Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right Hardcover – January 19, 2016

Jane Mayer’s Dark Money is the carefully-researched, well-written story of how the American “conservative movement” and the Republican Party became little more than a well-financed storefront operation and sales force for plutocracy, sponsoring and placing political figures that are just sock-puppets for wealthy donors who dictate their policies. This is a political force that uses racism, misogyny, nativist xenophobia, media manipulation and sheer human gullibility, along with heaps of cash and other tools, to accomplish its ends. It is the story of how a few hundred extremely wealthy individuals and families, in a determined effort to avoid taxation and evade government prosecution of their own often financially-corrupt and polluting business enterprises, are engaged in a decades-long ongoing coup d’etat as much against the American people as against our government.The billionaires involved—principally but by no means exclusively the brothers Charles and David Koch; Richard Mellon Scaife; John M. Olin and the Bradley brothers—were raised within families of astounding wealth and privilege. They inherited hundreds of millions of dollars, plus businesses that produced yet more income. They also appear to have disliked and feared two things: taxation that would mitigate and reduce their family wealth; and being called legally to account for the public health, environmental and financial violations of their enterprises. They turned those fears into an ideology whose basic premise was: we should be able to do whatever we want, and any restriction on that is not only unjustified but un-American. They equated their personal interests and preferences with the good of the nation, and they funded a movement to raise their own self-interest to the status of a political crusade and an ideological war of principle. They lied to themselves and everyone else. As Thomas Frank wrote in What’s the Matter With Kansas, “Libertarianism is supposed to be all about principle, but what it is really about is political expedience. It is basically a corporate front, masked as a philosophy” (quoted from Dark Money, p. 123).A primary vehicle for putting the plutocratic campaign into practice was an ingenious tax dodge. It involved creating foundations and funneling money through nonprofit organizations (usually of the donors’ own creation) in such a way that the funds were tax-deductible. So, in lieu of paying more taxes, they used the money instead on a form of fake "philanthropy", claiming a social benefit for what were really investments in their own self-interest--very affordable investments with an enormous payoff. Basically, they bought staff to come up with "research” and “studies" that justified and promoted a disguised plutocracy; and followed that up with “policy” shops that would develop and advocate for specific legal and judiciary measures that would enshrine their interests into law. Finally, they created and funded staged “citizens’ groups” (like the Tea Party) that would give their campaign an appearance of popular support. They also learned that they could get the support of some of the victims of these policies by giving them something non-financial that they wanted, whether that was support for their religious preferences, sanction for their hatreds or whatever.The Kochs have tried to obscure their influence and that of their billionaire donor network, by hiding behind a web of "nonprofit" organizations with innocuous names, seeming to represent popular interests but actually funded and controlled by the Kochs and their fellow plutocrats. They even have a central donation organization, the "DonorsTrust", set up to obscure further the identities of the donors while funneling money to the campaign.The Kochs seem to have been good at identifying talent who could carry out their plans without revealing their direct involvement. The “conservative movement” is just another growth industry to which many people attached their careers when it became clear that the billionaires calling the shots would spend lavishly on it. The conservative publication National Review and the careers of many professional conservative journalists and scholars benefited greatly from this industry. The donors put literally billions of dollars into this effort over decades, which enabled them to buy an awful lot of conservatism.I enjoyed the many stories, anecdotes, incidents and quotes through which Mayer tells her tale. The fact that it is done in both journalistic and scholarly style, with many, many named people saying very telling things, made it a researcher’s delight. My own copy is filled with underlined passages and bookmarked pages.This is an eminently quotable book, with extensive end-note references. For instance, Steve Clemons, formerly an analyst at the Nixon Center, is quoted on page 82 saying: “Funders increasingly expect policy achievements that contribute to their bottom line….We’ve become money launderers for monies that have real specific policy agendas behind them.” On the Citizens United decision, Mayer writes on page 248 that: “…the Kochs were part of a national explosion of dark money. In 2006, only 2 percent of ‘outside’ political spending came from ‘social welfare’ groups that hid their donors. In 2010, the number rose to 40 percent, masking hundreds of millions of dollars.” And on page 249, there is a note about a meeting in April of 2010 in Karl Rove’s living room at his house in Northeast Washington, DC. Mayer quotes Kenneth Vogel, from his book Big Money, describing the meeting as “the birthplace of a new Republican Party—one steered by just a handful of unelected operatives who answered only to the richest activists who funded them.” Perhaps my favorite quote in the book is from Karl Rove who, right after the 2010 Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case, met with Republican donors at the Dallas Petroleum Club, to plot out how best to take advantage of the decision. Rove told the gathering: “People call us a vast right-wing conspiracy, but we’re really a half-assed right-wing conspiracy. Now…..it is time to get serious.” (p. 242)Jane Mayer has done a service to us all with this remarkable book. Get it, read it and tell everyone you know about it.

(Disclaimer. This is the first time I review a book on here with some thought. Id love to hear any suggestions, which I know I need a LOT, about what you what you think, so please comment "-). Or also if you have any comment on my thoughts on the review itself. Thanks!)Many books change the way you look at situations where the most deprived, less respected, and less well-off citizens of this country have it the hardest to fulfill the "American Dream". In Michelle Alexanders book, The New Jim Crow, we learn about the new struggles of African-Americans who are impacted in today's society by egregious, outrageous policies enacted in the 90's by the Clinton administration.We hear about the struggling lives of the elderly at the end of their life and how they can't seem to be getting better protection, treatment, or even care from a government that now is being controlled by those who wish to take away or even lower social security and medicare.In a lot of ways, these policies or grand ideas are being built up by a secret group, not so secret now, of hardcore, extreme right wing billionaires who wish to have the power to enact laws with an ideological twist. Jane Mayer has done a service to this country with this brilliant, profound researched book on the rise of the radical right on the political stage of the 21st century.In a small part of her book, Mayer talks about the in which after releasing an article on the influence of the Koch Brothers, who are mostly the main characters in this book, was informed of being tailed by private detectives trying to look up any dirt on her person with the goal of discrediting her. Whoever it was tried to go so far as to say that she plagiarized most of her work from other articles, which as she says, "Plagiarism ranks pretty high up on the list of crimes of moral turpitude in journalism." This gets to show that the startling revelations she made in that article riled up some very powerful people who did not agree with her work or wished that it was viewed as inaccurate and not reliable.This book will open the eyes of those who still doubt that dark money isn't being spent, on the political apparatus, that we can see today, from those who wish to put in place laws that will benefit big corporations. Ms. Mayer writes about the rise of the Koch family and other families who subscribed to the same ideological thinking as the Koch brothers. With stunning research, we can understand the who's and why's of the radical right and get a better grip of their outstanding reach towards the peak of libertarian ideology.It wasn't until the year 2008, the year Barack Obama was inaugurated as president, that the right started getting concerned about their future. The best part, in my opinion, of Jane Mayer's book is when she writes about the work the radical right used their money.to place people under their control, in the House of representatives using shady non-profit organizations, which would hide the name of their donors and would eventually make ads to attack opponents or anyone who didn't agree with them.This book is an important read to anyone who desires to learn more about how a few billionaires got a hold of not just the political landscape of this country, but also how they influenced thinking of the general population, from organizing rallies, giving money to ivy league schools and professors to talk about free-market philosophy, and also give rise to political organizations such as the Tea Party.Jane Mayer writes with stunning prose that will leave you to question on how sure we can be that our elected officials might not be representing just us, but another more powerful, shady group.