Ed Berger, a retired teacher who lives in Arizona and is active in the struggle to save public schools, has written a powerful post about the billionaire-funded movement to destroy our democracy.
It begins like this. I urge you to read it all:
“Within the core of our freedoms, lie the avenues powerful individuals use to take away the rights of citizens and the controls of government designed and evolved to serve all. Americans are now aware of the reality that subversive forces have made excessive headway in destroying our rights.
“What has been allowed is the incursion of an Oligarchy: The few exploiting the many. We are witnessing the theft of human rights through the infiltration of what were meant to be representative systems within a constitutionally defined government.
“My first introduction to those who want absolute power was through studies of The Robber Barons in America in the 19th Century, and then in the 20th Century, the way Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin took total control of their countries. I learned of an American, Fred Koch, who became wealthy via Russian and German contracts and worked with Stalin and then Hitler as WWII began. He was convinced that absolute dictators were necessary to create strong nations. He came home to change the U.S government into a mechanism which would allow him to acquire power and wealth by any means. His tenets were: Destroy public education. Destroy any kind of worker representation. Control the prison system. Destroy the democratic process by distancing or removing undesirable citizen involvement in decision-making. End government interference in the rights of individuals like himself to create his own empire.
“Koch’s ideology was embedded in the goals of the John Birch Society, founded in the late 50s by Fred and ten others. It was one of many organizations spawned or infiltrated by Koch. Be aware of subversive groups founded by Koch and his sons and other powerful billionaires. Groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) which writes legislation supporting Koch’s political and economic agendas. Know the goals of think tank groups established and funded to carry out Fred’s vision, these include: The Freedom School, the CATO Institute, and Americans For Prosperity among others. Be aware of how Foundations and not-for-profit tax avoidance mechanisms allowed the billionaires to finance their think thanks and other subversive organizations.
“The Koch machine gained the support of other libertarian arch conservatives. Richard Mellon Scaife, Harry and Lynda Bradley, John M. Olin, the Coors brewing family, and the DeVos family, to name some of the big supporters recruited by the Fred Koch and his sons David and Charles. All had acquired vast fortunes from activities that exploited citizens and nature. All were against any type of government that limited their rip, rape, and run business philosophies.
“In the last few years, add the names Bezos, Broad, Cohen, Singer, Schwarzman, Adelson, Hendricks, Mercer, and perhaps the worst of the lot, the Waltons. The Koch ideology also appeals to radical splinter groups of the Christian conservative right which is obsessed with the takeover of the US Government and the dismantling of the government. Understanding this unholy marriage explains why so many Tea Party extremists support Koch and the coup.”
I respectfully urge Berger to add one more name: Bill Gates.
Gates has done more than any other billionaire to pursue Friedman-market (aka Freeforall-market) ideas for schools.
Gates does not wear his Ayn Rand “objectivist” philosophy on his sleeve like some of the others. He hides it, which actually makes him more dangerous in a certain regard.
I agree. Gates was the instigator of the Education Strategy Group intent on having billionsire-funded “charitable” organizations take control of educational policies at the federal level.
If you are unfamiliar with the Education Strategy Group here is a link:
http://www.edstrategy.org/services.
In many cases about a third of the federal money earmarked for public schools is currently funneled into privatized variations. This should upset anyone with family members that intend to use public schools. Even without family members at stake, public education is essential to promote an informed electorate. Under DeVos this percentage will greatly increase, and it should sound alarm bells. The radical right backed by billionaires needs to be stopped. They want everything, our young people’s futures and even our remaining democratic rights.
Reblogged this on NANMYKEL.COM and commented:
The Citizens United Supreme Court decision sure made it easier for these gentlemen to Increase their demongoguery tenfold!
It;s so difficult not to get discouraged. Like a bug one foot from a bull frog, I can think of different words to the national anthem.
“The Billfrog and the Myschoolto”
The Billfrog croaks
And so do schools
To wealthy folks
They’re simply fuels
I have long believed that the politics of K-12 education and health care (or health insurance) are inextricably bound together. The politics of both is built on virtually the same rhetorical platform. On a more practical level, federal funding of health and education programs is contained in the same appropriations subcommittee/bill (Labor, HHS, and Education) and Republicans always create funding issues that are designed to pit the two constituencies together–even though the combat is usually of the under-the-radar, inside-the-beltway type. None of the players will say that this is going on, but it is reality. For example, when funding for the National Institutes of Health goes up, it often comes at the expense of education and labor programs.
This is very much a result of what Ed Berger describes so well in this post. The more each constituency focuses on its own issues, the less they realize how intertwined they are with others. One of the issues that attracted me to Diane’s arguments is the connection of nutrition and health in schools to learning. Education advocates should realize that health care issues are education issues. And health care advocates should realize that people who are educated are more likely to be healthy and make better decisions should they be affected by disease or disability.
So in the spirit, I hope everyone will take the time to read an exceptional, honest op-ed in today’s NYT about how health care is not a free market issue. Just as we all know (or at least should know) that education cannot be run on a free market model. Neither is about winners and losers. Neither can be simplified into a supply-demand curve. When they are, it fundamentally creates a citizenry made up of haves and have nots. Should you read this op-ed, then consider how the education issues we who comment on this blog cherish so much can be framed in the same way: