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Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right
The chilling story of the covert group that masterminds the Radical Right's ongoing assault on America's airwaves, schools, environment, and, ultimately, its democracy.
In 1981, emboldened by Ronald Reagan's election, a group of some fifty Republican operatives, evangelicals, oil barons, and gun lobbyists met in a Washington suburb to coordinate their attack on civil liberties and the social safety net. These men and women called their coalition the Council for National Policy. Over four decades, this elite club has become a strategic nerve center for channeling money and mobilizing votes behind the scenes. Its secretive membership rolls represent a high-powered roster of fundamentalists, oligarchs, and their allies, from Oliver North, Ed Meese, and Tim LaHaye in the Council's early days to the DeVos family, Steve Bannon, and Tony Perkins today. The group deploys a media empire to flood heartland news deserts with its propaganda; bankrolls handpicked colleges to promote extremist libertarian ideas; and grooms up-and-coming politicians to advance its cause. Most recently, the coalition has joined forces with the Koch brothers to build state-of-the-art platforms for capturing and utilizing all-important voter data-outmaneuvering the Democratic Party in an information arms race whose result has yet to be decided.
With astonishing clarity, award-winning journalist Anne Nelson reveals the Council's history and illuminates its tactics. In a time of stark and growing threats to our most valued institutions and democratic freedoms, Shadow Network is essential reading.
In 1981, emboldened by Ronald Reagan's election, a group of some fifty Republican operatives, evangelicals, oil barons, and gun lobbyists met in a Washington suburb to coordinate their attack on civil liberties and the social safety net. These men and women called their coalition the Council for National Policy. Over four decades, this elite club has become a strategic nerve center for channeling money and mobilizing votes behind the scenes. Its secretive membership rolls represent a high-powered roster of fundamentalists, oligarchs, and their allies, from Oliver North, Ed Meese, and Tim LaHaye in the Council's early days to the DeVos family, Steve Bannon, and Tony Perkins today. The group deploys a media empire to flood heartland news deserts with its propaganda; bankrolls handpicked colleges to promote extremist libertarian ideas; and grooms up-and-coming politicians to advance its cause. Most recently, the coalition has joined forces with the Koch brothers to build state-of-the-art platforms for capturing and utilizing all-important voter data-outmaneuvering the Democratic Party in an information arms race whose result has yet to be decided.
With astonishing clarity, award-winning journalist Anne Nelson reveals the Council's history and illuminates its tactics. In a time of stark and growing threats to our most valued institutions and democratic freedoms, Shadow Network is essential reading.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2019
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August 21, 2019
If you like being scared, read Anne Nelson’s Shadow Network. It’s the alarming story of how Christian fundamentalists coalesced into a political force and have essentially taken over the Trump administration. They promulgate their hate and intolerance from there, from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s references to The Rapture to Betsy DeVos’ dismantling of Education, to a flood of young ultraconservative life appointees to the bench.
It is so dramatic and complex, Nelson feels she has to provide a Dramatis Personae – a list of the major players, organizations, religious influencers and media manipulators. The book itself is a chronological climb to the top.
The conservatives were jealous of the Democrats, and came up with organizations inspired by them, copying even their names except for a word or two. Their goal was to outperform the Democrats’ efforts, and they have. Some hard work and huge dollops of money paved the way.
At the center is the Council for National Policy, the CNP, as close to a Deep State as there is. It was a blatant copy of the Council for Foreign Relations, with some stunning differences. Where the CFR is open, fair and credible, the CNP is totally closed — a secret society of evangelicals. It is only through the occasional leak of a list that we know who is a member or who is leading some aspect of it. Public events are purely and totally onesided. Members are the top players in other fields, like grassroots movements, the right-wing media, fundraising, and of course, religion. Lots of evangelical pastors with radio and TV shows. The whole foundation is based on fundamentalist religion, and imposing it on the entire country. At times I thought I was reading The Handmaid’s Tale only for real.
All the secrecy is the striking thing about this entire effort by Republican evangelicals. Some of the organizations are not even listed in their building’s directory. Security guards have no access to their floors. Membership rosters are only known if leaked. Don’t ask where the money comes from, just know there’s lots more where that came from.
The task of putting this whole story together is nothing shy of monumental. Nelson had to trace dozens of whole careers, meetings and announcements and the interconnections among the players as they intersected again and again. Criminal records played a large role. Bigotry is rampant. The connections between all the organizations is incestuous; all the same names keep popping up. They are busy all year long transferring money to each other.
What becomes obvious very quickly is the extraordinarily low quality of the players. They are not mere racists, bigots, white supremacists and xenophobes. They are lechers, adulterers, fraudsters, influence peddlers, perverts and the just plain dishonest. They are constantly having to resign, be arrested, and be covered up by their organizations. The CNP “took these speed bumps with aplomb, wrangling college presidents with feeble academic credentials, media moguls with no commitment to journalism, and self-righteous crusaders who committed criminal abuses. The CNP’s uncompromising vision required a surprising amount of compromise,“ Nelson explains. That neatly explains their support of Donald Trump.
The basic attitude is that “God doesn’t need a majority.” Whereas the Democrats like to think they are inclusive with labor, immigrants, women and the left, conservatives take under their wing haters, right wing extremists, racists and anti-everything except guns. As Nelson profiles them, many of the key players had to be fired, or went to prison or were sued into premature retirement.
The three biggest planks of their mission are abortion, homosexuality and the Christian bible. Their job is to make those three the most important issues to voters. Here are some the big names from the movement and how they do it:
-James Dobson’s empire was radio show and organization called Focus on the Family. He is famous for saying homosexuality comes from “a home where the mother is dominating, overprotective and possessive, while the father rejects or ridicules the child.” He announced that the only question about corporal punishment was whether to use a hand or an object to strike a child. On women as wives: “That functional role … is one of subjection. It is one of submission.” His Family Research Council is at the very core of the CNP, working with untold other groups to implant his attitudes.
