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Democracy in Chains
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America | Nancy MacLean
An explosive expos of the rights relentless campaign to eliminate unions, suppress voting, privatize public education, and change the Constitution. "Perhaps the best explanation to date of the roots of the political divide that threatens to irrevocably alter American government. Booklist (starred review) Behind todays headlines of billionaires taking over our government is a secretive political establishment with long, deep, and troubling roots. The capitalist radical right has been working not simply to change who rules, but to fundamentally alter the rules of democratic governance. But billionaires did not launch this movement; a white intellectual in the embattled Jim Crow South did. Democracy in Chains names its true architectthe Nobel Prize-winning political economist James McGill Buchananand dissects the operation he and his colleagues designed over six decades to alter every branch of government to disempower the majority. In a brilliant and engrossing narrative, Nancy MacLean shows how Buchanan forged his ideas about government in a last gasp attempt to preserve the white elites power in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. In response to the widening of American democracy, he developed a brilliant, if diabolical, plan to undermine the ability of the majority to use its numbers to level the playing field between the rich and powerful and the rest of us. Corporate donors and their right-wing foundations were only too eager to support Buchanans work in teaching others how to divide America into makers and takers. And when a multibillionaire on a messianic mission to rewrite the social contract of the modern world, Charles Koch, discovered Buchanan, he created a vast, relentless, and multi-armed machine to carry out Buchanans strategy. Without Buchanan's ideas and Koch's money, the libertarian right would not have succeeded in its stealth takeover of the Republican Party as a delivery mechanism. Now, with Mike Pence as Vice President, the cause has a longtime loyalist in the White House, not to mention a phalanx of Republicans in the House, the Senate, a majority of state governments, and the courts, all carrying out the plan. That plan includes harsher laws to undermine unions, privatizing everything from schools to health care and Social Security, and keeping as many of us as possible from voting. Based on ten years of unique research, Democracy in Chains tells a chilling story of right-wing academics and big money run amok. This revelatory work of scholarship is also a call to arms to protect the achievements of twentieth-century American self-government.
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8little_paws
Pickpick

This book covers how the radical right libertarians have been able to get their interests represented in our Government. The first section goes in depth about Brown v Board, more so than I expected in this book. It was interesting, but perhaps was a bit long. Parts 2 and 3 start getting more into present day and how we got to now with the Koch bros. I really recommend picking this up. It's pretty horrifying.

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VioletBramble
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Bailedbailed

I‘m bailing on this one. I‘ve been reading it all year and I‘ve only gotten to page 83. I really do want to know what the filthy rich right wing libertarians are doing in their think tanks to change our Constitution and country to their liking but I just can‘t make myself finish reading. At least not right now. I‘m finding the book densely written and boring. With so much going on in politics I just can‘t deal with more right now.

Slajaunie Right wings are not libertarians. 5y
VioletBramble @Slajaunie The libertarians in this book are described as radical right wingers. Honestly, I just had to google it. Google says there are both right and left libertarians. 5y
Slajaunie 👍🏼 5y
30 likes3 comments
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Samplergal
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I‘m currently reading this one. This book explains so much about the radical right, which is documented on Jim Crow laws. The author is a historian who has researched this so well, and has presented it in an easily read book. As a political wonk myself, I‘m really enjoying it. I do have to put it down periodically so not to throw it it in anger. Not yet finished, I still am recommending it.

KT1432 Has been on my TBR since it came out. I haven't been in the right headspace to try it yet, sadly. 5y
Samplergal @lele1432 it‘s race. It‘s all about race. Every. Damn. Thing. 5y
KT1432 *sigh* 5y
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WeAreLegion
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Pickpick

Terrifying. The utterly horrific story of how a few billionaires fully consumed by the Libertarian cult have conspired, over decades, to break American democracy in the name of more profit. This is how we got here, a place of incredible disparity between the wealth of less than one percent of our population versus the rest of us. How do we change this? How do we preserve our democracy?
VOTE!!!

Nickinpa I am reading this now and it is terrifying. 6y
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Melkyl
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Pickpick

I learned a lot reading this book. Most of it was terrifying and overwhelming. For a left-leaning liberal like myself, the information in this book made me feel like a pawn in a chess game I had no idea I was playing. I have an intrinsic belief that most people are inherently good and want the best for others. This book really challenges that belief.

