Kochs’ greatest political triumph is the creation of the Tea Party movement (The Guardian)

[kpete]

How the Billionaires Broke the System
August 1, 2011

The US deficit reduction plan makes no sense – until you remember who’s behind the Tea Party movement.


By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 1st August 2011


............

But the Kochs’ greatest political triumph is the creation of the Tea Party movement. Taki Oldham’s film AstroTurf Wars shows Tea Party organisers from all over the Union reporting back to David Koch at their 2009 Defending the Dream summit, explaining the events and protests they’ve started with AFP help. “Five years ago,” he tells them, “my brother Charles and I provided the funds to start Americans for Prosperity. It’s beyond my wildest dreams how AFP has grown into this enormous organisation.”(13)

AFP mobilised the anger of people who found their conditions of life declining, and channelled it into a campaign to make them worse. Tea Party campaigners appear to be unaware of the origins of their own movement. Like the guard in Geoffrey Household’s novel Rogue Male who has been conned into working for the enemy, they take to the streets to demand less tax for billionaires and worse health, education and social insurance for themselves.

Are they stupid? No. They have been systematically misled by another instrument of corporate power: the media. The Tea Party movement has been relentlessly promoted by Fox News, which belongs to a more familiar billionaire. Like the Kochs, Rupert Murdoch aims to misrepresent the democratic choices we face, in order to persuade us to vote against our own interests and in favour of his.

What’s taking place in Congress right now is a kind of political coup. A handful of billionaires has shoved a spanner into the legislative process. Through the candidates they’ve bought and the movement that supports them, they are now breaking and reshaping the system to serve their interests. We knew this once, but now we’ve forgotten. What hope do we have of resisting a force we won’t even see?

the rest:
http://www.monbiot.com/2011/08/01/how-the-billionaires-broke-the-system/

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Recommend a million times googol to the infinitieth power...squared.

[Ruby the Liberal]

2. We need a Guardian here.

No matter the topic, they seem to always be on top of the story and presenting facts the US Media conveniently "overlooks".

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. The sad thing is, the Guardian is struggling to stay in business in the UK

See eg http://charman-anderson.com/2011/06/16/the-guardian-needs-an-intervention/

[tblue37]

3. KnR (nt)

[leftstreet]

4. The Dems and their Healthcare Town Halls made the Tea Party famous

Interesting they didn't hold Wall Street Bailout Town Halls

[dreamnightwind]

6. K & R

very important, thanks.