Charles Koch Laments His History of Partisanship

[Eid Ma Clack Shaw]

Who ever could have predicted that the Koch's 'activities' would prove to be catastrophically detrimental to the United States of America?

Link to tweet

It’s behind a paywall, but a couple of excerpts:

After President Barack Obama was elected in 2008 and the tea party (which pushed to slash federal spending) emerged, Mr. Koch threw his weight behind the new movement and its candidates. “We did not create the tea party. We shared their concern about unsustainable government spending, and we supported some tea-party groups on that issue,” Mr. Koch wrote in an email. “But it seems to me the tea party was largely unsuccessful long-term, given that we’re coming off a Republican administration with the largest government spending in history.”

Mr. Koch said he has since come to regret his partisanship, which he says badly deepened divisions. “Boy, did we screw up!” he writes in his new book. “What a mess!”

“I congratulate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on their victory,” he wrote in an email. “I look forward to finding ways to work with them to break down the barriers holding people back, whether in the economy, criminal justice, immigration, the Covid-19 pandemic, or anywhere else. At the same time, I hope we all use this post-election period to find a better way forward. Because of partisanship, we’ve come to expect too much of politics and too little of ourselves and one another.”

[wryter2000]

1. All right, asshole

Spend a few of your billions to convince people to wear masks.

[Binkie The Clown]

2. OMG! Even the seemingly irredeemable can be saved. Reason may yet prevail. nt

[Eyeball_Kid]

11. I think it's bullshit. Koch won't change his spots. He's selling a book for Christ's sake.

Watch what he DOES, not what he says. So far, he hasn't done squat to back up his BS.

[Binkie The Clown]

12. I am, have always been, and will always be an optimist. nt

[dchill]

3. Still, he seems delighted about it.

[Blue Owl]

5. It's all a light-hearted comedic romp for the billionaire

Meanwhile the rest of us got shafted...

[dchill]

10. I've set off an atomic bomb in the wrong place...

...have to try another.

Ah, well.

[BComplex]

22. That was exactly how I felt reading that. The permanent damage that the Koch brothers did

as a result of their billions to turn certain states red (NC, for one) will not be undone. The damage to the environment as a result of the legislatures that were turned red by them, the people who died because of those legislatures that were turned red by them and would not provide medicaid to people who couldn't afford a doctor...the babies and children that died as a result.

What the Koch brothers did was huge and dark. If Charles Koch is truly sorry, and understands what he did, I'm grateful that one wingnut in the USA saw the light. But sorry is kinda nothing when you look at the scorched earth left in their path.

[dchill]

26. "Sorry seems to be the hardest word."

[Moostache]

4. No, you do not get redemption in your dying days...

He may linger on this Earth for many more years to come, far longer than his asshole dead brother, but he is guilty of destruction on a scale hitherto unseen and their name is unpardonable as a result. Much like bearing the surname "Trump", to be a "Koch" from that lineage is to be a pariah forevermore, period.

Now kindly contract something as painful as what my mother had to suffer through and die in excruciating pain isolated from your family and stuck in isolation for your dying days you cock-sucking motherfucker. I only wish I could be there at your death bed to taunt you and torture you for the pain your backing of that evil cabal of reality-denying GOP assholes has wrought on this nation. FUCK YOU ASSHOLE, no lube necessary.

[maxsolomon]

6. Why are you still alive, Chuck?

Please follow your brother, via natural causes, as soon as possible.

[Laelth]

7. He needs to talk to a priest.

He’s not getting any absolution from me.

-Laelth

[lindysalsagal]

8. Laughing all the way to the bank.

Monsters.

[question everything]

9. He can try to atone by helping the Democrats in GA runoffs

[Eyeball_Kid]

13. Hah! Not a chance. Watch what he does. Not what he says. n/t

[smirkymonkey]

14. Yeah. I'm sure he does.

[UTUSN]

16. AWww, poor baby, but he's still smiling!1

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

17. Translation: "Now that I got everything I wanted... Can we just

chill and be cool with each other? Maybe go join your brother.

[WhiteTara]

18. Is he dying?

Or maybe his brother's death opened his eyes. Now he just needs to pay reparations to all those people they stole money from and demolish his think tank and ALEC.

