Several news stories in the last two days detail plans by the Koch Brothers to influence the Democratic Primaries www.salon.com/… . As detailed by Igor Derysh at Salon magazine, the radical Libertarians hope to promote centrist (read corporatist) Democrats facing progressive challengers in the coming election cycle. Other outlets as diverse as Open Secrets and Fox Business News have run this story and so it seems likely, perhaps not even surprising that this is true.
No two people are more responsible for the Frankenstein’s monster that is the current Republican party than Charles and David Koch. Under their considerable influence that party has come to represent ignorance, bigotry, inequality and disfunction. Thanks to their influence the party of Lincoln has become the party of Scott Walker and Chris Kolbach, Jim Jordan and Steve King. What they want is Freedom. Freedom from environmental regulations, freedom from paying taxes, freedom from helping the less fortunate, and generally freedom to be huge asshats.
A funny thing has happened on their way to remaking the Republican Party in their reactionary libertarian plutocratic image, they have also managed to make their party less and less electable. The Kochs are well educated and astute observers of politics. In the short term, their efforts have allowed them to keep wrecking the planet and avoid paying anything like their fair share of taxes.
I believe that they can see the writing on the wall. If 2018 is any harbinger of how 2020 might go, then they stand to loose influence in the very near future. I believe the plan to invest in Democrats is a tacit acknowledgement that the Republicans may loose the Senate and the Presidency next cycle. There is a genuine risk that popular ideas like addressing climate change might actually start informing policy if the nascent progressive coalition makes gains comparable to 2018.
So they plan on propping up those remaining Democratic incumbents still clinging to the tattered banner of Blue Dog, Centrist, Corporatist politics of the past decades. They seek to move the Democratic Party towards the right to thwart the undeniable progressive energy of the party base. They hope to nullify any Democratic gains by selecting Democratic candidates who they can count on to be malleable on issues where the Kochs have financial interests.
As the kids say “aw hell no.” I will not vote for, support, promote or donate to any politician who takes as much as a phone call from these monsters. The nation cannot stand having its only functioning political party to follow the lost Republicans down the worm hole. I dont care if it affects control of Congress, I dont care if these incumbents are vulnerable. If the Kocks want them, then I absolutely reject them.
I want the party leadership to internalize this message. Sell us out for Koch money, for whatever noble reasoning you espouse, and I am done with you. All of you. Make a god damned stand for a change and trust the army of small donors ready to counter the influence of people like these. Tell your Members to reject help from the Kochs, whether it is actual money, or indirect support. Call them out when they run ads during next years primaries. Run on, and be committed to the policies they hate, such as ending their dirty fossil fuel fired destruction of the environment. They say regulation kills jobs. Well the lack of regulation kills actual people, and you cant work if you have cancer caused by Koch Brothers pollution.
If the Democratic Party Leadership fails this test, we will loose anyway. The most motivated liberal voters will never support Koch backed candidates, and those disposed to believe their propaganda are already committed Republicans. Do not take these 30 pieces of silver, do not sell your souls to win. Trust the people you purport to represent.