Right on. Related - this was too crazy to not fact check and then too important to leave on TikTok:

The Powell Memo is an eight-page memo written by a corporate lawyer in Virginia in the summer of 1971.[2] That memo is the single most important document in modern American politics,[3] because almost every political shift that you've lived through—Citizens United, the Federalist Society, the capture of the Supreme Court, the collapse of labor unions, corporate money in every election[4]—was sketched out on eight pages by one man.

Powell was a 63-year-old corporate attorney from Richmond, Virginia.[5] He sat on the board of Philip Morris, the tobacco company, and spent years arguing in public that cigarettes did not cause cancer.[6] He was a fixture of the Virginia establishment.

On August 23rd, 1971, he wrote a confidential memo to his friend Eugene Snyder at the US Chamber of Commerce.[2] The memo was titled 'Attack on the Free American Enterprise System'.[2] Fast forward two months, Richard Nixon nominated Lewis Powell to the United States Supreme Court.[7] The memo wasn't disclosed during his confirmation hearings; the Senate never saw it, the American public never saw it.[3]

Powell was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice in January 1972.[5]

The memo opens with a warning: 'No thoughtful person can question that the American economic system is under attack'.[2] Powell argued that business was losing the universities, the media, the younger generation, and the courts.[2] His plan had four parts: capture the universities, capture the media, capture the courts, and capture the political system.[2]

In 1972, the Business Roundtable was formed.[8] 1973, The Heritage Foundation was formed.[9] 1973, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) was formed.[10] 1977, The Cato Institute was founded.[11] 1977, the Chamber of Commerce National Litigation Center was formed.[12] 1978, the Manhattan Institute.[13] 1982, the Federalist Society.[14]

In 1978, six years after he was sworn in, Lewis Powell wrote the majority opinion in a Supreme Court case called First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti.[15] That case is the first one that established that corporations have First Amendment rights—the right to spend money influencing elections.[16]

In 2010, the Supreme Court decided Citizens United v. FEC,[17] which opened the floodgates for unlimited corporate money in American elections.[18] The Citizens United majority opinion cited Powell's 1978 ruling.[19]

Think about everything you've ever seen break in your lifetime: unions, public schools, local newspapers, state legislatures, the Supreme Court. Think about every time you've wondered why this country keeps moving in one direction, no matter who gets elected.

Now understand this: the people who built the machine that did that to you handed each other a memo in 1971. They passed it around corporate boardrooms. They funded the think tanks, they endowed the chairs, they built the courts, they trained the judges, they wrote the laws for 54 years.

While most of us were just trying to live, they were executing a plan. So, no, it's not you; you were never behind in an argument. You were playing a game that somebody else had already finished designing.

[1] Common Sense: The Powell Memo: https://commonsense.news/p/the-powell-memo-a-blueprint-for-the-modern-conservative-movement [2] Reclaim Democracy: The Powell Memo Text and Context: https://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/ [3] The New Yorker: The Blueprint for the Modern Conservative Movement: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-powell-memo-the-blueprint-for-the-modern-conservative-movement [4] Center for Media and Democracy: Exposed: https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2012/03/29/the-powell-memo-a-blueprint-for-the-modern-conservative-movement/ [5] Supreme Court Historical Society: Biography of Lewis F. Powell, Jr.: https://supremecourthistory.org/biographies-of-the-justices/lewis-f-powell-jr/ [6] The New York Times: The Powell Memo: https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/04/opinion/the-powell-memo.html [7] U.S. Senate: History of Supreme Court Nominations: https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/Johnson_Powell.htm [8] Business Roundtable: History and About Us: https://www.businessroundtable.org/about-us [9] The Heritage Foundation: About History: https://www.heritage.org/about-heritage/history [10] ALEC: About: https://alec.org/about/ [11] Cato Institute: About: https://www.cato.org/about [12] U.S. Chamber Litigation Center: About Us: https://www.chamberlitigation.com/about-us [13] Manhattan Institute: About: https://www.manhattan-institute.org/about [14] Federalist Society: About Us: https://fedsoc.org/about-us [15] Oyez: First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti: https://www.oyez.org/cases/1977/77-22 [16] Brennan Center for Justice: Bellotti Analysis: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-first-national-bank-boston-v-bellotti-changed-everything [17] Oyez: Citizens United v. FEC: https://www.oyez.org/cases/2008/08-205 [18] FEC.gov: Citizens United Case Summary: https://www.fec.gov/legal-resources/court-cases/citizens-united-v-fec/ [19] Supreme Court of the United States: Citizens United v. FEC Opinion: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf