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(Thread) A summary of Democracy in Chains, by Duke professor Nancy MacLean. The story begins with James McGill Buchanan, a professor of economics in Virginia who was furious by the SCOTUS decision ordering schools throughout the nation to desegregate.
2/ Buchanan, resentful of Northern liberals telling white Southerners how to live, founded libertarianism as a way to preserve the power of the white ruling elite, particularly in the South. (Libertarianism is also called the radical capitalistic right).
3/ He understood that the way to keep power in the hands of the white ruling elite was to dismantle the federal government—and the way to do that was to convince a majority that government was inherently evil and corrupt.
4/ The poor were naturally resentful of powerful corporations and wealthy men. His idea was to redirect their ire toward the government so they’d elect candidates who would dismantle the government.
5/ Because the radical capitalistic right stoked anger, they found they were naturals allies with such organizations as the KKK, who also stoked anger and wanted the white ruling elite to maintain power. Libertarians & the KKK found a common enemy in liberals.
6/ Libertarians employed tactics like debunking climate change as pseudo-science to prevent the government from expanding its regulations. Through most of the 20th century, Buchanan’s ideas didn’t get far. Barry Goldwater, the 1st Libertarian presidential candidate, bombed.
7/ Things changed when the libertarians attracted billionaires like Koch, who also wanted power concentrated in the hands of the wealthy few. When Buchanan’s ideas joined forces with Koch money, they began scoring political victories.
8/ The radical right, empowered, denounced compromise as a violation of integrity & stoked widespread anger — and we find ourselves with the radical right extremists with extraordinary power and control in the US. The solution: Educate and activate the majority.
