Social Darwininism reared its perky head Thursday night on the Larry King Show in the person of former John McCain mouthpiece and all-around free-market zombie, Nancy Pfotenhauer. Pfotenhauer--long a reliable talking head in the service of our shrouded overlords--has now rebranded herself as an expert on healthcare reform.
Through her patented head shaking and wide-eyed expressions of disbelief, Pfotenhauer sought to turn aside any talk of corporate responsibility or progressive governance as she distilled the Republican position: you're on your own in the ruthless world of all against all. Indeed, this shill for laissez-faire economics seemed fairly boggled--as always--at the thought that anyone could credibly argue that more tax cuts, more deregulation, more market-based government, and more private health insurance, might not be in the best interests of everyday Americans out there in the heartland.
Her argument, of course, is a simple utopian screed focused through the blinkered lens of some abstraction called the free market. Ah Nancy, it was all so comfortably familiar. Nancy, haven't we been here before?
I really shouldn't be surprised, for Pfotenhauer--reliably for Republican "intellectuals"--is not an economist. Rather, she is in the business of political public relations. Indeed, Pfotenhauer is really just another conservative lobbyist with a "brand" to peddle. But Pfotenhauer is no overtly crazy teabagger/birther/deather/10th amendmenter. No, she operates in the world of right-wing think tanks where a thin veneer of intellectualism and objectivity obscure the rigid ideology these institutions push. How do I know? As always, follow the money.
So who is she, who does she speak for, where's the money coming from, and why should we care? Well, we're known--my mother used to say as she eyed the delinquents I called my friends--by the company we keep. I think we'll be seeing quite a bit of Nancy in the months to come as I suspect the Republican leadership--rightly concerned that the party is becoming too "Wilsonized"--tries to place a professional and "smart" face on an agenda designed to kill reform. So--with your indulgence--I offer an amended version of an earlier diary where I took a look at Pfotenhauer. Her career offers quite an insight into the machinations of Republican think tankery and free-market thuggery. It offers quite an insight into just where this money driven "ideology" comes from.
Indeed, Pfotenhauer's career serves as a diagram of the interconnected world of private equity, right-wing think tanks, and the Republican power elite. Pfotenhauer first pledged her fealty to our shrouded masters--first began her transit through the sometimes shadowy world of these interlocking nodes of conservative power--as a student at George Mason University, studying under Walter Williams. (Williams, by the way, is a favorite substitute host for Rush Limbaugh.) Williams acts as a kind of filter for conservative institutions, seeking out promising acolytes from among his students. At 24, Pftoenhauer leveraged her association with Williams into an appointment to the transition team for then incoming President George H.W. Bush. While on the Bush transition team she advised on appointments to both the Federal Trade Commission and the Interstate Commerce Commission. (Yes, having a libertarian vet possible appointees to regulatory agencies may be a bit cynical, but hey, this is the Bush family.)
Pfotenhauer easily moved from the Bush Administration into the heady worlds of right-wing policy wonkery, conservative lobbying hackery, and corporate funded special interest think tankery. Eventually she emerged as the "Washington Director"--read lobbyist--for Koch Industries. In 2001, she moved over to the conservative think tank Independent Women's Forum, and currently directs the conservative think tank Americans for Prosperity Foundation. (These two foundations/think tanks share office space and staff and are essentially interchangeable. But hey, multiple positions help to give the old resume some pizazz.)
Both Americans for Prosperity and the Independent Women's Forum are funded in large part by foundations controlled by Koch Industries, a large conglomerate held by two brothers, Charles and David Koch. Indeed, the Kochs are the patron saints of the netherworld of conservative "intellectuals" generally, and Nancy Pfotenhauer specifically. The Koch brothers are two very edgy, very rich, libertarians. (Depending on the metric used, Koch is the 1st or 2nd largest privately held conglomerate in the United States.)
