I thought this story from today’s Awl was just fascinating:
Long Island-based Republican megadonor and hedge fund honcho Robert Mercer (and his wife, Diana) gave more than $100,000 in the 2010 election cycle to people like Michele Bachmann. (Also his three daughters donate big-time as well, at least in name, although certainly one of them has her own money, from her $2 million settlement against Duke, from when she was kicked off the football team for being a girl. So she’s that unusual thing: a far-right gender equality litigant! She also runs, with her sisters, a bakery in New York City—while donating to Jim DeMint. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! We are a nation of diversity!) We bring up the Mercer family because it was Robert Mercer, who loves to be a secret political operator, who personally financed the million-dollar anti-“Ground Zero Mosque” advertising campaign. Isn’t that neat? Now you know who wanted all of America in a racist tizzy over a local zoning matter. Why is the far right so afraid of freedom?
