Then, sounding almost as if he were taking aim directly at the corporate plutocrats like those gathered in Indian Wells, Obama declared that "the nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous." . . . . The enterprise started small but exploded as antagonism toward Obama built among the 0.01 percent on the right. While they largely hid their ambitious enterprise from the public, avoiding all but the minimum legally required financial disclosures, the Kochs portrayed their political philanthropy inside their circle as a matter of noblesse oblige. "If not us, who? If not now, when?" Charles Koch asked in the invitation to one such donor summit . . . . .
As the Washington Post's Dan Balz observed, "When W. Clement Stone, an insurance magnate, gave $2 million [about $11 million in 2016] to Richard M. Nixon's 1972 campaign, it caused public outrage . . . . . In contrast for the 2016 election, the political war chest accumulated by the Kochs and their small circle of friends was projected to be $889 million . . . . The clout of the participants at the retreats served to burnish the Koch's reputations, conferring a new aura of respectability on their extreme libertarian political views . . . . 'We're not a bunch of radicals running around and saying strange things, David Koch proudly told Continetti. 'Many of these people are very successful and occupy very important, respected positions in their communities!'" Jane Mayer, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, discussing the secrecy of the radical right movement and its capacity to buy political influence with money, 2017
In a long article, The Intercept discusses the politics of 2nd term New Jersey democratic congressman Josh Gottheimer. In some respects, Gottheimer sounds very much like the kind of person in congress that radical right authoritarians and its extreme libertarian mercantilist ideology can get behind. Gottheimer is leading opposition to the progressive wing of congressional democrats and he opposed Pelosi as House Speaker. He is vehemently pro-Israel and he is paid by lobbies that represent Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The Intercept writes: "His definition of too progressive is startlingly broad. As the Democratic chair of the so-called Problem Solvers Caucus, he led a push against Nancy Pelosi as she ran for House speaker last year. He has consistently voted against the party even on procedural motions, threatening to hand control over the House to the GOP. This spring, he was one of just a handful of Democrats at a private retreat on Sea Island, Georgia, hosted by the conservative American Enterprise Institute, mingling with Vice President Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and other Republican heavyweights.
Gottheimer’s intervention in the effort to end the Saudi-led war in Yemen takes on new resonance in the context of his longstanding links to Saudi money. Gottheimer is a protege of Mark Penn, a notorious Democratic operative who has become a leading Trump cheerleader on Fox News. Penn’s companies, where Gottheimer has held senior positions over the years, have long been on Saudi Arabia’s payroll.
But Gottheimer is showing no signs of receding into the background. In the first quarter of 2019, he raised an astounding $830,000, almost none of it from small donors, giving him some $5 million cash on hand. Aside from the campaign cash he rakes in from the pro-Israel and pro-Saudi lobbies, he cultivates Wall Street openly."
Is the democratic party vulnerable? -- No DINO hunts: Seeing how both the radical right movement and Gottheimer operate, the always shrewd and patient Koch brother radical movement would not hesitate to try to flip democrats to the radical libertarian mercantilist cause. The cause the Kochs founded, funded and built dates at least back to the 1954 Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision that tried to desegregate public schools. The radical movement is patient, ruthless, anti-democratic and authoritarian. For the movement, the ends justify the means.
According to historian Nancy MacLean, the radical right movement the Kochs built has succeeded in overpowering and controlling the GOP. They instituted RINO hunts that successfully executed an ideological cleansing movement, leaving the GOP far more ideologically narrow and intolerant than the democrats. To the extent that former GOP moderates and conservatives are unhappy with the always vulgar and offensive President Trump, their only place to go is the democratic, libertarian or Green parties, or they are consigned to the relative wilderness of independent status.
Could the radical right movement take advantage of democratic ideological openness to begin building a radical right movement in the democratic party? The knee jerk response is 'of course not'. But why not?
First, the Kochs can spend vast amounts of money. In all likelihood that money cost them nothing after the republican-Trump 2017 tax cuts for the rich. To the top 0.01% of the right, raising $887 million or even $1 billion is probably just the cost of defending much more than that. The radical right money is not going to go away. In the process of cleansing the GOP, the radical movement used cash to oppose republicans that did not toe their line. They can do the same for democrats, at least in purple states or voting districts.
Second, the radical movement is ruthless and intelligent. There are probably ways of laundering Koch campaign contributions through groups that sound like they are democratic but are really authoritarian and pro-mercantilist. The propaganda the radical movement uses is persistent and effective. Some voters who helped put Gottheimer in office feel they were misled (that is not to say Gottheimer has any connection with the Koch's radical right movement -- yet). The radical movement can mislead voters wherever they choose.
Third, the democrats have not done ideological cleansing, at least not yet. There are democrats who are socially liberal but probably somewhat or mostly sympathetic to the radical movement's vehement anti-government, anti-regulation message. If the Kochs can see potentially useful allies among democrats, why not try to buy them? The movement has an endless stream of staggering amounts of cash to help assuage any moral or other qualms a moderate or conservative democrat might have.
How likely is the radical right movement to make a move on some democrats if the politics is right? Arguably, it is certain if the movement believes it can contain the political fallout and win more than lose. The movement's propaganda machine is superb. If there appears to be a politically viable way to infiltrate and co-opt the democratic party from within, they will probably try. If there is a way to win, not trying would amount malpractice and the Kochs don't do malpractice.
No comments:
Post a Comment