September 28, 2016 ISSN 1094-5296 Mayer, J. (2016). Dark Money: the Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Ra

September 28, 2016 ISSN 1094-5296 Mayer, J. (2016). Dark money: The hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right. New York: Doubleday. Pp. 464 ISBN-10: 0385535597 Capital, Power, and Education: “Dark Money” and the Politics of Common-Sense A Critical Essay Review of Jane Mayer’s Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right Eleni Schirmer and Michael W. Apple Introduction For years, there have been powerful arguments that education can best be understood as a political act, as strongly connected to the relations of dominance and subordination in the larger society and to the movements that seek to interrupt these relations (see, for example, Apple, 2004, 2013; Apple, M., Au, W., Gandin, 2009). This is even more visible in the current political context of the United States. Regardless of the outcome, the 2016 presidential election campaign has been one of the strangest on record. Perhaps one of the most startling moments of the 2016 primary election came when conservative billionaire Charles Koch stated his potential interest in Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton over Republican front-runner, Donald Trump (LoBianco, 2016). Charles Koch and his brother David, two of the world’s top 10 Schirmer, E., & Apple, M. (2016, September 28). Review of Dark money: The hidden history of the billionaires behind the rise of the radical right, by J. Mayer. Education Review, 23. http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/er.v23.2145 Education Review /Reseñas Educativas 2 wealthiest individuals, have financed infrastructure (Ferguson, 2016). But as income libertarian and conservative political inequality in the United States grows, the role foundations and advocacy groups for the past of political parties becomes almost obsolete, as four decades. His tacit support for Hilary wealthy individuals, such as the Koch Brothers Clinton was surprising all around. A far cry and Donald Trump, can bankroll their own from an interest in progressive politics, political infrastructure. Charles Koch’s preference for Clinton reflects Jane Mayer’s stunning new book, Dark his disdain for both Trump and the Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind progressive candidate Bernie Sanders alike. the Rise of the Radical Right, provides an in-depth That one of the world’s most conservative expose of the key characters in this political political donors considered lending his support plot twist. With rich attention to detail and to an establishment Democrat reveals the savvy analysis of the political influence of the profound rearrangement of political and Koch brothers, Mayer provides an extremely economic forces at play this election season. important account of their origins and impact Or does it? The Koch brothers’ on U.S. politics, from campaign finance to influence in the upcoming elections, after all, environmental destruction, from tax policy to has been anticipated for months (Confessore, public education. The Koch brothers’ political 2016; “Koch Brothers Get Each Other Same influence is amplified by the rising rip current Election For Christmas,” 2016). Political of income inequality. And Mayer puts a scientist Thomas Ferguson offers a matter-of- human face on economist Thomas Piketty’s fact explanation of both Trump and the Koch widely cited picture of what such inequality brothers prominence: political parties and looks like and how it has grown (Piketty, candidates first and foremost seek investors 2014). Although the story of the Koch for their campaigns; voters are a secondary brothers is notable in large part for the concern (Ferguson, 1995). From this point of monetary numbers associated with the family view, Trump’s biggest liability to the (billions made here, millions spent there) Republican Party is not his inflammatory Mayer goes beyond a one-dimensional log of disregard of political correctness, but rather the growth and deployment of their his independent wealth. His financial freedom investments. Rather, she provides an intimate from the Republican apparatus enables his portrait of the personal and political formation ideological separation; he simply doesn’t need of the Koch brothers and their key allies. We the approval of the Bush oligarchy, the Tea learn not only how much money these Party donors, or the Koch brothers. conservative leaders possess, but also about Similarly, Trump’s financial the decisions and strategies they adopted in independence alone makes him a less than the economy, in the politics of persuasion, and palatable candidate to the Kochs. The political in important aspects of education in pursuit of cleavage between the conservative billionaires their wealth. Koch and Trump offers an important After reading Dark Money, the capitalist amendment to Ferguson’s thesis. Rather than logics of profit accumulation seems anything political parties seeking investors who will but logical. Mayer provides particularly then secure votes, investors such as the Koch moving attention to the Koch brothers’ brothers seek political parties who will secure impacts on the environment and public health. their financial and political protection (in both She tells the stories of people who have died models, readers will note, voters remain working in Koch Industries’ factories, and the secondary). As Ferguson argues, political stories of the people who have died living near parties are first and foremost bank accounts; them. She exposes the natural resources that they secure voters in so far as they can finance have been destroyed in the wake of their outreach, media, advertising and data companies. What’s more she manages to make Review of Dark Money by E. Schirmer & M. Apple 3 these nearly unreadable and distressing stories the further conquest of state and local issues. quite readable. Mayer’s rich animation of the As a volume, the book provides both crucial Koch family’s personalities lends Dark Money detail and overview of the rise of the Koch the intrigue of a legal thriller as much as a regime. chronicle of economic elites; the book is a In the following pages, we will explain page-turner. why Mayer’s book provides important Drawing from interviews and architecture for critical education scholars. We previously unreleased documents, the first then overview what we see as Mayer’s key third of Dark Money describes the iniquitous contributions: her analysis of how the Koch underbelly of the Koch brothers’ family brothers generated their wealth, how they’ve fortune, a chapter deleted from the public deployed it, and the consequences of both. accounts of Koch family history. Mayer also Finally, we note briefly additional questions outlines their supporting cast, that is, the other and overlooked areas of the analysis. wealthy families such as the Bradleys, the Olins, and the Scaifes, also committed to the Why Dark Money Matters for Education Koch family’s ideological agenda through the work of aggressive philanthropies. The second At first pass, Mayer’s book seems third of the book details the rise of the Koch disconnected from the field of education – brothers’ political operating groups. The after all, what does the story of a litigious opposite of grassroots organizations, these family of oil moguls, science skeptics, and corporate-sponsored organizing machines and free-market missionaries have to do with private think-tanks engaged in lobbying and education? True, Mayer’s book focuses on the media efforts to propagate the financial and Koch family as characters. But these political interests of their corporate backers. In characters must be understood as the doing so, they generated the optics of a mass protagonists in one of education’s most movement. Dubbed “Astroturf” (as opposed searing plots, the conservative restructuring of to bottom-up, community led, grassroots the core beliefs undergirding public education. organizing efforts), Mayer exposes the agenda This restructuring is evident through policies and tactics of these groups as a far cry from and programs that aggressively advance community organizing. She zeroes in on their theories and policies of “free-market” undemocratic election strategies, such as education systems, such as vouchers and for- gerrymandering voter districts to profit charters. It is evident through high- disenfranchise especially communities of stakes accountability regimes that condense color. Mayer documents how the Koch curriculum into testable chunks and expel brothers effectively debased domains of histories of oppression. It is evident in the loss knowledge that threatened their political and of democratic governance mechanisms, such financial interests, specifically climate change as publicly elected school boards, in the name science. In the final third of the book, Mayer of “efficiency.” The intersection of these details the years of the Koch brothers’ political competing political and economic assent, starting with the 2010 mid-term commitments for standards, efficiency, elections, which yielded the nation’s most markets, conservative religious values, and conservative Congress by far. Mayer takes us inequality combine into a larger ideological through the notable political contests, such as program, what one of us calls conservative the 2012 presidential elections (the first modernization (Apple, 2006). As Apple writes, presidential elections since the Citizen’s United the conservative alliance “has been so ruling which made corporations’ unlimited successful in part because it has been able to political contributions), the rise

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