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    Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
    Unavailable
    Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
    Unavailable
    Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
    Audiobook16 hours

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

    Written by Jane Mayer

    Narrated by Kirsten Potter

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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 audiobook. 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 an audiobook that must be listened to by anyone who cares about the future of American democracy.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 19, 2016
    ISBN9780307970664
    Unavailable
    Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
    Author

    Jane Mayer

    Jane Mayer is an award-winning staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of three best-selling 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’ Top 10 Books of the Year. For her reporting at The New Yorker, Mayer has also won numerous awards. She lives in Washington, D.C.

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    Reviews for Dark Money

    4.5/5

    243 ratings25 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I was worried that this would be old news. Should someone who's on top of the news still read this? Yes, you'll still learn more details even if you understand the big picture already. Is the book now dated, in 2019? No. What a story. There is a lot here, but not too much. I only wish that Mayer would periodically step back and try to give a bigger picture. Unfortunately (for the country), her portraits of the radical right are not close to comprehensive. "American Amnesia", by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, has more angles, at a higher level and presented with a more strident tone.
    • 5/5
      Jane Mayer is a remarkably thorough and articulate investigative journalist. Her works provide background, breadth, insight, and very often important nuance to her subjects. This book, ostensibly about "The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right", per its subtitle, is more than the sum of those limited parts. This is especially valid in light of the fact this was written after Donald Trump announced his candidacy for President of the United States but before he was elected. The book is peppered with Trump cabinet members and associates. There is just so very much worth commenting about. How about the particular billionaire behind one GOP presidential candidate who offered arsenic-laced material for mulch in playgrounds and fired an employee because his employee's wife wouldn't have a sexual threesome with him? Or maybe the handful of billionaires that spent many more times more money than the entire Republican Party on getting their preferred candidates elected? Are you up on the John Birch Society? Environmental or health or safety regulations and laws? For anyone who has not yet succumbed to the plague of cognitive dissonance that has infected millions of Americans, this is an important foundational resource. Read the damn book.
    • 4/5
      Not a page turner by any stretch but certainly worth reading. This book is truly disturbing.
    • 4/5
      Thisis a 2016 book by Jane Mayer, whose book, Landlide The Unmaking of the President 1984-1988 I read on 20 Dec 1988. This 2016 book traces the rise of the billolionaires and their taking over the financing of the Republican Party, to the extent that the entire party, except for Trump, is utterly beholden to them, with currently the Koch brothers dominating the perty. Th book is not fun to read since it seems so discouraging that the huge amounts of money being expended to reshpe the political landscape is effectual and the Citizens United decision has given such power to money that it is difficult to see how one cans stand against the moneyed power of such as the Koch brothers .
    • 5/5
      This is probably the most important book I will read this year. It has fundamentally changed my view on politics in America. It is well worth it to understand why politics has become dysfunctional, how it's possible for 50 to 100 unelected people to control the government legally under cover. It's not too late, they have not won the biggest prize (control of three branches + SC) but they likely will given enough time. The only defense is knowledge.
    • 3/5
      This is a very disturbing book about how the very rich in America are able to control so many politicians and push forward their right-wing agenda of minimal government regulation, including in areas of environmental protection and worker safety or well-being. The amount of money they "invest" in elections and candidates is mind-boggling (literally billions of dollars). Part of me can't believe a cost-benefit analysis would justify what they are doing, but it seems that greed and the desire for power are limitless. As I read this, I wondered why the extreme right and the extreme left are so different -- not in a sense of judging good vs bad, but in terms of tactics. They don't seem to be playing the same game.I would have liked a bit more analysis in the book; the writer is a journalist and does a good job of laying out the facts. As a Canadian, I am not so familiar with the ins and outs of American politics and would have liked to get a deeper understanding of the system itself as well as how it is being manipulated. It seems ironic to me that the American Revolution was fought to end the reign of a small group of aristocrats, yet American seems headed back to that very situation.
