Politics doesn’t recede in times of crisis it accelerates, because crisis provides ideologues and interests the opportunity to advance their pet policy prescriptions.
Just scrolling down Twitter this morning provides a sense of this. Read this retweet from that unmatched source of education information in Massachusetts, Tracy Novick:
OMG, taxes on the rich! The poor billionaires! Fear not, someone is looking out for them. Thumbs up, Mr. Charles Koch!
Here is the first line from Sourcewatch’s page on the Cato Institute: “The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank founded by Charles G. Koch and funded by the Koch brothers.” Other big funders include the radical right Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. Looking for right wing Massachusetts money behind Cato? Here you go:
Cato understands that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste:
I admit that sacking useless regulations had me feeling perky for the future of the nation until I read today’s Letter from an American from Professor Heather Cox Richardson:
Locally the Pioneer Institute is out with near daily policy recommendations. Pioneer’s largest yearly donors are the Lovett and Ruth Peters Foundation and David Koch. Pioneer has also taken Bradley money. According to Sourcewatch, Pioneer Institute “is a ‘partner organization’ in the Charles Koch Institute‘s Liberty@Work program, which places students at its Institute in non-profits aligned with Koch interests across the country.”
Koch. Bradley. Peters. Sound familiar?
My colleague Professor Duquette is right, as citizens we have an obligation even during crisis—especially during crisis—to engage in politics in a sophisticated manner. Politics is the Treatment not the Disease.
Money Never Sleeps. Follow the Money.
We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
[Full disclosure: as an educator in the UMass system, I am a union member. I write about dark money, not education.]