Americans must mobilize now or midterm elections could make oligarchy official
The world’s two wealthiest men are only six seats away from seizing the Senate and consolidating their current control of the House. The result could be a full “Koch Congress” that further rigs the rules in their favor, even though most Americans have never heard their name.
Charles and David Koch have a combined net worth four times that of well-known Democratic donor George Soros, and one hundred times that of Tom Steyer. This summer, Koch’s secret billionaires’ summit pledged to raise $500M to take the Senate in 2014 midterm elections but so far there has been insufficient warning about its many serious implications. Combined with four decades of funding front groups and an elaborate ideology they call “economic freedom,” Koch embodies today’s emerging American oligarchs but at an extent to which others can not even compare.
At risk are the rights of all Americans, especially women, workers, voters, veterans, as well as the protection of our rapidly warming Earth, since the Kochs’ end game is to defend their carbon based wealth by continuing to pollute politics and the planet for free. The stakes could hardly be higher, yet there has been little discussion in election coverage of the fact that two billionaire brothers are about to have “power of the purse” over the world’s wealthiest nation.
Koch Capture of the GOP
Around the 2012 election, Politico reported on the intra-Republican rivalry between Karl Rove and Koch. However, it now appears as if Rove’s powerful SuperPAC, American Crossroads, is carrying Koch’s message in elections ads about the Keystone XL pipeline. Koch’s capture of GOP electoral operations may not be so surprising given that Rove himself is not rich and must raise money from others whereas the Kochs draw from their own unparalleled personal fortune.
Senator Mitch McConnell could become Koch’s top guy in government under a Koch Congress, waging unrestrained war against the President at every turn, if not impeaching him outright. Obama could, by the way, be left with no Attorney General if Republicans refuse to approve any replacement for outgoing AG Eric Holder. Voting rights would be rewritten by a Koch Congress, as mandated by the 2013 Supreme Court decision—and brought forth by the Koch-funded Center for Fair Representation—that rolled back the crown jewel of America’s civil rights struggle. Another Koch-funded group, ALEC, has been advancing similar strategies at the state level, where America’s voting laws are forged. Part of a plot? Call it highly organized greed.
Compared with past plutocrats in American history, not even John D. Rockefeller ever financed the “election” of so many extremists that he formed such a radical faction as Koch has through today’s Tea Party. Nor has anyone moved so many moderate conservatives toward Koch’s personal philosophical approach and hardline policy agenda.
Koch’s core belief in “shrinking the state” drive conservatives’ manic brinkmanship in the nonstop budget battles that shut down the government and risked default over the debt ceiling. Along with entirely eliminating essential elements of federal government, such as the EPA, a Koch Congress would also squeeze other governments—from municipal to multilateral—who rely on federal funds for everything for disaster relief to fighting emerging viruses like Ebola.
Average Americans Can Act Now: Connect at KochProblem.org
Average Americans can act now, wherever you live. For the first time, Americans can “follow the money” from Koch’s fossil fuels fortune today’s political candidates online at KochProblem.org. Learn about their links to Koch’s financial interests and connect with the growing network of grassroots groups working across America to stop Koch from taking over Congress. Countering Koch requires urgently expanding efforts among grassroots groups to mobilize memberships, indeed all Americans, for 2014’s epic elections.
If you live in a swing state, see KochProblem.org to find out which candidate gets Koch support and connect with others who also want to stop them.
If you do not live in a swing state, see KochProblem.org anyway to link to phone banking systems of key national networks that can provide you numbers to call in swing states urging others to vote.
All Americans have a right and a responsibility to vote, but if we don’t exercise it now then we risk losing that very right. A full Koch Congress would weaken voting rights, minimum wage, pay equity, carbon regulations, and so many other basic protections the American people have fought for, and won.
What we really need is a “wave election” against all candidates nationwide who have serious Koch connections in order to accelerate a just transition to local, living economies everywhere. So, before you vote, remind family and friends to do the same since mobilizing all Americans is truly our only way to stop a Koch Congress, and to elect one that really represents everyone.