    • 4/5
      Interesting look at how millionaires and billionaires have used their riches to repurpose "non-profits" to influence politics in the US.
    • 5/5
      I found it difficult to begin this book, probably because I began in the midst of arguments about whether it rained or not at President Trump's inauguration and other controversies. I persisted, and I am glad I did because Mayer explains the way money, often in the form of tax-deductible donations, from a small group of very wealthy people has erected a complex of think tanks, academic chairs and more overtly political organizations, all aimed at remaking our political system and government into something that serves the needs of the most wealthy at the expense of everyone else. That sounds like I am making a political statement, but it is the argument, forcibly and reasonably made, in this book. Read it whether you agree or disagree with what I have written. This is truly an important book if we wish to understand what has been happening and continues to happen across our political institutions.
    • 4/5
      Depressing. Very well researched, clearly presented. Subject matter revolting. Book left me feeling hopeless and helpless.
    • 4/5
      Listened to as audiobook. Checkout ended prior to completion. A really good book on the state of the Republican Party and how it has morphed into its current state. Book largely focuses on the Koch brothers.
    • 3/5
      Not a bad book but it reads slow in parts due to overwhelming details & the despair that comes from learning how pervasive the fiscal & political corruption is.
    • 5/5
      Methodically and meticulously researched. if you want to understand the US political landscape today, you have to read this book. The audiobook production is excellent as well.
    • 5/5
      This was an eye opening view on how money makes people lose their humanity. A story of a family and company that could have done great things with the wealth they had yet chose to spend it manipulating the democratic process to serve their needs. This book shows that the massive propaganda push that has been going on since 2012 has been funded by unethical private business man. Unfortunately it also shows that our government in America can easily be manipulated by money. Be it that manipulation for good or bad. It will be nice when these companies manipulate it for good reasons that beneifit the population of the world; plants, animals included. Great book and well read!
    • 5/5
      Spectacularly well-written and intensely well-researched. This book really is eye-opening about just how much involvement these few people have had in shaping American politics. It's long, it kind of hurts to read, but you finish it genuinely amazed. For folks that think real honest muckrakers died off in the 20th century, they're not all gone
    • 5/5
      It was hard enough to take the whining about how Bernie Sanders complains repetitively about money in politics before I read this. Now I'm even madder.
    • 4/5
      Basically extremely rich people and businesses are taking over the US by "donating" in their political interests, including: subverting climate change science, taxing the poor rather than the rich, and infiltrating the academia world to teach students their way of thinking.
    • 5/5
      I discovered this book after it was recommended by friendlyjordies on youtube.As an Australian looking from the outside into American politics, I've been aware of the ever increasing special interest money that has been building in a slow wave slowly corrupting the political process and essentially buying influence. And yet despite this, I still found the detail of such private donor money and the manner in which it was essentially laundered into the political system both shocking and depressing.Here in Australia in my state there's currently a lot of hoopla over $100,000 that was delivered in cash to one of our political parties in breach of campaign finance laws, yet recorded here are tens of millions of dollars spent by the Koch brothers on buying influence in American politics. The sheer sums involved boggle the mind.The erosion of democracy detailed in the book somehow manages to be more disturbing than dystopian fiction, possibly as it has been happening in the last decade whilst everyone watched.I'd highly recommend this book for people with an interest in America or American politics regardless of politican persuasion.
    • 5/5
      A well-researched - and for that very reason - frightening look into the big money that has hacked the democratic process. And I’m not even American ...
    • 5/5
