Library Journal Review

Starred Review. Producers/directors Deal and Lessin (Trouble the Water; Bowling for Columbine) focus in Citizen Koch on the rise of the Tea Party in American politics and the funding behind the movement. The 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case allowed substantial corporate money into national, state, and local campaigns, contributing to the rightward swing in the political climate. Major contributors to conservative causes include brothers David and Charles Koch. Deal and Lessin target the 2012 recall election of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. Conservative Republican supporters of Walker felt betrayed when he moved against the state's public services unions. The following recall election, with both sides receiving considerable outside funding, proved ugly and divisive. Walker survived, and the influence of groups such as Citizens United continued through subsequent elections. The film provides a troubling picture of how middle-class Americans sustain politicians who support policies harmful to their own economic and social interests. Ennis's documentary Pay 2 Play shows how the rules of the popular board game Monopoly, in which one person bankrupts the other players, serves as the operating manual for contemporary American politics. Since the early 1970s, American big business, in response to the liberal climate of the previous decade, began coordinated efforts to raise money, fund candidates, and develop policy to change radically the political environment. Recent Ohio elections provide concrete examples of those efforts. A coin dealer and successful GOP fundraiser invested $50 million of state money intended for injured workers into rare coins, which later funded political campaigns. Iraqi war vet Paul Hackett ran as an antiwar congressional candidate against Jean Schmidt for a suburban Cincinnati district in 2005, but voting irregularities in a historically problematic district cost him the win. In 2010, outsiders David Krikorian and Surya Yalamanchili unsuccessfully tried to unseat Schmidt. Individuals interviewed include Robert Reich, Noam Chomsky, and Jack Abramoff. An interesting sidebar reveals that Charles Darrow (1889-1967) didn't invent Monopoly, as is widely believed. Lizzie Magie (1866-1948) created the Landlord's Game in 1904 as an educational tool highlighting the dangers of monopolization of wealth, and for a long time it was in the public domain. VERDICT Both films are required viewing for anyone interested in American politics.-Stephen Hupp, West Virginia Univ. Parkersburg Lib. (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.