Leonard Leo And The Teneo Network
March 10, 2023 9:01 AM Subscribe
ProPublica and Documented bring us a report about the newly-suspiciously-wealthy architect of the current Supreme Court, Leonard Leo, and his Teneo Network, which seeks to do to US culture what has been done to the court system. Inside the “Private and Confidential” Conservative Group That Promises to “Crush Liberal Dominance” [medium read with clickable video] lays out what might be the most coordinated move toward minority seizure of society we will yet have faced.
Financial loopholes and low marginal tax rates are a national security risk.
posted by mhoye at 9:23 AM on March 10, 2023 [20 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 9:23 AM on March 10, 2023 [20 favorites]
the most coordinated move toward minority seizure of society we will yet have faced
Oh for crying out loud, just leave the rest of us alone already.
posted by Servo5678 at 9:47 AM on March 10, 2023 [3 favorites]
Oh for crying out loud, just leave the rest of us alone already.
posted by Servo5678 at 9:47 AM on March 10, 2023 [3 favorites]
“Imagine a group of four people sitting at the Harvard Club for lunch in midtown Manhattan,” he said in a 2020 Teneo video: “a billionaire hedge funder,” “a film producer,” “a Harvard professor” and “a New York Times writer.”
“The billionaire says: ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if middle school kids had free access to sex-change therapy paid for by the federal government?’” Baehr continued. “Well, the filmmaker says, ‘I’d love to do a documentary on that; it will be a major motion film.’ The Harvard professor says, ‘We can do studies on that to say that’s absolutely biologically sound and safe.’ And the New York Times person says, ‘I’ll profile people who feel trapped in the wrong gender.’ ”
They really believe that this is how things work, they can't conceive of anyone acting in good faith on anything, ever (gee, wonder why?). So they've setup this exact thing, like cartoon Bond villains. Except, real-world dangerous cartoon Bond villains.
posted by dragstroke at 9:47 AM on March 10, 2023 [20 favorites]
“The billionaire says: ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if middle school kids had free access to sex-change therapy paid for by the federal government?’” Baehr continued. “Well, the filmmaker says, ‘I’d love to do a documentary on that; it will be a major motion film.’ The Harvard professor says, ‘We can do studies on that to say that’s absolutely biologically sound and safe.’ And the New York Times person says, ‘I’ll profile people who feel trapped in the wrong gender.’ ”
They really believe that this is how things work, they can't conceive of anyone acting in good faith on anything, ever (gee, wonder why?). So they've setup this exact thing, like cartoon Bond villains. Except, real-world dangerous cartoon Bond villains.
posted by dragstroke at 9:47 AM on March 10, 2023 [20 favorites]
Creepy. A stealthy, quasi-secret society operating in the shadows pushing levers and pulling strings. What's the best strategy for civilisation to identify, disrupt and dismantle it?
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 9:50 AM on March 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 9:50 AM on March 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
I don't want to be a downer but I feel like the environment has never been better for this kind of big-money organizing. Private wealth is possibly more concentrated than it's ever been. And almost all the counterforces are weaker than any time in recent memory. News media is starving for cash, making it especially vulnerable to big-money subversion. Ditto the universities. Public education is widely underfunded and politically vulnerable. Political parties are overwhelmingly focused on fund-raising to the exclusion of all other kinds of organizing.
