Before working for Hitler, Fred Koch worked for Stalin to build up Soviet oil refineries.
In January 2015, at a private conference in Palm Springs, Calif., the political network led by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch announced plans to spend $889 million in the 2016 elections. The organization consists almost entirely of groups that don’t register under the campaign finance laws and therefore don’t publicly identify their donors.
Journalist Jane Mayer traces the growing influence of the Koch brothers and other wealthy conservative donors in her new book, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. According to Mayer, the Kochs and other conservatives have created philanthropic entities that enable them to aggressively pursue a libertarian agenda of lower taxes, deregulation of business and the denial of climate change.
Because they are considered charities, the philanthropic groups “don’t need to disclose the names of their donors,” Mayer tells Fresh Air’s Dave Davies. “These are the groups that are called ‘dark money groups,’ and they thus become kind of secret banks that affect American politics in a huge way without most people understanding who is behind them.”
Mayer warns that such influence and secrecy undermines democracy: “It’s very worrisome to many Americans to think that the whole ideal of one man, one vote might be overwhelmed by 400 of the richest people of any political persuasion picking the next leader for them. That’s just not how democracy is supposed to work.”