Oct 24, 2026, 9:44 AM

From the 1970s on:

The US far right built a "stealth" network of think tanks, foundations, so-called "grassroots" (astroturf) movements, academic programs, advocacy & legal groups to reshape public opinion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_CnzsSeJyU

#USPol #EUPol #Democracy #FarRight .

Charles Koch & James Buchanan:

ran "a stealth bid to reverse-engineer all of America, at both
the state & national levels, back to the political economy &
oligarchic governance of midcentury Virginia, minus the
segregation”,

Koch's ideas came from Vice President John Calhoun, who
helped the wealthy few wield outsize power in a
constitutional republic. Calhoun said that states must:

"be able to pass whatever laws they saw fit... to maintain the
existing relation between master & slaves”

"Conspiratorial secrecy at all times. The cause needed an
effective counterintelligentsia to... transform the way people
think about govt, seed a new crop of surrogates who could
be indoctrinated with compelling arguments &... spread
them.... If the job was done right, this new vast network of
political power will be the Establishment.”

Nancy MacLean, Democracy in chains