-Evangelist Billy James Hargis promoted segregation as “one of God’s natural laws.”
-Pastor James Robison once rejected a million dollar donation of jade and ivory on the basis it consisted of “graven images”. (The irony escaped him.) He was best known for his homophobic tirades, claiming homosexuals were “prone to molesting and murdering young boys.” The larger irony would wait for decades, when one of the founders of the CNP, Judge Paul Pressler, was hauled into court for just that kind of activity, as was Billy James Hargis in connection with his bible students — of both sexes.
-Jerry Falwell raised money on the air by claiming homosexuals “want to transform America in a modern Sodom and Gomorrah.”
-Juan Pablo Andrade posted on a video: “The only thing the Nazis didn’t get right is they didn’t keep f***ing going.”
-On Jews, Pastor Bailey Smith asked a Dallas rally: “How in the world can God hear the prayer of a man who says Jesus Christ is not the true Messiah?”
-The Southern Baptist Convention maintains that homosexuality is ”a deviant behavior that has caused havoc in the lives of millions.” It continues to press for recriminalization and “conversion therapy”.
-Roberto D’aubuisson was the right-wing death squad leader in El Salvador. Nelson says she was right there in 1981 when D’aubuisson announced “it would be necessary to kill a quarter of a million people to pacify the country.” He was guest of honor at a Washington confab of fundamentalists.
-Oliver North, Edwin Meese, Pat Robertson and many other of the fallen make up this A-team for the evangelicals.
In imitating other organizations, the fundamentalists even created their own version of the Girl Scouts, in which six to nine year olds can earn badges by picketing abortion clinics and participating in select protests.
In addition to the millions donated annually by the rich (Templeton, DeVos, Prince, Brooks, Koch, Mercer et al.), the organizations collect vast sums from tens of thousands of churches. They pressure pastors to help raise money. They specify sermons, handouts and tithing to the cause of turning America into a Christian bible-run country.
The large donations are freely given, because it is all deductible, greatly benefitting the donor. These recipient organizations are almost all non-profit and charitable, which is a farce in itself, as those kinds of outfits are not allowed to participate in political activity by law (the Johnson Amendment). It is a continual criminal act that goes completely unpunished as funding is cut back at the IRS. One of the conservatives’ top goals is to repeal the Johnson Amendment and specifically allow churches to participate in politics and promoting sponsored candidates.
Evangelicals hated the thought of Trump in the White House. They were totally against him, his lies, vulgarity and divorces. But with no religious alternative, they embraced him, and delivered in a big way. Now, they are giddy with Trump. Because he had no network of his own to draw on, he has picked his people for their adherence to evangelical organizations. So they are everywhere, in every government department and agency, undermining them. From Mike Pence on down, they were the CNP’s choice. For the evangelicals, it is euphoric. Every day brings new easy access and victories. They are enjoying such success that CNP leaders had their own images portrayed in stained-glass windows in a megachurch in Texas, including their wives and one’s dog, overtaking for the space usually reserved for Jesus. (Those panels have since been removed).
The key to their electoral success is individual targeting. They have data on voters that would make Mark Zuckerberg blush. They can target the undecided with specific appeals that don’t expose the hypocrisy, infighting and self-contradictions. They get a higher percentage of people to the polls, giving their votes more weight. In addition, the focus is on the more lightly populated so-called flyover country, where a single vote can have the impact of six votes in a big city. The result is a tyranny of the minority.
Nelson has done an outstanding job of putting the hidden and disparate pieces together and making a coherent, if horrifying story out of it. She shows the connections between the organizations, the direction from the top, and resulting backward steps this movement is imposing on the country. It makes sense of the chaos that has become Washington’s daily routine. Unfortunately.
David Wineberg
It is so dramatic and complex, Nelson feels she has to provide a Dramatis Personae – a list of the major players, organizations, religious influencers and media manipulators. The book itself is a chronological climb to the top.
The conservatives were jealous of the Democrats, and came up with organizations inspired by them, copying even their names except for a word or two. Their goal was to outperform the Democrats’ efforts, and they have. Some hard work and huge dollops of money paved the way.
At the center is the Council for National Policy, the CNP, as close to a Deep State as there is. It was a blatant copy of the Council for Foreign Relations, with some stunning differences. Where the CFR is open, fair and credible, the CNP is totally closed — a secret society of evangelicals. It is only through the occasional leak of a list that we know who is a member or who is leading some aspect of it. Public events are purely and totally onesided. Members are the top players in other fields, like grassroots movements, the right-wing media, fundraising, and of course, religion. Lots of evangelical pastors with radio and TV shows. The whole foundation is based on fundamentalist religion, and imposing it on the entire country. At times I thought I was reading The Handmaid’s Tale only for real.
All the secrecy is the striking thing about this entire effort by Republican evangelicals. Some of the organizations are not even listed in their building’s directory. Security guards have no access to their floors. Membership rosters are only known if leaked. Don’t ask where the money comes from, just know there’s lots more where that came from.
The task of putting this whole story together is nothing shy of monumental. Nelson had to trace dozens of whole careers, meetings and announcements and the interconnections among the players as they intersected again and again. Criminal records played a large role. Bigotry is rampant. The connections between all the organizations is incestuous; all the same names keep popping up. They are busy all year long transferring money to each other.
