The Corporate Takeover of America

In 1971, America was at a crossroads. The civil rights movement had reshaped society, dismantling long-standing racial barriers and calling for economic justice. The Vietnam War had radicalized a generation, creating deep distrust in government and corporate power. Consumer rights activists like Ralph Nader were exposing corporate negligence, forcing our government to regulate industries more closely. At the same time, the environmental movement was gaining traction, demanding accountability from industries that, up to that point, never had to worry much about the environmental consequences of pollution. Labor unions, who built the middle class in the aftermath of World War II, ensured that workers shared in the post-war economic boom. Corporate America was largely indifferent to the so-called “radical” social developments taking place all around them, but Lewis Powell would quickly change their minds.

Lewis Powell, a corporate lawyer and future Supreme Court Justice, was alerted by these social developments and considered them a threat to corporate America.  He drafted what would become one of the most influential documents in modern conservative strategy. Addressed to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, this "Powell Memo" was not merely a reaction to the moment; it was a long-term blueprint for the dominance of corporate power. Powell argued that business leaders could no longer afford to remain passive in the face of what he perceived as a growing anti-corporate sentiment. Instead, industries needed to actively shape public discourse, influence politics and make sure the courts were aligned with their interests.

The memo’s most profound recommendation was the need for businesses to exert greater control over the media. Powell recognized that public perception was shaped largely by news organizations, universities, and entertainment industries—institutions that he believed leaned too far left. If corporations wanted to protect their interests, they would need to infiltrate and dominate these spaces.

The most consequential part of Powell’s strategy was not media control but the capture of political and judicial institutions. Powell urged business leaders to invest heavily in shaping legislation, lobbying elected officials, and ensuring the judiciary was stacked with judges who prioritized corporate-friendly interpretations of the law. It was not enough to win in the marketplace; corporations had to control the rulebook itself. By embedding pro-business ideology in government, he envisioned a system where labor protections, consumer rights, and environmental regulations could be quietly eroded without direct confrontation.

Powell’s call to action was obeyed. In the years that followed, corporate and conservative leaders mobilized and built an infrastructure that would reshape American politics for generations. Conservative think tanks like The Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute emerged, flooding public discourse with arguments for deregulation, tax cuts, and the supposed moral superiority of free-market capitalism. Right-wing media outlets, most notably Fox News, became megaphones for pro-corporate, anti-regulation messaging, reinforcing Powell’s vision of media as a tool for shaping ideology rather than informing the public.

At the same time, corporate leaders and conservative activists saw an opportunity to reframe economic policy as a moral issue. The rise of the Religious Right in the late 1970s was no coincidence; it was the result of a deliberate effort to fuse capitalism with Christian values. Deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, and attacks on social welfare programs were repackaged not just as economic policies, but as religiously sanctioned moral imperatives. Meanwhile, the assault on labor unions intensified. Once a powerful force in American politics, organized labor found itself under constant attack, as pro-business lawmakers passed legislation to weaken collective bargaining rights and limit union influence. Workplace protections were rolled back, wages stagnated, and the balance of power shifted decisively in favor of employers. Today we see real wages, when adjusted for cost of living, haven't budged since the 1980s, even as worker productivity continues to increase. Workers are working harder than ever, yet they're falling behind economically.

In the legal arena, Powell’s influence was equally profound. The Federalist Society, founded in the 1980s, became the gatekeeper for conservative judicial appointments, ensuring that business-friendly rulings would dominate American courts. This effort culminated in key Supreme Court decisions that gutted campaign finance restrictions, enabled corporate political spending, and weakened worker protections. That's not to mention the cancellation of Roe v Wade. Powell’s memo had warned that businesses were under siege; by the turn of the 21st century, they were firmly in control.

Fast forward to today, and we see the full realization of Powell’s vision in Project 2025, a plan orchestrated by The Heritage Foundation to entrench corporate and religious conservative power within every aspect of the U.S. government. This initiative seeks to dismantle regulatory agencies, privatize social services, eliminate environmental protections, and replace career civil servants with ideological loyalists. It is, in many ways, the logical endpoint of the strategy Powell outlined: a government that exists not to serve the public, but to protect and expand corporate power.

The presidency of Donald Trump accelerated this process, stripping away key regulatory safeguards, stacking the courts with conservative judges, and emboldening corporate interests in a way not seen since the Gilded Age.

Now, here's a bit of irony for you. In his memo, Lewis Powell warned that leftist propaganda had convinced Americans that the country was controlled by big business. At the time, this was an overstatement—while corporate influence was strong, countervailing forces like labor unions, consumer advocates, and civil rights movements still held power. Yet here we are, decades later, in an era where corporate interests indisputably dominate our political system. Wall Street dictates economic policy, billionaires fund elections, courts favor corporations over workers, and media conglomerates shape public opinion to maintain the status quo. In attempting to fight a largely imagined enemy, Powell’s strategy created the opposite reality—a functioning oligarchy.

This outcome is eerily reminiscent of the warnings issued by the Frankfurt School, a group of social theorists who argued that controlling cultural and social norms was the key to keeping the working class in check. They saw the mass media as a tool for pacification, used to shape public consciousness and prevent resistance. Powell’s memo—intended as a counterattack against leftist influence—ended up affirming this very theory. By systematically taking control of media, academia, politics, and the judiciary, corporate America ensured that its own worldview became the dominant narrative, leaving little room for dissent.

The Powell Memo was not merely a defense of capitalism—it was a roadmap for its unchecked expansion at the cost of democracy itself. Project 2025 is simply the final piece of the puzzle, cementing corporate and ideological rule under the guise of "saving America."

The question now is: Will we let it happen? What do we do about it?

As I've mentioned many times previously, we cannot depend on our political leaders to forge a path out of this jungle. Most, but certainly not all, Democratic senators and representatives at the national level are the product of the Powell Memo's attempt to control politicians.

So, we take it to the streets. We flood the phone lines of our political representatives. We write letters to the editor. We inject progressive ideas into social media. And maybe … just maybe … we run for office.

America might have stumbled, but it's up to each one of us to now pick her up and set her back on the path of freedom and justice.