Fat Cats and Hidden Hands in Politics

Now & Then

Vox Media Podcast Network

News, Society & Culture, History, News Commentary

4.9 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2022

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why is there so much dark money in politics? How have political funders concealed their identities and motivations? And how does this sleight of hand damage American democracy? This week on Now & Then, Heather and Joanne discuss the role of capital in political maneuvering, from Thomas Jefferson’s 1791 funding of an anti-Federalist newspaper, to department store magnate John Wanamaker’s 1888 herding of Republican businessmen, to Richard Viguerie’s 1970s direct mail campaigns. Join CAFE Insider to listen to “Backstage,” where Heather and Joanne chat each week about the anecdotes and ideas that formed the episode. Head to: cafe.com/history For more historical analysis of current events, sign up for the free weekly CAFE Brief newsletter, featuring Time Machine, a weekly article that dives into an historical event inspired by each episode of Now & Then: cafe.com/brief For references & supplemental materials, head to: cafe.com/now-and-then/fat-cats-and-hidden-hands-in-politics/ Now & Then is presented by CAFE and the Vox Media Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for today's show comes from Slack.
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1:25.1	From Cafe and the Vox Media Podcast Network, this is now and then.
1:30.0	I'm Heather Cox Richardson and I'm Joanne Freeman.
1:34.2	Now I'm going to start out by saying that it will come as no surprise to anyone who regularly
1:39.4	listens to this podcast.
1:41.8	We often talk about threats to democracy here and today we're going to be talking about
1:46.5	a rather large one.
1:49.0	In short, what we're going to be talking about is, I suppose you could call it dark money,
1:55.2	money that's used for political spending to influence the decisions of voters but the
2:00.6	donor isn't known, the source of the money isn't known.
2:03.5	So in essence, what we're going to be talking about is over time how people, typically
	...

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