Sure the Koch brothers have something to do with it. The violence they do to our political system is significant -- along with, of course, the damage done by the Supreme Court.
But there's something else going on. Take a look at Jonathan Chait's analysis, based on a study at Princeton: "New Study Shows Riots Make America Conservative."
Protest is fine. Protest that erupts into violence gives the right the trump cards. Ferguson may be just the beginning of a fresh start for increased conservative political strength: "If the violent protests in Ferguson and Baltimore supercede nonviolent protest, Wasow’s research implies that the liberal moment might give way to another reactionary era," Chait writes about Omar Wasow's research at Princeton.
Wasow finds that nonviolent civil-rights protests did not trigger a national backlash, but that violent protests and looting did. The physical damage inflicted upon poor urban neighborhoods by rioting does not have the compensating virtue of easing the way for more progressive policies; instead, it compounds the damage by promoting a regressive backlash.
The Nixonian law and order backlash drove a wave of repressive criminal-justice policies that carried through for decades with such force that even Democrats like Bill Clinton felt the need to endorse them in order to win elections. That wave has finally receded and created space for sentencing reforms, demilitarization, an emphasis on community policing, and other initiatives that even have bipartisan support. ...Chait,DailyIntel
Another good reason for studying videos of protests like Ferguson's. Though the issue isn't raised in Chait's piece, there is often evidence of provocation during protests -- not only by the police ...
