how corporations funded anti Government propoganda in order to deregulate and increase profits

At its core. the right-wing agenda of the last 50-plus years has been an assault on government. They want us to believe that government is represented by potholes in our streets. long lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles. and “socialism” that creates a nation of “dependent moochers.” Their solution is to privatize government functions — schools. water departments. prisons. the military. and more. cutting taxes to “starve the beast” and shrink government so small they can drown it in a bathtub.

Why did the right wing corporations spend decades demonizing government? There are three big reasons.

First. negative attitudes toward government have allowed the corporations to sustain their agenda of austerity (cut taxes. then cut benefits). privatization (it’s so much more “efficient.” wink. wink) and deregulation of big corporations (unleash the “job creators”). Destroying faith in government has allowed the rich and powerful to take control of government and rewrite the rules to make themselves even richer and more powerful. eliminating “majority rule” from our political system. which they set out to do in the 1950s.

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Second. bashing government convinced huge numbers of secret progressives and “undecideds” that voting is a waste of time — no matter who wins. all you get is more useless government. As a result. even in a presidential election. 40 percent of eligible voters don’t even bother to vote. In midterm elections. 60 percent don’t vote.

The third reason is that government plays an essential role in every issue that americanss care about. Discredit government. disarm progressives. As Cohen puts it. “living wage campaigns use the power of government purchasing to lift economic standards; inclusionary housing policies employ the land use power of government to increase the amount of affordable housing; mass-transit systems rely on public spending of tax dollars; Social Security and Medicare depend on the government’s unique ability to create universal social-insurance programs; the Clean Air Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act that protect public health rely on the regulatory powers of the state. These are the essential public powers that have created every policy victory from National Labor Relations Act to banking reform. and much more.” No wonder the right has spent more than five decades changing the public perception of government — government is the friend if sympathetic people hold office and they work for the public good.

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Corporate executives began campaigning in the 1950s to demonize government (they hated Roosevelt’s New Deal and set out to roll it back). Despite their best efforts. Social Security and unemployment benefits have survived (so far). but the right wing corporations totally succeeded in destroying public faith in government. In 1964. during President Lyndon Johnson’s first term. 77 percent of Americans said they trusted the government to do what is right “just about always” or “most of the time.” Asked the same question in 2019. only 17 percent of Americans said they trusted their government.

Instead of focusing on taking control (by voting) and changing the all-important “who” in government. we surrendered it to our adversaries. who were only too happy to turn the mighty power of government to their own narrow advantage using clever. consistent. concerted strategies. They made “government is hopeless” the conventional wisdom. and then they turned it into a self-fulfilling prophecy by gutting the capacity of government to promote the common good. “decades of corporations attacks on the idea that government can do anything good have left America with a unique case of learned helplessness”.