Kochs Building their Version of America

[MrScorpio]

by James Hoover / June 5th, 2016

As suggested by Jane Mayer in Dark Money, never have two members of one American family spent so much time and money to control our democracy, and in their effort, foster economic damage for most Americans. The guilty parties: Charles and David Koch. It is also likely that self-delusion and insularity from the less-fortunate have rendered both impervious to any recognition that their course is detrimental to the well-being of a great majority of Americans.

Ironically, “well-being” seems to be an overblown term Charles has used to describe his goal for the good of all Americans, claiming that free-market ideology naturally brings well-being to the many through Adam Smith’s laissez-faire economy. But the Koch alibi for selfishness and self-interest totally ignores Adam Smith’s distrust of greed and monopoly and the pronouncements of an early defender of democracy, John Locke, who cited a moral imperative for the common good.

A war cry in the summer of 1971 was the Powell Manifesto. It was Lewis Powell’s guidelines, a total antithesis of the Communist Manifesto, all for a radical right-wing shutdown of a rising tide of liberalism. He urged America’s capitalists to wage “guerilla warfare” against a growing progressive movement. Specifics of his manifesto called for huge financial backing for extreme cultural changes from the bottom up: planting conservative ideas in books, television, newspapers, education, religion, the arts, sciences and politicians – penetrating all avenues of communication, relentlessly repeated.

To add insult to injury, much of this is still done with taxpayer subsidies. Among the very rich, private, tax-exempt foundations have been fleecing taxpayers for ages. The law requires them to donate to charities in exchange for tax deductions. The only problem is that the rich control the foundations and determine the charity, often a disguised cause that actually filters into schemes that help the rich. Today many are called 501(c)’s (“social welfare”) groups, actually used only for only the welfare of the very rich.


http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/06/kochs-building-their-version-of-america/

[StarTrombone]

1. And none of the candidates that they supposedly back seem to get anywhere

It's like the cons freaking out about Soros

But it makes for cheap easy click bait

[MrScorpio]

2. Look for most of the damage that they're causing by candidates in down ticket races

State and local elections.

[Wisc Progressive]

3. This response is so ill-informed that I could not let it go without a reply. Longtime lurker, that

very seldom posts anything though I have been following DU since the terror of the chimpfuhrer days (and only recently bothered to sign up for an account). I have seldom seen such a factually void comment in all my many years reading OPs and comments at DU.

Koch has been wildly successful electing officials and their emphasis is on the STATE level anyhow -- they control many states lock-stock-and-barrel. Wisconsin obviously comes to mind. Koch underwrite the economic terrorism Illinois Gov. Rauner is inflicting. They underwrite all of the republican govenors and these interests represent the majority of state executives.

The koch interests only need to take over 6 more states to call a constitutional convention and rewrite our nation's founding documents to enable each and every act of voter suppression, gerrymandering, worker exploitation, war on women, and denial of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. This is REAL and represents unprecedented success at a right-wing coup.

It is just sad to see people at this board proclaim the exact opposite. Kochs will work out their differences with Donald Trump because in the end, he stands for nothing. Trump is exactly what Kochs seek -- someone stooopid enough to distract the public with jibberish, but smart enough to sign the ALEC/koch bills into law.

I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are grossly uninformed, but that is not an excuse to post something so misleading and plainly false anywhere at DU.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Everyone should know this much about these criminals who are managing our lives, unfortunately.

Seeing the end of their chokehold on the US American culture can't come nearly soon enough.

So glad to have read this information.

Thank you.