer might not even make you blink. But if you are like me and think that for the most part elections are fair, your vote really matters and democracy always wins even if it might wobble sometimes, then this book will cause you all kinds of distress. I am not so naïve as to think that money doesn’t have influence, but wow, the amount of influence money can buy is ridiculously frightening.
Mayer’s book focuses on the radical right because that is where all the money is coming from. Not that rich people on the left don’t make huge donations and expect favors too, or that they don’t play the system to their benefit, they do and Mayer acknowledges this. But there is no far left group of radical billionaires working to change the entire government to work in their favor in the highly networked and extremely organized manner that the radical right is going about it. It all started back in the 70s, which surprised me. The billionaires are playing the long game and they have regular secret meetings to talk strategy.
At the helm of this billionaire network are the Koch brothers, Charles and David. You may have heard of the “Kochtopus”. Mayer takes us on a tour of the Kochs and their tentacles. She gets her information from a variety of sources including interviews, public documents, family, friends and inside sources who ask not to be named. She follows the money trail as best she can and shines a light into the darkest corners of the network.
I won’t go into all the details, there are just too many and besides, I couldn’t do it as well as Mayer does anyway. So if you want the full ugly, read the book. I will however, note a few things that surprised me.
The Tea Party movement that the media led us to believe was a grassroots upwelling from Joe the plumber types, actually began at one of the Koch secret meetings. The radical right is big into creating fake activist groups, hiring people to show up at “protests” and to make sure they get interviewed by the media. The Tea Party began as a fake activist group. It was never a grassroots common people thing, it was and continues to be driven by big money. That real people have jumped onboard only helps the Kochs and the others get what they want without making as much effort. It has also escaped their complete control but that is ok too, the damage they wanted to do has already been done and they don’t care what else might happen.
What the Kochs and the other radical right billionaires want is to severely restrict government so that its basic role is shrunk down to protecting business, wealth and private rights of ownership. They believe the government should have no role in environmental regulation, worker’s rights, support systems for those in need, Medicare, social security, or anything else that might threaten the free market and their ability to make money.
Before the Kochs and company created think tanks that began publishing “studies” that said climate change is not human created, something like 85% of Americans had no doubts about the reality of climate change and what needed to be done. Once the media began to be bombarded with fake studies, the seeds of doubt were sown and suddenly the 85% has dropped to somewhere around 57%.
The way these billionaires use think tanks and foundations and other nonprofit organizations, they are able to scam the system and basically buy politicians and get a tax write-off for their efforts while making it look like they have donated to worthwhile charitable organizations. The system is very much a borderline legal money laundering operation that allows the wealthy radical right donors to contribute millions of dollars towards lobbying and political campaigns that cannot be traced back to them. This allows Charles Koch to say he has never paid a lobbyist or contributed to a political campaign when the reality is quite different.
Dark Money is a terrifying book for anyone who believes the government has a role to play beyond making sure people with money make even more money. It is an important book that everyone should read. However, I recommend having lots of chocolate on hand to help counteract the effects of learning about the soul-sucking Dementors.
I happened to hear an interview with Jane Mayer last week on NPR and I rarely listen to NPR. Maybe that means I am meant to read this book. Sounds interesting and scary. But maybe I am prepared because I recently read Noam Chomsky’s “Understanding Power.” According to Chomsky it’s not about right vs left but more about the power/money class vs everyone else. It will be interesting to compare these two scary books.
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Wasn’t it Warren Buffett who said fairly recently something on the lines that there is a class war being waged – a war the rich were winning? As CJ implies there is nothing that is too new about the idea that money and power attempt to dominate the political culture, Chomsky and Veblen in different ways attest to that. Its the weakness of opposition to this that is always quite hard to understand.
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But I think the point Mayer may be making (I say “may”, not having read the book) is that this is isn’t your bog-standard corrupt-billionaire story; these people may be interested in protecting their individual rights to make money, but they are organized. There is an actual cabal of them, and they have had not just a generic negative impact, but a long-term (decades long!) game plan.. It reminds me so strongly of the scenes in The Simpsons set in Republican Party Headquarters that it would be hilarious, if it weren’t also so distressingly true!
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Elle, yes, you are right, Mayer’s goal is to reveal not just the money but how utterly organized the whole thing is. Cabal is a good word, though Mayer does not use it. Ah The Simpsons! Definitely would be hilarious if it weren’t so close to the truth.