There are some possible grounds for optimism. For example, maybe labor is now starting to recover from its ~70 years of gradual humiliation. Similarly, the promise of independent media online is panning out to be not completely bullshit. We haven't found any general substitute for paying a large number of people to report on stuff that matters -- most newspapers got wrecked by online advertising and that's bad. But when it comes to opinion-making, the fact that just about anyone can go online and give anyone else hell really has democratized things a bit, I think. Perhaps partly as a result, mainstream attitudes about race and gender and even class politics seem to be better than any time I can remember. (Of course, the other times I can remember were pretty bad in these respects.)
posted by grobstein at 9:56 AM on March 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
There are some possible grounds for optimism. For example, maybe labor is now starting to recover from its ~70 years of gradual humiliation. Similarly, the promise of independent media online is panning out to be not completely bullshit. We haven't found any general substitute for paying a large number of people to report on stuff that matters -- most newspapers got wrecked by online advertising and that's bad. But when it comes to opinion-making, the fact that just about anyone can go online and give anyone else hell really has democratized things a bit, I think. Perhaps partly as a result, mainstream attitudes about race and gender and even class politics seem to be better than any time I can remember. (Of course, the other times I can remember were pretty bad in these respects.)
posted by grobstein at 9:56 AM on March 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
What's the best strategy for civilisation to identify, disrupt and dismantle it?
Exposing it to bright sunlight for one thing - that's not enough, but it's a start.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:11 AM on March 10, 2023 [3 favorites]
Exposing it to bright sunlight for one thing - that's not enough, but it's a start.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:11 AM on March 10, 2023 [3 favorites]
Exposing it to bright sunlight for one thing - that's not enough, but it's a start.
I think the last 6 years have proven that merely pointing out the evils of others doesn't really do much at all.
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:17 AM on March 10, 2023 [8 favorites]
I think the last 6 years have proven that merely pointing out the evils of others doesn't really do much at all.
posted by grumpybear69 at 10:17 AM on March 10, 2023 [8 favorites]
That's why Greg_Ace said it's not enough. But if we don't know about it we can't work effectively work against it.
posted by JHarris at 10:35 AM on March 10, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by JHarris at 10:35 AM on March 10, 2023 [5 favorites]
Just a reminder that ProPublica has done a ton of outstanding journalism that has actually changed things for the better *, and if you are looking for a direct way to take actual action today, donating to ProPublica is a thing you can do.
* I've just been watching Treme, and I was delighted to learn that the ProPublica reporter character was inspired by a real person, A.C. Thompson.
posted by kristi at 10:36 AM on March 10, 2023 [23 favorites]
* I've just been watching Treme, and I was delighted to learn that the ProPublica reporter character was inspired by a real person, A.C. Thompson.
posted by kristi at 10:36 AM on March 10, 2023 [23 favorites]
Teneo co-founder Evan Baehr, a tech entrepreneur and veteran of conservative activism, said in a 2019 video for new members that Teneo had “many, many, many dozens” of members working in the Trump administration, including in the White House, State Department, Justice Department and Pentagon.
Part of being attracted to a group like this one is having the mistaken impression that most people out there agree with you.
Part of being a member of a group like this is lying about how many actually do.
posted by box at 10:47 AM on March 10, 2023 [5 favorites]
Part of being attracted to a group like this one is having the mistaken impression that most people out there agree with you.
Part of being a member of a group like this is lying about how many actually do.
posted by box at 10:47 AM on March 10, 2023 [5 favorites]
The “the Chicago business owner’s $1.6 billion donation” mentioned in the article is Barre Seid, who donated his company, Tripp Lite, to Leo's Marble Freedom Trust just before Eaton bought the company for $1.6B. This avoided as much as $400 million in taxes (yet another ProPublica link).
posted by scruss at 10:56 AM on March 10, 2023 [5 favorites]
posted by scruss at 10:56 AM on March 10, 2023 [5 favorites]
The billionaire says: ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if middle school kids had free access to sex-change therapy paid for by the federal government?’
It is hilarious that they think any billionaire spends their days thinking of ways to socially engineer society in ways that do not directly benefit themselves, i.e. the billionaire.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:31 AM on March 10, 2023 [4 favorites]
It is hilarious that they think any billionaire spends their days thinking of ways to socially engineer society in ways that do not directly benefit themselves, i.e. the billionaire.
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:31 AM on March 10, 2023 [4 favorites]
Forget any mythical billionaire - isn't that actually the Metafilter consensus, and one of the reasons we are in a pitched societal battle with Leo and his ilk?
posted by twsf at 11:48 AM on March 10, 2023
posted by twsf at 11:48 AM on March 10, 2023
That's only true if you replace "billionaire" with "a functioning government".
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:19 PM on March 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:19 PM on March 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
A "Federalist Society for everything" just...doesn't make any sense?
This article tries to paint it like it's some vast octopus with tentacles in everything, when what it actually reports is this organization has a lot of conservative government officials and people in the rightwing media sphere. It's unclear how this is supposed to translate into a complete broad reforging of American culture and society.
And, as noted above, it makes no sense because "society" and "culture" are diffuse things. You can capture the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary through diligent electoral and legislative policy because those are concrete things with set frameworks and rules you can use. There's no Senate you can organize control of to make the majority of people, I don't know, hate hip hop and love Toby Keith-style country music or whatever their cultural agenda is.
Who would they even tap to do this? The billionaires who already own the media conglomerates making the "woke"/liberal media they seem to hate so much? According to this article this organization already considers those billionaires the enemy so...what exactly is the plan?
posted by star gentle uterus at 12:34 PM on March 10, 2023 [5 favorites]
This article tries to paint it like it's some vast octopus with tentacles in everything, when what it actually reports is this organization has a lot of conservative government officials and people in the rightwing media sphere. It's unclear how this is supposed to translate into a complete broad reforging of American culture and society.
And, as noted above, it makes no sense because "society" and "culture" are diffuse things. You can capture the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary through diligent electoral and legislative policy because those are concrete things with set frameworks and rules you can use. There's no Senate you can organize control of to make the majority of people, I don't know, hate hip hop and love Toby Keith-style country music or whatever their cultural agenda is.
Who would they even tap to do this? The billionaires who already own the media conglomerates making the "woke"/liberal media they seem to hate so much? According to this article this organization already considers those billionaires the enemy so...what exactly is the plan?
posted by star gentle uterus at 12:34 PM on March 10, 2023 [5 favorites]
And, as noted above, it makes no sense because "society" and "culture" are diffuse things. You can capture the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary through diligent electoral and legislative policy because those are concrete things with set frameworks and rules you can use.
You absolutely could be right about this in the big picture, but I think the distinction you're making is a little bit less sharp than it might seem.
The Federalist Society is in important ways a cultural strategy. It hasn't achieved its goals by campaigning for Republican majorities in the Senate, although of course it sure helps when there's a Republican majority in the Senate. It has instead operated largely through the culture of the legal profession. The constellation of Fedsoc chapters in prestigious law schools, Olin-funded research centers, lectures, etc., have served to legitimize right-wing political views as mainstream legal thinking. They allow ideologues to be presented as experts, to pass through the legitimation apparatus that certifies someone as a competent official or -- most significantly -- a judge.
Fedsoc's strategic approach came at the right time. After the battle over abortion rights started affecting judicial nomination contests in the '80s, both parties strategically retreated to apparently neutral criteria of expertise. Judges should be chosen because they are the best and smartest, call "balls and strikes," and don't politically prejudge any cases that might come before them. That is, there was a compromise to avoid direct political confrontations that could torpedo both parties' judicial nominees, as it did in the cases of Bork and Tribe. Instead, decisions of worthiness would be partly deferred to the elite legitimation apparatus of the top law schools.
The Federalist Society effectively infiltrated this legitimation apparatus. Their stunning success is demonstrated by the recurring phenomenon of elite liberal law professors publicly endorsing far-right Supreme Court justices on the grounds that the latter are supposedly very smart. The justices may or may not be smart, but if you read between the lines, the message is always: "I, the elite liberal law professor, get my power from my certification by and role in the elite legitimation apparatus. My brilliant conservative colleague has also been certified by that apparatus, and is part of the networks that make my position valuable by constituting my role in the apparatus. Accordingly, our stars rise and fall together even though we are nominally political opponents. Please support our apparatus."
It seems to me, then, that the successful Republican effort to capture the courts was in important ways a cultural effort. This, anyway, is the part of the effort Leonard Leo is able to claim credit for, as a longtime leader of the Federalist Society.
posted by grobstein at 1:56 PM on March 10, 2023 [13 favorites]
You absolutely could be right about this in the big picture, but I think the distinction you're making is a little bit less sharp than it might seem.
The Federalist Society is in important ways a cultural strategy. It hasn't achieved its goals by campaigning for Republican majorities in the Senate, although of course it sure helps when there's a Republican majority in the Senate. It has instead operated largely through the culture of the legal profession. The constellation of Fedsoc chapters in prestigious law schools, Olin-funded research centers, lectures, etc., have served to legitimize right-wing political views as mainstream legal thinking. They allow ideologues to be presented as experts, to pass through the legitimation apparatus that certifies someone as a competent official or -- most significantly -- a judge.
Fedsoc's strategic approach came at the right time. After the battle over abortion rights started affecting judicial nomination contests in the '80s, both parties strategically retreated to apparently neutral criteria of expertise. Judges should be chosen because they are the best and smartest, call "balls and strikes," and don't politically prejudge any cases that might come before them. That is, there was a compromise to avoid direct political confrontations that could torpedo both parties' judicial nominees, as it did in the cases of Bork and Tribe. Instead, decisions of worthiness would be partly deferred to the elite legitimation apparatus of the top law schools.
The Federalist Society effectively infiltrated this legitimation apparatus. Their stunning success is demonstrated by the recurring phenomenon of elite liberal law professors publicly endorsing far-right Supreme Court justices on the grounds that the latter are supposedly very smart. The justices may or may not be smart, but if you read between the lines, the message is always: "I, the elite liberal law professor, get my power from my certification by and role in the elite legitimation apparatus. My brilliant conservative colleague has also been certified by that apparatus, and is part of the networks that make my position valuable by constituting my role in the apparatus. Accordingly, our stars rise and fall together even though we are nominally political opponents. Please support our apparatus."
It seems to me, then, that the successful Republican effort to capture the courts was in important ways a cultural effort. This, anyway, is the part of the effort Leonard Leo is able to claim credit for, as a longtime leader of the Federalist Society.
posted by grobstein at 1:56 PM on March 10, 2023 [13 favorites]
Except that's not at all what led to the current conservative supremacy (!) on the Court, and the federal courts in general.
What sealed the deal on the Supreme Court were the appointments of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. These three appointments represent a strong departure from the facially-neutral "just judge them on their smarts and their performance" approach of the 90s-2000s.
In fact, I'd argue that these three demonstrate the failure of the approach you describe: for decades conservatives had tried to get their way on the Court with middling success. John Roberts is basically the pinnacle of that approach, almost vat-grown to be a (facially) inoffensive perfect Supreme Court nominee, and he didn't deliver what conservatives wanted any more than Rehnquist did before him.
Then in the mid-2010s the conservatives said fuck it, no more pretending, we're taking the gloves off and just doing it. So McConnell successfully played his game to keep out Garland until Trump took office, then Trump and the Republican rammed through Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett in the face of enormous controversy and pushback.
The same happened in the federal judiciary generally: Trump ended appointing a tremendous number of judges across all levels of the federal judiciary.
Leo and the Federalist Society are patting themselves on the back for the Machiavellian genius when in the end what actually worked was having control of the Presidency and the Senate and the willingness to use that power to the maximum extent.
posted by star gentle uterus at 2:26 PM on March 10, 2023 [7 favorites]
What sealed the deal on the Supreme Court were the appointments of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. These three appointments represent a strong departure from the facially-neutral "just judge them on their smarts and their performance" approach of the 90s-2000s.
