Ashamed that MIT has anything to do with the Kochs. Take their name off that building if you care about using technology for good in the world, my alma mater.
9
Trump is a useful fool to russians on one hand and to koch brothers on the other. it is so crazy that putin's wishful thinking coincided with the long-in-the-making koch brothers' plan.
10
Fine review. Briefly, I see Trump as a self-centered person with a limited experience of life and an upbringing that made him both racist and contemptuous of views that differ from his own. He fits the qualifications blithely described by Grover Norquist, who is quoted as saying that what was needed was a Republican with enough working digits to hold a pen and to sign legislation already prepared by others. The Koch brothers too have a shadowy relationship with racism. They also have the misguided notion that, being born wealthy, they must be really superior. To complete their history, we need to look at works such as that of Nancy MacLean, who traces the juncture between Koch and the segregationist James Buchanan, as well as the growth of George Mason U, and the influence of Koch in academia.
9
So much for the noble "Resistance" within the White House.
The White House "Resistance" IS the Koch Brothers Shadow Government.
The only thing they're fighting over is trade wars and appearances (otherwise known as Trump appearing to be exactly what he is).
The Kochs just want to be a "respectable" version of Trump.
There are no respectable versions of Trump. Unless you're a Fascist.
15
Have many of you considered that we all indirectly support the Koch Brothers? When you dry your hands in a public rest room, do you dry them on a Georgia-Pacific paper towel?
The dispensers used to say “George-Pacific: A Koch Brothers Company”. But no longer, “A Koch Brothers Company” has been deleted. “A Koch Brothers Company” has even been deleted from the Georgia-Pacific web site.
These above board beneficiaries of the public good don’t have anything to hide, do they?
2
A better metaphor for the Koch-Trump relationship is that Trump is the Koch's "Useful Idiot". Trump has no idea what is going on. He is clearly delusional. He is certainly the beneficiary of the Koch machine but he could never grasp that possibility in his deranged view of the world. He thinks he did it by his own magnificence; something a very stable genius would do just naturally.
The Irony is most of the Republican candidates in 2016, except for Trump, were Koch-puppet candidates. Yet Trump has been far more successful in damaging the government (a Koch/libertarian goal) than they could have been.
The other thing to be very clear on is the whole tea party/freedom caucus movement is a Radical Libertarian fifth column take over of the Republican party, which previously would view Libertarians as the (politically) destructive and logically unhinged radicals they actually are. The Kochs sold out their own principles in "aligning" with (manipulating and deceiving) evangelicals to get votes. Kudos to them for demonstrating the power of money to corrupt, in their siege of our government. (They would argue they are against corrupt government. A fundamental lie based on denying that money has any influence.)
The charade is unsustainable. Eventually tea party/Trump voters are going to get that the .01% want to grind them into the dirt. Every policy passed so far does that. Personal pain will eventually make rationalizing those actions untenable for the non-wealthy.
6
Along with the many Republican politicians I want to see undergo public trials and then executions, I firmly believe the same should be done with the Koch brothers.
8
Let's not mince words. What's happening is that the selfish rich, notably including the Koch brothers, are doing what the selfish rich always do - they try to enhance their wealth and power, no matter the consequences for others. This is why court decisions like Citizens United are so dangerous to our democracy. When you open the floodgates to money in politics and when huge donations can be made in secret, the selfish rich use that money advantage to create propaganda that convinces the gullible masses to oppress themselves (e.g., killing off unions and thus diminishing worker power) and allow their planet to be poisoned.
5
If you want to keep supporting the Kochs and the Trumps, it's simple:
Keep NOT VOTING!
2
Professor Edsall, the Republican Party is much more than the party of white people. While the statement made in your essay may have been a requirement for publication by The Times Editorial Board, the Republican Party remains the party of freedom and liberty.
It is unfortunate that the Democratic Party remains Balkanized and is driven by grievance. We need to come together as Americans and to stop being divisive.
Irrespective of what someone's position is on POTUS Trump, the typical Democrat in DC NEVER GAVE THE MAN A CHANCE TO GOVERN. Furthermore, no matter how much one hates the Electoral College, he won the 2016 Presidential Election based on the existing rules.
As long as the sentiments enunciated in the previous paragraph are ignored, this nation remains at peril.
3
Ironically, exposing the Koch’s and their likeminded fellow plutocrats’ weaponized political spending as Jane Mayer and others have done just makes matters worse. Our awareness of their successful use of Dark Money to corrupt politicians and dictate the Republican agenda only serves to deepen cynicism and apathy among the electorate, leading to the conclusion that all government is incompetent and untrustworthy. Exactly the result that the Koch’s and their ilk desire.
2
The Koch Brothers, Father and whole family are recreating Germany in the early 19th century. An American aristocracy based on the premise that workers, women, and anyone who does not look like them are not worthy of the great gift of the American experiment.. A majority of the American public do not realize that this family and others like it: Trump family, Coors family, DeVos family to name a few are at the crux of their take over of America. It is REALLY TIME for the AMERICAN VOTER to take back OUR country.
4
To all those who condemned the anonymous Op Ed as a coup d'etat or Trump being run by non elected officials, what say you now? The Koch brothers et al obviously are having a huge say in how the country is being run. Elected? Bah Humbug!
The USA must fix its gerrymandered electoral system, - yes I know it will have to be run by non elected bureaucrats, - change the voting to a Saturday, when it is easier for all to participate, then you will start to have a proper democracy, not the half baked partisan system now operating.
Is anyone talking about boycotting the Koch brothers companies, or sports teams? Why not? Or do you wish to let them to carry on unimpeded, to wrought their vision of the world on you, without having a say in your world?
