Charles and David Koch are billionaire industrialists who have used their vast wealth to launch major campaigns at the local, state, and federal levels to influence (read ‘buy’) legislators so that they can get legislation passed that advances their own interests. They do this by contributing to contributing to candidates directly or through Super PACs, creating and supporting so—called think tanks that advance their interests, funding lobbying groups that work ceaselessly on their behalf, and in any other way that they can think of.
Their main goal is to dismantle all government regulations that hamper their wealth accumulation and this includes measures to address climate change since they have extensive investments in the oil industry. This has made them the poster children for critics who argue that the role of money in public affairs has got completely out of hand. Naturally the Kochs feel aggrieved because we know that the members of the oligarchy have extremely thin skins. It is not enough that they are vacuuming up all the money around for themselves, they also want to be loved and they are hurt that so many of us are saying mean things about them and they are anxious to let us know that they are actually nice people.
So the Koch brothers have started giving interviews to persuade us that the negative image we have of them is unjustified. In this one in the Financial Times (subscription required), Charles Koch makes his case. (You can get a fuller and free description of the interview here.)
Koch would like us to get to know him. Or, more accurately, he has been persuaded that staying silent is counterproductive both politically and, increasingly, for his business.
…“We’re being attacked every day by blogs, other newspapers, media, people in government, and they were totally perverting what we do and why we do it. We have had other people answering it,” he says of the criticism, “but I’m the evil guy, so I need to come out and show who I am, like it or not.”
So what would he like you to know about him? One is that he has not endorsed any Republican candidates so far and the quality of the field disappoints him. He opposes Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslims since that is antithetical to a free society. He favors rolling back harsh sentencing laws and wants to reduce the size of the prison population.
About current US wars, he says, “We have been doing this for a dozen years. We invaded Afghanistan. We invaded Iraq. Has that made us safer? Has that made the world safer? It seems like we’re more worried about it now than we were then, so we need to examine these strategies.” He opposes Ted Cruz’s plan to bomb the hell out of Muslim countries saying that it will only create more enemies.
“Mao said that the people are the sea in which the revolutionary swims. Not that we don’t need to defend ourselves and have better intelligence and all that, but how do we create an unfriendly sea for the terrorists in the Muslim communities? We haven’t done a good job of that.” With about 1.6bn Muslims worldwide “in country after country. What,” he asks, “are we going to do: go bomb each one of them?”
In another interview his brother David has said that he supports pot legalization and same-sex marriage and favors cuts in defense spending and the withdrawal of the US military from the Middle East.
Does all this sound surprising? It shouldn’t. A lot of wealthy oligarchs have quite liberal views on social issues because those are the norms of the elite circles in which they move.
The point to bear in mind is that whatever their views on these other issues, their primary goal is their own wealth accumulation. They will back the most anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-choice, warmonger as long that politician promises to dismantle any government regulation they dislike. Despite the fact that the politicians who share their views on treating government as the enemy also tend to have the most abhorrent views on all these other issues, they are perfectly willing to set aside their social goals and back them.
So their views on all these other issues are not really relevant and they should not expect us to give them a free pass. Their money is what really speaks for them, not their words.
Non Sequitur
So the Koch brothers have started giving interviews to persuade us that the negative image we have of them is unjustified.
It has to suck to know that nobody’d give you the time of day except for your money. Are they interesting enough people to be interviewed for their own merits, or just their bank balances? Pooooooor Koch brothers; their actions had consequences.
In fact, nobody’d give a shit about the Koch brothers except that they started using their vast wealth to influence the political process. Back when they were just building a massively vertically integrated mega-corporation, they were just “employers” for a lot of people. I even did some consulting for Koch Industries back in the 90s; it was a good gig.
The problem with wealth is that money is a portable form of power. That’s why people want it. And, yes, it can be abused -- which is what using one’s wealth to disproportionately influence the politics is all about. I’ve long maintained that power has no value except in abusing it, which is why anyone should be suspicious of someone who wants power (and by extension, wealth) The wealthy simply aren’t wise enough to enjoy their gains privately and quietly; nobody’d notice. “Old money” has learned to do that, it’s the nouveau riches like the Koch bros that make oligarchs look bad. So gauche.
Koch sad. 🙁 http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/charles-koch-2016-presidential-race-217499#.2bscapf:UB7o
Mother Jones has an excerpt of a book that gives some insight into just how twisted that family is.
It has been said that human needs are really, really simple: To know and to be known, love and be loved, to be useful to yourself and others. Get your ticket punched in all three areas and you are successful at being a human being. Simple.
The Kochs have spent all their time and efforts gaining power and money, but their greatest frustration is that they are not known as they see themselves, they are not loved for who they are, and they are seen as just a source of money and propaganda to be used to gain an end, not useful in and of themselves. Forty billion dollars with which to buy a clue with, and they have still have missed the point of what it means, takes, to be a success as a human being.
lorn:
Bah. Lots of things have been said.
Well, that’s been said too (by you!), and perhaps it even makes you feel better.
(Crying all the way to the bank, they!)
Derf nailed how interesting the Koch brothers really are a couple of years ago.