In 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation, stated that Linda Bean was a member of the then-35-year-old “shadowy and intensely secretive group” the Council for National Policy; stating what is “most remarkable about the directory is that it reveals how the CNP has become a key meeting place where ostensibly mainstream conservatives interact with individuals who are, by any reasonable definition, genuinely extremist.” She was a longtime member, having been invited to join the Council for National Policy established by Reagan’s Attorney General Edwin Meese after the Reagan years.
Wow, never heard of the Council for National Policy before, which seems to be the point.
Members are instructed not to reveal their membership or even name the group.
The CNP has been described by The New York Times as “a little-known club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country”, who meet three times yearly behind closed doors at undisclosed locations for a confidential conference.
There’s a great book called Dark Money. It doesn’t get into CNP (I don’t recall it, at least), but it goes into a lot of the GOP megadonors and their shady shit. Probably dated by now, I’m sure shit has changed over the past 7 or 8 years
That looks pretty good. I’m a big fan of the Behind the Bastards podcast, and now that I’m commuting again I’ve also started listening to their It Could Happen Here one as well and it’s amazing how many of these groups exist from the local level on up. They feel like conspiracy theories until you start following legitimate reporting about them. It’s not Pizza Gate level crap, this has all been documented for decades. I like learning about it, but damn is it depressing when you see how the world works.
I think Reagan has just been the most successful. I was just in single digits when he was president, but he seems to have had the charisma all the people wish they had. He seems to have accomplished a lot while still carrying on a positive legacy to anyone that doesn’t dig too deep, which is sadly the majority of adults in the US. If someone supported the things he did, I can see why they would think very fondly about this era.
We can also look back to the pardoning of Nixon as the beginning of the end, as the right got to see what they did wrong and therefor remove most of those obstacles in the future. This is where we can really trace back their solid control over the media narrative to. Roger Ailes, Roger Stone, and numerous other began laying the groundwork for enabling what future conservative could get away with.
Rewind more and we have Andrew Johnson and company going weak on the South. The path to becoming a progressive and inclusive nation was really screwed up by sweeping so much of the war under the rug and giving rich racists a do-over.
I’m slowly learning more about the event before that as well, and there are numerous periods we could pick as being the moment, but no matter when or where you look, you’ll find a bunch of rich and/or powerful bastards trying to horde resources for themselves. We just seem to have a mental flaw as a species or something that we have a high enough percent of people that would rather burn everything down than to help someone they don’t like. It’s like some kind of universal limiter put on us from the plot of a sci-fi book .
But I try not to get all fatalistic about it. I’m here for fun and to share things I’ve learned and cheer people up with hundreds of owl pictures. The political news scene on Lemmy is not the greatest, so I try to comment where I can avoid getting people more riled up while still showing them more details about a situation in a nonconfrontational way, but that’s a thin path to walk on…
Meese is still alive at a ripe old age of 92 and is on the board of directors for both the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.
He was the most controversial Attorney General candidate since the 1920s. He served until being charged with numerous ethical violations, including bribing Israel to protect his friends’ oil pipeline in Iraq and using his position to profit in private business.
He’s also famous for saying kids don’t go hungry in America, that’s just political lies and that people go to soup kitchens because they’re cheap and lazy.
From the Linda Bean wiki entry:
Wow, never heard of the Council for National Policy before, which seems to be the point.
If you ever wondered why the right believes in shadowy liberal cabals, give the Wikipedia article a read…
There’s a great book called Dark Money. It doesn’t get into CNP (I don’t recall it, at least), but it goes into a lot of the GOP megadonors and their shady shit. Probably dated by now, I’m sure shit has changed over the past 7 or 8 years
That looks pretty good. I’m a big fan of the Behind the Bastards podcast, and now that I’m commuting again I’ve also started listening to their It Could Happen Here one as well and it’s amazing how many of these groups exist from the local level on up. They feel like conspiracy theories until you start following legitimate reporting about them. It’s not Pizza Gate level crap, this has all been documented for decades. I like learning about it, but damn is it depressing when you see how the world works.
Started by the Regan administration. When the US falls someday, it will be Regan who started it all. What a fucking dickhead.
I think Reagan has just been the most successful. I was just in single digits when he was president, but he seems to have had the charisma all the people wish they had. He seems to have accomplished a lot while still carrying on a positive legacy to anyone that doesn’t dig too deep, which is sadly the majority of adults in the US. If someone supported the things he did, I can see why they would think very fondly about this era.
We can also look back to the pardoning of Nixon as the beginning of the end, as the right got to see what they did wrong and therefor remove most of those obstacles in the future. This is where we can really trace back their solid control over the media narrative to. Roger Ailes, Roger Stone, and numerous other began laying the groundwork for enabling what future conservative could get away with.
Rewind more and we have Andrew Johnson and company going weak on the South. The path to becoming a progressive and inclusive nation was really screwed up by sweeping so much of the war under the rug and giving rich racists a do-over.
I’m slowly learning more about the event before that as well, and there are numerous periods we could pick as being the moment, but no matter when or where you look, you’ll find a bunch of rich and/or powerful bastards trying to horde resources for themselves. We just seem to have a mental flaw as a species or something that we have a high enough percent of people that would rather burn everything down than to help someone they don’t like. It’s like some kind of universal limiter put on us from the plot of a sci-fi book .
But I try not to get all fatalistic about it. I’m here for fun and to share things I’ve learned and cheer people up with hundreds of owl pictures. The political news scene on Lemmy is not the greatest, so I try to comment where I can avoid getting people more riled up while still showing them more details about a situation in a nonconfrontational way, but that’s a thin path to walk on…
Meese Shmeese!
Yes, the very same!
Meese is still alive at a ripe old age of 92 and is on the board of directors for both the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.
He was the most controversial Attorney General candidate since the 1920s. He served until being charged with numerous ethical violations, including bribing Israel to protect his friends’ oil pipeline in Iraq and using his position to profit in private business.
He’s also famous for saying kids don’t go hungry in America, that’s just political lies and that people go to soup kitchens because they’re cheap and lazy.
Meese Shmeese indeed!