This should not surprise anyone yet there seems to be a lot of ignorance about it out there. Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Billionaire Koch Brothers It seemed clear to me from the start but being surrounded by people who buy into this stuff without knowing its real meaning has made it clear that the lies have viability.
The origin of the study
The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health, traces the roots of the Tea Party's anti-tax movement back to the early 1980s when tobacco companies began to invest in third party groups to fight excise taxes on cigarettes, as well as health studies finding a link between cancer and secondhand cigarette smoke.
There is more to this than meets the eye and once again successful right wing framing made it possible for some real populism to be perverted very effectively. Read on below for more.
As a medical scientist it has always easy for me to see through this movement, but not everyone I know has that ability.
The two main organizations identified in the UCSF Quarterback study are Americans for Prosperity and Freedomworks. Both groups are now "supporting the tobacco companies' political agenda by mobilizing local Tea Party opposition to tobacco taxes and smoke-free laws." Freedomworks and Americans for Prosperity were once a single organization called Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE). CSE was founded in 1984 by the infamous Koch Brothers, David and Charles Koch, and received over $5.3 million from tobacco companies, mainly Philip Morris, between 1991 and 2004.
In 1990, Tim Hyde, RJR Tobacco's head of national field operations, in an eerily similar description of the Tea Party today, explained why groups like CSE were important to the tobacco industry's fight against government regulation. Hyde wrote:
"... coalition building should proceed along two tracks: a) a grassroots organizational and largely local track,; b) and a national, intellectual track within the DC-New York corridor. Ultimately, we are talking about a "movement," a national effort to change the way people think about government's (and big business) role in our lives. Any such effort requires an intellectual foundation - a set of theoretical and ideological arguments on its behalf."
The common public understanding of the origins of the Tea Party is that it is a popular grassroots uprising that began with anti-tax protests in 2009.
Teaching at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond kept me close to the sources of this movement.
The new name for Phillip Morris is Altria
Altria Group, Inc. (previously named Philip Morris Companies Inc.) is an American multinational corporation based in Henrico County, Virginia, United States of America; it is the parent company of Philip Morris USA, John Middleton, Inc., U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, Inc., Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. It is one of the world's largest tobacco corporations. Philip Morris International was spun off in 2008. In addition, Altria Group, Inc. has a 28.7% economic and voting interest in one of the world's largest brewing companies, UK based SABMiller plc, where it has 3 seats on the 11-person board of directors. It is a component of the S&P 500 and was a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average until February 19, 2008. The company has its headquarters in an unincorporated area within Henrico County, less than five miles west of the city limits of Richmond and less than ten miles from its downtown Richmond buildings.
On January 27, 2003, Philip Morris Companies Inc. changed its name to Altria Group, Inc. On March 30, 2007, a spin out of Kraft Foods subsidiary (publicly traded since 2001) was concluded through distribution of the remaining stake of shares (88.1%) to Altria shareholders. As a result, Altria no longer holds any interest in Kraft Foods. On March 28, 2008, a similar spin out of Philip Morris International was completed with 100% of shares being distributed to Altria shareholders.
On January 6, 2009, Altria Group, Inc. completed the acquisition of UST Inc., a smokeless tobacco manufacturer; UST owned Ste Michelle Wine Estates, a wine company.
The story comes even closer to home when I admit to being a prime mover in the search committee that hired
Eugene P. Trani
the fourth president of Virginia Commonwealth University on July 1, 1990. He also served as President and Chair of the Board of Directors of the VCU Health System
. As I write this, I look at paper weight given to me for my serviceon the faculty steering committee that hired Trani.
During his VCU tenure, Dr. Trani also guided the development of “A Strategic Plan for the Future of Virginia Commonwealth University,” which produced significant organizational changes in programs and administration, including a comprehensive administrative streamlining report; a new framework for establishing interdisciplinary centers that combine VCU’s strengths in teaching, research, and service; a new faculty roles and rewards policy and a companion review process for VCU’s promotion and tenure policy; a master planning effort that incorporates new architectural guidelines into the development of the campuses in a way that complements their surroundings in the community; and a comprehensive technology plan developed in collaboration with area businesses for the entire institution.
Among the strategic plan’s important areas of focus has been enhancing VCU’s growing importance to economic development in Virginia. Dr. Trani spearheaded the development of the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park, which has attracted the biotech industry to Virginia, serving as Chair of the Research Park Authority Board. The plan also brought the development of a new engineering school,
Among the accomplishments is the Biotech Research park. In it is
Biotech Nine is home to the Center for Research and Technology. Opened in late 2007, this complex is bounded by 5th and 7th streets just north of the Richmond Coliseum. The Center encompasses a total of 450,000 square feet and employs approximately 600 scientists, engineers and support staff. The Center is designed to promote collaboration and creativity and to develop technologies that improve Altria Group’s operating companies’ current products and lead to innovative new products. This state-of-the-art research center is the largest single private sector investment in the Research Park and the City of Richmond. In addition to the main research and office building, the project also included a 900-car parking structure, Central Utility Plant and Innovation Park, a three-quarter acre urban park and gathering place with water features, landscaping, and permanent all-weather pavilion.
So the forces behind tobacco research and global warming denial are right here mixed in with all sorts of other activities that look good to the public.
I have been writing about the system's theory explanation of why we are where we are. My book with Jim Coffman goes to the intellectual heart of the matter.
It seems so very clear to me that the system is integral and any attempt to deal with these as separate issues misses the point entirely.
As we explain in our book and a follow up paper, the roots of this all are in the way we think. Our world model is feeding all this and supports it. Nothing any of you are doing politically recognizes this. The denial is very close to total.
I have been writing about George Lakoff's ideas from my systems perspective and trying to use his insights into how our minds work to get people to see that our problem is one of system level magnitude, not one of political issues dealt with piecemeal.
It is hard to get people to examine the very basic model they use to operate in the world. Until we figure out how this problem will only get worse.