Money does not buy them the right to walk unimpeded over your democracy.
Time to take some action against those who are pushing Trump any which way they want the country to go, or have you really thought about how this might end up - say in 5, 10 years time?
5
"Much of the multimillion dollar Koch empire is built on donor anonymity based on the use of tax-exempt organizations that do not have to publicly report contributors."
It's rather ironic that republicans have little concern over the anonymity of donors who essentially bribe our politicians with many millions of dollars of self-interested "political speech" yet are incensed by the anonymity of a 'senior member of the trump administration' contributing an op-ed to the NYT.
4
Is Trump part of the Koch cabal or are the Koch Brothers part of the Trump cabal?
Either way thanks to Citizens United the majority of Americans are totally and completely ignored in this GOP-controlled Congress and the Koch Brothers are running the country.
So, if we impeach and remove Trump do we get rid of the Koch Brothers as well?
4
The Kochs present an existential threat to life and living on this planet.
5
We know about the Kochs, but we don't hear enough about the influence of the Mercers who, after all, put Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway and Bretitbart, among others, in important positions in this White House, and Steve Bannon, although banished, still has a strong voice, advocating the Mercer ideas around the world.
5
The Kochs want wage-slavery for all, regardless of race.
A return to a quasi-plantation economy as espoused by John C. Calhoun.
17
I believe Trump is the result of the Koch brothers and Putin meddling in our elections. What they share is a loathing of Hillary Clinton. They did everything within their power to prevent her from winning the 2016 election.
The Koch brothers and their 400 or so ultra rich “partners” have used their money to take control of our government. GOP inaction on climate change is due to the Koch brothers. Years ago, they had Congressional Republicans sign pledges in which they agreed not to act on climate change legislation. Koch Indrustries generate massive amounts of pollution and they want the liberty to pollute our land, air and water for free. The price will be paid by all humans and other life forms on the planet, now and in the future. The suffering will be immense. They don’t seem to care.
The Koch brothers are said to be worth a 100 billion. Money is power and they are using theirs to rule this country. They have used their money to get ultra conservative Libertarian Republicans elected across the country and at all levels of government. They know the candidate with the most campaign money almost always wins the election. They have their own voter database and it is just as good, if not better,than the voter database of the Republican Party.
I could continue on about the Koch brothers for many paragraphs. Please read DARK MONEY by Jane Mayer. You will be astonished and disgusted.
10
Sorry everyone. Ending the conservative grip on government is not going to end well or easily. As republican maneuvering and power grabs become more extreme and unprecedented, the corrective action will also have to be more extreme. The republicans will use any means to maintain power and then claim that it has to be accepted by the public for the good of the country. Tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation at any cost.
7
In the torrential downpour of breaking news, including coverage saying Trump was at odds with the Kochs, it was easy to miss that Trump and the Koch Brothers have always been co-conspirators. Strange bedfellows perhaps, but they share a mutually beneficial, symbiotic relationship . I can't imagine this will play well with those who thought they had found a populist champion of the everyman in Donald J Trump. Thanks for helping us keep our eyes on the ball and see through the deliberate distortion of the GOP funhouse mirror.
4
The Koch brothers are pure evil.
Their apparent goal is trading the future of the planet for additional money they will never begin to spend.
Their so-called "Libertarian" credo is based on the utterly flawed premise that every one of us can and must be fully responsible for detecting and avoiding all hazards, and managing every one of life's afflictions without any support.
In fact, we have a system of government that has recognized the folly of this position from the beginning. George Washington required lighthouses (some still standing) as government funded projects. Benjamin Franklin was instrumental in establishing the Post Office so each of use could communicate with others efficiently and inexpensively. Public health, including protecting us from hazards we are defenseless against (like pathogens in our air, food, and water) has been a government function partly out of common decency, but also because the cost of protecting all of us is vastly lower (and more effective) than each of us attempting to verify the safety of every item we eat, drink, or use.
What the Koch's have in common with Trump is avarice, and utter contempt for the law, citizenry, and planet. This, apparently, is is enough.
8
@Mark Johnson
At least they give to PBS, it's true. I watched Frontline, and it was funded in part by the David Koch foundation.
With that said, the rest of what they do, which is take tax payer money and call it theirs. Fund their favorite Republican Senator or Congress person's "reelection campaign" (graft by any other name is still graft). Is unconscionable.
1
How can the US call itself a democracy when its elections, its government, can so easily be bought?
8
Can you fathom a more cynical marriage?
Trump rides the Koch machine to power for the sole purpose of holding power, the trappings of playing king. The Kochs ride Trump’s appeal to white supremacy for the sole purpose of retaining even more money from the encroachment of taxes—when they already have more than they could possibly ever spend. And not one of them caring one whit for the American voters who furthered their very personal—and very selfish—goals.
Sooner or later one cannot help but believe the voters whose livelihoods are now being squelched by Trump’s trade wars or who will face death and bankruptcy when the Kochs succeed in eliminating both the ACA and Medicaid, will rise up and declare a pox on both their houses. But by then, the Kochs will have succeeded in the foremost goal—remaking the judiciary, up to and including the Supreme Court, into their anarcho-capitalist image, one that will construe all federal benefits programs as contrary to the framers’ original intent and all regulation—including those regarding fraud, employment discrimination and employee safety—as infringements of the First Amendment.
Edsall may be right that sooner or later this marriage will fail. But the effects of its judicial legacy will color America red for at least a generation.
8
But the United States has always been about money, starting with its independence . It is so obvious, you see it everyday in the dollar bill: In God We Trust " !
1
In this entire article, with the exception of the tax cut, everything listed that Trump has done to help the Kochs could be undone with the stroke of a Democratic president's pen.
