It's time to toss these corporate
oligarchs out of the people's business.
By
The
gabillionaire Koch brothers feel entitled to occupy the people’s elections,
barging in with sacks full of corporate cash. So, how would the brothers feel
if the people barged into their political affairs?
To find
out, a few citizens recently paid a visit to Koch Companies
Public Sector. That’s the grandiose name the brothers give to their
Washington, DC, lobbying headquarters.
From
there, a covey of high-dollar Koch-headed sapsucker lobbyists flits all around
town trying to get lawmakers to take away our Social Security, Medicare,
minimum wage, etc. — while also making sure that the two, “free-enterprise”
proselytizers keep getting their billion-dollar-a-year package of government
subsidies.
The
visitors occupied the grand lobby of the lobbyists’ building — forming a
picture-perfect contrast between the powers that be and the powers that ought to be.
First, a
couple of ministers in the NPA group called on the Kochs to “repent” from their
narcissistic political push to pervert our democracy into their privatized
plutocracy. Then, several of the out-of-towners gave personal testimony about
the real-life impacts that the Kochs’ extremist ideological agenda is having.
Patricia Fuller,
for example, told of struggling to make it on Michigan’s $7.40-an-hour minimum
wage. She asked why the billionaires would spend millions to try to knock it
lower — or, as Charles Koch
advocates, scrapping America’s wage floor entirely.
Of
course, the visitors were tossed out, but they made their point: It’s time to
get these corporate oligarchs out of the people’s business.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is
a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s also editor of the
populist newsletter, The Hightower
Lowdown. OtherWords.org