Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

by Jane Mayer

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780735210332
Publisher:	Diversified Publishing
Publication date:	01/19/2016
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	784
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Jane Mayer is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of three bestselling and critically acclaimed narrative nonfiction books. She co-authored Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984-1988, with Doyle McManus, and Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, with Jill Abramson, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her book The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, for which she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, was named one of The New York Times's Top 10 Books of the Year and won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, the Goldsmith Book Prize, the Edward Weintal Prize, the Ridenhour Prize, the New York Public Library's Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. It was also a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. For her reporting at The New Yorker, Mayer has been awarded the John Chancellor Award, the George Polk Award, the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, and the I. F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence presented by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard. Mayer lives in Washington, D.C.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Dark Money"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Jane Mayer.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Preface to the Anchor Books Edition (2017) xi

Introduction: The Investors 3

Part 1 Weaponizing Philanthropy: The War of Ideas, 1970-2008

1 Radicals: A Koch Family History 33

2 The Hidden Hand: Richard Mellon Scaife 73

3 Beachheads: John M. Olin and the Bradley Brothers 112

4 The Koch Method: Free-Market Mayhem 146

5 The Kochtopus: Free-Market Machine 172

Part 2 Secret Sponsors: Covert Operations, 2009-2010

6 Boots on the Ground 195

7 Tea Time 203

8 The Fossils 243

9 Money Is Speech: The Long Road to Citizens United 278

10 The Shellacking: Dark Money's Midterm Debut, 2010 295

Part 3 Privatizing Politics: Total Combat 2011-2014

11 The Spoils: Plundering Congress 333

12 Mother of All Wars: The 2012 Setback 370

13 The States: Gaining Ground 410

14 Selling the New Koch: A Better Battle Plan 435

Author's Note 467

Notes 469

Index 523

Editorial Reviews

…an impressively reported and well-documented work. A great deal has already been written about the Koch brothers and the money their network has invested in American politics. The importance of Dark Money does not flow from any explosive new revelation, but from its scope and perspective. Mayer writes of the early lives of the key players, the origin of their fortunes, their personal obsessions and quirks, and the role the operation was able to carve out. It is not easy to uncover the inner workings of an essentially secretive political establishment. Mayer has come as close to doing it as anyone is likely to come anytime soon.

The New York Times Book Review - Alan Ehrenhalt

…Ms. Mayer has followed the trail of the tax-deductible "dark money" the [Koch] brothers have secretly donated to political causes; absorbed the work of dozens of outstanding independent investigative journalists; ferreted out articles, speeches and interviews the brothers, or their advisers, have given, many of them quite revelatory; and secured access to previously unpublished sources. Dark Money, the result of Ms. Mayer's research, is a persuasive, timely and necessary story of the Koch brothers' empire. It may read overly long and include some familiar material, but only the most thoroughly documented, compendious account could do justice to the Kochs' bizarre and Byzantine family history and the scale and scope of their influence.

The New York Times - David Nasaw

Praise for Jane Mayer’s Dark Money

“Revelatory. . . . Persuasive, timely and necessary.” —The New York Times

“Dark Money is more than just a work of political journalism—it’s a vital portrait of a nation that, as perhaps never before, is being shaped by a few very rich, very conservative businessmen.” —San Francisco Chronicle 
 
“Absolutely necessary reading for anyone who wants to make sense of our politics.” —The New York Review of Books  

“Deeply researched and studded with detail . . . Seems destined to rattle the Koch executive offices in Wichita as other investigations have not.” —Washington Post

“With such turmoil on the right wing of American politics, reading Dark Money is like reading the first chapter of what may be a great political page-turner.” 
—Chicago Tribune

“Jane Mayer . . . is, quite simply, one of the very few utterly invaluable journalists this country has.” —Esquire 

“Amazing. . . . The most important political book of the year.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch 

“Dark Money is almost too good for its own good.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“[A] comprehensive history. . . . Stunning.” 
—Salon 

From the Publisher

Mayer takes aim at those whose goal is to dismantle the government, all the while often profiting from it. In doing so, she provides an in-depth analysis of the work of the Koch brothers and others who have infused billions of dollars into right-wing fringe groups (for example, the Tea Party) and libertarian causes. Kirsten Potter proves to be a strong narrator who deftly moves through the often complex and nuanced passages with the right amount of speed and emphasis. Overall, she enhances the listener’s understanding of Mayer’s message. Avoiding impressions, she delivers quotations in a neutral voice, which works well to keep listeners focused on the author’s points. L.E. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2016 - AudioFile