The Arch-Conservative Bradley Foundation Is Waging A War On Democracy
My latest piece for the Bucks County Beacon, looking at the Bradley Foundation. Don’t recognize the name? You should.
The Waltons may be more familiar. The Koch brothers may be more infamous. But when it comes to right-wing money working to undermine functional features of democracy, including public education, the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation is also powerful, wealthy, and well-connected.
Established way back in 1942 after the death of Lynde Bradley. The foundation later also honored Lynde’s brother Harry Bradley, a charter member of the John Birch Society (the granddaddy of U.S. right-wing fringe groups). Bradley had some partners in launching John Birch, with Fred Koch, the father of the Koch Brothers. Bradley was also a fan of the Manion Forum, the radio show of conservative Christopher Manion, the man who made sure that Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative was published.
The Bradleys made their money running the Allen-Bradley company, which manufactured factory automation equipment. They did quite well in the first half of the 2oth Century, but in 1985 Rockwell International bought the company for $1.65 billion. They have been spending that money on their vision of the country ever since.
Initially, the foundation provided aid for the poor of the Milwaukee area. But with the huge payday from the sale of the company, the foundation upped its game. The foundation reportedly gives away something like $35-45 million a year; from 2001 to 2009, it handed out more money than the seven Koch and Scaife Foundations combined. This “venture capital firm for ideas” has not slowed down since then.
As reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Aaron Dorfman, the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, said the Bradley Foundation supplies “the intellectual justification for conservative causes.”
“They have been particularly skillful at funding the think tanks and university programs that provide this intellectual foundation for their policy positions.”
The foundation’s stated mission is simple enough:
The Bradley Foundation supports grassroots and faith-based groups that serve individuals, strengthen families, and revitalize neighborhoods by sharing a common belief in the self-worth of individuals, the inherent dignity of work, and the need to reduce government dependence.
The foundation also believes that the founders envisioned a political system that is “unique, extraordinary, and must be preserved ‘to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.’”