In 1984, the Capital Research Center (CRC) launched. It has become is America’s investigative think tank focused on monitoring the center-left.

CRC lifts up the hood to expose how left-wing entities and donors operate to fundamentally transform American politics, and how they seek to consolidate government power while manipulating public opinion.

Scott Walter, the new president of CRC, sat down for this exclusive 26-minute video interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation and explained the Democratic Party previously directed and controlled the left’s agenda and funding of all allied groups.

But much of this tactic has changed.

Today, non-profits — with their donors, leaders and strategies — and even a few of their for-profit friends, are more important than the Democratic Party. In the last decade, Walters said, liberal donors such as Tom Steyer and George Soros have become more independent with a shadowy group of special interests directing the agenda and issues at play.

Walter added that few understand the Clinton Foundation is “not a foundation.” Instead, “legally, it is a public charity” which “exists to get money, not to give money away which helps to understand why it has given almost no money away.” It has paid for lots of first-class travel and giveaways to the Clintons and their friends, Walter explained.

Walter added that the Memorandum of Understanding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed with the Obama White House in 2008 about the family foundation seems to be “an empty letter.”

Walter also discussed an example of crony capitalist schemes that enriched people like Terry McAuliffe, Virginia’s Democrat governor. McAuliffe was able to “get tax dollars for his business, foreign national investment for his business, political contributions for him and his friends, and millions for the Clinton Foundation,” by using a controversial immigration provision that grants foreign nationals green cards.

“That’s quite an operation,” Walter said.

Nowadays, according to CRC, the left also has an entire network of scientific data specialists and social scientists who test new packaging, new social media strategies, and micro-target messages to manipulate public opinion for their cause.

Few on the right, according to Walter, even know what their adversaries are doing.

Conservatives should be reminded of Sun Tzu’s admonition in The Art of War, as CRC seems to be the only long-term entity tracking those eroding personal and economic liberties with progressive notions.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle,” Sun Tzu wrote.

Walter reminds us that the left’s non-profits and causes garner significant taxpayer-funded subsidies, including reaping rewards from “sue and settle” schemes by regulators, to advance their agenda. Something the right does not do, he added.

References made by CRC about the advances in progressive tactics include Matt Bai’s book, The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics and Sasha Issenberg’s The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns. CRC’s Matthew Vadum authored a book, Subversion Inc., with the best analysis available on how Saul Alinsky’s deception and scorched-earth tactics have made many non-profits the driving forces of the left.

For more information, go to CRC’s website, like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter @capitalresearch.

Mrs. Thomas does not necessarily support or endorse the products, services or positions promoted in any advertisement contained herein, and does not have control over or receive compensation from any advertiser.