      I just finished, and am completely made paranoid by, this well researched and clearly written book. We all know the Koch brothers are scary guys, but the dedication and long range planning that has gone into their successful attempt to create and dominate a third political party in the US hit me like a wall. Alas, the book gives the reader little hope for the continuance of representative democracy.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      An essential read for understanding how the poison of libertarianism, as represented by the unlimited funds of the Koch brothers, Richard Mellon Sciafe, the Olin family, Art Pope, Sheldon Adelson, et al, has penetrated all aspects of American life. Powerful and well researched, Jane Mayer is an investigative reporter who shines the light on the impact of unregulated dark money. Every single person cited here has paid enormous amounts of money in fines and legal judgments, but nothing and no one seems to be able to stop them. Very discouraging. There appears to be no way to rid ourselves of this scourge.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      During the 2016 primaries, Bernie Sanders repeatedly said that the US is no longer a representative democracy, but an oligarchy. Surprisingly, this statement raised few eyebrows. In DARK MONEY, Jane Mayer documents how this evolved. Her book is a fascinating, well documented, but ultimately depressing, tale of how a very small group of fabulously wealthy people—most notably, the Koch brothers—have been succeeding in co-opting American power to realize their conservative vision and, not coincidentally, to improve their own bottom lines.This book went to press before the 2016 presidential election, so it does not deal with the curious consequences of Trump’s election on what otherwise would have been a spectacular success story for the Kochs and their small group of fellow libertarians. The Supreme Court gave them Citizens United; the Republican Party was in their pockets; the Democrats seemed hell bent on nominating a compromised, but ultimately controllable, candidate; local congressional districts had been gerrymandered to guarantee Republican control; and their followers were in charge of most state governments. Most Americans were fed up and ready to try just about anything to fix things. The Kochs were supporting people they could easily control (e.g., Walker, Cruz, Rubio) as candidates for president. However, Trump made quick work of them ridiculing anyone who went begging for Koch money. The only alternatives seemed to be unelectable. Despite having many views in common with the oligarchs, Trump’s distasteful personal traits (e.g., racism, misogyny, chronic lying, narcissism, etc.) and far right ideas seemed to make him unelectable. Alternatively, Sanders’ ideas seemed too far to the left to be palatable to mainstream Americans. So we ended up with a deeply flawed president who seems poised to give the Koch group most of their wish list, characterized by more free markets unfettered by regulation and tax cuts for them paid for by gutting social programs. Unfortunately, this came with a heavy price because Trump ripped off the mask of American polity to reveal ugliness and corruption. As businessmen, fully aware of the importance of a global economy, Trump’s isolationism and jingoism can only be troubling.Much of what Mayer covers in her book would be familiar to anyone closely following the news, but the historical background is a valuable addition to our understanding of America’s rightward movement. It is appalling how little respect these businessmen display for pollution controls, worker welfare or tax laws. Their self-serving core belief that government oversight of business is an assault on freedom and damaging to the economy is not surprising. Their tactics, however, reveal remarkable sophistication, including adopting innocuous titles that low information voters would accept, like “Americans for Prosperity”; maintaining secrecy of funding sources wherever possible; employing private agents and paid news outlets for marketing and smearing opponents; and aggressively blocking meaningful environmental, labor and tax reforms. Mayer’s profiles are particularly revealing of people with dubious histories, libertarian visions and the means of achieving political results while simultaneously self-dealing. The Koch fortune was derived from building refineries for Hitler and Stalin. Richard Mellon Scaife had the brilliant realization that political activism could be sold as tax-deductible philanthropy. John M. Olin, whose chemical fortune benefited from weapons procurement, realized that America’s future leaders were being educated by liberals and thus focused his fortune on funding conservative scholars at prestigious institutions and think tanks. The Bradley brothers of Rockwell International fame used their fortune to underwrite various right wing publishing and research ventures. These are just a few of the people Mayer profiles in her book. The list is long and each seems well focused, if not a little sketchy. Mayer, a staff writer for the New Yorker, spent five years researching her exhaustive investigation. She conducted hundreds of interviews—the Kochs refused to be interviewed—as well as public records, private papers and court documents. The result is a picture of a well-organized and well-funded American plutocracy that is laser focused on fundamentally altering America. The view is often depressing, leaving the reader wondering if it may be too late to rescue America from these people.