Conservative group FreedomWorks shutting down, citing Trump effect

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

05/08/24 2:59 PM ET


The conservative group FreedomWorks said it is shutting down, citing the splintering effect former President Trump has had on the Republican Party. “We’re dissolved,” the group’s president, Adam Brandon, told Politico in an interview. “It’s effective immediately.”

The Hill has reached out to FreedomWorks, but Politico reported the company’s board of directors voted unanimously Tuesday to shut down the organization.

Wednesday will be the roughly 25 employees’ last day, but staff members will receive paychecks and benefits for a couple of months. The conservative advocacy group laid off 40 percent of its staff in March 2023, and its total revenue dropped by roughly half since 2022, Brandon told Politico.

He said the decision to dissolve the company was driven by the ideological changes driven by Trump’s time in office. After Trump won, a “huge gap” opened between the company’s libertarian principles and the MAGA ideologies of its members, he said. “A lot of our base aged, and so the new activists that have come in [with] Trump, they tend to be much more populist,” Brandon said. “So, you look at the base and that just kind of shifted.”

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4651840-conservative-group-freedomworks-shutting-down-citing-trump-effect/

[underpants]

1. And when Trump's gone? As much as I despise them, they were effective

that’s infrastructure Trump is eroding. I’m
Sure something like it will start back up but new organizations/operations don’t work like established ones with experience overlap.

Trump’s doing this to state operations too overtaken by MAGA.
The RNC thinks they are going to start up a ground game with less than 6 months before the election. There’s a direct connection to local/state operations.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Is this good news or bad news

I know freedom works was a very bad actor but are they dissolving because many of their members wanted the group to be worse?

[BumRushDaShow]

4. If many of them espoused Libertarian ideals

that might mean they would vote for the Libertarian Party candidate vs the Republican candidate.

I know here in PA, the biggest non-major party in terms of vote totals is the Libertarian Party (WAY more than the Green Party or Constitution Party).

[hlthe2b]

3. Was this the group that backed the Tea Party?

I remember the name and the "mentions" over the years, but have forgotten who the "movers & shakers" of this group were.

[emulatorloo]

6. Fake grassroots "Astroturf" organization, originally funded by the Koch Brothers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreedomWorks

FreedomWorks originated from a conservative political group founded by the brothers David H. Koch and Charles Koch, and called Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE). In 2004 CSE split into Americans for Prosperity, led by President Nancy Pfotenhauer, and a remainder group which merged with Empower America and was renamed FreedomWorks, led by President and CEO Matt Kibbe.[9][failed verification] Dick Armey, Jack Kemp, and C. Boyden Gray served as co-chairmen of the new organization with Bill Bennett focusing on school choice as a Senior Fellow.[10][11] Empower America had been founded in 1993 by Bennett, former Secretary of HUD Kemp, former Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, and former Representative Vin Weber.[12] In December 2006, Steve Forbes joined the FreedomWorks board of directors.[13]

[hlthe2b]

7. Ahh, Koch Bros. Now, I remember.

Thanks!

[emulatorloo]

8. Everything bad that happens seems to lead back to them, huh?

I used to live in Iowa, they are one of the main reasons the state went from a Purple state that elected Dem presidents to a Republican hell-hole!

[calimary]

12. Yes indeed it does. One of them's dead now, but the surviving Koch brother is still up to no good.

[IronLionZion]

5. They are more libertarian. MAGA is authoritarian

I would hope that Americans don't have much of an appetite for recession-era austerity these days.

[LiberalFighter]

9. They tend to be more populist?

[Traurigkeit]

10. "A lot of our base aged, "

Hurts when you do not plan for the future. For the time you are dead and dust.
Things just fall apart and what was built goes to rot.

[slightlv]

11. To me, "A lot of our base aged"

means that suddenly their "base" wasn't quite as libertarian as they used to be - they suddenly found themselves on the receiving end of Social Security and didn't want it stripped. This, as opposed to Maga, who would strip themselves of everything - including money they contributed toward their retirement. Got to watch out for that "socialism"...! /snark I do wonder how many of them eschew House Insurance, Car Insurance, Life Insurance, etc... Social Security is basically the same principle. But that probably calls for a lot more thought than Magas are willing to put into a subject.