The Koch brothers seem bound and determined to
flush away even more of their billions backing up unpopular policies and unpopular Republicans. In a memo they sent to major donors and political operatives, obtained by Politico, they've committed to spend at least
$125 million more in political ads and ground efforts to back Republicans this cycle. That's likely more than either of the parties' congressional campaign organizations will spend.
Here's the best part: they want to do this to convince the public that people like the Kochs haven't stacked the deck against the rest of us. The memo says that the "Left had a superior messaging strategy and implementation that effectively identified their demographic targets, determined which issues resonated best with which groups, and delivered specific messages over TV, radio and online ads for those audiences." So they want to counter that by pretending they care about real people.
"If the presidential election told us anything, it’s that Americans place a great importance on taking care of those in need and avoiding harm to the weak," reads the AFP memo.
Echoing Charles Koch's opposition to the minimum wage, it asserts that free market, low-regulation policies "create the greatest levels of prosperity and opportunity for all Americans, especially for society's poorest and most vulnerable." Yet, the memo says, "we consistently see that Americans in general are concerned that free-market policy—and its advocates—benefit the rich and powerful more than the most vulnerable of society. … We must correct this misconception."
One of the ways they're trying to "correct this misconception" is with their "personal story" ads, "often told by regular folks looking directly into the camera, to critique Democratic policies like Obamacare, and the politicians who support them." You know, all those "horror stories" that have turned out to be
a passel of lies. So apparently we can expect more of them, which at least will provide job security to all the fact checkers out there.
So they're spending hundreds of millions trying to buy a Senate like they bought the House so they can privatize Medicare, kill Medicaid, and enact the Ryan budget on steroids. The only reason, they believe, that these things are unpopular is that the great unwashed public doesn't understand that it's all for our own good to have every structure of support yanked out from under us. Because that message is going to work with Latinos and young people and women, their new targeted demographics.
The bad news is they'll spend their millions and millions getting out the vote among the people who are already with them. The good news—for us—is that they'll be wasting millions and millions on a message that isn't going to work with anyone else.