Most Americans don’t know about the political philosophy of neoliberalism, but they would recognize its main ideas since MAGA Republicans promote them every day in Washington.
Since it re-emerged after World War II, neoliberalism (the 20th-century resurgence of 19th-century ideas associated with laissez-faire economic liberalism), the political philosophy immediately attracted the attention of the right-wing in the U.S., including the John Birch Society. And one of its principal benefactors was Charles Koch, one of the 11 founders of the John Birch Society. The Koch family is well-documented as financial opportunists. Their father, David, did oil refinery construction business with Hitler and Stalin. After all, a dollar is a dollar.
As cited in the book Dark Money by Jane Mayer (Doubleday, 2016), the Birchers were anti-communist and anti-government. By the 1970s, David Koch and his brother, Charles, founded the Center for Libertarian Studies in New York and wrote a paper on how a fringe movement could use secrecy to gain power. Koch also neglected to say it would also be very well funded.
All this culminated publicly in 1980 when David Koch ran as the vice president of the Libertarian Party on a terrifying platform that should be mandatory reading for all Republicans in 2016. The nation is in dire straits if they have anything in common with this 1980 Koch-Libertarian Platform.
Here are just a few excerpts of the Libertarian Party platform that David Koch ran on in 1980:
- “We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission.”
- “We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.”
- “We oppose any compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services.”
- “We also favor the deregulation of the medical insurance industry.”
- “We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. Pending that repeal, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary.”
- “We propose the abolition of the governmental Postal Service. In addition to being inefficient, the present system encourages governmental surveillance of private correspondence. Pending abolition, we call for an end to the monopoly system and for allowing free competition in all aspects of postal service.”
- “We oppose all personal and corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes.”
Sound familiar?
It should.
It is now the official Republican platform of 2017 and has been since Barack Obama was first elected in 2009.
Average Americans cannot say they were never warned about this government takeover. Now, it is in broad daylight and even being televised. The worst is yet to come.
