About a month ago, Democratic Senator from Nevada Harry Reid went on attack against known conservative super-supporters: The Koch Brothers. If you are unfamiliar with the Koch (pronounced "coke") Brothers, they are two of the richest people in the world, and they aren't shy about putting their money to use, namely supporting political candidates who are likely to drink their kool aid; preferably out of the dixie cups which they make. Because Charles G. and David H. Koch are in fact real people, no matter how distant and aloof they may seem, Harry Reid's personal (and sudden) crusade against them seemed to have hurt their feelings, prompting Charles to write a seemingly heartfelt op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. However, if you watch the video below, you'll see why I said "seemingly".
Now, since one of my goals on this blog is to present both sides whenever possible I decided that I should try to post a video of someone defending the Koch Brothers and their actions. This is surprisingly hard to find as it seems the internet isn't fond of the Koch Brothers one bit. After some searching I found the following video of Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana at a town hall style meeting on March 18, 2014. In the video Vitter is responding to a women's concerns over whether or not lobbying (and more specifically the Koch Brothers) has too much of an effect on our government.
Before you point to this as proof that the Koch Brothers are just extremely successful American businessmen whom all the regular peasants are jealous of, I would first like to dig a little deeper. One of my favorite resources for doing just such is a site called OpenSecrets.org which is "the nation's premier research group [for] tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public
policy". After browsing through Senator Vitter's page which lists various facts about his campaign's financing and top contributors, I finally found the thing I had feared most: the Koch Brothers are one of his top supporters. Now they didn't directly contribute to his campaign (most likely because they could only give him $5,200 apiece), but rather through Koch Industries, the second largest corporation in the United States and of which they own 84%. The Open Secrets page revealed that Senator Vitter has received $25,000 from Koch Industries this 2014 election cycle, $5,000 less than their 2012 contribution, and has received a total of $100,000 since 2006 (which was as far back as the data goes).
policy". After browsing through Senator Vitter's page which lists various facts about his campaign's financing and top contributors, I finally found the thing I had feared most: the Koch Brothers are one of his top supporters. Now they didn't directly contribute to his campaign (most likely because they could only give him $5,200 apiece), but rather through Koch Industries, the second largest corporation in the United States and of which they own 84%. The Open Secrets page revealed that Senator Vitter has received $25,000 from Koch Industries this 2014 election cycle, $5,000 less than their 2012 contribution, and has received a total of $100,000 since 2006 (which was as far back as the data goes).
The fact that he has received so much funding from the Koch Brother's corporation certainly seems to discredit Sen. Vitter's grand "God Bless the Koch Brothers", or at the very least devalue it a great deal. After all, if someone gave you $100,000, you too would think they were the greatest thing since sliced bread and defend their name whenever possible. Unfortunately, Sen. Vitter isn't the only one who the Koch Brothers are giving money to, in fact from 1990 to 2014 they have contributed over $21 million to political campaigns and groups, with 91% going to republican candidates or groups. And while that is a large number (they are the 12th largest political contributor so far in 2014), it pales in comparison to the nearly $85 million which Koch Industries has spent on lobbying from 1998-2014. Still, even this is likely a small figure compared to the money which is given "off the books", an amount which could be double or even triple the previous sums.
Since the previous video of David Vitter ended up painting a bad picture of the Koch Brothers, I decided to once again try to find a pro Koch Brothers video to share with the 3 people who read this blog, well two if I don't count myself. It was then that I discovered Alex Jones an American radio host, author, conspiracy theorist and documentary filmmaker. In the two videos, Jones is defending the think tanks which the Koch Brothers support on his radio show. In the second video, Jones' guest voices that the Koch Brothers are "pro Koch" rather than strictly republican or liberal.
Alex Jones, though he often falls on the conservative side of the spectrum, is a self declared libertarian and a conspiracy theorist; dancing down the line between republicans and democrats and doing the hokie pokie in the stories and opinions often not covered by the mainstream media. I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist myself, so I was actually starting to agree with some of the things he was saying when I noticed the following video in the related videos section. The video is of Sam Seder a comedian, writer, actor, film director, television producer-director, and progressive talk radio host accusing Alex Jones of being paid by the Koch Brothers (as the video title says).
After watching the video, and reading through many of comments, my liberal side was slightly disappointed that Seder basically just went for a sensationalized title without the actual proof to back it up. Yes, he points out many inconsistencies in Jones' reasons to sympathize with the Koch Brothers, but he fails to provide any actual facts and simply states "there is no way that he doesn't know what he is saying [is] a lie,[...]there is not a shred of doubt in my mind that that guy takes money from the Koch Brothers". Now, while there is no proof of the Koch Brothers paying Alex Jones in any way, I don't think you can rule it out in the same way that you can't rule out a more liberal minded corporation paying Sam Seder. However, we do have one example of the Koch Brothers trying to influence the media which makes me more suspicious of them rather than the latter. The video is of Rachel Maddow, host of The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC (basically the liberal equivalent to Fox News), responding to the Koch Brothers after receiving a letter from them calling for her to retract a report she did exposing their actions which they evidently did not want exposed.
The fact that they sent that letter makes me realize just how far diverged from reality the Koch Brothers live. Or, maybe I am the one who is removed from reality and they are in the real world. Either way, I don't want any part of the world which they live in which seems to revolve around the axis of them making more and more money. While it is true that they are not the only company that lobbies, backs, and accusedly bribes our government officials with money, they have become a figurehead for all of the problems caused by now infamous Citizens United decision and the recent McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission which have unleashed the wealthiest of Americans' pocketbooks in the name of free speech. The Koch Brothers may not have sold their souls to the devil, but they have made it very clear that their only interest is making more money, just like pretty much every other major corporation out there.
Ultimately (since I could go on forever on this subject), I think that the point of this whole post is best summed up by the following clip from the 1988 movie Twins.
Ultimately (since I could go on forever on this subject), I think that the point of this whole post is best summed up by the following clip from the 1988 movie Twins.
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