By the time Bill Clinton became president, Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) had become a prototype for the kinds of corporate-backed opposition campaigns that would proliferate after Obama was elected. In 1993, it wages a successful assault on Clinton's proposed tax on energy, which would have taxed fossil fuel use but exempted renewable energy sources. In a show of force, without revealing its corporate sponsors, CSE ran advertisements, staged media events, and targeted political opponents. It also mobilized noisy, grassroots-seeming antitax rallies outside the Capitol -- which NPR described as "designed to strike fear into the hearts of wavering Democrats."
Dan Glickman, one of the Democrats who supported the energy tax who formerly represented the Kochs' hometown of Wichita, believes that secret money they funneled against him ended his eighteen-year congressional career. "I can't prove it, but I think I was probably their victim," he said. Having come from Wichita, he had friends in common with the Kochs who vouched for their ideological sincerity, yet to him it seemed obvious that sincere though they may be, "Their political theory is nothing more than a rationalization for self-interest." (197-198)
I am developing this blog to raise awareness of how dark money is damaging the US. It is based primarily on the books Dark Money by Jane Mayer and Kochland by Christopher Leonard. In summary: stealth fascism of the rich radical right is trying to take over our country, they have been making this effort long before Trump & will keep at it no matter what happens to him, they have made real progress towards their goal, and why they must be stopped...hope you keep reading!