National Nurses United

His influence began with his appointment as chair of the economics department at the University of Virginia in 1956. For Buchanan, and similar ideologues, the first public expression of their theories was rooted, as is so much of U.S. political, social, and economic history, in racism, in vehement opposition to the Brown v Board of Education school desegregation decision. Virginia, encouraged by Buchanan and allied politicians and edi- torial writers through what became known as a "Massive Resist- ance" policy, mandated the closure of any public school that sought to comply with the court and desegregate, thinly veiling their response as defending "state sovereignty" and "personal liberty." Buchanan subsequently moved on to UCLA, Virginia Tech, and finally George Mason, setting up autonomous rightwing academic "centers" to inculcate and train brethren economists and lawyers, publish books outlining his ideology, and campaign to popularize his theories. Unlike more academic-oriented economists, Buchanan sought to translate his ideas into public policy with an evolving agenda and action plan that should look all too familiar today, premised on: • Eradication and privatization of public services, including Social Security, Medicare, public schools, nutrition support, and other social safety net programs—the only exceptions being govern- ment functions such as the courts, which were needed to enforce protections for the corporate elite and the super wealthy. • Defunding public programs by eliminating taxes, especially income and corporate taxes, the collection of which was described as property theft and an intrusion on "liberty" and the "freedom" of corporations and wealthy individuals to do whatever they want with their own wealth. • Dismantling mechanisms for collective action, with unions as a particular target, as seen in the recent Janus ruling, as a threat to the "rights of the minority," which, in this case, are the super rich. Collective action is again cloaked as an "undemocratic" coercion of the minority by government and the majority. • Putting "democracy in chains"—a rollback of democratic rights and majority rule, through laws, litigation, court rulings, and police force. Major goals include disempowering unions, sharp restrictions on voting rights, undermining public education, and punishment of public protests. • Carrying out this agenda with "shock and awe" speed to limit the ability of the majority to impede the program, and the use of stealth to hide their real goals, including the use of deliberate lies and disinformation. She cites two examples: One, falsely asserting Social Security is "going bankrupt," to promote "reforms" intended to advance priva- tization and, two, falsely claiming "lack of scientific consensus" as cover to protect the Kochs' fossil fuel industry from real action on the climate crisis. The perversion of language is central. "Liberty," "individual rights," and a "free society" are code terms that mean "discrim- inatory" legislation, from tax-funded social programs to the rights of workers to form unions, as well as asserting that collective action and majority rule violate the rights of "the minority"—corporations and the 1 percent. Public health programs and protections are a major casualty of this assault, and not just the effort to repeal the gains made under the Affordable Care Act. It extends to food safety laws, anti-pollu- tion measures, workplace protections, and the all-out attack on mitigating the climate crisis. MacLean highlights the threats to "basic sanitation," which for a century have been "the single most important measure to stop waterborne epidemics such as cholera and typhoid." Exhibit A is Flint, Mich. The water crisis was not a natural dis- aster. It emerged from a proposal by the Koch-funded Mackinac Center and a scheme to impose unelected emergency managers in communities across Michigan with full authority to unilaterally can- cel collective bargaining contracts, override local city councils or school boards, and sell off public resources to private companies. In Flint, the emergency manager diverted the source of city water to a polluted river "to save money," opening up a calamity of poi- soned water for a largely African-American community. "Public choice" theory was another one of Buchanan's calling cards—any government actions that interfere with the market are illegitimate "in a society of free men." To Buchanan and his Koch-aligned successors, "the common good" and "the general welfare" are branded as smokescreens to hide a secret agenda of politicians who put their self-interest, receiving favors from the majority or help getting reelected, above what they believe should be the real interests of a society—an unfettered pri- vate market. When the ACA fight began, a Buchanan acolyte wrote "public choice theory explained everything," including that "health offi- cials' interest in testing small children's blood for lead made sense when one considers that finding poisoned children validated their jobs." Buchanan's most lasting success however, may have been his influence on Charles Koch, who seized on the Buchanan model to push an even more aggressive agenda of corporate fundamentalism that can be seen throughout the political and economic system today. That includes privatization efforts targeting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Administration, and public schools; attacks on public health programs, from women's health programs to budget cuts for programs such as disease prevention and epidemic control, environmental pollution regulations, and workplace safety rules; and the tax bill, whose cuts went almost entirely to corporations and the super rich. The courts are a major target, part of the strategy of making per- manent changes to the political system, including President Trump's first Supreme Court appointee Neil Gorsuch, his second nomina- tion, Brett Kavanaugh, and many other federal judicial nominees handpicked off far-right think tank lists. MacLean estimates 40 per- cent of current federal judges have gone through Koch-funded legal centers. Unions and worker's collective rights generally, are a also key focus. It's worth noting that Gorsuch, whose first major authored decision barred workers from acting collectively to resolve illegal workplace discrimination, was a key vote for the Janus decision. Following Janus, the Mackinac Center is funding efforts to per- suade public workers to withdraw from helping pay for unions to bargain for gains in their wages, benefits, and working conditions. And Kavanaugh has a long anti-union track record, including vot- ing to protect a Trump casino from unionization and dissenting in a decision protecting employees from anti-discrimination statutes. The stakes could not be higher. If this is to be a country we want to "bequeath to our children and future generations," MacLean concludes, "that is the real public choice. If we delay much longer, those who are imposing their stark utopia will choose for us." —Charles Idelson J U LY | A U G U S T | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 15

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