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Ian, Yeah, I think it was. You are right, the weakness of the opposition is surprising. Throughout the book Mayer provides glimpses of how surprised Democrats and in particular the Obama administration have been time after time. One would think they might have figured it out by now and come up with some kind out counter strategy.
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What do you reckon that counter-strategy could be Stefanie? I guess trying to expose what’s going on is a good start but how to get people to listen. I think there’s an amount of big money making policy here in Australia too, and it’s really really worrying. Where’s the ethics, the morality, the caring for your fellow citizen? Where’s the recognition that not everyone starts with the same opportunities?
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whisperinggums, I am not certain what a good counter-strategy might be but it definitely needs to include a compelling narrative about the good things government does and can do and how having a strong community helps the individual as well. I also think there is a tendency for everyone to think of the extreme right (and left) as being a bunch of crazy people but they need to be taken seriously instead of just laughed at.
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It’s getting that compelling narrative that’s the trick isn’t it, particularly with the people who are so into individualism that they don’t think we need government at all. Community is, after all, the thing, at least, I think it is, and that I suppose Is my individual point of view!
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Yes, the narrative is the hardest part. I think community is the thing too and there must be a way to find a balance, that would satisfy the right and the left. The extremes on either side will never be happy but I think the masses in between could work it out.
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CJ, oh Mayer would make an interesting comparison with Chomsky. I’ve not read his book, but I would disagree that it is all about money/class and has right and left are not an important part of the picture. Maybe once I get over Dark Money I’ll see what Chomsky has to say.
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I know I am late to the political discussion table but I only recently discovered Chomsky. I have several of his books on my reading list now. This kind of reading opens up whole new ways of seeing the world – and how the media spins it. My goal is to get as close as I can to seeing the truth so I need to read various points of view. Don’t want to get sucked into following a guru. I have started (as of this morning) looking into Veblen’s books – as suggested by Ian’s comment.
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CJ, Chomsky is good, I have read a few of his books, but he definitely has his limitations in my opinion. I have the Portable Veblen that I had started reading at the same time as Dark Money but had to set it aside because two books about this stuff at the same time was too much. I’m getting ready to get back to Veblen in the next week or so. This kind of reading definitely opens up new ways of seeing the world. I was astonished by quite a few things I learned in Dark Money. Perhaps we will be able to compare notes on Veblen! 🙂
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Great commentary on this book.
The Right has been disproportionately powerful in the United States and it sounds as if this book addresses one of the major reasons for this.
It goes without saying that the extreme Right has been much better organized and funded then any opposition.
I do believe in democracy and elections but I also think that our system can go very wrong.
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Thanks Brian Joseph! The book does a good job and sussing out all the connections and history, analyzing Citizens United and a number of other court case, looking at policy and laws, and making historical comparisons to the Gilded Age. Mayer is also not shy about calling out names and putting blame where she sees it belongs. The extreme right is highly organized and the left is continuously taken by surprise because of it. I do believe in democracy and elections, I think at the moment however, it’s a bit shaky.
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It is so depressing. At one time, people might have disagreed with a lot of what went on and been aware of the influence of money, but had some trust left–now, I think many of us simple despair. Knowledge is power? No, Money is Power and to heck with the way the future suffers– just pad my pocket now.
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Jenclair, unfortunately money is power these days. I’m not sure what it will take to change that but there must be something.
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You know I am never naive about governments. Growing up in this part of the world, I was just glad that my country managed to stay democratic, once the British bid us adieu! But this ….I mean I know such things happen, but this is seriously depressing and even more disturbing! This think of money in the hands of less than 10% of world population, governing the lives of the remaining 90%….very very worrisome!
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cirtnecce, yes, the book talks about how the US is turning into a plutocracy — a society ruled by the wealthiest people. Ancient Rome became a plutocracy and we all know how well that worked out for them in the end!
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Owen Jones’ The Establishment touches on some of this too (from a British perspective), and yeah, it’s terrifying. It makes hope hard.
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Ana, it does make hope hard because it leaves those of us without a lot of money feeling powerless to change things.
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Oh my, almost 500 pages of joy–how did you manage to stick it out (that must have been a very chocolately book indeed!). I already stress out when I have to use a machine at the gym that sits under any of the TVs turned on to CNN (or worse Fox). I am supposed to be there de-stressing not adding more stress. My library has this but alas, someone else is reading it, but I will have to take a look at it when it comes back in.
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Danielle, stoic fortitude and a desire to know the truth helped me stick it out but it was hard going!
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