What becomes obvious very quickly is the extraordinarily low quality of the players. They are not mere racists, bigots, white supremacists and xenophobes. They are lechers, adulterers, fraudsters, influence peddlers, perverts and the just plain dishonest. They are constantly having to resign, be arrested, and be covered up by their organizations. The CNP “took these speed bumps with aplomb, wrangling college presidents with feeble academic credentials, media moguls with no commitment to journalism, and self-righteous crusaders who committed criminal abuses. The CNP’s uncompromising vision required a surprising amount of compromise,“ Nelson explains. That neatly explains their support of Donald Trump.
The basic attitude is that “God doesn’t need a majority.” Whereas the Democrats like to think they are inclusive with labor, immigrants, women and the left, conservatives take under their wing haters, right wing extremists, racists and anti-everything except guns. As Nelson profiles them, many of the key players had to be fired, or went to prison or were sued into premature retirement.
The three biggest planks of their mission are abortion, homosexuality and the Christian bible. Their job is to make those three the most important issues to voters. Here are some the big names from the movement and how they do it:
-James Dobson’s empire was radio show and organization called Focus on the Family. He is famous for saying homosexuality comes from “a home where the mother is dominating, overprotective and possessive, while the father rejects or ridicules the child.” He announced that the only question about corporal punishment was whether to use a hand or an object to strike a child. On women as wives: “That functional role … is one of subjection. It is one of submission.” His Family Research Council is at the very core of the CNP, working with untold other groups to implant his attitudes.
-Evangelist Billy James Hargis promoted segregation as “one of God’s natural laws.”
-Pastor James Robison once rejected a million dollar donation of jade and ivory on the basis it consisted of “graven images”. (The irony escaped him.) He was best known for his homophobic tirades, claiming homosexuals were “prone to molesting and murdering young boys.” The larger irony would wait for decades, when one of the founders of the CNP, Judge Paul Pressler, was hauled into court for just that kind of activity, as was Billy James Hargis in connection with his bible students — of both sexes.
-Jerry Falwell raised money on the air by claiming homosexuals “want to transform America in a modern Sodom and Gomorrah.”
-Juan Pablo Andrade posted on a video: “The only thing the Nazis didn’t get right is they didn’t keep f***ing going.”
-On Jews, Pastor Bailey Smith asked a Dallas rally: “How in the world can God hear the prayer of a man who says Jesus Christ is not the true Messiah?”
-The Southern Baptist Convention maintains that homosexuality is ”a deviant behavior that has caused havoc in the lives of millions.” It continues to press for recriminalization and “conversion therapy”.
-Roberto D’aubuisson was the right-wing death squad leader in El Salvador. Nelson says she was right there in 1981 when D’aubuisson announced “it would be necessary to kill a quarter of a million people to pacify the country.” He was guest of honor at a Washington confab of fundamentalists.
-Oliver North, Edwin Meese, Pat Robertson and many other of the fallen make up this A-team for the evangelicals.
In imitating other organizations, the fundamentalists even created their own version of the Girl Scouts, in which six to nine year olds can earn badges by picketing abortion clinics and participating in select protests.
In addition to the millions donated annually by the rich (Templeton, DeVos, Prince, Brooks, Koch, Mercer et al.), the organizations collect vast sums from tens of thousands of churches. They pressure pastors to help raise money. They specify sermons, handouts and tithing to the cause of turning America into a Christian bible-run country.
The large donations are freely given, because it is all deductible, greatly benefitting the donor. These recipient organizations are almost all non-profit and charitable, which is a farce in itself, as those kinds of outfits are not allowed to participate in political activity by law (the Johnson Amendment). It is a continual criminal act that goes completely unpunished as funding is cut back at the IRS. One of the conservatives’ top goals is to repeal the Johnson Amendment and specifically allow churches to participate in politics and promoting sponsored candidates.
Evangelicals hated the thought of Trump in the White House. They were totally against him, his lies, vulgarity and divorces. But with no religious alternative, they embraced him, and delivered in a big way. Now, they are giddy with Trump. Because he had no network of his own to draw on, he has picked his people for their adherence to evangelical organizations. So they are everywhere, in every government department and agency, undermining them. From Mike Pence on down, they were the CNP’s choice. For the evangelicals, it is euphoric. Every day brings new easy access and victories. They are enjoying such success that CNP leaders had their own images portrayed in stained-glass windows in a megachurch in Texas, including their wives and one’s dog, overtaking for the space usually reserved for Jesus. (Those panels have since been removed).
The key to their electoral success is individual targeting. They have data on voters that would make Mark Zuckerberg blush. They can target the undecided with specific appeals that don’t expose the hypocrisy, infighting and self-contradictions. They get a higher percentage of people to the polls, giving their votes more weight. In addition, the focus is on the more lightly populated so-called flyover country, where a single vote can have the impact of six votes in a big city. The result is a tyranny of the minority.
Nelson has done an outstanding job of putting the hidden and disparate pieces together and making a coherent, if horrifying story out of it. She shows the connections between the organizations, the direction from the top, and resulting backward steps this movement is imposing on the country. It makes sense of the chaos that has become Washington’s daily routine. Unfortunately.
David Wineberg
November 13, 2019
Say you've never heard about the Council for National Policy? Most people haven't, but the bland title conceals a high level club of fundamentalists, gun rights activists, oil oligarchs and far right Republican strategists who have been influencing US policy for four decades. They successfully married Christian fundamentalism with right wing Republican issues until the two -- religion and party -- have become indistinguishable. The secret to their success, apart from perseverance and lots of money, has been the collapse of small town media and its replacement with literalist Christian broadcasting and right wing talk radio. If you haven't noticed, you are not alone. It is an incredible story, with the gun lobby, the anti-abortion and anti-gay rights movements, lubricated generously by the money released by Citizens United, in a truly unholy alliance. The story is extremely well told by my colleague Anne Nelson, a terrific researcher and writer, who also teaches at Columbia University. This is a crucial and largely untold story of the takeover of a huge swath of American politics by a pretty unsavory group of people, many of whom want nothing less than a fundamentalist theocracy in charge of the United States. Ignore it at your peril!
