It might seem counterintuitive but conservative movements in the US are repeatedly shaped by donors, think tanks, and institutions not organic grassroots uprisings. Name the popular movement and 9 times out of 10 there's money interests behind it. And when the movement is genuinely organic, it's almost immediately co-opted by elites.Subscribe on Patreon to support making this show, get premium only episodes, and listen to our entire back catalog.patreon.com/wetwiredFrom the Powell Memo through think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, the rise of the Christian Right, and the legal infrastructure built by groups like the Federalist Society. The business elites, donors, media ecosystems, and culture-war politics fused neoliberal economics with religious nationalism and racial grievance. The throughline is continuity: each new “movement” is a remix of the same elite strategy: mobilize popular resentment while consolidating wealth and power at the top.All this makes you wonder whether there has ever been a genuinely conservative movement in the US.Subscribe on Patreon to support making this show, get premium only episodes, and listen to our entire back catalog.patreon.com/wetwired