3
@Paul
And hopefully will be, the tax code needs to be realistic in terms of a fair and equitable corporate tax rate. Trillion dollar companies should pay more than the zero they will pay this in 2019 tax season.
It's true that Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, all paid less than 10% in taxes, Facebook, got a tax return. Yet, education is stripped of money, healthcare is gutted, the citizens will pay more in taxes, since more of their NET INCOME will now be available for taxation. Unlike the rich, who's tax breaks will mean that relative to their income they will pay less in taxes than working class Americans.
No company has ever paid the 35% statutory tax rate, with the exception of brick and mortar retail. Yet we have companies like Amazon, that is now valued at 1 trillion, but pays employees an unlivable wage, in fact they are number 11 on the list of mega companies who's employees make so little they receive welfare.
Yet, Amazon has created the homelessness problem in Seattle, yet you ask them for money, forget it. If the city wants to levy a tax, they threaten to shut down a building they are building. Had I been the mayor, I would have called their bluff, and told them, shut it down. Yet we stand by and let it happen, we've abdicated our voting power because we've fallen into the repeated idea of "you can't beat city hall" mentality.
2
I recall the Koch Bros attempt to unseat the incumbent seats on the Iowa and Florida Supreme Courts 15 years or so ago. Failed miserably because some politics and policies come from the bottom up not the top down. If there is a shift in progress, 2018 may be remembered as one of change. More color, more women and more veterans as candidates coupled with younger contenders with a progressive message arrived post-Trump.
Nancy Pelosi might find difficulty recognizing a new House Democratic majority. I hope so.
3
@texsun
I've said it over and over, congress is controlled by old white men and women. What we need is younger people that are really in touch with today's world.
Otherwise, we're going to be left with old bitter white males, and females running congress.
We give the Koch brothers our money when we buy products from their companies. They get rich from the money we give them, then use that money to get richer while hurting us
The easiest ones to stop buying: Brawny, Angel soft, dixie cups
Others include the fabric lycra, and stainmaster
Here's an ap to help:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2012/06/18/microsoft-programme...
7
@Lynn
Thank you, this is much appreciated!
Campaign finance reports make it clear that "Our" Representative in Congress is beholden to the Koch network not to "We the people". "Our" representative holds no public events in our blue city but does appear at gatherings in small red farm towns 50+ miles away. Any local appearances at schools and factories are not announced in advance. We get to see those nicely staged appearances on the local evening news and in some really slick campaign ads.
9
The legalized takeover by big money corporate donors of our elections makes a mockery of the American “checks and balance” system, that we’re all taught from childhood to be so proud of.
The GOP now dominates our 3 branches and most states. They have their own state media, the huge monopoly FOX News to manipulate information for voters. They force the Dems to compete for funding to run.
Our lawmaking can only operate within the policy limits the big donors will allow. The officials we stand in line to elect must spend huge blocks of time calling rich donors for funding, and listening to their lobbyists, at the expense We the People.
We get little representation for our taxation, but the big donors wishes take precedence, so they won’t withhold funding.
1 obvious example---we’re the only modern nation still without affordable health care for all citizens that the world achieved in the 20th Century. We are blocked by h/c as a profit center.
And our free press, so proud of its 1st amendment freedom, also operates within the limits the big money has set up. The media never even mentions, much less analyzes, the huge formative factor of financial elites setting up the laws that affect our lives and that keep our nation’s wealth flowing upward to them and away from us.
7
@Meredith Your words are the foundation of a future revolution. How near or far depends on when we as a people have had enough. The Second Amendment, at its core, allows the people to defend against a government that no longer defends or represents the people. Never give up, never give in.
Do the Koch brothers ever have to face up to any public scrutiny?
It seems as if they are really calling all of the shots in the US and can get the president to do whatever suits their own purposes irrespective of what is good for the US both domestically and in the eyes of the wider world.
If you paid $900 000 000 to get the man installed in the White House you should expect to be called upon to explain yourself in some way.
Trump goes on about "The Deep State"-who he sees as his enemy but the real "Deer State" is the one where the Koch brothers operate and run the US like their own personal fiefdom, appointing and dispensing with their puppet leaders at will, democracy is rendered utterly meaningless under these circumstances
5
Nothing new here. Our government will continue to be undermined and corrupt until we remove money from politics, add term limits and pass comprehensive campaign reform to level the field for those that serve in the government. I keep saying it - money is the root of all evil - in our government
1
Voting is crucial, but not enough. Middle class people must march in sustained street protests to stop the big money takeover of politics, and restore influence of the citizen majority.
Are enough voters aware of this destructive effect, if the cable TV news ignore it, and NYT columnists don't trace the cause/effect on policies affecting our lives?
Point to the contrast of other democracies who elect leaders using more public funds, and limits on private money. Corruption is kept illegal, not legal. In France, UK and Netherlands, their voters didn't let their rw parties win power, while here the rw GOP dominates our 3 branches.
Other advanced democracies don't have an equivalent of the Koch Brothers and of a huge monopoly rw media FOX News. Here, that's the state media of our dominant party.
Other counries ban the privately funded campaign ads that swamp US voters, so voters won't be swamped by special interest messages. And they are capitalist democracies. See Wikipedia on campaign advertising.
The How Democracies Die book authors are on cspan video---how democratic countries can turn to autocracy insidiously when naive moderates align with right wingers they think will help them.
How is our media performing their 1st amendment duty to inform voters, when they ignore big money in politics setting our policy limits for their increased profits. And the media make big profits from campaign ads the big donors pay for.
That's the next column for Edsall.
3
Thank you - the NYT needs smarter commentary than we typically see - especially that "anonymous" piece. Keep the cold sober facts in the public eye.
