The Far Right has developed a massive plan, at work for 90 years, to subvert the 1775-1980 upward growth of American democracy. This series examines how the Far Right has moved in areas of ideology, legal and constitutional work, legislative changes, corporate policies – ALL to DELIBERATELY subvert and destroy the l947 – 1975 historical, statistical, peak of America as a middle class society designed to work for everybody.
In considering the statement: “America is headed in the wrong direction,” perspective is needed. We offer this post:
1] – Declaration of Independence: “..Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness..”
– U>S. Constitution: “We, the People..to..promote the general Welfare..establish this Constitution..”
2] if Joe Sixpack works 18-68, makes $50,000 every year, his LIFETIME income: $2.5 million
– if Suzie Sorority works 22-68, makes $200,000 every year, her LIFETIME income: $9.2 million
– the most important person in the world, U.S. president – makes $400,000 a year
3] SO – if the talents of a major league shortstop “are more rare” than a CEO, WHY in a democracy” which exists to “promote the general Welfare,” does ANY CEO make $5-10-20 million in one year; and WHY are tax laws written to benefit the top 2% rich???????????
4] Once upon a time, in 1947-75, a middle class oriented America existed: “Beginning with the New Deal..and..especially after World War II, our elected leaders worked to build and strengthen the middle class. Government5 invested in the nation’s most valuable assets: the brains of its citizens..government invested in basic sciences, public health and medical research; b uilt..interstate highways..allowed unions to negotiate for higher wages..created a consumer protections and environmental protections. We created a set of rules to make America a land with a large, growing, and stable middle class.” [“Free Lunch”]
So, WHAT happened????? Easy – the “rules” were DELIBERATELY changed – by the rich and corporations. “America is headed in the wrong direction”. BECAUSE. the rich and corporations want that, paid for that, propagandized for that, above all: changed the “rules’ of America to GUARANTEE that. Consider these few [of many] thoughts:
1]. “Rule of law depends not just on what is written down, but also on the behavior of those who interpret and enforce that rule. If these people don’t regard themselves as servants of the law first, partisans second, if they won’t subordinate their political goals to their duty to preserve the system, laws become meaningless and only power matters.
“And what we’re seeing..for years..is an invasion of our institutions by right-wing partisans whose loyalty is to party, not principle. This invasion is corroding the Republic..[is]..very far advanced..
“The Republican Party is dominated by “movement conservatives,” a monolithic structure held together by big money – often deployed stealthily – and the closed intellectual echosystem of Fox News and other partisan media..
“..it”s not just the courts..a growing number of positions in government agencies are being occupied by right-wing partisans who care nothing for, or actively oppose, their agencies’ missions.
“…when the public rejects their agenda..they use their power to overrule the democratic process..they rig the voting process..they strip offices Democrats win of power..When Democratic policies prevail despite all that. they use apparatchik-stuffed courts to strike down legislation on the flimsiest grounds
“..but the game in question isn’t just about perpetuating the assault on health care, it’s about assaulting democracy in general. And the current state of the endgame is probably just the beginning; the worst, i fear is yet to come.” [Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman: “Arguing With Zombies”}
2] “..the single most powerful and least understated threat to democracy today: the attempt by..billionaire-backed radical right to undo democratic governance…a stealth bid to reverse-engineer all of America…back to the political economy and oligarchic governance of midcentury Virginia..” [“Democracy in Chains”]
3] “During the 1970s, a handful of the nation’s wealthiest corporate captains felt overtaxed and over-regulated and decided to fight back..they launched an ambitious, privately-financed war of ideas to radically change the country..wanted to change how Americans thought..to “save” America as they saw it..by turning the clock back to the Gilded Age…Charles Koch..as Doherty observed, his ambitions were..even more radical: to pull the government out “at the root.”
“The weapon of choice..was philanthropy..the conservative rich created a new generation of hyper-political private foundations..to invest in ideology like venture capitalists..Because of the anonymity…charitable organizations provided, the full scope of these efforts was largely invisible to the public.
“..their war spread from “beachheads” in academia and law to corporate front groups purporting to represent public opinion..As their efforts grew increasingly political, the funders continued to cloak these projects under the mantle of philanthropy..They exercised their power from the shadows, meeting in secret, hiding their money trails..paying others to front for them.” [“Dark Money”]
4] “For the libertarian right, Social Security privatization meant a savvy triple win…it could break down citizens’ lived connection to government… it would weaken the appeal of collective organization…[by enriching capitalists] it would make them eager to lobby for further change..” [“Democracy in Chains”}. ***[Note: note the cruel cynicism here]
5]. The famous “Powell Memo”: “It is essential..spokesmen for the enterprise system – at all levels and at every opportunity – be far more aggressive..There should not be the slightest hesitation to press vigorously in all political areas for support of the enterprise system. Nor should there be any reluctance to penalize politically those who oppose it.” [Note: this corporate lawyer would soon be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court – where he ceaselessly advocated and worked for “business-friendly” goals – like certain post-2005 “supreme court” “justices”]
6]. “..the power of ideas was enormous..an influential grouping of conservative intellectuals, columnists, religious leaders, political figures, and writers began..a broad attack on the liberal assumptions that had accompanied 30 years of America’s middle class republic..
“..right-wing spokesmen worked hard to change the way Americans think about equality, democracy and freedom.
“..five broad interconnected themes suggest themselves. The Right developed blistering critiques of liberalism in matters of foreign policy, social authority, race relations, the welfare state, and economic equality..it crafted a more “muscular” approach to international relations, called for moral renewal and a restoration of authority in all areas of life, suggested..government and racial preferences and encouraging a “color-blind society,” extolled the creative and democratic power of unfettered capitalism, and articulated a broad celebration of personal freedom, individual opportunity, and economic growth.” [“$ervants of Wealth. The Right’s Assault on Economic Justice”]
7] ***the Right-Wing effort is on-going: “Groups like the Convention of States [[Ron DeSantis..a vocal supporter] have succeeded in getting 19 of the 34 states required to agree to convene a new constitutional convention. The..package of potential changes includes giving “a simple majority of the states” the ability to “rescind actions by Congress, the President, or administrative agencies” [!!! think EPA, labor rights, reproductive health…] empowering Republican officials to nullify any policies they oppose..” [“The Constitution Won’t Save Us From Trump”; Aziz Rana; N.Y. Times; 4/28/24]. [!!!So, now 26 “gerrymandered” conservative states can further extend MINORITY rule over 330 million]
8] “Tyler Cowen..who succeeded Buchanan and now directs the cause’s base camp at George Mason, the Mercatus Center, has explained..with the “rewriting of the social contract” under way, people will be “expected to fend for themselves much more than they do now.” While some will flourish..”others will fall by the wayside.” And because “worthy individuals” will manage to climb their way out of poverty, “that will make it easier to ignore those who are left behind.” Cowen foresees..”we will cut Medicaid for the poor.”..”the fiscal shortfall will come out of real wages as various cost burdens are shifted to workers” from employers and a government that does less…Cowen forecasts, the United States as a whole will end up looking more like Texas.” {“Democracy in Chains”] {Note: read this again, very carefully, to note the cynicism and cruelty of the Right-Wing and their selfish billionaire funders]
9]. “..Amazon, a company that was playing an outsized role in this zero-sum sorting..was an ideal frame for understanding the cuntry and what the country was becoming..There was extreme wealth inequality encapsulated by its founder’s outlandish personal fortune and..modest wages of the vast preponderance of its employees..the nature of..work most of them..engaged in: rudimentary and isolating..on the edge of town, often with unreliable hours and schedules..the immense influence the company had amassed over the country’s elected government..the unraveling of..civic fabric..the company had contributed to, through its undermining of face-to-face commercial activity and..tax base of countless communities. In upending how we consumed..it had recast daily life at its most elemental level.” [“fulfillment”]
10] “In writing this book..I have found myself more and more fixated on one gnawing question. Is what we are dealing with merely a social movement of the right whose radical ideas must eventually face public scrutiny and a rise or fall on their merits? Or is this the story of something quite different, something never before seen in American history? Could it be – and I use these words quite hesitantly and carefully – a fifth column assault on American democratic government?….
“Pushed by relatively small numbers of radical-right billionaires and millionaires..profoundly hostile to America’s modern system of government, an apparatus decades in the making, funded by those same billionaires and millionaires, has been working to undermine the normal governance in our democracy..one such manifesto calls for a “hostile takeover of Washington, D.C.” [“Democracy in Chains”] [!!!seems there WAS a “hostile takeover” attempt in Washington, D.C. just a few years ago!!! – dress rehearsal ???]
11] on the influence of Chicago School economist Milton Friedman..”his free market ideas were based more on ideological conviction than on economic analysis.” Stiglitz and others’ work showed markets didn’t always work well. “Friedman simply couldn’t or wouldn’t grasp these results. He simply KNEW..they had to be wrong.” [Nobel Prize winner Joe Stiglitz: “The Price of Inequality”]. [ “they had to be wrong”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!; HE couldn’t have been wrong!!!!!]
12]. what went wrong with corporate America: executive compensation, “total pay of the average CEO soared from 42 times that of the average worker in 1980 to 28 times in 2004, a staggering increase unjustified by any remotely comparable business achievement…
“..the culmination of an era in which our business corporations and..financial institutions, working in tacit harmony, corrupted the traditional nature of capitalism, shattering both confidence in..markets and..accumulated wealth of countless American families.
“At the root of the problem..was a societal change..We had become..a “bottomline society.” But our society [measured] the wrong bottom line: form over substance, prestige over virtue, money over achievement, charisma over character, the ephemeral over the enduring, even mammon over God.” [“The Battle For The Soul of Capitalism”]
13] “Chief Justice Roberts..in McDonnell..: “There is no doubt..this case is distasteful. But our concern is with the broader legal implications on the Government’s boundless interpretation of the federal bribery statute..”
