How it all began . . .

Ever wonder how we got here? How did a strong middle class with an American Dream get crushed into indentured servitude? What or who came up with the business first, individual second political, legal, and financial priority? Who or what influenced or inspired the creation of the Heritage Foundation, the Manhattan Institute, the Cato Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Accuracy in Academe, and other powerful organizations that began paying off handsomely in the 1980s? How is it that a previously ridiculed Milton Friedman's "free market-no tariff" capitalistic society, became the mantra for the Reagan Administration and future administrations? Who's responsible for the "hands-off business" philosophy that got us into this the unregulated debacle and corporate greed that have contributed to the bankrupting of our country?

Let me introduce you to former conservative corporate lawyer and supreme court justice . . . Louis Powell.
In 1971 Powell wrote a memorandum or a conservative manifesto if you will. In an extraordinary prefiguring of the social goals of business that would be felt over the next three decades, Powell set his main goal: Changing how individuals and society think about the corporation, the government, the law, the culture, and the individual became, and would remain, a major goal of business.
He had been a board member of Philip Morris between 1964 until his appointment in 1971, and had acted as a contact point for the tobacco industry with the Virginia Commonwealth University. Through his law firm, Hunton Williams Gay Powell & Gibson (later just Hunton & Williams) he represented the Tobacco Institute and the various tobacco companies in numerous law cases.
Though Powell's memo was not the sole influence, the conservatives and corporate activists took his advice to heart and began building a powerful array of institutions designed to shift public attitudes and beliefs over the course of years and decades.

Here are some of the highlights of Powells memorandum that outlined the steps necessary for corporate America and the conservative ideology to take precedence over individual rights, social safety nets, and progressive ideology :

1. Balancing of Faculties Perhaps the most fundamental problem is the imbalance of many faculties. Correcting this is indeed a long-range and difficult project. Yet, it should be undertaken as a part of an overall program. This would mean the urging of the need for faculty balance upon university administrators and boards of trustees. (Balancing, Mr. Powell? Isn't that a nice word for "quotas" something you despise about affirmative action)

2. A staff of scholars (or preferably a panel of independent scholars) should evaluate social science textbooks, especially in economics, political science and sociology. This should be a continuing program (This is why our students text books no longer include mentions of labor unions, political science and why Civics is no longer taught in our schools.)

3. The national television networks should be monitored in the same way that textbooks should be kept under constant surveillance. This applies not merely to so-called educational programs (such as "Selling of the Pentagon"), but to the daily "news analysis" which so often includes the most insidious type of criticism of the enterprise system. Whether this criticism results from hostility or economic ignorance, the result is the gradual erosion of confidence in "business" and free enterprise. (Really? I thought conservatives were against a "fairness doctrine" Oh I get it! You're only against it when the left wants it.)

4. Reaching the campus and the secondary schools is vital for the long-term. Reaching the public generally may be more important for the shorter term. The first essential is to establish the staffs of eminent scholars, writers and speakers, who will do the thinking, the analysis, the writing and the speaking. It will also be essential to have staff personnel who are thoroughly familiar with the media, and how most effectively to communicate with the public. (Rush, Hannity, and O'reily etc. etc ).

5. The news stands -- at airports, drugstores, and elsewhere -- are filled with paperbacks and pamphlets advocating everything from revolution to erotic free love. One finds almost no attractive, well-written paperbacks or pamphlets on "our side." (Now we see the flowing blond hair of Ann Coulter and handsome face of Joe Scarborough. )

At the time Powell wrote this memo, academia in America was decidedly more liberal. Once corporate America followed the steps laid out by Powell, politicians like Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, and Bush 2, and our legislative branches began to dismantle all the things that allowed the middle class to prosper. And what's really sad is they did it with the majority of the middle class's blessing. Many many lower middle class folks vote for those politicians who consistently vote against their best interests, and for the interests of big business.
Example: Newspapers didn't used to have just business sections, they had labor sections as well. Few of us remember those days but it's true. Monopoly ownership of our media outlets put an end to that.

The same type of methodology has convinced a large number of Americans that private for profit health care insurance companies provide better coverage than would a single payer or a universal medi-care plan. Their media propaganda has convinced so many of us that we don't want a government bureaucrat to come between us and our doctor, all the while ignoring the fact that currently our insurance company comes between us and our doctors.

Back to Powell: Even though he and I are on opposite ends of the political and societal spectrum, I have to agree with his premise. All he left out of his blue print was the bribing of elected officials via lobbyist.

DaG Out