2
Just one thought after this well researched article.
The Koch brothers should be jailed for treason on many levels.
8
I wish someone could explain what sort of mental illness Charles and David Koch suffer from.
They are elderly men worth billions of dollars.
Why do they need more money?
Do they enjoy causing suffering among the “little people?”
Does killing the final vestiges of democracy make them feel god-like? Does it fill some emptiness in their souls?
Are they trying to deny their impending mortality?
11
Golly! No kidding? Shocking, simply shocking.
1
It's the Kochs and the Republicans and Putin and the alt-White media that are working in concert.
They share the same agenda, funding, talking points, and ultimate goal - destruction of our democracy for their pleasure and profit.
Trump is also part of this axis of evil, but as the red herring.
He takes the heat and bad press while the others quietly do their work.
But Trump has no strategic agenda or much of an ideology. He mainly tweets and watches TV. The others feed him as a useful idiot. Bush was the same way.
When Trump goes, Pence is primed and ready to take his place.
Foolish for the media and everyone else to think that whomever has the "President" title is the key player - that's just misdirection.
6
Thomas, you are one astute person!
Dark money is death to democracy. Pay attention to TV campaign ads...if they end with “Americans for Prosperity paid for this ad”...it is the Koch brothers‘ money influencing the election. Do you think those billionaires care about your life?
Your health? Your job? Your safety?
They believe in Ayn Rand’s philosophy...”The Virtue of Selfishness”... get yours and don’t concern yourself about others.
To understand the Kochs and their fellow billionaires read the libertarian Bible— Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” where the wealthy “industrialists” (aka as the job creators) are the rulers...and the workers are the despised “weak” takers.
Republicans have been busy destroying Unions and regulations that protect workers for decades. No benefits, low wages for workers is the Republican mantra.
Democrats won the popular vote in 2016, but crooked Trump got installed as President with the help of his bro, Putin, and the billionaires. We are now a plutocracy.
3
The one thing they both believe in and know absolutely is how gullible and stupid their base supporters are. They'll believe anything Trump or the Kochs tell them. They play them like a player piano.
But one example is their base being so happy and gleeful with the $500 or so most of them get once in the tax bill. Point out the millions Trump, the Kochs and their families get over the next 10 years and you get a blank stare. Huh? Who cares?
Their children. Then again, probably not...
6
Next time you hear conservatives utter the name George Soros, remind them of the Koch Brothers, and add, "they couldn't care less about you, either!"
2
Curiously unmentioned in comments, what of Rupert Murdoch and arguably the most divisive force in your country and perhaps the world. Fox News. Is fox just coincident with the koch’s Or joined somehow, perhaps over a scotch and a chuckle.
1
Regarding the Kavanaugh nomination and corrupt Republican political intent: the MILLIONS of dollars being spent to "promote" Kavanaugh and the Republican attempt to railroad his nomination into confirmation all but confirms that he is a "bought" man and that the Trumplican party (undoubtedly in collusion with the Koch Brothers and other wealthy and/or religious partisans) seeks to BIAS THE SUPREME COURT.
Why, on God's Earth, would anyone pour hundreds of millions into partisan propaganda if they were not absolutely expecting a quid pro quo? Res ipsa loquitur (for a bit more Latin) - "the thing speaks for itself".
With such expectations, KAVANAUGH SHOULD NEVER BE APPOINTED TO THE SCOTUS. Our Court of Last Resort, whose members are life appointees, MUST BE IMPARTIAL or the very essence of our Constitutional Democracy is at risk. Congress has surrendered their responsibility, the Executive is an insane narcissistic sociopath and, if SCOTUS falls, we are on our way to an autocracy that would arbitrarily deny freedoms and sway toward a 21st Century Nazi Germany and close Putin ally.
The only remaining legal defense is to VOTE! We can only count on ourselves too save ourselves.
2
And Soros?
1
In summary: #RedWave2018
1
It is surprising that Edsall does not cite Nancy MacLean's book "Democracy in Chains" in reference to the phony split between Trump and Koch. She exhaustively documents the Kochs' "long game" from its beginnings and is very clear on the role of a useful idiot like Trump to their project, i.e. how to manipulate the white population to vote against their own best interests.
2
SECOND TRY
Cheap! The cheapest and shoddiest way of winning the applause of the Democratic peanut gallery is to go after the Koch Brothers.
Edsall also provides an object lesson in the operation of the Liberal echo-chamber. If a Times writer needs a factoid to smear the Koch Bros. with, he outsources it to the Washington Post (no matter that it dates back to 2014!). He should get out a little.
I won't dignify Edsall's racism-baiting with a comment.
I will say that I expected a lot better than this. Shame on Edsall for choosing the low road. His street cred among the loony left must have badly needed recharging.
2
the "rift," like so much else in Trump/Republican world, is a phony smokescreen of distraction and deceit.
the utimate, real truth is they all want you looking the other way while they pick your pocket and steal the food from your babies' mouths, then laugh with each other about their cleverness over champagne and caviar at Mar-a-Lago and other swanky, lowlife haunts.
2
When Obama was president, George Soros and the deep state were behind everything, now with Trump it's the Koch Bros. Don't forget the Jewish casino moguls and real estate developers ;)
1
@John Reynolds The Koch Bros were on the case long before Trump came along. Check school segregationist James Buchanan and his reaction to Brown Vs Board and the Koch adoption of Buchanan and George Mason U.
Koch Brothers + Trump = Big Brother
1
Good, I'm glad for the Koch's. When Obama was president, you never mentioned HIS diabolical allies that wanted (and want) to undermine our society and culture. Its the liberals (like you) that hate America and hate Western Culture and influence. I think you should just get out.