December 9, 2019
Not even Stephen King could come up with something this brutally frightening. Children Of The Corn on acid. And, it’s non-fiction.
July 6, 2020
First, the book is not scary! It simply tells the tale of how certain conservative activists and donors have been able to politically organize more effectively than their more moderate fellow Republicans and Democrats, which has enabled them to become very effective at winning local, state, and national elections. Anne Nelson, the author, makes it clear that they are not infallible. Most of these activists and donors did not want Donald Trump, for example, to be their candidate in 2016. These people were unable to defeat Obama in two elections.
Second, it is not the story of one group, but of 3 groups at a minimum. There are the fundamentalist Christians, who are a mixture of advocates of theocracy and Christian nationalists, whom the media often mistakenly confused with the theocrats. This group is fairly united while representing several different organizations. The fundamentalists' issues are abortion, transgender and gay rights, and taxation of church institutions. Then, there are the libertarians, who could care less about abortion or opposing gay rights. But, they form an alliance, because they receive support for reduction of corporate taxes, government regulations (especially concerning business), etc. The best known libertarians here are the Koch brothers, who detest Donald Trump. Then you have the corporate conservatives, who may or may not agree with the religious agenda of the fundamentalists, but they want to sell guns, bibles, anything, while not allowing too much government interference. Here you will find big oil, big auto, etc.
These three groups unite in the Council on National Policy (CNP). This is not a conspiracy. Journalists have gone to meetings, often secretly, and reported on them. Secret footage has been released of meetings. We know many of its members, if not all of them. The three groups cooperate to secure very conservative (radical right) candidates for office in city and county elections, in state elections, and in national elections. They sponsor the Federalist Society to promote and teach very conservative law professionals to federal positions as judges.
Radio networks, usually concentrating on the middle USA (i.e. not the coasts), produce conservative and Christian-oriented news. Often, this news could be called misinformation. Truth does not seem to be a value.
A goal of the entire operation is to win elections and control the country, while being a minority movement. They leaders know that they are in the minority, so full democracy needs to be overcome in order for them to be in power. One method is to strategically get out the vote in places that count - that is maintain a Republican majority in the Senate by concentrating on less-populated states and swing states, where a few thousand votes can change an election. Two senators from Wyoming (population 580,000) are worth as much as 2 senators from California (population 40,000,000). It is similar for presidential elections and the electoral college: be strategic. The idea is to find out who will vote for your candidate in the strategic locations and get them to the polls.
The book does not address voter suppression, which I found a little disappointing. Part of the strategy is not only to get your own voters to the polls, but also to limit the number of voters for the other candidate.
The book does not read like a story. There are too many details, names, places, references, etc. I think that this was necessary so that it does not read like a conspiracy theory - which it is not. You can sort of speed read through it without missing too much.
Second, it is not the story of one group, but of 3 groups at a minimum. There are the fundamentalist Christians, who are a mixture of advocates of theocracy and Christian nationalists, whom the media often mistakenly confused with the theocrats. This group is fairly united while representing several different organizations. The fundamentalists' issues are abortion, transgender and gay rights, and taxation of church institutions. Then, there are the libertarians, who could care less about abortion or opposing gay rights. But, they form an alliance, because they receive support for reduction of corporate taxes, government regulations (especially concerning business), etc. The best known libertarians here are the Koch brothers, who detest Donald Trump. Then you have the corporate conservatives, who may or may not agree with the religious agenda of the fundamentalists, but they want to sell guns, bibles, anything, while not allowing too much government interference. Here you will find big oil, big auto, etc.
These three groups unite in the Council on National Policy (CNP). This is not a conspiracy. Journalists have gone to meetings, often secretly, and reported on them. Secret footage has been released of meetings. We know many of its members, if not all of them. The three groups cooperate to secure very conservative (radical right) candidates for office in city and county elections, in state elections, and in national elections. They sponsor the Federalist Society to promote and teach very conservative law professionals to federal positions as judges.
Radio networks, usually concentrating on the middle USA (i.e. not the coasts), produce conservative and Christian-oriented news. Often, this news could be called misinformation. Truth does not seem to be a value.
A goal of the entire operation is to win elections and control the country, while being a minority movement. They leaders know that they are in the minority, so full democracy needs to be overcome in order for them to be in power. One method is to strategically get out the vote in places that count - that is maintain a Republican majority in the Senate by concentrating on less-populated states and swing states, where a few thousand votes can change an election. Two senators from Wyoming (population 580,000) are worth as much as 2 senators from California (population 40,000,000). It is similar for presidential elections and the electoral college: be strategic. The idea is to find out who will vote for your candidate in the strategic locations and get them to the polls.
The book does not address voter suppression, which I found a little disappointing. Part of the strategy is not only to get your own voters to the polls, but also to limit the number of voters for the other candidate.
The book does not read like a story. There are too many details, names, places, references, etc. I think that this was necessary so that it does not read like a conspiracy theory - which it is not. You can sort of speed read through it without missing too much.
August 12, 2021
This book takes forever to get through for a number of reasons:
1. The facts of the formation of these organizations and their leaders are so thick that you have to slice your way through the heavy pages of research.
