Former Vice President Al Gore. (photo: Mario Anzuoni)
15 February 13
new study
funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of
Health reveals that the Tea Party Movement was planned over a decade ago
by groups with ties to the tobacco and fossil fuel industries. The
movement was not a spontaneous populist uprising, but rather a long-term
strategy to promote the anti-science, anti-government agenda of
powerful corporate interests.
The two organizations mentioned in the report,
Americans for Prosperity and Freedomworks, used to be a single
organization that was founded by the Koch brothers and heavily financed
by the tobacco industry. These organizations began planning the Tea
Party Movement over ten years ago to promote a common agenda that
advocated market fundamentalism over science and opposed any regulation
or taxation of fossil fuels and tobacco products.
The disturbing history of links between market
fundamentalists, the tobacco industry and the Tea Party movement is part
of an even larger trend that I describe in my new book, The Future: Six
Drivers of Global Change. Following the era of Progressive and New Deal
reforms that restrained corporate influence in American politics
following the infamous Robber Baron Era, market fundamentalists were
once again motivated and radicalized by the social turbulence of the
1960s. In 1971, a prominent lawyer for the tobacco industry, Lewis
Powell, wrote a memorandum for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that
presented a comprehensive plan aimed at shifting the balance of
political power in favor of corporations. President Nixon appointed
Powell to the Supreme Court just two months later.
Guided by the Powell Memo, market fundamentalists have
pursued a comprehensive strategy to dramatically increase corporate
influence in American politics. Powell himself worked with other
pro-corporate justices to interpret laws in ways that were favorable to
corporate interests, most importantly expanding the precedent of
corporate personhood. As a direct result, corporate lobbying exploded,
increasing from $100 million in 1975 to $3.5 billion in 2010.
Corporations also used increasingly voluminous campaign contributions to
promote the election of pro-corporate politicians at all levels of
government. Wealthy donors founded conservative think tanks to influence
public opinion in favor of market fundamentalism. The Tea Party is a
clear extension of Powell's strategy to promote corporate profit at the
expense of the public good.
Our democracy has been hacked by this expansion of
corporate power, preventing meaningful action on several crucial issues.
The climate crisis is an instructive example. The strategic goal of the
market fundamentalists to "reposition global warming as theory not
fact" has created enough false doubt around the issue to hinder
progress. The potential consequences of climate change have never been
clearer than they are today. Consider what we saw in America just last
year. 2012 was the hottest year in American history and 60% of America
experienced drought.
Extreme weather events, like Superstorm Sandy,
caused over $110 billion of damages. Yet Congress remains paralyzed,
with many lawmakers even refusing to acknowledge the validity of climate
science. The future of our planet demands that we put the
sustainability of our planet before corporate profit.
We must reclaim control of our destiny. Reducing corporate influence in American politics and reinvigorating reason-based decision-making is vital to the sustainability of our democratic system
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