The Baffler did a real in-depth article on this back in 2012, called "The Long Con". Their thesis was that this was the real core of the Republican party and has been for decades.
They go into the history of the technology used to build these customer databases and exploit them.
> The lists got bigger, the technology better (“Where are my names?” he nervously asked, studying the surface of the first computer tape containing his trove): twenty-five million names by 1980, destination for some one hundred million mail pieces a year
What's amusing from today's perspective is that it spends quite a lot of time in the intro pointing out how blatant a liar Mitt Romney was. Which of course seems quaint to us all now after Trump.
> The strategic alliance of snake-oil vendors and conservative true believers points up evidence of another successful long march, of tactics designed to corral fleeceable multitudes all in one place—and the formation of a cast of mind that makes it hard for either them or us to discern where the ideological con ended and the money con began.
They go into the history of the technology used to build these customer databases and exploit them.
> The lists got bigger, the technology better (“Where are my names?” he nervously asked, studying the surface of the first computer tape containing his trove): twenty-five million names by 1980, destination for some one hundred million mail pieces a year
What's amusing from today's perspective is that it spends quite a lot of time in the intro pointing out how blatant a liar Mitt Romney was. Which of course seems quaint to us all now after Trump.
https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-long-con
> The strategic alliance of snake-oil vendors and conservative true believers points up evidence of another successful long march, of tactics designed to corral fleeceable multitudes all in one place—and the formation of a cast of mind that makes it hard for either them or us to discern where the ideological con ended and the money con began.