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

by Jane Mayer

“No thoughtful person can question that the American economic system is under broad attack,” Powell declared in his memo. What distinguished his jeremiad from many other conservative screeds was his argument that the greatest threat was posed not by a few “extremists of the left,” but rather by “perfectly respectable elements of society.” The real enemies, he suggested, were “the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences,” and “politicians.” Powell called on corporate America to fight back. He urged America’s capitalists to wage “guerilla warfare” against those seeking to “insidiously” undermine them. Conservatives must capture public opinion, he argued, by exerting influence over the institutions that shape it, which he identified as academia, the media, the churches, and the courts. He argued that conservatives should control the political debate at its source by demanding “balance” in textbooks, television shows, and news coverage. Donors, he argued, should demand a say in university hiring and curriculum and “press vigorously in all political arenas.” The key to victory, he predicted, was “careful long-range planning and implementation,” backed by a “scale of financing available only through joint effort.”