2
History is just. In the long run, all three of them will be labeled by history as the Nazis that they are.
1
The Koch Brothers, like the Trump family are bottom feeders and so they tolerate each other.
2
Horrible thought coming up.
I am NOT saying that Mr. Donald J. Trump is a Nazi.
I am NOT saying the Koch brothers are Nazis.
BUT. . . . .
. . .they remind me--just a bit--of Nazis. Back in the 1930's.
Consider. You had the LOUD people--starting with der Fuehrer himself. Shouting--waving his arms--rousing the crowd till they lost themselves in a orgy of Heil's and Sieg Heil's. A ghastly memory!
And then--the QUIET people. I am thinking of--what's his name?--Wilhelm Frick? "The colorless civil servant" as William Shirer put it. Working behind the scenes. . .
. . tightening the notorious Nuremburg Laws. . .
. . .tightening the screws on unwelcome minorities. . .
. .. making life just a little harder for the Jews.. . . .
. .and harder. . .
. . and harder.
He paid eventually.
A lot of them paid. Loud or not.
AND PLEASE DON'T GET ME WRONG!
I am NOT equating today's Republicans--even today's ultra-conservatives--with Nazis. No indeed!
And yet. . . .and yet. . . .
. . .in their own small way, they're making mischief together. Are they not? Hurting Americans. Hurting poor people. Hurting middle-class people.
SOME noisy--foolish--impulsive.
And SOME--deft, unobtrusive, toiling behind the scenes. .
. .. fostering the cause of the rich. The prosperous. The HAVE'S.
And devil take the hindmost!
Well, to be frank. . .
. . .I would to the Lord we were rid of them.
Every last one.
(You listening, Lord? Lord?)
Wow! Machiavellian (Greed, justifying any and all means, however perverted) and anti-democratic, effectively the installment of a pluto-kleptocracy intent to screw an unsuspecting and credulous public. This abuse of power is, to put it it mildly, despicable, combining two hypocrite 'supporters of the Arts', the Koch brothers, and a know--nothing 'brutus arrogantis', whose motto MAGA ought to be changed to MAWA (make America 'white' again). What a farce!
1
Thus spake Edsall: "For two decades, key Democrats have argued that as the party of the multiracial, multiethnic rising American electorate — and the political home of single women and younger voters — they have the demographic wind at their backs. But time and again, the Republican Party, the de facto party of white America, has surged back."
Edsall speaks the truth, but he does not tell us the whole truth.
The whole truth is that the Democratic Party bosses have mobilized the party's new "brown" base by means of a torrent of racist propaganda about how white, male Americans are implacably opposed to allowing brown Americans to have their place under the American sun. To believe this propaganda, every disappointment or setback or headwind encountered by minorities is the result of white male racism. Every "disparity" in, say, High School graduation rates or in women's employment in Silicon Valley is the result of the white male conspiracy.
Don't lecture me about how Republicans have exploited "racially freighted, anti-immigrant rhetoric." If white, working class Americans (including a significant number of Obama voters) voted for Trump, that is not because of Trump's dog whistles. It is because the Democratic Party has declared war on them in order to consolidate its base. They did not leave the Democratic Party, it left them -- and in the process it smeared them as racist deplorables clinging to their guns and religion.
I dare you to set the record straight!
2
Trump and the Koch Brothers are working for the same goals though they don’t agree/like each other/whatever. Many Americans have made this bargain with Trump. David Leonhardt comments this morning that “only” 40% of Americans support the impetuous, vindictive, anti-democratic, ignorant president. What does this say about that 40%? Totally transactional regardless of the cost to the nation and world. This is worse than any left/right divide; it’s all about what’s in it for me, right now.
1
@DO5 - Thank you. Research shows repeatedly that about 30% of voters are receptive to authoritarian rule.
I figure that the other 5 to 10% comes from a number of things ranging from xenophobic fears, feeling of humiliation from an elite meritocracy and being cut off from living the American Dream. Trump provides a story of hope, i.e. MAGA and factory work coming back to our shores. For some he is the proof that Grifters really win and anyone with the chutzpah can be a billionaire too.
For many Trump provides a vent for deep anger. He is wrecking ball bringing the whole thing down.
Trump will provide his supporters the a reality show of despair and hopelessness when they realize that gambling at the Taj Mahal was not going to realize their dreams of making it in America.
The politics aside, I can't for the life of me understand why Charles and David Koch, together worth upward of $90 BILLION, are so determined to grab more $$, at the expense of every other living being on this planet. Their cruelty must be pathological, superseded only by their greed. They care nothing for the lands, water and air they foul, for the people their industrial pollution sicken - the very people they wish to refuse any form of healthcare.
They want to privatize everything from the Post Office to Police, the Fire Dept. Translation: make every service our taxes pay for in a civil society, available only if you pay for them out of pocket and provide a profit for the provider. If you can't afford the service, too bad if your home catches fire. Just look at David Koch's platform from his 1980 presidential bid - if you've not seen it, prepare to be floored.
Charles and David Koch represent pure evil, as does trump. This is their common bond. And the day any and/or all of them are removed from power, or turn up on the wrong side of the grass, will be a very, very good day for the rest of us. May it be soon.
11/6/18 - Let their end begin.
11
Seeing as Gary Johnson was not elected, libertarians find more in common with Republicans than Democrats.
1
“Asked if Trump was to blame for heightened national divisiveness,” Koch should have replied... “absolutely and we are the primary beneficiaries.”
4
The only thing that seperates trump from the Kochs is that they both want to be king and the throne isn't big enough.
2
But what the Kochs may not realize is that they are being conned by trump just as white American are. Some day, trump will be so powerful, that even the Kochs will not be able to stop him. Just like Putin did to the oligarchs in Russia.