In fact, I'd argue that these three demonstrate the failure of the approach you describe: for decades conservatives had tried to get their way on the Court with middling success. John Roberts is basically the pinnacle of that approach, almost vat-grown to be a (facially) inoffensive perfect Supreme Court nominee, and he didn't deliver what conservatives wanted any more than Rehnquist did before him.
Then in the mid-2010s the conservatives said fuck it, no more pretending, we're taking the gloves off and just doing it. So McConnell successfully played his game to keep out Garland until Trump took office, then Trump and the Republican rammed through Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett in the face of enormous controversy and pushback.
The same happened in the federal judiciary generally: Trump ended appointing a tremendous number of judges across all levels of the federal judiciary.
Leo and the Federalist Society are patting themselves on the back for the Machiavellian genius when in the end what actually worked was having control of the Presidency and the Senate and the willingness to use that power to the maximum extent.
posted by star gentle uterus at 2:26 PM on March 10, 2023 [7 favorites]
Leo and the Federalist Society are patting themselves on the back for the Machiavellian genius when in the end what actually worked was having control of the Presidency and the Senate and the willingness to use that power to the maximum extent.
It's that use of power that the Democrats never seem to quite get a handle on.
posted by hippybear at 2:53 PM on March 10, 2023 [3 favorites]
It's that use of power that the Democrats never seem to quite get a handle on.
posted by hippybear at 2:53 PM on March 10, 2023 [3 favorites]
Although Biden & Schumer have had the Senate confirm more judges than even Trump & McConnell did during the same period of time.
posted by twsf at 3:32 PM on March 10, 2023 [8 favorites]
posted by twsf at 3:32 PM on March 10, 2023 [8 favorites]
Yet it's potentially all for naught if something isn't done about the Supreme Court.
posted by JHarris at 4:24 PM on March 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by JHarris at 4:24 PM on March 10, 2023 [1 favorite]
Wait, the thing includes And the New York Times person says, ‘I’ll profile people who feel trapped in the wrong gender.’ ” and y’all are saying it’s the billionaire character that’s unrealistic?
posted by nickmark at 4:47 PM on March 10, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by nickmark at 4:47 PM on March 10, 2023 [4 favorites]
Leo and the Federalist Society are patting themselves on the back for the Machiavellian genius when in the end what actually worked was having control of the Presidency and the Senate and the willingness to use that power to the maximum extent.
To be fair the federalist society did a lot more than that. They built an entire infrastructure to manufacture an endless supply of seriously ethically flawed lawyers and an extensive literature for them to draw on to strategically misinterpret law to their own ends.
posted by srboisvert at 5:03 PM on March 10, 2023 [10 favorites]
To be fair the federalist society did a lot more than that. They built an entire infrastructure to manufacture an endless supply of seriously ethically flawed lawyers and an extensive literature for them to draw on to strategically misinterpret law to their own ends.
posted by srboisvert at 5:03 PM on March 10, 2023 [10 favorites]
>”Accordingly, our stars rise and fall together even though we are nominally political opponents. Please support our apparatus.”
A lot of my friends spend a lot of time complaining about liberal centrists but I’d be happy to laser-focus that blame even more narrowly on liberal careerists
posted by Skwirl at 6:29 PM on March 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
A lot of my friends spend a lot of time complaining about liberal centrists but I’d be happy to laser-focus that blame even more narrowly on liberal careerists
posted by Skwirl at 6:29 PM on March 10, 2023 [2 favorites]
Hail Hydra.
posted by mellow seas at 5:31 AM on March 11, 2023
posted by mellow seas at 5:31 AM on March 11, 2023
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They accused Soros of being a billionaire secretly funding political causes, lo and behold they've been doing it.
Don't overestimate their inventiveness or creativity, if they level an accusation assume there's plenty of proof on someone's phone or inbox that they're speaking from experience.
posted by Slackermagee at 9:10 AM on March 10, 2023 [13 favorites]