One of the reasons the idea of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” is silly is because conservatives tend to operate out in the open. There’s no need for a conspiracy; the movement’s agenda is hardly a secret.
Underpinning the movement, however, are wealthy and selectively generous foundations which provide the right-wing infrastructure with the kind of support every movement needs: money. They aren’t necessarily familiar to a national audience, but names such as Scaife, Bradley, Coors, and Smith Richardson are well-known among the foundations that provide the financial backing that fuels the right-wing machine.
One of the biggest, if not the biggest of these foundations is, much to the right’s consternation, shutting down.
Part Medici, part venture capitalist, the John M. Olin Foundation has spent three decades financing the intellectual rise of the right and exciting the envy of the left. Now the foundation is closing its doors. In telling the organization to spend his money within a generation, John M. Olin, a Midwestern ammunition and chemical magnate, sought to maximize his fortune’s influence and keep it from falling into hostile — that is, liberal — hands.
In the budget offices of the right, the loss of Olin, though long anticipated, is bringing a stab of anxiety, as total annual giving of up to $20 million disappears from policy organizations, journals and academic aeries.
It’s hard to exaggerate the Olin Foundation’s significance in financing the broader right-wing cause.
The Federalist Society, for example, wouldn’t exist were it not for seed money provided by Olin. The Heritage Foundation, American Enterprise Institute, and Hoover Institution have relied on Olin’s support to become conservative policy powerhouses.
It was an Olin grant that helped David Brock write his 1993 book, “The Real Anita Hill,” just as it was Olin that helped Charles Murray, of “The Bell Curve” fame, go from an obscure social scientist to a conservative cause celebre.
In all, the Olin Foundation has given out about $380 million to advance its right-wing agenda.
The fact that it’s closing shop is welcome news, I suppose, but the fact is, the damage is already done. Olin has helped create a powerful machine that helps drive the conservative policy dialog in Washington and elsewhere. Conservatives won’t be able to rely on Olin’s generosity anymore, but I’m afraid Olin can close its doors while claiming victory.