2. You want to reread passages to make sure you understood the devious nature of some of these people.
3. You want to double-check the resources cited in order to see the validity of Nelson's analysis (she is spot on!).
4. You get so mad you have to put it down and walk away for awhile.
It is an important and well-researched and written book, but this is not a quick read by any stretch of the imagination. Buckle up, folks.
1. The facts of the formation of these organizations and their leaders are so thick that you have to slice your way through the heavy pages of research.
2. You want to reread passages to make sure you understood the devious nature of some of these people.
3. You want to double-check the resources cited in order to see the validity of Nelson's analysis (she is spot on!).
4. You get so mad you have to put it down and walk away for awhile.
It is an important and well-researched and written book, but this is not a quick read by any stretch of the imagination. Buckle up, folks.
January 8, 2020
I gave this 5 stars not so much that I liked/loved this book but because it is so damn important!! I found this book a difficult read for a couple of reasons: 1) there are so many groups, most of them co-mingled, and keeping all the initials of the groups and who did what needed a score card. The same was true for the cast of rogues that this book is about. After a while you can sort out which character does what and to which group he/she belong but at the start it is a little challenging. 2) The other reason this was a difficult read is that I found it so distressing, so troublesome and filled with hatred that I could only read so much before I wanted/needed to put it down. A few times I felt I couldn't read anymore and just put it down but I needed to finish.
When my wife and I started to watch Margaret Atwood's "Handmaids' Tale" on tv a few years ago, she asked me if I thought this could ever happen here. I quickly said no. Now after reading this meticulously well-researched, well-organized, well-written piece, I feel that it may be not that far away from a real Gilead here in the U.S. I am very scared about our country's future that between the Koch brothers, Betsy DeVoss and her family (and many, many more like them) and the growing bunch of unappeaseable religious fundamental zealots we are in trouble. Having Trump sell what was left of his soul to the Evangelicals was bad enough, but he's really a non-believer who saw an opportunity. The thought of Mike Pence, who's a REAL believer, scares the hell out of me.
One good thing is that now that I'm 70 I don't think I'll be around if it does happen. I'll just make sure I leave my sons enough money to buy a one way ticket out of here.
When my wife and I started to watch Margaret Atwood's "Handmaids' Tale" on tv a few years ago, she asked me if I thought this could ever happen here. I quickly said no. Now after reading this meticulously well-researched, well-organized, well-written piece, I feel that it may be not that far away from a real Gilead here in the U.S. I am very scared about our country's future that between the Koch brothers, Betsy DeVoss and her family (and many, many more like them) and the growing bunch of unappeaseable religious fundamental zealots we are in trouble. Having Trump sell what was left of his soul to the Evangelicals was bad enough, but he's really a non-believer who saw an opportunity. The thought of Mike Pence, who's a REAL believer, scares the hell out of me.
One good thing is that now that I'm 70 I don't think I'll be around if it does happen. I'll just make sure I leave my sons enough money to buy a one way ticket out of here.
December 19, 2019
I was attracted to the book Shadow Network: Media, Money and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right by Anne Nelson because I already knew that Evangelicals (white evangelicals in particular) shared Republican ideology, and liked this ideology better as it got more extreme. What I did not know is that Evangelicals, also called Fundamentalists, were prime movers in turning Republican politics into a well-oiled voter turnout machine.
Anne Nelson is on the faculty at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. She acknowledges the help of colleagues and students in the end notes. Although I have written on these subjects many times Anne Nelson had access to resources I did not. Her work is important to me because it offers proof that my “cheap seats” interpretations of recent events in our government have merit. It would be more satisfying if the truths did not back up the facts that the church has been meddling in our federal government and that they grew from scratch into a very effective organization, using tools both legal and possibly illegal to get Republicans elected.
Southern Baptists were not leaving the church the way other Americans were. The advent of church on TV had given birth to the megachurch phenomenon. Pastors with large numbers of followers became almost religious rock stars. For decades there had been a strong church presence on the radio, especially across the South and Midwest. Stardom can go to your head, at least that seems to be what happened. At first churches met, “convocated,” held conventions, and church leaders talked about the moral decline which they linked to the decline in religious observance in many parts of America. They felt that religion would cure our moral “slippage.” They were angered that it was no longer legal to pray in school. They began to understand that their numbers and their media network gave them power to change the things they did not like about America. Their natural allies were the Republican Party, even more so with the advent of the Tea Party.
Evangelicals began to found a series of social organizations which were ostensibly formed to deal with aspects of America’s slippage, things like the disintegration of the nuclear family, abortion, contraception, the exclusion of religious teachings from school, the increasing concentration of power at the federal level when it could benefit the church’s ability to thrive if power was concentrated instead at the state level (small government).
Evangelicals came to see that if they could get Republican voters to the polls they could get everything they wanted because the Republican agenda matched the Evangelical wish list. They eventually went digital and collected data on a house-by-house basis in places that leaned right.
One problem with this (among many) is that these groups are classified as 501 c3 (nonprofits for religious reasons) and 501 c4 (nonprofits for social welfare reasons). These groups, in order to keep their tax exempt status, are not supposed to be partisan or participate in getting members of any particular party elected. These groups, in an incestuous relationship with the Republican Party and rich Republican donors like the Koch brothers and the DeVos family, were violating their tax exempt status, not to mention colluding to have an outsized effect on our national, state, and local politics. This story is essentially a political thriller, except it's real.
Anne Nelson’s very interesting book may not be to everyone’s taste but should be read by anyone who believes that we should participate in our democracy/republic.
Anne Nelson is on the faculty at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs. She acknowledges the help of colleagues and students in the end notes. Although I have written on these subjects many times Anne Nelson had access to resources I did not. Her work is important to me because it offers proof that my “cheap seats” interpretations of recent events in our government have merit. It would be more satisfying if the truths did not back up the facts that the church has been meddling in our federal government and that they grew from scratch into a very effective organization, using tools both legal and possibly illegal to get Republicans elected.
