Gene Strandberg, Gilpin County. Thomas Jefferson said, “A well-informed electorate is a prerequisite to Democracy.” It’s difficult to be well-informed when propaganda and rumors are broadcast as news, and social media allows false stories to remain posted.

Officials can lie to the public, and nominees can lie to Congress, all without consequences. This column will show how we got to this point. What starts here in our little section of Colorado, might make the truth fashionable again and pull Democracy back from the brink!

SEEDS OF SUBVERSION

In 1971, corporate lawyer and Philip Morris board member Lewis Powell wrote to Eugene Sydnor, education director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, detailing how he thought corporations could dominate the United States.       

Corporations were starting to be held accountable for their actions, and they were scared. Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed accused General Motors of putting profits ahead of consumer safety. The Environmental Protection Agency, formed in 1970, was bringing polluter corporations to court for poisoning our water, air and land. The U.S. Surgeon General affirmed that tobacco kills. Powell had argued that tobacco companies’ First Amendment rights were being denied, because news organizations were not publicizing tobacco industry denials to keep up with increasing scientific evidence.   

The memorandum, titled “Attack on the American Free Enterprise System” had been commissioned by Sydnor, as a way to fight against consumer and environmental protections and the liberal social shift. The Powell Memorandum excerpted here, has been the blueprint for the corporate takeover of American democracy.

“The public must be reeducated to see business and corporate interests as inherently good for America.”

“…through the means of television…paid news analysts…and advertising as much as possible.”

“Americans must be enlightened as to the positive role of a powerful business culture in U.S. politics.”

“Only Marxists insist that capitalist countries such as the United States are controlled by big business.”

“…especially with an activist-minded Supreme Court, the judiciary may be the most important instrument for social, economic, and political change. This is a vast area of opportunity for the Chamber, if it is willing to undertake the role of spokesman for American business and if, in turn, business is willing to provide the funds.”

“A large and competent cadre of lawyers is necessary to this end, trained to argue pro-business viewpoints in front of activist judges, and carefully selected cases should be advanced in the judicial system.”

“There should not be the slightest hesitation to press vigorously in all political arenas for support of the enterprise system. Nor should there be reluctance to penalize politically those who oppose it.”

“All of this must be characterized as an essential ‘return’ to the fundamental tenets of American Freedom.”

In 1972, Nixon put this pro-tobacco lawyer with no judicial experience on the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1973, according to Ominous Politics by John Saloma, Paul Weyrich, the most effective right-wing organizer of the next 40 years, co-founded the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Heritage Foundation.

He would later found or co-found the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress (now American Opportunity), the Republican Study Committee, Christian Voice, Moral Majority and the Council for National Policy. His most revealing quotes to the Religious Roundtable on August 1980 are: “We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of this country. . . I don’t want everybody to vote…As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”

Subversion is defined as a systematic attempt to overthrow or undermine a government or political system by persons working from within. On June 4, 1974, with executive order number 11785, President Nixon abolished the Attorney General’s list of subversive organizations.  

Next time: American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), corrupting state legislature.