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      The Koch brothers have a plan, and it involves the creation of lots of different sources of conservative indoctrination, allowing them to serve their own political interests by giving to “charity” in the form of nonprofit policy shops and university centers committed to anti-regulatory postures. It’s a depressing story; Mayer finished the book before the big donation to GMU’s law school, which turns out to be exactly the kind of thing she’s talking about. Among other things, contrary to true academic freedom, the donor has the right to cut off the money if the donor doesn’t like who’s hired as the dean. Also, despite the claims about how big the donation was, it’s actually crony capitalism at its finest—the deal allowed them to rename the law school and claim to add a bunch of chaired professorships and scholarships, but by the ordinary rules for donations, the amount pledged would only have covered the professorships. When the money runs out, the taxpayers will have to pay for those new professors, but the donors still get the ideological influence and the tax credits. This is the kind of deal Mayer’s book exposes.
    • 5/5
      It will not be surprise to anyone who has been paying attention that for the past twenty years our political system has been awash in special interest money. Mayer tells us it is forty years. What Mayer does in this detailed accounting is to elucidate the sources of that money and the routes it takes to influence votes. What may be more surprising to readers is how often that money has failed in its mission. Probably the best reason for reading this book is to see how Jane Mayer allows these individuals and groups to speak for themselves. She quotes from statements spoken by fund raisers at their own gatherings, from the literature distributed under their aegis, and from interviews with associates. Mayer also traces the many shell companies through which the money flows to hide its origins. She documents why the groups feel it is necessary to hide the source of the monies and why the folks involved do not want their names to be known. Many of the families besides David and Charles Koch who most ardently support far right wing causes are not the self-made men of legend. They are heirs of fortunes who seek to retain those fortunes. The tax laws in our country have been such that persons with enormous fortunes could use a portion of it for charitable giving rather than have it taxed by the government. These generous brethren have decided to do the patriarchal thing: to “give” portions of their fortune to like-minded groups they create to influence the populace. I am not suggesting they don’t work hard at it. They do. Lots of effort has gone into creating an empire on the backs of a people they disparage.What I cannot reconcile in my own mind is how these folks, experienced in the advantages (and disadvantages) of great wealth, don’t come to the conclusion that money isn’t the point. There have been too many studies on the limits of wealth to ensure happiness for these experienced folks to have missed the central point. Money does buy power, but look at the uses to which these folks want to use their power: to perpetuate their own wealth, despite the documented injury to the environment their companies perpetuate and to the continued abasement of their workforces. Even Koch scoffs at the notion that he needs more money. I just don’t get it. And, it seems, neither do the American public. Despite libertarian donors of like-minded billionaires pooling their capital donations and pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into influencing the last presidential election, their arch-nemesis Obama was reelected. Of course, he was unable to accomplish much in his term because of the groups were successful in filling the House and Senate with politicians they’d supported financially: the darlings of what is still called the Republican party, e.g., Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, among many others. When Mitch McConnell became Majority Speaker of the Senate, he hired a new policy chief who was formerly a lobbyist for Koch Industries. Neither Ohio Governor John Kasich or real estate magnate Donald Trump have a part in the Koch money cabal. But…remind me again, who won in the presidential election primaries in NH this year?If you have been confused about the obstreperous obstructionism Obama encountered in the House and Senate even after he was elected, twice, to the presidency, you may be interested to learn that the money promised to groups favoring select Republican candidates for the coming presidential election has been estimated to be over $800 million. Apparently the Republican Party itself is the poor step-sister of a shadow organization that dwarfs it in money and reach. These monies have begun in recent years to target local elections and judge nominations. In these arenas dark money seems to have more effect (see the change in the red/blue map of governerships and local districts after 2010), perhaps because national elections get more voters. More voters often translate into more moderate results. In addition, the money is going to influence academic centers and think tanks. Penetrating academia – a delivery system for the group’s ideology by winning the hearts and minds of college students--has long been on their wish list. Academia is an investment for the Koch’s