Southern Baptists were not leaving the church the way other Americans were. The advent of church on TV had given birth to the megachurch phenomenon. Pastors with large numbers of followers became almost religious rock stars. For decades there had been a strong church presence on the radio, especially across the South and Midwest. Stardom can go to your head, at least that seems to be what happened. At first churches met, “convocated,” held conventions, and church leaders talked about the moral decline which they linked to the decline in religious observance in many parts of America. They felt that religion would cure our moral “slippage.” They were angered that it was no longer legal to pray in school. They began to understand that their numbers and their media network gave them power to change the things they did not like about America. Their natural allies were the Republican Party, even more so with the advent of the Tea Party.
Evangelicals began to found a series of social organizations which were ostensibly formed to deal with aspects of America’s slippage, things like the disintegration of the nuclear family, abortion, contraception, the exclusion of religious teachings from school, the increasing concentration of power at the federal level when it could benefit the church’s ability to thrive if power was concentrated instead at the state level (small government).
Evangelicals came to see that if they could get Republican voters to the polls they could get everything they wanted because the Republican agenda matched the Evangelical wish list. They eventually went digital and collected data on a house-by-house basis in places that leaned right.
One problem with this (among many) is that these groups are classified as 501 c3 (nonprofits for religious reasons) and 501 c4 (nonprofits for social welfare reasons). These groups, in order to keep their tax exempt status, are not supposed to be partisan or participate in getting members of any particular party elected. These groups, in an incestuous relationship with the Republican Party and rich Republican donors like the Koch brothers and the DeVos family, were violating their tax exempt status, not to mention colluding to have an outsized effect on our national, state, and local politics. This story is essentially a political thriller, except it's real.
Anne Nelson’s very interesting book may not be to everyone’s taste but should be read by anyone who believes that we should participate in our democracy/republic.
November 18, 2019
The Center for National Policy should rightfully be named the Center for Extreme Right-Wing National Policy. This book makes a great third book in a trilogy with The Family and C Street by Jeff Sharlet. The three make a very good guide to behind the scenes Republican shady politics. It is very thoroughly researched and annotated. Nothing fake here.
August 9, 2024
So upsetting. If you have enough money you can direct it to make sure laws are written so you can get even more money. Trump is a puppet to billionaires who exploited the electoral college system to get tax cuts at the expense of the people. The entire system points back to a handful of white evangelicals who think God has told them what to do so they should be allowed to. The fact that the majority doesn’t agree doesn’t matter to them.
VOTE. Please register to vote in November and make your voice heard. If you agree with them, fine, but if you don’t agree with them, not voting at all is essentially helping them win.
VOTE. Please register to vote in November and make your voice heard. If you agree with them, fine, but if you don’t agree with them, not voting at all is essentially helping them win.
June 18, 2021
Excellent. Accurate. The American Taliban -- the greatest danger to 1) America and 2) the world that exists today. I wish this book had come out before 2015, if not before 2007. Highly recommended for those who can stomach it.
December 29, 2020
Incredible insight to the changes in political landscape that have been shaping for decades through targeted action. From the collapse of newspapers across the country to the rise of mega donors influencing religion/politics/life. Anne Nelson does a phenomenal job connecting how the shadow network is influencing more than you know. If you’re a journalist junkie this needs to be your next read.
March 8, 2021
There's a lot to unpack when it comes to reading this book. I share some common background with the author - both from the same home state and both with a background in journalism. We do not, necessarily, share political viewpoints - reading this book, I was all to aware that I am more conservative than she is. But I have never believed in shying away from what someone has to say just because we have political differences, and I've learned a lot of things as a result.
This book definitely packs a punch.
Some things came as no surprise to me. I work in newspaper, so when Nelson discusses the dilemma facing print papers and the ever-growing problem of news deserts, that was information I already knew all too well.
Some parts got a little dry - dollar amounts and tech advances play an important part in all this, but that doesn't make them any more interesting to me.
Some parts were deeply shocking. For example, the "Death squads have a very negative connotation" from Chapter 2: Birth of the CNP. Or the bits of the essay, "The Integration of Theory and Practice: A Program for the New Traditionalist Movement" in the Chapter 6: Fishers of Men. ("Our movement will be entirely destructive, and entirely constructive. We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them, and eventually destroy them," is just one part of it.)
It is at once impressive and terrifying to see the wheels turning - the ways disinformation was spread, the way technology was used to gather information on individuals and then use that information to tailor political appeals to them.
As a conservative, so many of the names and organizations mentioned were familiar to me, and it was upsetting to look back and see all the strings being pulled. I'll be honest - I have fallen victim to some of those manipulations myself. Even more heart-wrenching, though, to read how those strings were pulled to take a political party and manipulate it to the will of the rich and influential, even if that means completely cutting out moderate conservatives.
I do think this is an important book to read. I wish I could get my fellow conservative friends to read it, but I am afraid the author's viewpoints would be offputting to them. And even if they did, I imagine they would just say, "Fake news!" (because, of course, the media and book publishing industry and Hollywood and basically anyone that is not Fox news or a Christian company is lying to us all) or they would point out that the liberals are also out there manipulating people (I have no doubt there are rich and influential people on both sides trying to manipulate the public for their own ends, however ... even if those on the left are doing the exact same thing, it's still wrong).
This book definitely packs a punch.
Some things came as no surprise to me. I work in newspaper, so when Nelson discusses the dilemma facing print papers and the ever-growing problem of news deserts, that was information I already knew all too well.
