Nine Families

The Nine Families is an American geo-political concept used to identify a group that provides massive donations to individuals, corporations, and political campaigns through the auspices of a benevolent foundation for the sole purpose of using the resulting political capital to advance conservative policies and agenda.

Origins

Beginning at about the turn of the millennium, the phrase "Nine Families" began to enter the American zeitgeist as the rapid expansion of the Internet allowed users from all over the world to more closely monitor the activities of organizations and think tanks that gather donations for use in generating, manipulating, or directing public opinion.

The usage began to gain prevalence after the start of the worldwide recession amidst fears and skeptical speculation that entire economies were being manipulated (and in some cases ruined) by a handful of individuals operating behind the scenes of so-called benevolent organizations.

It gained further expansion after Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff, an American stock broker that operated a massive Ponzi scheme, plead guilty in March 2009. Rumors abounding on the Internet of Madoff's connections to various "nine family" organizations—either for profit or protection—fueled the fire.

Conservative Families

The concept of "families" doesn't necessarily indicate a traditional family of siblings and/or parents. Often, it simply denotes a group of people acting together through a partnership that at one point and time was spearheaded or founded by a namesake. While the number and type of families changes depending on the author or spokesperson, the generally accepted list of conservative power brokers includes:

• The Bradleys
• The Carnegies
• The Coors
• The Morgans
• The Rockefellers
• The Scaifes

Foundations and Groups

Each so-called "family" operates a benevolent foundation or organization that acts as the public face and donation collection agency—often to efface large donations given by private donors, corporations, or other groups that, some would say, essentially purchase political capital used to manipulate the group's agenda and activities and wield it's influence over politicians and lobbyists.

• The Adolph Coors Foundation
• The American Enterprise Institute
• The Bilderberg Group
• The Bradley Foundation
• The Brookings Institution
• The Carlyle Group
• The Carthage Foundation
• The Center for Strategic and International Studies
• The Council on Foreign Relations
• The Heritage Foundation
• The Institute for Justice
• The Judicial Watch
• The Media Research Center
• The Scaife Foundations

Criticisms

People have purchased political capital for the entirety of human existence. It's important to note that, in America, the donating of funds for political purposes is not illegal so long as it doesn't violate any election law.

Critics of the "nine family" concept point to the fact that, given enough time, all organizations shift political views as people come and go from their ranks. And few groups directly state in their mission statements that they are pro-liberal or pro-conservative, further complicating any attempt to correctly map the eddies and streams of American politics with rampant speculation and rumor.