Fang Lee - The machine: A field guide to the resurgent Right

Lee Fang documents in lively detail the cogs, axles, sockets, levers, and output of the most insidious political machine in our historythe resurgent right. The reach of this machine is hair-raising, but in order to overcome it, one must know it. With his years of reporting and insight, Fang presents a compelling field guide for smart progressives. A must-read for the left and anyone concerned about the takeover of democracy by the wealthy few.

Jennifer Granholm, former governor of Michigan

Fang is one of Americas best and most prolific investigative journalists, and in this brilliant and insightful work he tells a vital story of the takeover of American politics by a small band of billionaires. An absolute must-read.

Thom Hartmann, radio host and author of The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight

With our lawmakers more beholden than ever to dark money, Lees book couldnt have come at a better time.... Reformers need to arm themselves with the best information available, and this expertly researched book is a great place to start.

Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause

Few people have done more in-depth research, reporting, and writing on the post-Obama conservative movement than Lee Fang. The Machine goes beyond the headlines and explores exactly how this ideological movement operates.

Amanda Terkel, senior political reporter, The Huffington Post

Fangs riveting account offers readers not only a guide for understanding how the mechanisms of right-wing power operate, but also a roadmap for developing countermeasures to effectively challenge them.

Christine Trost, program director of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies and co-editor of Steep: The Precipitous Rise of the Tea Party

Lee Fang is a fearless American muckraker who exposes secret political machinations often overlooked by the mainstream press. Anyone interested in understanding why Washington doesnt work should read The Machine.

Jane Mayer, staff writer, The New Yorker

Photo credit: VIKRUM AIYER

Lee Fang is a reporting fellow with the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute and a contributing writer at The Nation. A former investigative blogger for ThinkProgress, Fang has written for national publications including the Boston Globe and is a regular commentator on MSNBC and NPR. His work has led to calls for investigations in Congress and the FEC. This is his first book. Fang lives in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

A FIELD GUIDE

TO THE

RESURGENT RIGHT

LEE FANG

2013 by Lee Fang

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written permission from the publisher.

Requests for permission to reproduce selections from this book should be mailed to: Permissions Department, The New Press, 38 Greene Street, New York, NY 10013.

Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2013

Distributed by Perseus Distribution

ISBN 978-1-59558-692-6 (e-book)

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Dedicated to the most important women in my life, my mother and Maytak

M any people were very kind to me during the long research and writing process that went into this book. I want to first and foremost thank my editors as well as my friends and family for their support during the months I spent working on this project. The New Press decided to invest in this endeavor, and I deeply appreciate their patience, assistance, and advice along the way.

I began the effort while still reporting for ThinkProgress, and much of my research was shaped in part through the mentorship of Faiz Shakir, who at the time served as editor in chief of the blog. Through ThinkProgress, I traveled the country, attending countless Tea Parties, gun rallies, Conservative conferences, and lobbying presentations. My reporting work for the blog became the basis for this book.

I want to also thank the many writers who have closely covered the right-wing movement, both before and during the Obama era. While much of this book is based on my own reporting, I also depend on the articles and research by dozens of reportersfrom both traditional newspaper outlets and independent mediawho have covered the conservative movement for several decades.

T he morning of November 5, 2008, America woke to news of a seismic shift. It wasnt just the election of the first African American president. The conservative era, which had begun with Richard Nixons culture war and seemed ascendant with Ronald Reagans supply-side radicalism and permanent after George W. Bushs masterful 2004 reelection, appeared to be over. The combination of Barack Obamas commanding victory and the second consecutive cycle of Democratic gains in both houses of Congress redrew the political map.

The GOP had lost up and down the ballot, from local assembly races to the U.S. Senate, making the Republicans almost inconsequential overnight. Within hours of the election results, Bloomberg reported that an all-out bloodbath erupted within the party as competing factions vied for power. Among Republicans, there is no energy, no fresh thinking, no ability to capture the concerns and feelings of millions of people, noted the New Yorkers George Packer earlier that year in a widely read article about the slow death of American conservatism.

The election was read as a sign of future Democratic dominance. Obama had not only captured new South states like Virginia and North Carolina, he gained a majority of newly registered young voters and Latinos, as well as white-collar professionals. Some called it a realignment. This majority, former Clinton strategist James Carville declared, will guarantee that the Democrats remain in power for the next forty years.

And the evidence of GOP decline was everywhere. The states of New England no longer sent a single Republican to the House of Representatives; in New Mexico, Democrats gained control of the entire congressional delegation.

There were calls for Obama to enact a second New Deal, to seize this moment of partisan dominance and public support to pass broad reforms. Anything was suddenly possible.

But the euphoria soon came to an end. Exactly one year later, on the morning of November 5, 2009, attention was not at the White House, but focused on the steps of the Capitol. Thousands of Tea Party activists, many of them bused in by a group called Americans for Prosperity, had assembled on the West Lawn to listen to Republican lawmakers denounce health reform.

Republican leader John Boehner boomed that the bill was the greatest threat to freedom he had ever seen in his career. Representative Michele Bachmann held court over the center of the stage, as partisans took turns exciting the crowd. You are our fighting force, screamed Texas Congressman John Carter, pointing to the legislative office buildings for his colleagues in the House. Go get em!