Originally founded in Texas by Charles and David's father, Fred Koch--a charter member of the John Birch Society--as an oil delivery company, Koch grew into a oil and natural gas delivery, trading and refining business. Eventually, Koch diversified into other extractive and extraction-related industries. Koch owns both Georgia-Pacific, a huge lumber and paper concern, and the chemical-fiber giant, Invista (a company that brought you--among other products--Teflon).
That's right, every time you buy Brawny Paper Towels or Dixie Cups you are contributing directly--directly!--to right-wing causes.
How does Koch see itself? Here's a description from the company--rendered here in appropriate business babble:
Koch Industries is perhaps best viewed as a collection of capabilities continually searching for new ways to create value in society..
Yikes! Talk about your public relations drivel. Never mind the personification of "capabilities continually searching", what are the core principles Koch embraces while it continually searches to make our lives richer, fuller, better, and more value-added? Again, this is from Koch Industries marketing boilerplate:
"Integrity, humility, intellectual honesty, and respect for others..."
Of course, saying something doesn't make it so. In fact, Koch Industries is a nasty bit of business. Environmentally, they are one of the dirtiest corporations in America. In the 1990's alone, they were responsible for over 300 oil pipeline leaks in five states. In Minnesota they were fined 8 million dollars for discharging oil into streams. Separately, they were indicted by the federal government--97 counts--for lying about a large spill--91 metric tons--of benzene in Texas. As the Clinton years waned, Koch faced civil fines in excess of 300 million dollars and 4 Koch employees faced criminal charges.
In all, Koch was--and is--a classic demonstration of the profligate and wasty ways of the market. Their practices hint at the kind of excess and abuse that flourishes when regulation is absent or simply moribund. They harken back to those sweet sweet days of the Gilded Age.
While some of the 97 counts were consolidated by Clinton's Justice Department, after the election of George W. Bush, John Ashcroft's Justice Department agreed to drop the affair after Koch agreed to plead to a lesser charge of falsifying documents and paid a small fine. Pfotenhauer was, at the time, chief lobbyist for Koch Industries.
In 2002, Pfotenhauer--in a demonstration of the common practice among the power elite of interconnectedness--was appointed by John Ashcroft to the National Advisory Committee on Violence Against Women. This appointment was in keeping with the perverse cynicism of the Bush Administration. Previously, Pfotenhauer made clear her position on women's rights when she spoke out againt the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. This act, Pfotenhauer declaimed at the time, "will do nothing to protect women from crime. It will, though, perpetuate false information, waste money and urge vulnerable women to mistrust all men". (oh yea, I added the italics.)
The Kochs have dipped into their river of cash and funded a cohort of interlocking foundations,which in turn fund a large array of conservative groups that share the mission of advocating free-market principles. In doing so, they also serve to provide a veneer of respectability and intellectualism to the bucanneer world of "ideologically sanctioned" greed and corporate criminality. For example, Koch has been deeply involved in the funding of think tanks whose mission has been to slow down consensus-building on global climate change. They are the folks who consistently push the position that evidence is scant--or nonexistant--that human activity contributes to the "natural" process of climate fluctuation or change.
There are many of these Koch financed think tanks--perhaps the most celebrated being the Cato Institute--including the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, headed today by Nancy Pfotenhauer. What is the AFPF's mission? Here's how the "non-profit" describes itself:
"[AFPF is] a nationwide organization of citizen leaders committed to advancing every individual's right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFPF believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to ensuring individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFPF educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits."
Boy, couldn't we could spend a long boozy evening unpacking this bit of marketing gibberish? What does it mean? Simply put: We are in the business of advocating market-based solutions. We think shared responsibility and a common vision are a crock. We promote money as an index of rights, citizenship as a commodity. So, why do we care about Nancy Pfotenhauer? What do Republicans want when they use shills like Pfotenhauer?
Simply put, more deregulation and privatization. Privatization means a renewed push for school vouchers, more private contractors, more outsourcing of governmental functions. It means more private health insurance. More cruel and murderous status quo. What we see is an "ideolgy" that seeks to dissolve shared public responsibility; we see an agenda that surrenders the polity to the ruthless discipline of the market.
Like mom said, we're known by the company we keep.