The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan to Hijack American Democracy

"Nancy MacLean has unearthed a stealth ideologue of the American right. Her book tells the story of one James McGill Buchanan, a Southern political scientist and father of “public choice economics,” and details how this little-known figure has had a massive impact on the ideology of the far right.None other than Charles Koch looked to Buchanan’s theories for inspiration. They are libertarian — but with a twist: bluntly, it “entails restrictions on the freedom of the great majority in order to protect property rights and the prerogatives of the most well off.” MacLean shows how this idea can be traced down through the last 60 years of right-wing politics, starting with Brown v. The Board of Education and continuing with the Koch brothers’ empire. And she demonstrates that those followers and those in thrall to the Koch billions are pumping up their fight under the new administration.