Maria Brady, for one, had no idea who Charles Koch was in 2008. She didn’t study Hayek or von Mises or read papers from the Cato Institute. Instead, she began her political education on the Internet. The stories she found there were outrageous. She read that Nancy Pelosi had ordered two jumbo jet planes for her own use, and that Congress had approved of the purchase, using taxpayer money. Brady and her husband were paying for Nancy Pelosi’s private jet, and nobody was talking about it!II
Brady did find one trusted source for news and education that was recommended to her by many friends and fellow patriots. She began to watch the television show of a commentator named Glenn Beck. “I kind of got an education. My start of my education was Glenn Beck, I guess. Because that’s the only person that was talking about the issues that I agreed with.”
Glenn Beck was the most prominent voice in the American Tea Party movement, and understanding Beck’s political philosophy was critical to understanding the Tea Party and the relationship of the Tea Party to Charles Koch’s political efforts.
Glenn Beck’s television show on Fox News drew close to three million viewers in 2009, beating the combined ratings of all his competitors’ shows. Beck spent many years honing his skills as a political entertainer on talk radio, where provocation was the currency of the realm. Debate was better than discussion. Suspense was better than satisfaction. Outrage was better than understanding. Glenn Beck elevated this genre to the level of high art. The narratives he spun on his show were terrifying and purported to reveal the broad contours of chilling global conspiracies. He affected the persona of a high school teacher, wearing a cheap, ill-fitting coat and tie. He stood in front of a chalkboard. During one show, the chalkboard displayed three logos: The United Nations symbol, the Islamic crescent, and the iconic Communist hammer and sickle. Beck explained that these three logos represented the three global movements that were currently hard at work to enslave and control his viewers.
“The world is on fire,” Beck said in a remarkably casual and civil tone. “And there are three groups of people that want a new world order.”
One of Beck’s favorite targets was the Obama administration’s efforts to promote alternative fuels, which Beck portrayed as a vast conspiracy to steal wealth from the middle class and transfer it to an elite group of liberal billionaires. The first phase of the conspiracy, Beck explained, was to fool everyone into thinking that human activity and the burning of fossil fuels was changing the world’s climate. Climate change was a lie, Beck said, perpetuated by dishonest scientists who cherry-picked and fabricated evidence.
Americans for Prosperity helped promote this point of view. Phil Kerpen, AFP’s national director of policy, joined Glenn Beck on his show during the summer of 2009 to help Beck analyze global warming and the clean energy conspiracy. Kerpen sat opposite Beck, near the chalkboard that was covered with a spiderweb of interlocking circles and arrows. The conspiracy outlined there was complex and involved several think tanks, government officials, nongovernmental organizations, and government programs. Beck reminded viewers that the clean energy crusade was meant to steal their liberty.
“This is the head. This is the head. This is at least a main player in what is going on in America!” Beck exclaimed. Then he looked directly into the camera and said: “I believe, America, that this is probably the biggest—and correct me if I’m wrong . . . This is the biggest story in history. It is the hijacking of our republic. Yes or no?”
Kerpen nodded his head in agreement. “I think you’re right,” Kerpen said. “And the shame, the amazing thing to me is, that they’re so brazen.”
Beck was encouraged by these remarks, and incensed.
“This is gigantic money! And let me tell you something, America. Nobody is doing this stuff on television,” Beck said. “It is the hijacking of our country.”
Beck’s show informed Maria Brady’s self-education. She researched the Freemasons, paganism, and the US Senate. “Our government is running everything,” she said. “They were taking over everything, and they did a lousy job. Everything they put their little grimy hands on, they messed up. I am one hundred percent sure that what’s wrong is that the government controls everything.”
This was von Mises on the retail level. Brady, in her way, was coming to the same conclusions that Charles Koch had come to many decades earlier. But she didn’t hold the antiseptic free-market views of an Austrian economist. Her Internet research led her to darker places.
“I am totally convinced that probably seventy percent to seventy-five percent of our government is being run by Satan worshippers,” Brady said. “That’s what’s wrong with this country.”
Maria Brady’s point of view did not lend itself to roomy political debate or to compromise with people of differing beliefs. She became a political activist who was unyielding and religiously dedicated to saving her country from evil forces.
With the guidance and help of Americans for Prosperity, Brady found her first political target. It was the congressman from her district, who was running for reelection, named Bob Inglis.
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When Bob Inglis held a town hall meeting in Boiling Springs, Maria Brady and her compatriots were prepared. Brady sent out an e-mail to her list, informing her fellow Tea Partyers about the event. When Brady arrived, she had a wad of small slips with the words “pink slip” written on them. She stood outside the event and passed out the pink slips to her friends. The idea was to throw these toward the stage at some point, signifying the fact that voters were ready to send Bob Inglis packing. Brady found a seat in the front row, so she was ready when Inglis took the stage and started speaking. She estimated that the crowd was between three hundred and four hundred people.
For Brady, the pivotal moment came during the question and answer session. She wanted to know one thing: How could Bob Inglis vote to allow Nancy Pelosi to buy two luxury jets for her own use on the taxpayer’s dime? She took the microphone, and she asked this question, and she was horrified by his answer.
“He didn’t know anything about it!” Brady recalled. “He looked at me, and he was like, ‘What? What are you talking about? I don’t know anything about this.’ ”
This was the moment when Brady realized that she had to do everything in her power to make sure Inglis lost his seat in Congress. While it was untrue that Nancy Pelosi had purchased two jets, Brady was correct on one point: Inglis seemed utterly incapable of dealing with her question. He stood on the stage in a navy blazer and white button-down shirt, trying to talk in measured tones to a crowd that was shouting.
One woman interrupted Inglis, shouting: “I’m afraid of Obama!” Inglis stopped and asked the woman: “Why are you afraid?” At this, the crowd erupted. A man shouted, “Because he’s a Socialist!”
“Let me ask you something. This is very helpful,” Inglis said. “Where are you getting that?” He was smiling and waving his hand, acting like he was engaged in a collegial conversation about politics. Someone shouted that they were “getting that” from Glenn Beck.
“Glenn Beck,” Inglis said. “Here’s what I’d suggest: turn that television off when he comes on.” This is when Inglis lost the crowd. They erupted in a wall of boos and shouts. Once again, he could barely be heard over the cacophony. He tried anyway.