Tom Paine 1949
Diamond Member
- Mar 15, 2020
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The huge Koch Industries lobbying network & mega-wealthy political donor groups it leads have been in the news in recent years for a number of reasons worth discussing.
A) they control by far the most influential and well financed donor base in Conservative politics.
B) their powerful influence over the Federalist Society and in particular their grooming of Clarence Thomas has recently exposed long-standing ties between this corporate big money network, judges, state government leaders and industry-captured “regulators.”
C) Their hard “turn” against Donald Trump after Jan. 6th 2020 — though it hardly seems to have had any immediate effect — raises important issues for the future.
The 2nd richest completely private capitalist network of companies in America (Charles Koch died in 2019 leaving David Koch in charge) has been a powerful — but usually discreet — force in shaping “Libertarian” anti-government campaigns for decades. David Koch functions in a very different way than, say, Murdoch or Tesla or some prominent Liberal mega-rich “benefactors.”
Nevertheless, their products are probably in your home at this very moment even without your knowledge — perhaps the very toilet paper you use is sold to you by them! But what of their “libertarian” politics?
The footprint of Koch organization campaigns can be found in everything from Trump’s initial tax breaks and anti-regulation policies, to all of his Supreme Court choices, to earlier Republican support for “Citizen’s United” & “free political speech” as a supposed personhood right for corporations & private capitalists to unlimited & anonymous political contributions.
The Koch family were key advocates of the “private charter school” movement’s right to public education funding, home schooling, etc. Now there is a Koch-sponsored upcoming Supreme Court decision likely to roll back “Chevron” case precedents allowing government agencies the right to issue regulations implementing federal legislation that only specifies broad goals … which will dramatically limit regulations on everything from the environment to consumer protection to banking.
Each of these areas of contention and many more have their own histories, and other well-healed lobbying groups often have counterposed views. But the record of success of the anti-union and “Don’t tax the super wealthy” Koch network clearly corresponds to the success of corporate and oligarchic private wealth accumulation in America over the last decades.
One area not often discussed is that this group has also pushed for decades for a more open border, and indeed its food industry processing plants notoriously manage to get around “e-Verify” regulations, even or especially in the Deep South & Southwest, where local Republican politicians otherwise scream loudly over the border crisis, but on this are strangely silent. Indeed, many of these processing plants, like the agricultural work they rely on, could never proceed so profitably without such labor.
The Koch network has now shifted from pushing abstract libertarian ideological views on the border issue to one more oriented toward trying to get centrist legislation passed. It is now working with the Bush dynasty, and even talking with some Democrats, speaking of “comprehensive immigration reform,” including a road to citizenship for many long-term foreigners living & working productively here without legal documentation. Of course like most political groups, it is easy to talk the talk but harder to walk the walk. The Koch brothers even earlier “claimed” differences with Trump’s MAGA philosophy on immigration, but helped his movement in practice: Koch Data Mining Company Helped Inundate Voters With Anti-Immigrant Messages
Finally, I don’t want to argue that the Koch network is unique in the history of American politics, or even Republican or Conservative politics. Way back in our last Gilded Age there were similar networks.
So, besides screaming that the Koch Brothers were always “RINOs” and never “Libertarians” or “Real Americans,” has anyone anything interesting to say about the role of this most influential network of super-wealthy conservative donors?
A) they control by far the most influential and well financed donor base in Conservative politics.
B) their powerful influence over the Federalist Society and in particular their grooming of Clarence Thomas has recently exposed long-standing ties between this corporate big money network, judges, state government leaders and industry-captured “regulators.”
C) Their hard “turn” against Donald Trump after Jan. 6th 2020 — though it hardly seems to have had any immediate effect — raises important issues for the future.
The 2nd richest completely private capitalist network of companies in America (Charles Koch died in 2019 leaving David Koch in charge) has been a powerful — but usually discreet — force in shaping “Libertarian” anti-government campaigns for decades. David Koch functions in a very different way than, say, Murdoch or Tesla or some prominent Liberal mega-rich “benefactors.”
Nevertheless, their products are probably in your home at this very moment even without your knowledge — perhaps the very toilet paper you use is sold to you by them! But what of their “libertarian” politics?
The footprint of Koch organization campaigns can be found in everything from Trump’s initial tax breaks and anti-regulation policies, to all of his Supreme Court choices, to earlier Republican support for “Citizen’s United” & “free political speech” as a supposed personhood right for corporations & private capitalists to unlimited & anonymous political contributions.
The Koch family were key advocates of the “private charter school” movement’s right to public education funding, home schooling, etc. Now there is a Koch-sponsored upcoming Supreme Court decision likely to roll back “Chevron” case precedents allowing government agencies the right to issue regulations implementing federal legislation that only specifies broad goals … which will dramatically limit regulations on everything from the environment to consumer protection to banking.
Each of these areas of contention and many more have their own histories, and other well-healed lobbying groups often have counterposed views. But the record of success of the anti-union and “Don’t tax the super wealthy” Koch network clearly corresponds to the success of corporate and oligarchic private wealth accumulation in America over the last decades.
One area not often discussed is that this group has also pushed for decades for a more open border, and indeed its food industry processing plants notoriously manage to get around “e-Verify” regulations, even or especially in the Deep South & Southwest, where local Republican politicians otherwise scream loudly over the border crisis, but on this are strangely silent. Indeed, many of these processing plants, like the agricultural work they rely on, could never proceed so profitably without such labor.
The Koch network has now shifted from pushing abstract libertarian ideological views on the border issue to one more oriented toward trying to get centrist legislation passed. It is now working with the Bush dynasty, and even talking with some Democrats, speaking of “comprehensive immigration reform,” including a road to citizenship for many long-term foreigners living & working productively here without legal documentation. Of course like most political groups, it is easy to talk the talk but harder to walk the walk. The Koch brothers even earlier “claimed” differences with Trump’s MAGA philosophy on immigration, but helped his movement in practice: Koch Data Mining Company Helped Inundate Voters With Anti-Immigrant Messages
Finally, I don’t want to argue that the Koch network is unique in the history of American politics, or even Republican or Conservative politics. Way back in our last Gilded Age there were similar networks.
So, besides screaming that the Koch Brothers were always “RINOs” and never “Libertarians” or “Real Americans,” has anyone anything interesting to say about the role of this most influential network of super-wealthy conservative donors?
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