Not exactly a conspiracy theory, Strick. One book that doesn't appear on that list, quite probably because it deals with a related but somewhat broader political trend, puts the whole thing into historical perspective:    Reaganism and the Death of Representative Democracy by Walter Williams (here). Walter Williams, not to be confused with conservative columnist Walter E. Williams, is professor emeritus at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington. Good credentials all the way. Williams is no light-weight.

Excerpt from a review of Williams' book:
This is a reasoned but passionate look at how Reaganism—the political philosophy of Ronald Reagan—has severely damaged representative democracy as created by the nation's founders. According to Williams, Reagan and his foremost disciple George W. Bush have created a plutocracy where the United States is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people but is ruled by the wealthiest individuals and corporate America. Refreshingly unafraid to point out that Reaganism's anti-government fundamentalism stands on feet of clay, Walter Williams asks that Americans move from their political apathy to pay attention to the politicians and the corporations lurking behind the power curtain to see the dangers they represent to the true essential of the American way of life.

Ever since FDR managed to dig the country out of the Depression (and thereby preempted a possible Bolshevik-style revolution in America—we were closer than many people think) by instituting the "alphabet soup" of New Deal programs that put the 25% unemployed back to work (WPA, CCC), clamped regulations on growing monopolies, instituted oversight of the stock market (SEC) to avert crashes like the one in 1929, and started Social Security, a motley collection of reactionaries have been chafing to get these laws, and some of the social programs that still exist, repealed. This was not a conspiracy as such, it was just a lot of teeth-gnashing on the part of a bunch of would-be robber barons and their political puppets who felt that their right to exploit everything and everybody in sight was being abridged. Within recent decades they have managed to get their act together (they're called "neo-conservatives") and their first really big victory was in getting Ronald Reagan elected. Reagan began systematically dismantling a lot of the long-standing innovations that FDR instituted. George Herbert Walker Bush was a disappointment—he wouldn't always do what he was told. Clinton was a disaster, but not totally. And George W. Bush is the Golden Boy. The goal is to establish and expand America's position as the world's only superpower, and to eliminate all social programs and safeguards, thereby allowing the completely free and unfettered practice of Consumer Capitalism in the world (read "unbridled greed").

Conspiracy? No. More like a political movement. No "theory" about it. It's bloody real. If you look beyond the bumper-stickers, T-shirt messages, and 30 second sound bites, it's right out there in the open, where anybody who cares to look can see it.

Don Firth