This is from the original diary at www.bloggingformichigan.com. Article & interview are by Walt Sorg.
Lee Fang joins us in this podcast to talk about the issues he addresses in his new book, The Machine: A Field Guide to the Resurgent Right.
Click here to listen to the podcast (mp3)
The full book review is excellent. Here are some excerpts:
He describes a machine fueled by massive amounts of money from major corporations and some of the wealthiest people in the nation. Even though “the machine” has numerous independent pieces, it is well coordinated through a Labyrirnth organization created with the money and managerial brilliance of two men: Charles and David Koch. Using money and a political philosophy inherited from their father Fred, the two quietly stand at the a political machine that rivals the complexity and power of General Motors.
The overriding theme of the book, and the political movement it describes, is getting rich. At the heart of The Machine is people and companies making money – lots of it. Whether it’s the growth of the Koch fortune (now estimated at a combined $42-billion); the enrichment of media proselytes such as Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck; or the bottom lines of Washington’s biggest and best-connected PR and lobbying firms, everybody leading the movement seems to be making a lot of money. While there are a handful of progressives who have become wealthy through their politics (Al Gore and Ariana Huffington, for example), they are no match for the pantheon of nouveau riche created by The Machine. And the ultimate boogyman thrown up by the right, George Soros, often advocates policies which run against his personal financial interests.
The strategy has even included creating faux progressive groups, using a flanking strategy right out of Patton to attack progressive proposals from both the left and right. One example: after getting President Obama to back off the “public option” for healthcare reform, they created faux groups to attack the personal mandate from the left because it meant guaranteed new customers for private insurers. They ended up with exactly that: the government requiring people to buy their product (even as they tried to kill the entire healthcare package because it included this gift to insurers). Insurers wanted to kill the bill because it still required them to use at least 80% of revenues for actual benefits, rather than siphoning off even more for executive salaries, sales overhead and profits.
Walt did an excellent job with the interview, which is a conversation about the topics covered in the book. It's about 20 minutes long and well worth the time to listen. The book review is great too.
You can read the full book review here.