The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

In 1995, Hilary Clinton referenced the “vast right wing conspiracy” that had targeted herself and her husband. For this, she was roundly mocked and ridiculed.

Yet, here we are, just about 30 years later, and what have we discovered? Well, that there really was and is now a vast network of right wing think tanks, PACs, activists, politicized churches, schools, and organizations all of them directed and funded by a small coterie of extremely wealthy, extremely right-wing individuals. 

And moreover, this group is within a hair’s breadth of imposing an entirely new form of government on the United States--the plutocratic, theocratic, oligarchy envisioned in Project 2025 and embodied in Donald Trump.

So what do we do about it? Honestly, I don’t know. I do know that we have to keep fighting. And we have to make absolutely certain that never again does the GOP control all three branches of the government. Or, if possible, any of them.

And I also know this. Our Republic will not again be safe until we have confronted “the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.” And the people who created it.

The people who for some reason believed that their right to obscenely great wealth, and enormous power...outweighed our right to truth, justice, well-being, and, indeed...

To life itself.

The vast right wing conspiracy...is real. 

The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (Revisited)

Way back when, Hillary Clinton referenced what she called the “vast right wing conspiracy” and said that it was opposed to her. She was immediately pilloried for that statement, and for years afterwards you would see people referring to themselves on the Web and elsewhere as “proud members of the vast right wing conspiracy.”

Yet, what do we know about our current political situation? Well, we know that a number of very powerful individuals...the vastly wealthy people and corporations referenced in Jane Mayer’s book, Dark Money...have constructed an enormous network of think tanks, media outlets, and astroturf organizations which has dominated American politics for decades.

Further, we know that this network has managed to more or less purchase outright the GOP, that it has acted to suppress the votes of anyone who might disagree with it, to smear and intimidate liberals, and to ram through Congress legislation broadly opposed by most Americans. We know also that it has spread lies and disinformation (“Obama is a Kenyan”), promoted conspiracy theories, smeared its opponents, launched dirty tricks campaigns against progressives, and, most recently, told Americans that Covid-19 was a hoax and then helped to organize protests against the quarantine that is our front line of defense against the disease.

In short...

If that isn’t a Great Right Wing Conspiracy, and a pretty sinister one at that...

Then it will sure do until the anti-Christ comes along. 

Conspiracy

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About me: I’m a writer and former journalist who has published material on everything from computers to the Jazz Age. (Among my small claims to fame is that I interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

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