[OnDoutside]

30. He's bullshitting.He's got his Conservative Court and wants to tamper down Dem anger. Lying bastard.

[crickets]

38. Bingo. All this, and he's trying to sell a book. It's a nauseating act. nt

[Hortensis]

19. Very soft-peddled. The Kochs hired agents to harness existing populist

antagonisms, which their corruption of the Republican Party did much to create, into a movement they initially controlled.

But, that's understandable. What's seems most important to me is that he realizes they helped create a monster that grew way out of control and threatens to destroy them. As it did their counterparts who made that mistake in 1920s-30s Germany.

He's still a libertarian, or postures as, and implacably opposed to taxation and government programs he doesn't intend to dip into himself.

[trc]

20. Cut all funding to right wing think tanks first.

Then we can talk about what you can do next.

[BComplex]

24. That would be a good start! n/t

[Merlot]

23. "Boy, did we screw up!" Now that you've admitted guilt

we'll send you the bill to repair democracy and for all the lives you've ruined.

Would that make you feel better about the "mess?"

[gopiscrap]

25. fuck that asshole

he can go crawl in a hole and rot

[Me.]

27. I THought THat Was The Point For Him

[Karma13612]

28. Sorry Chuckie

I will never forgive what you and your brother systematically did over endless decades.

The middle class is nearly dead.
Our social safety nets are frayed.
The world is laughing at us.
We are dying by the thousands.

There is a dictator in the office of the President of the United States of America.
He has a cabal just itching to act on all his demented commands.

You sit there in your comfy home, acting all old and remorseful.

NO.

Just no.

I wish you could suddenly become completely destitute and experience what real Americans face very single day.

Wipe that obnoxious grin off your face.

[Greybnk48]

29. The Koch family played a large role in the destruction of Wisconsin's heritage

as a beautifully progressive State. Bob La Follette, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, Gaylord Nelson (Earth Day, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, etc.), William Proxmire, to name a few. They came into Wisconsin and began their destruction in the late 80's that continues today.

They were at it LONG before the Tea Party, but the Tea Party gave them wings. From the Koch's we got Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, and a raft of other devious, evil, quasi-educated dipshits here thanks to the 2010 elections and subsequent gerrymander. Some remain in office like Glenn Grothman and Robin Vos to name two.

I despise everything Koch, including their John Birch Society that's headquartered in my town. I hate Charles Koch, the John Birchers, and his racist, idiotic, unintelligible clusterfuck of greed "libertarianism."

"Gosh oh golly, did we mess up." Really Charles? Rot in hell. I hope you die before I do, so I can celebrate.

[Dawson Leery]

31. The Kochs, Murdoch, and Limbaugh have done far more damange than the Islamic Jihadists.

Chucky is not going to stop funding right wing propaganda.

[crickets]

39. This. If Charles Koch somehow managed to get rid of Fox 'News' et al

I might start to give a damn. That's not going to happen, so I just long for the day when he is gone.

[OnDoutside]

32. Fuck you, asshole. He's won and is now trying to downplay how much he has won to keep his wins.

[LessAspin]

33. As he pours money into Perdue's runoff campaign

Link to tweet

[SaintLouisBlues]

34. And they neutered PBS. A shell of its former self in my opinion.

[bobalew]

35. Effin Polluter!

Yeah, THE FIRST THING THIS JERK NEEDS TO DO IS CLEAN UP THE ENVIRONMENTAL MESSES HE'S LEFT AROUND HIS CHEMICAL & Paper plants. Toledo Oregon has an estuary that is horridly polluted with Formaldehyde, among other things that he just pumps into a small 2 mile lake. The plant has signs all around it, that you can't take photos, otherwise you can be prosecuted for doing so. What an egregious MESS there!

[efhmc]

36. Too little and waaaaaay too late almost for our country.

Put your money where your mouth is. Fund public housing, set up free college scholarships for low income youth, give millions to food banks across America, seminars on equal justice for all citizens, etc. and then we'll see.

[PCIntern]

37. Next up: David Duke apologizes, moves to Harlem. nt