Billionaire
brothers Koch (Kansas pronunciation. Kah-ch) are looking for liberal money in
all the usual places: under rocks, in the pockets of their rich friends and
behind the seats of their limousines. But nada. Charles and David Koch are
trying to figure out where all of our liberal politicians get their money.
That
is the “biggest issue weighing on the Kochs’ network of
wealthy conservative money men.” Wow. I’m important. You’re important. All
God’s liberal folks are important.
The Kansas Kochs held a private retreat early this summer in
Dana Point, California where general counsel of Koch Industries, Mark Holden gave
his speech, “The Opposition: Understanding Their Strategy And Infrastructure.
He talked about the “Overwhelming power of rich progressive donors lined up
against the meager resources of the oil barons and their network of elite
allies.”
When
the Koch brothers were trying to figure out why President Obama won the
election, they circulated a memo,
“If the presidential election told us anything. It’s that Americans place a great importance on taking care of those in need and avoiding harm to the weak.”
Holden
focused on the Democracy Alliance,
which works as “a network of wealthy liberal donors who strategically
steer money to a set of hand-picked progressive groups.”
The rich conservatives
believe the liberal contenders are hypocritical, because they
won’t disclose their nonprofit donors. Oh yeah, nonprofits do not have to
disclose their donors, because they are nonprofits. And privately held
companies, like Koch Industries, do not have to disclose much either.
Haden warns of a “sympathetic mainstream media”
and “organized labor firepower.” And if Holden counted right we progressives
will have $2.2 billion by the November midterms. Of course he says that he
might have miscounted. No kidding.
I
think their biggest fear is how many of us there are. Holden continued his speech,
“What we have is a drop in the bucket compared to the left. And they outnumber us. They outnumber us by a lot. So why do we get all the love? We know this, right? We talk about it all the time. Because you’re effective.”
“They have 172 groups, 172, I was really bad at math, but 172 is a lot more than 31 (Koch-related groups).”
Holden
didn’t count the progressive MoveOn organization, probably because its
funds come from small donors.
“Holden seemed unable to believe that a bottom-up group like MoveOn could raise as much money as it does.”
But
the Koch representative sure likes the “messaging and
strategy” of the Democracy Alliance. Holden continues,
“They stay on messageand have everybody in line. Their bottom line is not that different than ours, but in some ways they’re much better at it.”
This
was news to Gara LaMarche who heads the Democracy Alliance,
according to the HuffPost,
“Who knew that billionaires spending hundreds of millions of dollars on elections to advance a corporate agenda could be so insecure? We appreciate the Koch brothers’ backhanded compliment that our ‘vast network’ has a similar ‘bottom line’ to theirs, but that we’re ‘better at it.”
“What they think of as ‘special interests,’ our labor allies, are nurses, teachers, restaurant workers and other women and men who are the backbone of the American economy.”
The Koch network profits the Koch business interests. And their
donors are looking out for their own interests. But liberal donors,
“Are spending money to raise their own taxes and otherwise work against their own economic interests.”
“The real difference is this: Democracy Alliance donors will probably always be outspent by our counterparts on the right, but our partners are wealthy individuals and families working for a world in which their money will have less of an influence on politics, and where every American has the opportunity to succeed.
Holden emailed HuffPost a statement that reads,
The Democrats and the Left like to strictly protest about “dark money” and assign it to a set of activities undertaken only by conservative/libertarian-oriented 501(c)4 groups. They neglect to mention the activities and deep pockets of the Left.
The reality is that the left’s activities, especially by the American Constitution Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Center for American Progress all have a profound impact on our country’s electoral politics and public policy. The presentation in question focused on the Democracy Alliance because they are much bigger in scope, and have more reach with its network’s ability to spend money in ways that have important (but sometimes overlooked) consequences for our country.
It is important that if there is going to be a discussion of these issues, then it needs to be a full, open, and honest one, which includes the Left and the huge impact that Democracy Alliance and its network have.
Charles Koch says that eliminating the minimum wage
would help the poor,
“They keep throwing obstacles in their way. And so we’ve got to clear those out. Or the minimum wage.”
Koch
says that our country’s poor aren’t really, really poor. I guess he is
suggesting that our poor should just suck it up and appreciate what they do
have,
“A family earning $34,000 annually are part of the richest one-percent in the world; especially when compared to developing third world nations and countries such as China and India where the majority of the population lives in absolute squalor.”
I
think the very rich and the not-quite-as-rich cannot see the lower 99.09
percent. We are invisible to them on the street, in the service industries and
everywhere else we go. They cannot see us. So how could they get MoveOn?
We
are a color they just don’t have in their coloring box.
Author Gloria Christie writes The United States of Kansas. This is a
political column with a humorous bent. And as Kansas goes, so goes the country.
Christie wrote a column on community-building for the Kansas City Star, a
column on Where High Technology Meets Politics for the IDG-Connect Blog and one
about life in the late '50's/early '60's for The Best Times, a Johnson County
(KCMO Metro) publication. She has a total readership of over 5 million.
Christie holds an MS in radio-TV-film and an MPA in business/government
relations. She is also a systemic problems consulting expert for Fortune 100
and 500 businesses both here and off-shore. And she invented and implemented
the first computerized patient chart. Christie lives in Fairway, KS. You can
follow her on Facebook at Gloria Christie Reports and on Twitter