Once again - it looks like the IRS has got to get moving on 501(c) non-profit law violators who seem to be running wild in Trumpland.
It’s sad the column fails to mention the class of Koch Brothers non-Profits which can range from those watched as campaign financiers, to those most secret: religious institutions that never have to report a thing, but, like all groups accepting tax-deductible contributions, must stay out of politics. Trump’s been telling Evangelical churches to jump right in.
There is an ugly flaw in the non-profit system: every tax exempt corp. must file an annual report to the IRS ...
Except for those centered around worship.
Billy Graham’s son has already proclaimed Christians, “tired of being stepped on” (stepped on? Depending on definition, that’s between @60-80% of the US population) and would use their churches as political bases. That should flag an instant audit.
The President tells pastors “you’ve got to get your people” from the pulpit, to vote - and who to vote for.
He is telling them to commit felony.
The way I read the Constitution, these institutions are non-profits. but they are NOT allowed to be treated differently from any other NfP.
Essayist/novelistWilliam Gibson says the law make them perfect money laundering machines; nothing is monitored.
Payoffs to silence clergy-abused kids would have become public within a year.
As it is, the IRS requires such little info from NfPs, any charity can play too, who else are they donating to?
1
Of course Donald Trump and the Koch brothers have shared interests which serve to perpetuate the suffering of countless other people.
You’re either an ultra high-net-worth individual, or you’re not.
3
If the Kochs had just kept all their money all these years instead of using it to poison the lives of most of the rest of us wouldn't they have been richer and all of us much happier? What made them think they had the right to influence, infiltrate, and wreak havoc with our lives and our country? Because they took advantage of that country to become obscenely rich? Their continued existence, like Trump's, proves there is no god. That their policies and politics continue to exist proves there are no sensible Republicans. Dick Cheney's continued existence proves both.
5
Isn't it enough that these men have more "stuff' then
the rest of us combined??? Do they have to take our Democracy and freedom also ???
3
We know the history of Donald Trump (and his father) with race. Fred was in that KKK march and Donald was cited twice for housing bias.
But the Kochs' father -- also Fred -- used race to bash unions. To gain support for his early right-to-work efforts, he asked, "Who wants to call a black man 'brother'?"
So yes, there is a lot in common between Trump and the Kochs and the American Legislative Exchange Council. Divide and conquer.
2
Yes so, and the Democrats are working with Soros and Steyer. Its called politics, and I do understand with the black and Hispanic communities across America realizing that money to it's leaders is just talk to the people, actions speak much louder. The communities have woken up to the fact now the Democrats need to earn the black and Hispanic vote, they can't figure out how to, and are in trouble.
2
Trump is a corporatist all the Populist nonsense is their to entertain his base while the Koch Boys fleece them. Notice after the tax bill he told rich people he just made them richer, he didn't say that to coal miners. Bloomberg was spot on Trump is a Conman working for the KOCH mafia. Increasingly he is seen as a loose cannon so don't be surprise if the Koch boys pull a symbolic Fredo on him. Pence would be more obliging and obediant and far less controversial.
2
I believe that the term this op-ed piece needs is dog-and-pony show: the Koch brothers and Trump may hoot and holler at one another, but essentially they are as Edsall says in cahoots, since as we go along, their common greedinesses just get clearer.
Or come to think of it, they're symbiotes. It's simply unclear which is the host, and which the tapeworm.
The Koch brothers have gotten their pet programs (like giant tax cuts) passed for now, by allying themselves, however reluctantly, with Trump. But how long will these victories last?
What do you think the American public will do when they are told, “You can’t have social security and Medicare because we’re giving permanent tax cuts to the rich”? Which do you think they will choose—tax cuts for the Kochs, or survival for themselves? I personally don’t want to die sick, homeless, and hungry so the Kochs can get even richer, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. As Nick Hanauer points out in his classic piece for Politico, “The Pitchforks are Coming … for Us,” this kind of situation usually ends in revolution, in torches and pitchforks. (Read “A Tale of Two Cities” recently? If not, I suggest a review.) Ultimately, the Kochs and the Trump legacy will wind up together in the junk pile of history.
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@Constance Warner “ Ultimately, the Kochs and the Trump legacy will wind up together in the junk pile of history.”
I hope so!
The Koch agenda has been the Republican agenda for all administrations after Eisenhower, with the one notable exception of the Koch brother's views on immigration (or more precisely views on helping those immigrants who are here function in society).
Trump and Trumpismo have jumped the shark. Trump himself is a laughing stock now; books like Omarosa's and Woodward's make it clear that the large fraction of those working for him know he is a buffoon and a poltroon. They write pieces to the NY Times about how they thwart his childish tantrums.
The investigations and lawsuits have Trump besieged. There will be a moment of false calm from Mueller as the election nears, but they are collectively at least the death of 1,000 cuts, even if none of them is decapitating.
The Democrats are now likely to take the house. Trump is done-for if they do, even without them holding the senate.
Trump is over -- everyone knows it now, though many pretend otherwise -- and we don't see how the endgame plays out.
But the Kochs are moving on, their causes stand. They have already retreated strategically -- they are not funding Republican house candidates likely to lose; they are fighting in the senate. And they know that Trump will fall.
The biggest issue for the Koch brothers is CO2 -- they are heavily invested in low-grade fuels (coal and high-sulfur heavy crude, including Athabascan tar sands). As long as the GOP can hold the presidency and the senate -- they win.
1
Why are we in this position? Just because these people can spend money without challenge to force their opinions on us?
