Jim Fulner reviewed Dark Money by Jane Mayer
2 stars
I read this book at the recommendation of my Aunt Pat because "OMG, Jimmy you don't know what those libertarians are really all about." I did so with the understanding that she would return the favor by reading some essential libertarian ideological literature.
Mayer is very liberal. She has so many assumptions, that the government has a right to the fruits of others labor for one, and that the anonymity is a vice as another.
Let us be clear I am not a fan of the Kochs, however, rather than exposing their great evil, Mayer has done nothing but give me more respect for them than I had had before. They do have a thorough up brining in the literature and the ideology. However, their willingness to use the laws to their advantage against that of their ideology, or even at times to focus on increasing government regulation …
I read this book at the recommendation of my Aunt Pat because "OMG, Jimmy you don't know what those libertarians are really all about." I did so with the understanding that she would return the favor by reading some essential libertarian ideological literature.
Mayer is very liberal. She has so many assumptions, that the government has a right to the fruits of others labor for one, and that the anonymity is a vice as another.
Let us be clear I am not a fan of the Kochs, however, rather than exposing their great evil, Mayer has done nothing but give me more respect for them than I had had before. They do have a thorough up brining in the literature and the ideology. However, their willingness to use the laws to their advantage against that of their ideology, or even at times to focus on increasing government regulation against their competitors did give me great pride that the Libertarian Party all but kicked them out back in 1983. It is completely missed on Mayer that libertarianism brought to its logical conclusion would have encouraged their political opponents to "expose" what they have been doing as opposed to statist quo we have now "protecting" them from what they have.
The other thing that was plainly clear here is that Mayer seems to have very little respect for her readers. She repeats information frequently, such as "The 1980 platform of the Libertarian Party that David Koch had ran for Vice President under" she either thinks her readers are stupid and have forgotten, or that she has written it assuming that it is going to be used primarily for quoting by others.
The rest of the rouge gallery has learned from what the Kochs have done to transform the Republican party to move the Party further into corporate interests.
Not once does Mayer even question if what the "Dark Money" is doing may be moral, not once does she investigate the ideology behind the corporatists, she simply assumes its evil and then goes about exposing how they did their evil.
If you want to strengthen your own positions, to pat yourself on the back for being right, this book is for you, if you want to get a historical perspective on the corporate interest in American politics, however; this book is not for you.