karlif's review
3.0
Good read, but take it as a grain of salt. Makes you think about the current political climate.
myc_w's review against another edition
4.0
MacLean has crafted a well-structured and near exhaustive study of how James Buchanan (and eventually the Kochs) worked to create a plan to restructure US political systems into a libertarian “utopia.” This master plan has worked to change academia, policy, and public perception using a multi-pronged attacks that leveraged power plays, money, and proximity to law makers to achieve their ends.
Truly devastating to read, particularly as the plan is, in retrospect, painfully obvious. So much so that some of MacLean’s predictions for how this stealth revolution run by dark money will continue to develop were markedly prescient.
We hear these growing, cold, and disingenuous arguments about “economic liberty,” “freedom,” and “personal responsibility over government intervention”—the dogwhistles of this strategy—constantly today, nearly four years since this book was published. It’s become a part of our everyday discourse. And if we explore where this language and these ideas come from, we can point to definitive moments and peoples—and the actions they’ve undertaken to undermine government processes and productivity. And it becomes obvious that in the processes we’ve been actively witnessing for more than 40 years, the only thing valued is “liberty for the wealthy above all else”. This one goal is literally designed to prevent equality before the law in order to facilitate a thorough control of government and business by an an ultra-wealthy oligarchy (with the happy byproduct of eliminating a democratic and politically engaged “we”).
I’d definitely recommend giving this a read, and it pairs particularly well with Jane Mayer’s Dark Money.
Truly devastating to read, particularly as the plan is, in retrospect, painfully obvious. So much so that some of MacLean’s predictions for how this stealth revolution run by dark money will continue to develop were markedly prescient.
We hear these growing, cold, and disingenuous arguments about “economic liberty,” “freedom,” and “personal responsibility over government intervention”—the dogwhistles of this strategy—constantly today, nearly four years since this book was published. It’s become a part of our everyday discourse. And if we explore where this language and these ideas come from, we can point to definitive moments and peoples—and the actions they’ve undertaken to undermine government processes and productivity. And it becomes obvious that in the processes we’ve been actively witnessing for more than 40 years, the only thing valued is “liberty for the wealthy above all else”. This one goal is literally designed to prevent equality before the law in order to facilitate a thorough control of government and business by an an ultra-wealthy oligarchy (with the happy byproduct of eliminating a democratic and politically engaged “we”).
I’d definitely recommend giving this a read, and it pairs particularly well with Jane Mayer’s Dark Money.
jessreads82's review against another edition
4.0
Dire, terrifying, and so obvious I don’t know how people can’t see what’s going on. Libertarians don’t give af about the people, as this book says, it’s not about liberty and freedom. It’s about markets and money. What happened in 2008 is happening again right now, and middle class people are jumping on the bandwagon becuase they don’t like Black Lives Matter. Pretty soon the only lives that will matter are the corporate lives
This book was so well researched and informative, but until the epilogue it lacked passion and read more like a text book. That’s why the 4 stars
This book was so well researched and informative, but until the epilogue it lacked passion and read more like a text book. That’s why the 4 stars
thesydda's review
4.0
What I've read is good, but at this point, I just don't care what so-called Republicans think anymore.
gregbrown's review against another edition
4.0
Excellent book laying out the history of James Buchanan, half-organizer and half simple through-line of the right's ascendancy over the back half of the 20th century.
I actually only have two minor quibbles with the book itself, both a little out-of-scope since this is mainly a book to educate and radicalize NPR-ish liberals about the project of the right.
1. The book tangentially touches on it at a few points, but it's very difficult to characterize libertarianism as it's practiced here as any different than the larger conservative project. Because libertarianism as actually practiced here in the US isn't about shrinking the state, but instead about starving the parts that don't help capital (welfare state, etc) while boosting the parts that do (more cops and more military-industrial complex). And for all their fussing about non-aggression pacts and coercion, property rights are ultimately enforced at the barrel of a gun. The non-democratic changes covered here, both in Chile and abroad, are backed by implicit violence more deadly than any progressive taxation.
2. It doesn't go any further than "well now you know what to push back against" at the end. This is sort of what I mean about the book being designed to radicalize libs, because the natural conclusion that falls out at the end is "we need to diminish the power of capital," ideally by placing it too under democratic control. And democratic ownership of the means of production is actually socialism, which would be great and something you should sell to readers of the book! But of course it would alienate people, make the book longer, and probably disqualify you from getting any of those fancy awards.
I actually only have two minor quibbles with the book itself, both a little out-of-scope since this is mainly a book to educate and radicalize NPR-ish liberals about the project of the right.
1. The book tangentially touches on it at a few points, but it's very difficult to characterize libertarianism as it's practiced here as any different than the larger conservative project. Because libertarianism as actually practiced here in the US isn't about shrinking the state, but instead about starving the parts that don't help capital (welfare state, etc) while boosting the parts that do (more cops and more military-industrial complex). And for all their fussing about non-aggression pacts and coercion, property rights are ultimately enforced at the barrel of a gun. The non-democratic changes covered here, both in Chile and abroad, are backed by implicit violence more deadly than any progressive taxation.
2. It doesn't go any further than "well now you know what to push back against" at the end. This is sort of what I mean about the book being designed to radicalize libs, because the natural conclusion that falls out at the end is "we need to diminish the power of capital," ideally by placing it too under democratic control. And democratic ownership of the means of production is actually socialism, which would be great and something you should sell to readers of the book! But of course it would alienate people, make the book longer, and probably disqualify you from getting any of those fancy awards.
regferk's review
4.0
This is for my Read Harder 2018 Challenge Task #14 - A book of social science. This is book 4 for this category.