What the Conservatives Wouldn’t Tell Us and What the Progressives Didn't Know
Son of a steelworker, Philadelphia, PA
On August 8, 1971, Lewis F. Powell, Jr, drafted a confidential memorandum for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which provided a Blueprint for Corporate Dominance of Democracy in the America. On January 7, 1972, Powell joined the Supreme Court of United States (SCOTUS), with no disclosure of his memo during his confirmation hearings.
The memo did not become available to the public until September, 1972, after Powell’s confirmation to the Court when it was leaked to Jack Anderson, a syndicated columnist and investigative reporter, who cited it as reason to doubt Powell's legal objectivity.
Powell recognized that the country still embraced basic New Deal values in 1971 with an acceptance that the government should act to remedy inequality, injustice and other ills that could result from corporate power (like income inequality and damage to the environment). And he (and many other business leaders) didn't like it and wanted to do something to change it.
Four decades later, Powell’s "Blueprint for Corporate Dominance," which can be viewed as the Crony Capitalism Manifesto, has resulted in, among other things, SCOTUS's gutting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the SCOTUS Citizens United Decision, as well as the political capture and economic inequality, described in Oxfam’s WORKING FOR THE FEW.
The Powell Memo appears to be the smoking gun that started our current class war, as described in HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream?
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Photo from DonkeyHotey.
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Hugh Campbell is a seasoned financial professional, currently providing subject matter expertise on a variety of regulatory topics, including the Dodd-Frank Act, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and overall compliance monitoring. Hugh has previously held positions as Chief Risk Officer (CRO), Chief Audit Executive (CAE) and Director of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Compliance.
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