Citizens United let Koch money convert Republicans to climate denial within years

Evidence

Up until 2010, it was common for Republican candidates to run on a “green energy” platform, even to support cap-and-trade policies as a way to mitigate carbon emissions. But after the Supreme Court Citizens United decision liberated corporate money in political campaigns, things changed. Charles and David Koch, who own 84 percent of the oil refining company Koch Industries, poured money into a campaign to pressure Republicans into opposing any action on global warming. Their strategy worked: “Republicans who asserted support for climate change legislation or the seriousness of the climate threat saw their money dry up or faced a primary challenger.” By 2017, when Trump initiated US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change, every member of the elected Republican leadership united in praise of the drastic move. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 251

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete case of the chapter’s general claim that conspiracy-style dissent can be financially radicalized — pairs with earlier passages on manufactured misinformation campaigns. — connects to: Fossil fuel funding manufactured doubt that made climate change a partisan media issue — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 160; Anti-government ideology independently motivated climate-change denial beyond industry funding — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 74; Climate-change denial organizations were directly funded by tobacco and fossil-fuel interests — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 71 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Climate-change denial organizations were directly funded by tobacco and fossil-fuel interests #corroborates (0.82) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 71
• Fossil fuel funding manufactured doubt that made climate change a partisan media issue #corroborates (0.80) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 160
• Citizens United’s logical strain reveals a new set of meanings being crafted #expands (0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 345
• Citizens United redefines influence as following the money and super PACS as independent speech #expands (0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 345
• Citizens United equates corporate speech with money, worsening access inequality. #expands (0.80) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 385
• Citizens United remakes the political subject as an economic one #expands (0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 306
• Anti-government ideology independently motivated climate-change denial beyond industry funding #qualifies (0.75) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 74
• Citizens United turns neoliberal rationality into a constitutional hermeneutic governing law. #expands (0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 328