Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

by Jane Mayer

Gerrymandering was a bipartisan game as old as the Republic. What made it different after Citizens United was that the business of manipulating politics from the ground up was now heavily directed and funded by the unelected rich. To get the job done, they used front groups claiming to be nonpartisan social welfare groups, funded by contributions from some of the world’s largest corporations and wealthy donors like the Kochs. The big outside money flowing into the most granular level of politics was transformative. “The Kochs were instrumental in getting the GOP to take over state legislatures,” observed David Axelrod, Obama’s erstwhile political adviser. “The GOP is top-down, but the Kochs had a different plan, which was to organize the grass roots. It’s smart. There’s no equivalent on the Democratic side,” he admitted. “They’re damn good organizers.”