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Deep Pocket Tea Party Backers
Sourcewatch.org tracked its funders, quoting an August 30, 2010 Jane Mayer New Yorker article citing David and Charles Koch, billionaire owners of Koch Industries, a privately owned energy conglomerate with interests in manufacturing, ranching, finance, and numerous other ventures. In 2008, Forbes called it America's second largest private company after Cargill with annual revenues approaching $100 billion. According to Mayer:
"The anti-government fervor infusing the 2010 elections represents a political triumph for the Kochs. By giving money to 'educate,' fund, and organize Tea Party protesters, they have helped turn their private agenda into a mass movement."
Conservative economist/historian Bruce Bartlett said earlier libertarians were "all chiefs and no Indians." As a result, they attracted few adherents. Tea Party furor changed things, letting "everyone suddenly see that for the first time there are Indians out there - people who can provide real ideological power," and with right-wing media-hyped support, it resonates and grows. The Kochs took advantage, "shap(ing) and control(ling) and channel(ling) the populist uprising into their own policies."
According to Sourcewatch, Party strength also comes "from millions of dollars from conservative foundations," funded by "wealthy US families and their business interests." Most prominent are Americans for Prosperity (AP) and FreedomWorks (FW - chaired by former Republican House majority leader Dick Armey), promoting the same hard right agenda as Koch, other backers, and Tea Party leaders.
In April 2009, ThinkProgress.org said AP and FW were the principal Tea Party organizers, describing them as "well-funded lobbyist-run think tanks," providing the logistics and major efforts nationally. Media Matters said David Koch co-founded Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), FreedomWorks' predecessor.
For its part, Koch Industries denies FW and Tea Party ties, saying only that it "value(s) free speech and believe(s) it is good to have more Americans engaged in key policy issues." Koch admitted it funds AFP.
The Fox Effect
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