Some parts got a little dry - dollar amounts and tech advances play an important part in all this, but that doesn't make them any more interesting to me.
Some parts were deeply shocking. For example, the "Death squads have a very negative connotation" from Chapter 2: Birth of the CNP. Or the bits of the essay, "The Integration of Theory and Practice: A Program for the New Traditionalist Movement" in the Chapter 6: Fishers of Men. ("Our movement will be entirely destructive, and entirely constructive. We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them, and eventually destroy them," is just one part of it.)
It is at once impressive and terrifying to see the wheels turning - the ways disinformation was spread, the way technology was used to gather information on individuals and then use that information to tailor political appeals to them.
As a conservative, so many of the names and organizations mentioned were familiar to me, and it was upsetting to look back and see all the strings being pulled. I'll be honest - I have fallen victim to some of those manipulations myself. Even more heart-wrenching, though, to read how those strings were pulled to take a political party and manipulate it to the will of the rich and influential, even if that means completely cutting out moderate conservatives.
I do think this is an important book to read. I wish I could get my fellow conservative friends to read it, but I am afraid the author's viewpoints would be offputting to them. And even if they did, I imagine they would just say, "Fake news!" (because, of course, the media and book publishing industry and Hollywood and basically anyone that is not Fox news or a Christian company is lying to us all) or they would point out that the liberals are also out there manipulating people (I have no doubt there are rich and influential people on both sides trying to manipulate the public for their own ends, however ... even if those on the left are doing the exact same thing, it's still wrong).
December 30, 2021
This is like a sequel to Jane Mayer's Dark Money and Nancy McLean's Democracy in Chains. This time the focus is on the Council for National Policy -- the shadowy organization that sustains the nexis between key constituencies in the Republican Party and populist far-right movement institutions: Christian megachurches, right-wing media (Sinclair Radio, Salem Media, Christian Broadcast Network, Daily Caller), billionaires like DeVos, Foster Friess and of cours the Kochs, other far-right groups like the NRA, and others.
This book made it clear to me why Trump picked Pence. It wasn't just because Kushner and Bannon thought he would "balance the ticket" by appealing to right-to-lifers and heartland conservatives. No, it was to confirm to CNP's key groups that their agenda (anti-abortion and anti-gay, pro-guns) would be his. (It's interesting to think how perfectly Pence fits the profile of a CNP politician -- not just because of these views, but also his career -- e.g. besides being a Republican governor, he was also a right-wing talk radio).
"Shadow Network" is the perfect title for all the conservative cross-connections described here. It's a wonder no one knows who CNP is.
And it isn't going away with Trump and Pence: CNP's connections to colleges like Hillsdale (whose alums include Erik Prince) and Liberty suggest they are grooming a large new generation of leaders.
It's scary, but for that reason it's an important book.
This book made it clear to me why Trump picked Pence. It wasn't just because Kushner and Bannon thought he would "balance the ticket" by appealing to right-to-lifers and heartland conservatives. No, it was to confirm to CNP's key groups that their agenda (anti-abortion and anti-gay, pro-guns) would be his. (It's interesting to think how perfectly Pence fits the profile of a CNP politician -- not just because of these views, but also his career -- e.g. besides being a Republican governor, he was also a right-wing talk radio).
"Shadow Network" is the perfect title for all the conservative cross-connections described here. It's a wonder no one knows who CNP is.
And it isn't going away with Trump and Pence: CNP's connections to colleges like Hillsdale (whose alums include Erik Prince) and Liberty suggest they are grooming a large new generation of leaders.
It's scary, but for that reason it's an important book.
June 4, 2020
Much like "Dark Money," the writing is strident in presenting conservative coordination of money and messaging as a sinister plot. And perhaps that is right and proper. As a lifelong conservative who could feel things changing in disturbing ways among conservative activists, politicians and media members during the double-00's, this book suggests it was not all in my head. From the corralling of disenfranchised evangelicals to driving the NRA membership to militant gun-rights advocacy, the author makes a compelling case that this has been the plan for decades - and that the Democrats, who have not begun to coordinate in such ways, are decades behind. Troubling on all counts.
January 30, 2025
i walk away from shadow network with a fuller understanding of the council for national policy (CNP), the partner organizations with which it operates in lockstep, some of their major funders, and the media echo chamber in which they all proselytize.
i most appreciate this book for revealing events from the past ~50 years that have fomented the trump presidency and an increasingly reactionary GOP. i learned of the ultraconservative takeover of the southern baptist convention in the 1980s, and see it reflected in the winnowing of moderate republicans from the GOP in the 2010s. i see how über-conservative christian radio outlets have weathered the profitability crisis that has shuttered local news outlets, allowing the former to take over and tyrannize the airwaves with few alternatives in middle america. i cannot un-notice the similarities between today's oil & gas tycoons and the cotton giants of yore, and how the confederate pride that never died mucks up this mess even more.
nelson does well at revealing these through lines, but sometimes i felt like i had to pick them out from a pile of words. perhaps this speaks more to what i wanted this book to show me: a rough narrative arc that undergirds american politics today. i also wish that she had expounded upon the evolution of the democrats' campaign technology between 2008-2016 to better highlight the republicans' purported advances.
though the CNP has historically succeeded at shepherding its allies towards the same vision, it coalesces conservative groups with unrelated agendas – evangelical christianity, a small federal government, the military, and more – which means it can be fractured.
i most appreciate this book for revealing events from the past ~50 years that have fomented the trump presidency and an increasingly reactionary GOP. i learned of the ultraconservative takeover of the southern baptist convention in the 1980s, and see it reflected in the winnowing of moderate republicans from the GOP in the 2010s. i see how über-conservative christian radio outlets have weathered the profitability crisis that has shuttered local news outlets, allowing the former to take over and tyrannize the airwaves with few alternatives in middle america. i cannot un-notice the similarities between today's oil & gas tycoons and the cotton giants of yore, and how the confederate pride that never died mucks up this mess even more.
nelson does well at revealing these through lines, but sometimes i felt like i had to pick them out from a pile of words. perhaps this speaks more to what i wanted this book to show me: a rough narrative arc that undergirds american politics today. i also wish that she had expounded upon the evolution of the democrats' campaign technology between 2008-2016 to better highlight the republicans' purported advances.
though the CNP has historically succeeded at shepherding its allies towards the same vision, it coalesces conservative groups with unrelated agendas – evangelical christianity, a small federal government, the military, and more – which means it can be fractured.
