PoliTalker
Diversity Makes Greatness
Powell Memorandum, 1971
On August 23, 1971, prior to accepting Nixon's nomination to the Supreme Court, Powell was commissioned by his neighbor Eugene B. Sydnor Jr., a close friend and education director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to write a confidential memorandum for the chamber entitled "Attack on the American Free Enterprise System," an anti-Communist and anti-New Deal blueprint for conservative business interests to retake America.[14][15] It was based in part on Powell's reaction to the work of activist Ralph Nader, whose 1965 exposé on General Motors, Unsafe at Any Speed, put a focus on the auto industry putting profit ahead of safety, which triggered the American consumer movement. Powell saw it as an undermining of the power of private business and a step toward socialism.[14] His experiences as a corporate lawyer and a director on the board of Phillip Morris from 1964 until his appointment to the Supreme Court made him a champion of the tobacco industry who railed against the growing scientific evidence linking smoking to cancer deaths.[14] He argued, unsuccessfully, that tobacco companies' First Amendment rights were being infringed when news organizations were not giving credence to the cancer denials of the industry.[14]
The memo called for corporate America to become more aggressive in molding society's thinking about business, government, politics and law in the US. It inspired wealthy heirs of earlier American industrialists, the Earhart Foundation (whose money came from an oil fortune), and the Smith Richardson Foundation (from the cough medicine dynasty)[14] to use their private charitable foundations−which did not have to report their political activities−to join the Carthage Foundation, founded by Richard Mellon Scaife in 1964.[14] The Carthage Foundation pursued Powell's vision of a pro-business, anti-socialist, minimally government-regulated America based on what he thought America had been in the heyday of early American industrialism, before the Great Depression and the rise of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
The Powell Memorandum ultimately came to be a blueprint for the rise of the American conservative movement and the formation of a network of influential right-wing think tanks and lobbying organizations, such as The Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and inspired the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to become far more politically active.[16][17] CUNY professor David Harvey traces the rise of neoliberalism in the US to this memo.[18][19]
Powell argued, "The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism came from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians." In the memorandum, Powell advocated "constant surveillance" of textbook and television content, as well as a purge of left-wing elements. He named consumer advocate Nader as the chief antagonist of American business. Powell urged conservatives to undertake a sustained media-outreach program, including funding neoliberal scholars, publishing books, papers, popular magazines, and scholarly journals, and influencing public opinion.[20][21] "
Look what happened after the Powell Memo:
"Charles and David Koch have been involved in, and have provided funding to, a number of other think tanks and public policy organizations: They provided the initial funding for the Cato Institute, they are key donors to the Federalist Society,[77] and they also support, or are members of, the Mercatus Center,[78] the Institute for Humane Studies,[78] the Institute for Justice,[79] the Institute for Energy Research,[80] the Heritage Foundation,[81] the Manhattan Institute,[81] the Reason Foundation,[78] the George C. Marshall Institute,[82] the American Enterprise Institute,[82] and the Fraser Institute,[83][84] and the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust.[85][86] As of 2015, David Koch sat on the board of directors of the Cato Institute,[87] the Reason Foundation and the Aspen Institute.[88] A 2013 study by OpenSecrets said that nonprofit groups backed by a donor network organized by Charles and David Koch raised more than $400 million in the 2011–2012 election cycle.[80]
Citizens for a Sound Economy
Main article: Citizens for a Sound Economy
Citizens for a Sound Economy was co-founded by David Koch in the 1980s.[77] According to the Center for Public Integrity, the Koch Brothers donated a total of $7.9 million between 1986 and 1993.[10] In 1990, the brothers created the spinoff group Citizens for the Environment.[10] In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy was renamed FreedomWorks, while its affiliated Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation became Americans for Prosperity (AFP). Since then the Koch brothers have given more than one million dollars to AFP.[10][77][89]
Americans for Prosperity
Main article: Americans for Prosperity
The Americans for Prosperity Foundation is the Koch brothers' primary political advocacy group.[90][91][92][93] David Koch was the top initial funder of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation.[94][95] At AFP's 2009 annual summit meeting, David Koch said "Five years ago, my brother Charles and I provided the funds to start the Americans for Prosperity, and it's beyond my wildest dreams how AFP has grown into this enormous organization."[89][96][97] AFP is the political arm of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, for which David Koch serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees.[77][88][98][99]
Americans for Prosperity created Patients United Now, which advocated against a single-payer health care system during the 2009-2010 healthcare reform debate. Both FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity have provided support for the Tea Party movement.[100][101] AFP spent $45 million in the 2010 election.[102]
Cato Institute
Main article: Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded as the Charles Koch Foundation in 1974 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch. Following the 2011 death of William Niskanen, the chairman of the Cato Institute, Charles and David Koch reportedly made an effort to procure the shares of that institute held by Niskanen's widow, "arguing that they were not hers to hold".[103] Their efforts were criticized by some at the institute, including the institute's president Ed Crane, who in an email to staff stated that the Kochs were "in the process of trying to take over the Cato Institute. The brothers issued a statement denying any wrongdoing and stated they "never asserted that Cato should be directly by, or at the whim of, any other organization, or that they should aspire to advocate the way AFP does.[104][105] In June 2012, Cato and the brothers reached an agreement. Crane stepped down and was replaced by John A. Allison IV; the Kochs withdrew two lawsuits.[106]
Freedom Partners
Main article: Freedom Partners
Freedom Partners gave grants worth a total of $236 million to conservative organizations, groups like the Tea Party Patriots and organizations which opposed the Affordable Care Act prior to the 2012 election. Freedom Partners financed the socially conservative group Concerned Women for America, a leading opponent of same-sex marriage in the United States [107] A majority of Freedom Partners board of directors is made up of long-time employees of the Koch brothers."
Koch Brothers Political Activity
We, The People, need to wise up. We have been conned. The left and the right have been pitted at one another and gasoline poured on the fire to distract us while the greedy super-rich are picking our pockets, bankrupting our government, and keeping everybody blaming and mad at the other side.
The super-rich do not have enough votes to get what they want by themselves.
They had to co-opt one of the major political parties. They chose the Republican Party.
And now look what has become of it.
Last edited: