PDF⋙ Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer PDF, ePub eBook D0wnl0ad
Why is America living in an age of profound economic inequality? Why, despite the desperate need to address climate change, have even modest environmental efforts been defeated again and again? Why have protections for employees been decimated? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers?The conventional answer is that a popular uprising against “big government” led to the ascendancy of a broad-based conservative movement. But as Jane Mayer shows in this powerful, meticulously reported history, a network of exceedingly wealthy people with extreme libertarian views bankrolled a systematic, step-by-step plan to fundamentally alter the American political system.
The network has brought together some of the richest people on the planet. Their core beliefs—that taxes are a form of tyranny; that government oversight of business is an assault on freedom—are sincerely held. But these beliefs also advance their personal and corporate interests: Many of their companies have run afoul of federal pollution, worker safety, securities, and tax laws.
The chief figures in the network are Charles and David Koch, whose father made his fortune in part by building oil refineries in Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany. The patriarch later was a founding member of the John Birch Society, whose politics were so radical it believed Dwight Eisenhower was a communist. The brothers were schooled in a political philosophy that asserted the only role of government is to provide security and to enforce property rights.
When libertarian ideas proved decidedly unpopular with voters, the Koch brothers and their allies chose another path. If they pooled their vast resources, they could fund an interlocking array of organizations that could work in tandem to influence and ultimately control academic institutions, think tanks, the courts, statehouses, Congress, and, they hoped, the presidency. Richard Mellon Scaife, the mercurial heir to banking and oil fortunes, had the brilliant insight that most of their political activities could be written off as tax-deductible “philanthropy.”
These organizations were given innocuous names such as Americans for Prosperity. Funding sources were hidden whenever possible. This process reached its apotheosis with the allegedly populist Tea Party movement, abetted mightily by the Citizens United decision—a case conceived of by legal advocates funded by the network.
The political operatives the network employs are disciplined, smart, and at times ruthless. Mayer documents instances in which people affiliated with these groups hired private detectives to impugn whistle-blowers, journalists, and even government investigators. And their efforts have been remarkably successful. Libertarian views on taxes and regulation, once far outside the mainstream and still rejected by most Americans, are ascendant in the majority of state governments, the Supreme Court, and Congress. Meaningful environmental, labor, finance, and tax reforms have been stymied.
Jane Mayer spent five years conducting hundreds of interviews-including with several sources within the network-and scoured public records, private papers, and court proceedings in reporting this book. In a taut and utterly convincing narrative, she traces the byzantine trail of the billions of dollars spent by the network and provides vivid portraits of the colorful figures behind the new American oligarchy.
Dark Money is a book that must be read by anyone who cares about the future of American democracy.
From reader reviews:
Christopher Rayes:
Nowadays reading books become more than want or need but also work as a life style. This reading habit give you lot of advantages. Advantages you got of course the knowledge the rest of the information inside the book this improve your knowledge and information. The information you get based on what kind of e-book you read, if you want drive more knowledge just go with schooling books but if you want experience happy read one together with theme for entertaining like comic or novel. The particular Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right is kind of guide which is giving the reader erratic experience.
Arthur Dickison:
The e-book untitled Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right is the guide that recommended to you to read. You can see the quality of the book content that will be shown to you. The language that writer use to explained their way of doing something is easily to understand. The writer was did a lot of research when write the book, so the information that they share for your requirements is absolutely accurate. You also can get the e-book of Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right from the publisher to make you far more enjoy free time.
Eric Freeman:
Reading a book to get new life style in this 12 months; every people loves to read a book. When you study a book you can get a lots of benefit. When you read ebooks, you can improve your knowledge, simply because book has a lot of information on it. The information that you will get depend on what sorts of book that you have read. If you would like get information about your review, you can read education books, but if you want to entertain yourself read a fiction books, these kinds of us novel, comics, in addition to soon. The Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right offer you a new experience in looking at a book.
Read Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer for online ebook
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer Free PDF d0wnl0ad, audio books, books to read, good books to read, cheap books, good books, online books, books online, book reviews epub, read books online, books to read online, online library, greatbooks to read, PDF best books to read, top books to read Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer books to read online.
Comments
Post a Comment