In the aftermath of the 1964 defeat of Barry Goldwater and the crushing of right wing federal, state and local officials from elective offices throughout the United States a new type of movement conservative (MC) was formed. This movement has become the basis of the ‘fights’ we have every day, in every way to get ahead as a society.
This new MC was tired of losing elections to the masses now allowed to vote. These new MC leaders decided the path to victory and power was in the restricting the voter from voting. The human rights codified by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Warren Supreme Court decisions since 1953, the 1965 Voting Rights Act added to the uprisings by everyday people questioning the ‘leaders’, convinced the new Movement Conservatives something needed to be done. These new movement conservatives had to find ways to disenfranchise all poor, minority, young and old United States citizens.
This was not a new effort. Going back in history this has been the goal of despots the world over. What made this effort different was the use of the ‘new’ modern media and public relations. These MC leaders were going to use everything the Madison Avenue ad executive (Don Drapers) had in the public relations arsenal.
The movement conservatives of old were often from the coalition of anti-New Dealers, FDR haters, Joe McCarthy followers and the Koch (father of our current Koch Brothers) funded John Birchers. The new MC leaders were by and large experts in mass messaging. Richard Viguerie and Paul M. Weyrich with funding by Fred Koch, Joseph Coors and others started a series of organizations to begin educating a new larger conservative movement. Many of these organizations have impressive, bedrock type names such as The Moral Majority, The Heritage Foundation, Judicial Watch, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and hundreds of more shell foundations to hawk the new anti-New Deal, anti-Great Society, anti-poor mantra and policies.
The removal from office of competent civic leaders / employees, the events of our recent city election, the bungled and fraudulent American elections across the United States is all part of plans put into action in the aftermath of the 1964 election. Paul Weyrich summed up the philosophy of this movement in a 1980 speech:
“Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome — good government. They want everybody to vote. I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.
The path to power is:Â disenfranchising voters, not allowing everyone to vote.
The Citizens United decision was not an unplanned decision. This is part of a long standing plan to change the balance of power toward the wealthy. Richard Nixon appointed a MC, William Rehnquist, to the Supreme Court because of the work he had done to restrict black and Hispanics from voting in 1964 and 1968. He trained John Roberts.  John Roberts, as a Bush appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice, directed, in 2009, attorneys standing in front of the Court, to bring a case to the Supreme Court to remove McCain-Feingold restrictions.
During the 1970’s and 80’s, the above organizations and more developed a game plan to have their own revolution. Most of Americans were not invited to join (I know this because I was asked to be an organizer). This revolution was based in a broad attack on institutions the majority of Americans were using to gain a foothold in the American Dream. Approximately 45,000 elected and appointed civic positions were identified for their movement to fill and control. Weyrich and his plan teamed up with Southern Christian ‘leaders’ to preach the anti-abortion, anti-social justice issues, welfare queen stories, prosperity gospel and other messages to bring people together in lowest common denominator / guttural politics. These groups promote the politics of hate and fear to win elections. These 45,000 positions are everything from President down the line to our school boards, city councils, and township boards. 45,000 decision makers changing everything we are and wish to be.
Our recent city hall and school board elections tested the Pat Powers, Gant, ALEC and Weyrich depravity of power and greed. We lost Debra Owen, the underlying institutional history and integrity she brought to the job. We no longer have people working in Pierre who even try to be even handed or fair. Our good government is not a sports event as our media portrays it. We now equate a mayoral or Presidential election to a football game as if it’s all or nothing. With a new poll every day, instant scandals, weekly ups and downs, we are forced to forget why we vote.
This history is deep and involved. It brings out the worst in people and the best in others. Right now we are feeling the combined efforts of anti-New Dealers who were tired of losing and decided to be traitors to our founding principles written into the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.