I read yesterday’s NYT review of Jane Mayer’s new book, “Dark Money,” by David Nasaw, and my much-stated fear of the Koch Brothers and their Neu Wannsee Conference was confirmed. And ratcheted up.<\/p>\n
Below the link I’ve pulled excerpts from the review, with the naked intention of scaring you as much as I’m scared. (Hey, you–unlike me–actually go to horror movies for entertainment; why should you be fazed by a mere book review?)<\/p>\n
In \u201cDark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right,\u201d Ms. Mayer reports on David and Charles Koch\u2019s empire and political influence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Source: Review: Jane Mayer\u2019s \u2018Dark Money,\u2019 About the Koch Brothers\u2019 Fortune and Influence – The New York Times<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
\u201cDark Money,\u201d the result of Ms. Mayer\u2019s research, is a persuasive, timely and necessary story of the Koch brothers\u2019 empire. It may read overly long and include some familiar material, but only the most thoroughly documented, compendious account could do justice to the Kochs\u2019 bizarre and Byzantine family history and the scale and scope of their influence.<\/em><\/p>\n
…<\/p>\n
Largely because of his experience in the Soviet Union,<\/em> [father] Fred Koch became a staunch anti-Communist and, in 1958, one of the 11 founding members of the John Birch Society. His son Charles did not fully commit himself to his father\u2019s political project until the mid-1970s, when, Ms. Mayer writes, Charles Koch \u201cbegan planning a movement that could sweep the country.\u201d His declared goal? Nothing less than destroying what he referred to as \u201cthe prevalent statist paradigm.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
“…prevalent statist paradigm”? What does that mean? It means our constitutional democracy, couched in the utterly disingenuous gobbledegook produced by those “libertarians.”<\/a><\/p>\n
The review handily details what “libertarians” want to destroy:<\/p>\n
The 1980 platform of the Libertarian Party, to which the Koch brothers provided financial support and on which David Koch ran for vice president, offered a preview of their anti-government zealotry. The Libertarians opposed federal income and capital gains taxes<\/strong>. They called for the repeal of campaign finance laws; they favored the abolition of Medicaid and Medicare and advocated the abolition of Social Security and the elimination of the Federal Election Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. \u201cThe platform was, in short,\u201d Ms. Mayer concludes, \u201can effort to repeal virtually every major political reform passed during the 20th century.\u201d <\/strong><\/em>[My bolding, as if these sentences weren’t bold enough.]
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nAs you may have noticed, the Koch Party didn’t win the election. So what did the Kochs do? Did they take their billions and go off into the sunset and sulk? Oh no.<\/p>\n
When the Supreme Court in the 2010 Citizens United case<\/a> permitted nonprofits to spend money on political campaigning, the Koch brothers funded their own political machine, which, in size, dollars and sophistication, rivaled that of the two major parties. Their success in the 2010 midterm election was remarkable, and, Ms. Mayer says, took the Democrats by surprise. Republicans picked up seats in the House and the Senate and 675 in state legislatures. \u201cAs a consequence of their gains, Republicans now had four times as many districts to gerrymander as the Democrats\u201d and the legislative power to pass a series of laws suppressing the vote of those who might not support their agenda.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
You do remember that Hitler was elected to office, don’t you? Two offices, actually. He won two elections. I’m wondering to whom the Jewish vote went.<\/a><\/p>\n
The Kochs, Ms. Mayer is careful to remind us, are only one of several fabulously wealthy families that have tried to move America to the right…For more than a decade, they have organized donor summits<\/em> [a\/k\/a Neu Wannsee Conferences] to which they have invited like-minded billionaires, political consultants, media celebrities and elected officials. At these meetings, plans are made, issues chosen, money raised, donations pooled, spending coordinated for the next election cycles.<\/em><\/p>\n
The Koch brothers and their allies insist, and no doubt believe, that their war on big government has been motivated by their commitment to the individual freedoms that government interferes with. Still, \u201cit was impossible not to notice,\u201d Ms. Mayer writes, \u201cthat the political policies they embraced benefited their own bottom lines first and foremost. Lowering taxes and rolling back regulations, slashing the welfare state and obliterating the limits on campaign spending might or might not have helped others, but they most certainly strengthened the hand of extreme donors with extreme wealth.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
One of the more startling revelations in Ms. Mayer\u2019s book concerns the number of billionaires in the Koch network who have had \u201cserious past or ongoing legal problems\u201d and whose companies have been fined for violations of the Clean Air and the Clean Water Acts. Koch Industries, she reports, has been perhaps the most flagrant and willful polluter and scofflaw. According to the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s database, it was the No. 1 producer of toxic waste in the country in 2012.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
To protect their investments in coal and oil pipelines and refineries (somewhat pared down in the last decade), the Koch brothers have, Ms. Mayer points out, funded think tanks committed to raising doubt about climate change. They have also spent tens of millions of dollars to roll back environmental regulations and defund or abolish the federal agencies that write and enforce them.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
I’m still finding it hard to believe that such sophisticated monsters are flourishing in this country.<\/p>\n
And I am wondering how New York big-money society, a lot of it Jewish, will react to this book. Will they continue to pal around with David Koch, who calculated correctly that if he gave $100 million to Lincoln Center, his name would go up on New York’s premiere dance stage, the State Theater, and he would be embraced by other philanthropists who donate large sums to Lincoln Center?<\/p>\n
I trust some journalist will be asking those questions of the Soros family, Mike Bloomberg, David Geffen, et many, many al.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I read yesterday’s NYT review of Jane Mayer’s new book, “Dark Money,” by David Nasaw, and my much-stated fear of the Koch Brothers and their Neu Wannsee Conference was confirmed. And ratcheted up. Below the link I’ve pulled excerpts from … Continue reading