Second of three parts.
Lionheart Academy in Peterborough is run by Hillsdale College, a tiny, evangelical, liberal-arts college in rural Michigan that is a megaphone for radical, right-wing politicians. Its newsletter, “Imprimis,” claims 6.2 million readers. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a frequent contributor, and Charles Koch has also authored an “Imprimis” piece.
Now we’re circling in on more New Hampshire connections. Hillsdale’s charter-school subsidiary seeks to replace public schools with religious charters like Lionheart Academy nationwide. They teach Larry Arnn’s “1776 Curriculum.” It is a blueprint for “patriotic education,” devised for former President Donald Trump’s 1776 Commission.
As Hillsdale College president Larry Arnn proclaims, “Teaching is our trade. It is also our weapon.”
In 2021, Arnn would use this weapon to help Koch fight plummeting oil prices due to COVID. Hillsdale would open The Academy for Science and Freedom. Its mission? To fight the “fiasco” of government pandemic mask and vaccine mandates, contact tracing and lockdowns.
But even a decade earlier, the Kochs are well on their way to achieving David Koch’s 1980 goals, when he ran for vice president on the Libertarian ticket. The Federalist Society is infiltrating the judiciary. Hillsdale is preparing to transform schools. In 2009, Hillsdale hires Ginni Thomas, Clarence Thomas’ wife, to help them launch a Washington, D.C., campus on Capitol Hill. Ginni Thomas sets up the new Hillsdale campus across from the Koch-funded Heritage Foundation. She helps start Hillsdale’s program to use Heritage and Federalist Society staff to train young Congressional staffers. Arnn also uses the venue to gain frequent interviews by Rush Limbaugh and other right-wing media.
Citizens United frees dark money
In 2010, attorney Cleta Mitchell sets up a nonprofit for Ginni Thomas, called Liberty Central, to build a conservative voter database. But first, Mitchell files an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in support of Citizens United, which lets corporate donors, such as Koch Industries, donate unlimited sums for political purposes. Eight days after Clarence Thomas helps decide the 5-4 decision in favor of Citizens United, Mitchell sets up Liberty Central with a $1.5 million donation in dark money for the justice’s wife.
A decade later, Mitchell would be the attorney on the phone with Trump when he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” more than 11,000 votes.” Ginni Thomas’ texts to key figures in Trump’s circle around Jan. 6 are still under investigation.
Meanwhile, back in 2012, the dark money campaign spending is swelling, with $86 million estimated to be from the Koch network. Charles and David Koch oversee half of the $170 million federal dark-money political spending in the United States. They use it to achieve the Libertarian agenda laid out in 1980, and after Citizens United, that dark money can go to work.
According to one speaker at the annual Koch Industries conference, “The [Koch] network is fully integrated, so it’s not just work at the universities with the students, but it’s also building state-based capabilities and election capabilities and integrating this talent pipeline. So you can see how this is useful to each other over time. No one else has this infrastructure. We’re very excited about doing it.”
The money is not all from Koch entities. Arnn supports Trump. So does Hillsdale graduate Erik Prince. Prince founded the infamous Blackwater USA mercenary organization that received billions from U.S. taxpayers during the Iraq War. Trump names Prince’s sister, Betsy DeVos, as secretary of education. She sets about to achieve Koch’s 1980’s educational platform. “Government ownership, operation, regulation and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.”
Next: New Hampshire – Targeted from inside and out
Jeanne Dietsch is a former Democratic New Hampshire state senator and current executive director of Granite State Matters.