“This how corruption gets overlooked in the United States. This is how the wealthier and better educated Americans downplay it. They cast it as an embarrassing aberration, a scandal beneath mention, shrugged off with a roll of the eyes.
“But to regard corruption this way is to dangerously underestimate its significance. Corruption is not an isolated scandal or even a whole stack of them. Corruption is better understood as the deliberate mode of functioning – the operating system.. – of sophisticated , and astonishingly successful networks.
“What makes these networks so effective is..ability to weave across what most people think of as separate, even antagonistic segments of society: job creators and regulators, law-enforcement..out-and-out criminals..These apparent foes..work arm-in-arm within the powerful webs that promote corrupt practices…
“For Justice Robert and his seven colleagues..manifestations of this phenomenon in the United States are beneath their concern. In their view, Then American system is threatened not by corruption but – incredibly – by efforts to fight corruption..the Justice Department’s “boundless interpretation” of bribery laws..
“They could not have been more wrong. At the very moment they were dismissing corruption..corruption was poised to upend the U.S. presidential contest…
“..Trump’s drain-the-swamp administration proceeded to crystalize and put into practice – in barefaced ways unseen in the United States for a century – exactly the type of systematic corruption Americans decry..using their privileged positions to gain advantage for the businesses they continued to run..Meanwhile, the big-business strand of America’s emerging kleptocratic network was awarded control of the agencies whose job it is to protect the public from the worst effects of those businesses” profit-seeking practices..executives and lobbyists-turned-government-officials went straight to work rewriting the rules in ways designed to maximize the gush of money into their collective coffers..” [“On Corruption in America”]
14] “The game here, as before, was to defend an extreme free market ideology..didn’t just deny facts os science. They denied facts of history..If Carson was wrong..the shift in orientation might have been wrong too. The contemporary environmental movement cold be shown to have been based on a fallacy, and the need for government intervention in the marketplace would be refuted.” [“Merchants of Doubt”]
15] The Buchanan/Koch plan for America: a return to Harry Byrd’s 1950 Virginia [“a most thorough control by an oligarchy”]; uncontested sway of the rich; use of right-to-work laws and other ploys to keep working people powerless; ability to fire dissenting public employees at will; targeting educators in particular; use of voter suppression to keep the “wrong” people away; “state’s rights” to deter federal government from promoting equal treatment; hostility to public education; a regressive tax system; opposition to Social Security and Medicare; “parsimonious response” to public needs of all kinds. [“Democracy in Chains”]
16] James Madison, “Federalist Papers” #39: ‘..we may define a republic to be a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people..It is essential..that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion of a favored class of it..”
17]. Theodore Roosevelt: “The citizens of the United States must effectively control the mighty commercial forces which they themselves have called into being..The absence of effective state, and especially, national restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and extremely powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power.”
II. RELIGION – was one of the Founding Generations four major fears. Amendment I: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..” An “established” church is an official state church. Several European nations had one. America was NOT going to have an official state church. Consider this small beginning of evidence:
18] Four 1776-1800 state constitutions prohibited a “religious test for office”. [Article VI}; eight states banned an active minister serving in their government; ten had language banning an official state church
19] 1776 North Carolina Constitution, Articles XXXIV: “..neither shall any person, on any pretense whatsoever, be compelled to attend any place of worship contrary to his own faith..nor be obliged to pay, for the purchase..[of]..the building of any house of worship, or for the maintenance of any minister or ministry, contrary to what he believes right…all persons shall be at liberty to exercise their own mode of worship..” {“Faith of the Founders”; Gaustad]
20]. “These values, democratic and Christian, are being dismantled, often with stealth, by a radical Christian movement, known as dominionism..Dominionism seeks to redefine traditional democratic and Christian terms and concepts to fit an ideology that calls on the radical church to take political power. It shares many prominent features with classical fascist movements.” [“American Fascists”; Hedges]
21]. “For too long..America’s Christian nationalist movement has been misunderstood and underestimated..It is not a social or cultural movement. It is a political movement, and its ultimate goal is power..to replace our foundational democratic principles and institutions with a state3 grounded on a particular version of Christianity..what some adherents call “biblical worldview” that also happens to serve the interests of its plutocratic funders and allied political leaders..” [“The Power Worshippers”; K. Stewart]
22] Randall Terry; “Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty..are called by God to conquer this country. We don’t want equal time.. don’t want pluralism.”
23] “Theoconservatism teaches that a secular society is both undesirable and unsustainable; that for most of history the United States has been a thoroughly Christian nation founded on absolute moral principles that make no sense outside of a religious context…that the solution to secularization is to bring modern America [back] into line with the moral strictures of biblical religion.” [“The Theocons Secular America Under Siege”; D. Linker]
Do YOUR own research – in known, factual, mainstream, REAL sources:
– – WHY was “corruption” THE number one fear of the Founding Generations?????
— WHY is 1980 a. dividing point in most American political, economic, social history???
— WHY is the Far Right attempting to ERASE all progressive laws, norms, policies [THE basis for the 1947-75 middle class STATISTICAL golden age of prosperity???
With Justice For All 