The Real Powers in the U.S.

Influences, influences!
By Richard Van Slyke

A primer on the most influential organizations in the U.S.

When thinking of political power, the most common perception is that it is a battle between the two major parties, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.
Both parties present themselves to the American public as the guardians of a set of values and ideologies, thoughtfully packaged to appeal to voters who associate with those values. This is called a platform.

Candidates for office are viewed as the defenders of one of the two platforms, each with their own variations of the same theme. However, because of the huge amounts of money involved in campaigning, most politicians both Democrats and Republicans are in fact subservient to very powerful organizations that control their campaign funding.
The influence of corporate money is, of course, not a secret to the general public. What is less known is how it works.

With names that most people would not recognize, a few major organizations not only control access to Congress and higher office, but are also farming grounds for important positions in all branches and at all levels of government.
Their funding comes mostly from corporations, either directly or through foundations (usually tax-exempt) that they have established; another important source of funding are wealthy individuals or wealthy family foundations with strong ties with the corporate world. Almost all the top corporations in the U.S. “invest” in these organizations to defend their interest. The major backers are mainly in finance, oil and defense contracting, but basically every branch of the business world is represented.

The history of these organizations goes back to before the times of the Robber Barons of the late 1800’s. For example, the Richard Mellon Scaife Foundation is one of the most important funders of so-called “right-wing” organizations. It also happens that the Mellon Bank financed most of the ventures that gave rise to the Robber Barons.
The group of businesses that it financed became so powerful in the early 1900’s that they ended-up ripping most of the windfalls from corporate involvement in WWI and their wealth and power grew even bigger.

In 1921, shortly after the war, they financed the creation of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which has been involved in decision-making in every conflict since then. Not surprisingly, the original CFR members included many of the same people that had previously been involved in the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank (in 1913), which had given them control over the U.S. finances.

In 1943, after the U.S. entered WWII, the American Enterprise Institute was created. AEI was very successful in forging ties with the government. Many of its members went on to occupy influential government positions, and in turn had many former government officials as members. George W. Bush is particularly fond of this organization and hired about twenty of its members in various positions in his administration.

Organizations of this type have multiplied, to form a network that has basically become the unofficial governing body of the U.S.

In 1953, five years after the creation of the state of Israel, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (originally named the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs) was created, and has become what many consider to be the most influential of all organizations in regard to electoral campaign fundraising.

In 1973, the Heritage Foundation was born. It brought the power of corporate-backed organizations to new levels by spreading its wings not just over political influence but also social influence. It has been very successful not only in shaping domestic and foreign policies but also in affecting the way average U.S. citizens think, with its strong links to right-wing media.

Other major organizations that followed over the years, such as the Cato Institute (1977), the Council for National Policy (1981) and the Project for a New American Century (1997) have increasingly become more and more radical in their advocacy. The last two seem designed to appeal only to a fringe of extreme ideologists. Despite that (or maybe because of that), they are both heavily funded.

There is no doubt that the corporate world, while suppressing organized labor, is itself very organized. Hundreds of foundations have been set-up all over the U.S., most tax-exempt, that funnel money to organizations or other foundations with the special purpose of influencing and infiltrating the government. They not only dictate policies, but also have a high level of control over how laws are made and applied.
It’s all perfectly legal, because they make the laws that make it legal.

But what needs to be emphasized is that the same cast of characters keeps appearing at the origin and at the leadership of most of these organizations. They are also usually mostly funded by a select group of corporations and foundations.

The trick is simple:

• Corporations help create foundations with bylaws well written by corporate lawyers to make sure they obtain the tax-exempt status.
• Then, the money they give to these tax-exempt foundations is itself often a tax-exempt donation.
• The foundations in turn, with that money, fund organizations or foundations with usually also a tax-exempt status.
• These organizations or foundations then hire executives and lawyers from the corporations who created them, and position them as “advisors”.
• They create corporate-friendly “study-groups” that become a link between the political establishment and the corporate establishment.
• Some of the “advisers” are hired by the government or sometimes run for office with, of course, heavy corporate financial backing; which puts them in a position to draft and enact laws suitable to corporate needs.

A typical example is the Coors brewery, one of the major funders of right-wing organizations. The Coors family is the recipient of a large trust fund, and their agenda is a mix of business, politics, and religion. Through the family trust fund, they created the Castle Rock Foundation (with $ 36 Million to start with). The Castle Rock Foundation financed the start-up of The Heritage Foundation, and is also funding the Council for National Policy. With these two very powerful organizations, the full family agenda found its way deep into politics. However it is interesting to know that, despite their deep religious convictions, the Coors family business was involved for ten years in severe labor disputes with their workforce. That might explain why the CNP wants to bring this country’s laws back 200 years.