Today in Projection

"The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president."—Then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, in 1998.

Clinton said that during an interview with (of all people) Matt Lauer on the Today show, and she was roundly criticized and ridiculed for being a paranoiac. But of course she was right. There was a vast right-wing conspiracy then, and there is one now.

In the intervening years, conservatives traded on the initial snide dismissals of Clinton's observation by claiming instead that there is a vast left-wing conspiracy, which now underwrites the entire Fox News empire, the Tea Party, the imaginary War on Christianity, the actual War on Agency, and all manner of conservative conspiracy theories that have been directed at President Barack Obama, just for a start.

The "vast left-wing conspiracy" is another fine bit of projection, used to obfuscate a comprehensive coordination to turn the US into an undemocratic corporatocracy, at any cost.

Michigan's public workers are the latest victims in this genuinely diabolical scheme. And with every win, the conspirators are getting more brazen about their strategies—the conspiracy laid bare for all to see.

Ned Resnikoff at MSNBC—Right-Wingers Koch, ALEC, Pushed Michigan 'Right-to-Work' Laws:

The United Auto Workers were "blindsided" by Michigan's new 'right-to-work' legislation, union president Bob King told MSNBC Tuesday, shortly after Gov. Rick Snyder signed the bills into law. In fact, the union had entered what King described as amicable talks with Snyder only days before, and the governor—who had previously opposed right-to-work—offered no indication that his views had changed.

"We had made a lot of progress, which he and the staff, everybody, felt good about," said King. "But then all of a sudden, he flipped on us, and we heard that he was going to sign this bill."

Snyder's public position on right-to-work turned into a ringing endorsement, seemingly overnight. Suddenly, he was championing right-to-work as "Freedom to Work," calling it "pro-worker," and saying it would create "more and better jobs in Michigan."

To explain the shift, Snyder has said that the issue simply gained "critical mass." But lately, a well-funded conservative political machine, with ties to the Koch family and other wealthy backers, as well as to the notorious conservative lobby group ALEC, has been flexing its considerable muscle. What looked like a spontaneous shift in Michigan labor policy had been planned for months—and the success of the right-to-work push could foretell future efforts nationwide.

Rep. Tom Shirkey, a Republican, described the passage of right-to-work to MSNBC as a "big team effort."

"There's a long list of very public special interest groups and associations that have been advocating for labor freedom for a long time," Shirkey said in an interview Wednesday. "There's also a long list of people who would just as soon stay behind the scenes who have been very supportive. And I'm just privileged to be one small piece in this very big puzzle."

Nick Carey and Bernie Woodall for Reuters—Insight: How Republicans Engineered a Blow to Michigan's Powerful Unions:

Republicans executed a plan - the timing, the language of the bills, the media strategy, and perhaps most importantly, the behind-the-scenes lobbying of top Republicans including Snyder.

They knew they would likely face an acrimonious battle of the kind they had seen over the last two years in the neighboring state of Wisconsin between Republican Governor Scott Walker and unions. Operating in plain sight but often overlooked, they worked to put the necessary building blocks in place.

...A group linked to the conservative billionaire Koch Brothers, owners of an energy and trading conglomerate who are reviled by unions and Democrats, held three conferences in Michigan in early 2012 on right-to-work featuring renowned conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart. Three Republican presidential candidates including Romney and some 1,500 activists attended the last conference on February 25 sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, four days before Breibart's death.

The right-to-work campaign gathered momentum when the activists linked up with Dick DeVos, the son of Richard DeVos, co-founder of Michigan-based Amway [who was listed as the 67th richest person in America by Forbes magazine in 2012 with a net worth estimated at $5.1 billion], and Ronald Weiser, former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party and ambassador to Slovakia under President George W. Bush.

...The wealthy businessman and the political guru both worked to persuade wavering Republican lawmakers by assuring them they would have financial support if they faced recall elections over right-to-work, as happened in Wisconsin, Colbeck, Hoogendyk and other Republicans said.

Asked if he had promised campaign financial support to nervous Republicans, DeVos, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2006, said in a telephone interview: "I am pleased if I was able to help encourage legislators to truly vote their conscience without fear of political retribution from the other side, which is known for its heavy-handed tactics."

Felicia Sonmez and David A. Fahrenthold for the Washington Post—Groups Vow to Push 'Right to Work' in Other States: "The conservative groups that supported Michigan's new 'right to work' law—winning a stunning victory over unions, even in the heart of American labor—vowed Wednesday to replicate that success elsewhere."

ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, is a corporate-funded entity leading the corporatocratic charge to steal control of the nation from its people. They are seating people in state legislatures in order to wage war on agency and workers' rights, and funding US congress members in order to wage war on the social safety net.

They will decimate the middle class until there is nothing left but a desperate underclass of cheap and powerless workers who can be easily exploited by the 1%.

That's not paranoia. That's their stated goal, rewritten with honest words.

It's a vast right-wing conspiracy to take over the US. And they operate with impunity as anyone who acknowledges the conspiracy is dismissed as a crackpot. Just like Hillary was.