1
We have lost our Republic to the Supreme Court's decision regarding Citizens United. We need a constitutional amendment to abolish Corporate Personhood. The system today has been corrupted by people like the Koch's and Mercer's. Do we want a
Plutocracy or a Democracy?
2
Excellent editorial, all of which underscores the importance of campaign finance reform. However I fear this is now a long gone pipe dream, especially as the Koch Brothers self-serving efforts have successfully chipped away the McCain Feingold bill over the last few years. And now with their golden boy set to become the next Supreme Court appointee, they are surely popping the champagne as they are about to realize their dream of total deregulation (let the polluting begin!).
The whole Roe v. Wade issue nothing more than a smoke screen; the real reason behind the Federalist Society's list is to stack the Supreme Court with judges who will put business' interests before public health, safety and welfare.
And the next item on their list, killing Social Security and Medicare, will be realized next year when the tax cuts reveal a Treasury with such scant resources, there will be no choice left but to shutter whole sections of our government. For me, the Koch Brothers are absolutely the most dangerous individuals than anyone on this planet.
2
The Koch network financed the overt corruption of the US electoral process that led to the placement of Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
The most insidious well-planned anti-democracy schemes, REDMAP, was launched after the 2008 election by the Republicans under the leadership of Karl Rove. The plan involves systematic capture of state legislatures and governorship financed in large measure by Koch brother's Citizen's United for the sole purpose of sophisticated computer-driven gerrymandering that suppresses voting by likely Democrats.
A documented effect of REDMAP the 2012 election took place in Pennsylvanian where voters cast 83,000 more votes for Democratic U.S. House candidates but elected a 13-5 Republican majority to represent them in Washington. In Michigan, voters cast over 240,000 more votes for Democratic congressional candidates than Republicans, but still elected a 9-5 Republican delegation to Congress. REDMAP has been supremely successful and has given the GOP a lock on Congress that will be very difficult to overcome.
This same Republican grip on state legislatures has enable massive voter suppression at the polls. Trump was handed the Electoral College through a sham election.
The Kochs and Trump are indeed birds of a feather: Greedy and corrupt with nothing but contempt for the American people. They depend on majority voter apathy. Get out the vote and fight for the restoration of our dying democracy.
2
And yet Thomas Edsall you continue to also write columns extolling the virtue of 3rd Way Democrats and their incremental polices. You show, by this excellent piece, that we are hardly a democracy at this point, that our very existence is threatened and the policies of the Clintons and the Obamas have directly led us to this point. It's never the very evil of the world who figure out how to take it over, it is the people like the Clintons and the Obamas and every other establishment neo-liberal politician whose decision to protect the wealthy at every turn and give lip service to social issues has led us to this point. I don't blame the Koch brothers, they are just doing what evil people do; but I do blame the Clintons, the Obamas and the Democratic neo-liberals who allowed this to happen.
2
When I was much younger I read Paul Kennedy and when Bush was elected I thought this is where poor leadership leads to end of empire. Then came Obama and I was momentarily lulled but spent the time reading Chalmers Johnson and I wasn't so sure. Then came Trump and the Koch Brothers and I now know I have a front row seat for the end.
Thomas Edsall's horribly depressing piece makes me wish that all the Democratic candidates for whom I work tirelessly, and voluntarily, through get-out-the-vote efforts, will heed this message: It's not enough to win election; once in office, you must put an end to this plutocracy!
2
The reverse is often true too. Everything permanent always looks temporary. The equilibrium can shift left or right without ever stopping. It can stay like this forever...or as long as the Koch brothers and Republican party need it too. The reason the Republican party has been successfully thwarting Democratic initiatives is because they are flexible on tactics inflexible on principles. They can be against budget deficits or for them depending on how it serves their interests. In our world 1+1 always equals 2. In their world 1+1 = 2, 3, 5 or sometimes all numbers at the same time. This gives the GOP a decided advantage. It may seem like they've capitulated to Trump. But they haven't. Trump will be gone one day. They will still be here. They will wait him out & in the end achieve all of their goals. Their plan is simple. Control the Supreme Court. Controlling SCOTUS is the grand slam that ends the ball game. Control SCOTUS & you destroy the liberal agenda once & for all. The legal arm of the conservative movement is probably the best organized, most far-reaching & far-seeing sector of the Right. They truly are in it — and have been in it — for the long game. Control SCOTUS, stack the judiciary, & you can stop the progressive movement, no matter how popular it is, no matter how much legislative power it has, for decades. Long after Trump is gone, the right will be relying upon the judiciary — & behind that, the Constitution — to protect, enlarge, & consolidate their gains.
2
We are overdue for a reform leadership to remake this country in the image of its ideals that have been so badly savaged by these special interest cabals.
Meanwhile, Fox News and their ilk are brainwashing people to direct their anger at each other. Add to that the general apathy and cynicism of a population that rightly feels no representation. We have record low turnouts in a gerrymandering jungle where we pick between center right democrats or far right republican candidates neither of whom will represent us. I am afraid I cannot imagine the groundswell that could make a real change happen.
One step at a time -- vote for progressives!
1
And this is why, no matter how mad the resident of the White House is, the GOP will protect him--Trump is the powerful fruition of all they worked to buy for decades and they will not give him up, no matter the cost to the republic.
2
It’s about time a NYT columnist finally writes on Citizens United and the Koch influence. The long term ramifications? Negative. But TV cable news keep ignoring this huge underlying factor.
Money = free speech is a Trump-type lie the Court created to excuse their pro corporate ruling.
Corporations are legally regulating our elected govt, instead of our elected govt regulating corporations. Mega donors set the policy limits. Example—health care for all common in dozens of nations is here, still off the table.
Other capitalist democracies don't hand over to their campaign funding to financial elites. They ban the privately funded campaign ads that swamp our media, requiring big money donors.