March 7, 2022
A whirlwind of shadow characters, pulling the strings publicly and privately, forming the base of what has become the post-millennial version of the Republican Party. Really well researched. It is a little disorienting, having grown up in a fundamentalist household, familiar with a lot of the mentioned “shadow characters” — and now seeing their involvement, unsurprising, preaching the necessity of the first amendment while simultaneously pushing the formation of a bible-based theocracy. I will probably need to read this one again in a few years with the benefit of some years of additional perspective—hopefully Anne Nelson publishes an updated version.
July 24, 2023
In my continued literary deep dive into dark money, I dipped my toe into this book on the Christian right, a sector that I have some experience in learning about. Though highly liberal, filled with biased language and a fairly partisan lens, I appreciated the complicated viewpoint that the author sees the players from. Digging mostly into the little-known Council for National Policy, this strong work of nonfiction takes a complex view of an interconnected web of hard-right organizations leading up to and into the presidency of Donald Trump, with nuance and wisdom for how we got here and the everyday Middle America voters along for the ride.
October 6, 2024
A meticulously researched & thoroughly disturbing look at how the conditions arose for Trump to claim the presidency, & the many ways that billionaires are buying policy changes to benefit themselves (with fundamentalists manipulating the system in any way possible to push their worldviews into law).
Read
November 2, 2020Lots of good history and explanatikons. Not up todate regarding the 2020 election and impact of the Covid-19 virus on the election. Today (11-02-2020) waiting for the outcome of the election tomorrow...
February 8, 2025
Recommended FOUR YEARS AGO! It's been sitting, 25% read all that time.
This book connects those right-wing evangelical players with the media empires they created. And their electoral attacks on our country. It explains much of Trump's success. We have a lot to learn.
This book connects those right-wing evangelical players with the media empires they created. And their electoral attacks on our country. It explains much of Trump's success. We have a lot to learn.
August 9, 2025
Disturbing and informative read that I will keep on my shelf as a reference book. One of my biggest complaints is that Nelson would often include single sentences of random facts about a person she was discussing that never came back or seemed irrelevant. I would also like to have a Glossery of CNP members and affiliates, not just organizations. Would be incredible to see a follow up book to this in a few years.
November 2, 2025
Well written.
Took me over a month to finish due how frustrated I felt upon reading each chapter, and explains the 'West Coast bubble' - we had no clue to what was going on in Middle America.
Took me over a month to finish due how frustrated I felt upon reading each chapter, and explains the 'West Coast bubble' - we had no clue to what was going on in Middle America.
June 18, 2025
Between this book and Jane Mayer’s Dark Money, I have learned all I care to learn at this time about the people involved in influencing politics, newspapers, legislation, and on and on. This book is well researched and reported and is a good companion to Mayer’s book.
June 16, 2020
Important behind-the-scenes look at the mega-rich conservative religious right. Scary. And it explains how Pence ended up as Vice President. He’s part of Trump’s deal with the devil.
May 2, 2021
A great reportorial record of the ties between religious and political fundamentalism in America in the last forty years. This account is long on factual reporting, but while it has a definite slant, it is short on interpretation. In fairness, that was not the author's purpose.
November 21, 2019
https://www.npr.org/2019/10/29/774133...
If you ever wondered as I often have, what does the Koch brothers network and other, politically active billionaires have in common with Evangelical voters who overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump in 2016, and then supported far-right Republicans in the 2018 mid-terms.
This book will help answer that question. Parts are dense with detail, but worth the reading.
Pair this book with "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" and "C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy" both by Jeff Sharlett
If you ever wondered as I often have, what does the Koch brothers network and other, politically active billionaires have in common with Evangelical voters who overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump in 2016, and then supported far-right Republicans in the 2018 mid-terms.
This book will help answer that question. Parts are dense with detail, but worth the reading.
Pair this book with "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" and "C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy" both by Jeff Sharlett
December 18, 2022
Very detailed (sometimes too detailed) account of the behind the scenes rise of the Conservatives. It is an interesting read Trump was able to attract the religious right's support and how the Christians overlooked their personal distaste of Trump to elect him. It's a classic look at how people are manipulated to vote by a small group that controls what people see. The power of the media (small radio stations in this case) shows that who controls the message controls the country.
November 21, 2019
Follow the money. Anne Nelson has thoroughly done that, and this book was absolute gasoline on the fire of my insomnia. I pray that some Democratic National committee members read and heed this before the future of this world becomes something dystopian and horrifically unworthy of the young people I love and care about.
January 13, 2020
Good information, but not the best writing. This was a slog for me. An info-graphic showing the web of people, organizations, and foundations Nelson chronicles may have been a better way to present the case.
January 26, 2020
This book is full of terrifying information about right wing and fundamentalists machinations to take over our government. I give it just 3 stars because it is very hard to read...I had to speed read through many complex, fact-filled paragraphs.
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