Founded on and survived on Marxist totalitarian principles. ACLU has always been richly funded. Wiki makes it sound like they are supported by a local grassroots base but, just like extreme Left politics of today, they have always found support among the super rich.
I have never really understood the motivation of the money class. Is it guilt? Is it hopes that they will receive a seat at the table or at least be given a pass? Is it desire for control? The money class could have learned from Lenin and Hitler; apparently they didn't.
In the post WWII era the organization attracted many civil libertarians - for example Alan Dershowitz; he now says, loosely quoted, the ACLU has abandoned their libertarian ideals in favor of power. --- Things never really change.
“libertarian ideals” - LOL at Dersh!
The ACLU was founded by an atheist communist. It was never about “libertarian ideals”. That was all a smokescreen.
I jokingly refer to it as the “Atheist Communist Lawyers Union”, but it’s not far off from reality.
Key Wiki is not the same as Wikipedia; quite different, and has great info on commies etc. I was surprised they did not metion that the founder was a communist. I think the Key Wiki article (which I only posted part of) is saying some of the supporters (not the main people!) are basically duped idealists, and that is likely. Plus libertarian is just crazed doper anarchy.