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VioletBramble
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Recent bookish additions. I bought the tagged book after seeing the author on Real Time. I found the still wrapped Norton Anthology of Short Fiction on the laundry room shelf. My sister gave me the bookends for my birthday. One of my patients made me the bookmark. The other nurses told her I love owls. I love the color coordination.
I also got some gift cards and cash for my birthday. I'm thinking of buying boots. Yes, I said boots, not books.

JaclynW Happy birthday! Boots are pretty awesome too! 🙂 6y
readordierachel Happy birthday! LOVE the bookends 👍🏼 6y
JessClark78 Happy Birthday! 🎊🎂🎉 6y
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Eggs Happy Birthday 🎂🎈🎊 6y
Kaye Happy 🎂 birthday 6y
SMayWrites Happy Birthday! Love those bookends! 🎂🎈 6y
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dylanisreading
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Signal boosting. If this is turned on, you'll see what Litsy wants to show you. @MelAnn

ReviewsbytheMrs Done ✅ 7y
swishandflick I think you still see every post in chronological order. I understood this to mean that if the Litsy account "features" a post that they want to make sure everyone sees (i.e like with the server migration), that post would display up top. Not that they restrict the other posts you're seeing. 7y
JessClark78 Thanks for sharing. 🙂 7y
51 likes3 comments
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BookishMarginalia
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Pickpick

A must read to understand why so many of the electorate vote against their own self-interest: Charles Koch and his minions have spent 30 years undermining the foundations of collective action and representative democracy to further extreme “economic liberty” policies that benefit only the wealthy, property class. It‘s a tough read —frightening and infuriating— but so necessary. It‘s time to stand up for our social safety net and American values.

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mrozzz
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Pickpick

“If the [legislators] have their way, a nation that stands at 148th out of 172 democracies in the world in voter turnout will have even fewer people participating in the political process.”

Great learning how libertarianism started—horrifying as it was. Too textbook-like at times, but I am so glad this kind of book exists (more please 🤓).

I hope current/could-be leaders also look to history instead of repeating poorly motivated decisions.

alisahar This is one of those that I started but didn‘t finish because it felt more narrow than I was interested in.. worth it though? 7y
mrozzz @alisahar if you lost your way with this one, I‘d say no, not likely you‘ll find your way back to interested. I got a little lost but I pushed through. “Skim listened” in places. Maybe you can pick it up in a few months time? (edited) 7y
mrozzz @Yellowpigeon it‘s definitely a book I need to get my hands on soon! 7y
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mrozzz
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“His analysis strikes at the heart of self-government,” said Warren J. Samuels. He granted that the book contained some dazzling points, but overall the limits of liberty were an extreme & anti-democratic departure from constitutional thought which had built in safeguards against possible tyranny by the majority.👇🏻

mrozzz (Cont‘d) Buchanan‘s scheme would empower a private governing elite of corporate power freed from public accountability. “I shudder at the uses to which his ideas are capable of being put,” Samuels concluded with unknown prescience. 7y
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Redwritinghood
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Mehso-so

#nonfictionnovember This is book 2 of 5 of my reading of the National Book Award short list. Well, that was terrifying! This book looks at the development of libertarian ideology in the US, which arose in the South following the Civil War when the federal government took “property” away from slave holders. The book mainly focuses on the influences of James Buchanan and Charles Koch. Review continues below. 👇🏻

Redwritinghood The two critiques in the book are that the ideas are often used as a smokescreen for racial prejudice and lack of empirical evidence in support of their economic policies. Real world experience with strong application of libertarian principles has given us the Pinochet regime in Chile and the Flint water crisis. A number of these principles are also at work more recently in deregulation and school vouchers. This is a so-so for obvious bias. (edited) 7y
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Redwritinghood
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Up next in my readings from the National Book Award short lists - this is book 2 of 5 in non-fiction and book 4 of 5 in poetry. These both look like they‘ll be challenging. #nonfictionnovember

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akfreeborn
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This is such an important book for insight into how "this" could happen. Should be required reading for us all.

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SamTwedt
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Trying to figure out how we got in this mess #birthdayspace Thanks @Liberty 🎊!!!