#billionaire contributors to rightwing causes

[tomorrowusa]

A rich guy who died 17 years ago is still funding rightwing causes. The only good news is that the money runs out in 2025.

From the Ambien and Dramamine in millions of bathroom medicine cabinets, to the sugar substitute that makes diet sodas sweet, to the first-ever birth control pill, some of America’s most common medicines and supplements can be traced back to the G.D. Searle pharmaceutical company. Now, more than a century after the company’s founding, the massive family fortune built from those scientific advances has emerged as a major benefactor of the right, mostly out of the public eye. The Searle Freedom Trust, a foundation funded by the company’s former chairman, has doled out more than $200 million in grants over the last decade, sending more money to conservative nonprofits than nearly any other private foundation in recent years, according to a CNN analysis. This year, the Searle trust is poised to play an even bigger role as it empties out its coffers. Following the wishes of its founder, the late Daniel C. Searle, the trust is closing down in 2025 and planning to award most of its last major grants in 2024. That means a potential windfall during a key election year for groups that push conservative policies: as of the beginning of 2023, according to its most recent tax return, the trust had more than $59 million left to spend.

Thanks to the Republican Supreme Court, the filthy rich can shit money into the coffers of rightwing causes and candidates.

“The fact that our political system works in a way where wealthy people who died years ago can continue to have such profound influence over our politics and our beliefs about science and the world is just incredibly damaging,” said Galen Hall, a University of Michigan researcher who’s studied the flow of money from foundations like the Searle trust to climate change denial groups. “It’s one of the key aspects of American politics that makes positive change on issues like climate change so difficult.” [ ... ] The Searle trust is one of the most prolific funders of conservative groups among all private foundations, according to a CNN analysis of nonprofit tax data. From 2020 through 2022, it has given a total of more than $29 million to a selection of conservative nonprofits identified by CNN. Only one other private foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, reported giving more to the groups over the same time period, based on data from hundreds of thousands of public tax filings. The analysis only included publicly reported donations, so it may be missing some foundations that donated through donor-advised funds, which help conceal the path of their money.

The billionaires and their poorer multimillionaire buddies know that liberals tend to overlook state governments. So they focus disproportionately on controlling state legislatures and passing reactionary laws. The late Daniel C. Searle was no exception.

The trust has also given more than $2.75 million to the American Legislative Exchange Council, which over the years has written cookie-cutter model legislation that has inspired conservative bills around the US – including laws that expanded the use of private prisons, restricted the ability of state pension funds to consider environmental risks when making investments, and limited local governments’ ability to restrict firearms. The Searle trust has “been a key financial driver of the development of right-wing political infrastructure,” said Brendan Fischer, the deputy executive director of the progressive watchdog group Documented. “They’ve had a pretty successful track record in areas including attacks on workers’ rights, the freedom to vote, state efforts to thwart action on climate change.”

We can no longer afford to be slackers when it comes to state politics. Increasingly we need to give extremist Republicans more pushback in state capitals.

Take more interest in legislative matters in your state. Let news outlets know you want more coverage of what legislatures are up to. Support outlets which already do provide such coverage.

And find out who exactly is representing you in the legislature. If it's MAGA Republicans who get loads of campaign contributions from billionaire sugar daddies, work for their defeat in the next state election.

Find Your Legislators Look your legislators up by address or use your current location.

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Filthy rich rightwingers can be stopped if we get involved and remain focused. Winners in politics are not people with short attention spans.