ambitious designs. Their own literature claims they have funded 5,000 scholars in some 400 universities throughout the country. “Privately funded pro-corporate centers can replace faculty teachings with their own.” The groups are also pouring money into online education, paying lower-income students to take more courses. The intent is to create an “idea pipeline.” I have to say, Bernie Sanders’ proposed free college education sounds better than ever.But at the end of it all, I am still perplexed. We know the sources of the dark money discussed in this book believe in small government free enterprise. But do they really believe that corporations do not have a responsibility to provide living wages and a non-polluting environment? At the same time company profits and management wages soar. Unfortunately for their argument is the fact that many of the corporate heads financing opposition to regulation are under indictment for pollution, tax avoidance, or other financial irregularities. They are trying to address this also, changing perceptions by calling their investments “wellbeing” grants.In the end, what I don’t like about the current system of free enterprise and/or payments for work is that corporations have shown that they don’t do very well at controlling themselves. Corporate governance is beginning to sound like an oxymoron. Corporate boards blame their inability to control costs on the need to make profits for stake-holders or investors, but the salaries and bonuses these boards award themselves at the expense of cleaning up pollution caused by their companies or to avoid paying a living wage to workers make them look foolish (and greedy).I guess it really is so simple as narcissism: the wealthy come to believe they deserve to be wealthy because they are either smarter or more deserving in some other way. If that is the inevitable outcome of the free market system, I think we can state unequivocally that it does, in fact, need regulation. We could, I suppose, just throw away the whole system. Which, do you think, sources of dark money would prefer? I think everyone needs to read or listen to this book but if you don’t feel you have the time, go to the library or a bookstore and read Chapter 14. While in previous chapters Mayer tells us how the groups began, which groups and donors comprise dark money, and what they have tried to do, in this final chapter Mayer tells us what is happening now. This is important for how we integrate and process any new information we learn. Mayer has also written several smaller articles in The New Yorker, beginning in 2010. A wonderfully informative January 24, 2016 NYTimes book podcast is also available on this title. Get the information piecemeal if you must, but you will definitely want to inform yourselves.
    • 2/5
      I read this book at the recommendation of my Aunt Pat because "OMG, Jimmy you don't know what those libertarians are really all about." I did so with the understand that she would return the favor by reading some essential libertarian ideological literature. Mayer is very far left. She has so many assumptions, that the government has a right to the furits of others labor for one, and that the annonymoity is a vice as another. Let us be clear I am not a fan of the Kochs, however, rather than exposing their great evil, Mayer has done nothing but give me more respect for them than I had had before. They do have a through upbrining in the literature and the ideology. However their willingness to use the laws to their advantage against that of their idology, or even at times to focus on increasing government regulation against their competitors did give me great pride that the Libertarian Party all but kicked them out back in 1983. It is completely missed on Mayer that libertarianism brought to its logical conclusion would have encouraged their political opponents to "expose" what they have been doing as opposed to statist quoe we have now "protecting" them from what they have. The other thing that was plainly clear here is that Mayer seems to have very little respect for her readers. She repeats information frequently, such as "The 1980 platform of the Libertarian Party that David Koch had ran for Vice President under" she either thinks her readers are stupid and have forgotten, or that she has written it assuming that it is going to be used primarily for quoting by others. The rest of the rouge gallery has learned from what the Kochs have done to transform the Republican party to move the Party further into corporate interests. Not once does Mayer even question if what the "Dark Money" is doing may be moral, not once does she investigate the ideology behind the corporatists, she simply assumes its evil and then goes about exposing how they did their evil. If you want to strengthen your own positions, to pat yourself on the back for being right, this book is for you, if you want to get a historical perspective on the corporate interest in American politics, however; this book is not for you.
    • 5/5
      I've been putting off reading this book because I knew it was going to be an incredibly stressful read, and I was right. But it was really great. By really great, I mean so bleak and scarier than any horror book because it is our reality, and I don't know how we'll ever get the country out from this control.