“Economic Liberty Is Inconsistent With Democracy”
These words were written by James M. Buchanan who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1986.
He also was enlisted by the Pinochet government in Chile to help them surreptitiously take control all branches of government and then rewrite the Chilean constitution so that democratic reform was no longer possible.
According to Buchanan, a staunch libertarian, democracy allowed the majority to have too much influence over the rich. In his opinion, only the multi-billionaires and their libertarian true-believers were qualified to govern. The rest of us were freeloaders and nincompoops who relentlessly demand tax money from the Masters of the Universe in order to compensate for our failure. Nice guy, huh?
A key to achieving the libertarian goals was that everything had to be done as much out-of-sight, or disguised with misdirection, as was possible. The idea was to set up institutes and think tanks to produce a cadre of pseudo-intellectuals who would promote the far-right libertarian cause. Then with the vast sums of money they could slowly bribe politicians to vote for their cause, or warn them to prepare for retirement as a way to avoid being primaryed. Then they also groomed malleable judges via the Federalist Society and the nefarious Ed Meese. Problematic judges could often be removed by attack ads and smear campaigns at lower levels. Public schools were mandated to teach democratic norms, so private schools beyond the reach of government regulations were to be aggressively promoted, as well as severe cuts to public schools. Lastly, but of great importance to them, was to vigorously and ubiquitously suppress voting by the Great Unwashed 99%.
If you think this could not possibly work in the America, that Shining City on the Hill, that Leader of the Free World, that Champion of Democracy, think again!
Not only is it possible, the Koch Network, and associated far-right Masters of Greed, have essentially put this slowly into place over the last 40 years. And here we are with an administration that acts more like mob family than anything else. Voter suppression, gutting environmental programs, cutting back on health care (end goal is privatizing Medicaid and Social Security), tax breaks for the super wealthy, taking over the courts, taking over the Republican party, just to mention a few of its libertarian “successes”.
If you want to know what has gone haywire in America, but have never seen the underlying blueprints for the libertarian scheme, read these books: Dark Money and Democracy In Chains. Prepare for shock and awesome crimes against democracy.