Tanton's individual persistence was at its root made possible by the greater persistence of wealth across generations in the United States, coming to fruition in the hundreds of millions of dollars that Cordelia Scaife May left to the Colcom Foundation when she died. What endures is not any individual or personality but capital and institutions. Tanton's best political skill was not his analysis or his rhetoric but his ability to flatter wealthy racists. He was not a great theoretician, leader, or organizer but an adroit servant of capitalists' self-interest. This is how the capitalist class exerts power—not by engaging in democratic politics but by creating a bulwark against it.

— Blood Red Lines by Brendan O'Connor (Page 74)