Ex Pres Jimmy Carter recently said big money in politics "violates the essence of what made America a great country….Now it’s just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery needed to get elected to any office.” The media ignored this from an ex president.
Princeton’s Martin Gilens’ -- “only the desires of the richest are reflected in lawmaking….the average American has a near zero impact on policy.”
Our democracy is being stolen out from under us. This should be on TV news every day. But our media, so proud of it’s 1st amendment protection against explicit govt censorship, is still pressured by norms that the mega donors set up. Thus they ignore the causes and only report on the effects. We have to figure it out.
1
You know, a failure to bother reading doesn't lead to the conclusion that there were no such articles, any more than a failure to vote intelligently in the last election leads to the conclusion that you were conspired against.
Authors Nancy McLean and George Tyler hold that the Koch’s are part of a cabal of radical far right billionaires that comprise a fifth column movement. The ultimate goal of which is oligarchy, which by definition ends democracy and rule of the majority.
Mr. Edsall rightly points out that Trump represents little more than a nuisance externality for the Koch network. Clearly with some “deal making” and tweaking, the economic interests of the far right billionaires will continue to yield a high rate of return. The Kochtapus will find a way to embrace Trump as it has the entire Republican Party. They’ve been at this process going back to the Cold War when they were derided as little more than John Birch Society “Wing Nuts”. Today the ideology of the JBS is that of the Republican Party.
Very close to success, the steadily grinding effort of the Billionaires to steal from the commons, stifle regulation, loot the treasury and weaken community resolve to do anything about it provides an endless supply of money; of which a small percentage is re-invested to gain ever tighter constriction on democracy.
For the radical right wing billionaires The sorry state of affairs can be summarized by the Mafia goodfellas phrase “It’s a beautiful thing.” It’s amazing that our faith in democracy has turned out to be such a fragile and fleeting thing. I’m sure the Koch/Trump response to our fears would be simply to “fuhgeddaboutit.”
2
We've been told the lights are blinking red because the Russians appear to be coming for our elections again.
Now a White House insider tells us the lights are blinking red and there's a 5 alarm fire because of our malignantly incompetent president.
Members on the Intelligence Committees or on the transition have known these momentous issues since before the beginning of this administration. Have we seen action to protect the country? No. Instead, we've mostly seen a concerted effort by one party to protect the president and maximally exploit a narrow partisan advantage favored by the Kochs.
A few Republicans have spoken out, mentioning a virtual adult daycare situation in the White House. Far more only speak privately or off the record to reporters, but then publicly say the exact opposite.
Who benefits? Obviously, it's the party against the ACA and in favor of massive deregulation, massive tax cuts for the rich, and a massive shift to the left for the federal judiciary. It's a heist for the wealthy in plain sight. With the theft of Obama's SCOTUS seat and the Kabuki theater of Kavanaugh's confirmation, we're in the home stretch.
Republicans expect to be slaughtered in the midterms. Trump's negative publicity and legal jeopardy will only get worse. But tax cuts and judges may last generations.
Republicans made a deal with a devil. For massive partisan gain, they've allowed a dangerously corrupt and incompetent man to lead the country.
They knew it and it stinks.
1
The Republicans allegiance is not to our country but to the economy which has no Country...only a bottom line.
The Kochs and their political machine are on the verge of becoming the de facto government. Their use of dark money in dark places for dark reasons is the complete antithesis to an open democracy. The fact that they will use any trick or fool to gain the upper hand should show to all that they only have one god, the god of Money and Power. I propose we label this The Koch MAP Machine. Pence brought this Machine into our present administration to cover trumps rump financially in the election. I could go on and on about this shadow government, what they have done for decades has filled books and will provide fodder for many more. But the important thing to me is to bring this out of the shadows. Constantly put this Machine in the spot light. We need to get the Media to report on this Machine for what it is, a de facto government trying to pull a stealth coup on our Democracy. They may be able to outspend us but we can outvote them if we work very hard. This midterm election is the setup to 2020. If we fail here we will be voting for un-opposed in 2020! VOTE VOTE VOTE, it may be the last one that isn`t completely bought and paid for by the MAP Machine. To fail now will mean the installation of a Corporate Fascism run by a Board of Oligarchs, the most powerful of which will be the MAP Machine.
2
Impressive article - I just don't like how the word conservative is used in this article. Let's call the GOP-Trump-Koch nexus what it really is: Crony Capitalists. "Conservative" is just a label an ignorant voting base wants to assume because it provides them with affirmation that they espouse traditional values (besides Stormy Daniels), fiscal probity (besides the huge tax cuts for the wealthy), and patriotism (even if their man is beholden to Russia). Hence why speaking the truth, that the GOP-Trump-Koch nexus is really the crony capitalist party, is the best way to make ignorant, wannabe conservative, voters realize who they are really electing.
Oligarchs rule us
The Koch's are working with Trump, Wall Street with Schumer.
Wall Street cooked up the Great Recession, Trump will cook up something equally bad - just not yet.
We should not be fooled by the fact that two wholly owned subsidiaries of Koch Industries named Pence and Pompeo deny having played any role in Anonymous-gate. Clearly, the purpose of yesterday's Op-Ed was to reassure the slash-and-burn "business community" that everything is under control and the dismantling of the regulatory state continues apace. Despite the denials, we can be sure that this grandiose "We've got this" statement would never have been issued without the approval of David and Charles Koch and their operatives in the Executive Branch.
No one elected the Koch brothers to anything. Yet there they are, pulling strings in the white house, congress and judiciary.
The Koch agenda is mercilessly pursued in many areas; gutting the EPA who they've long hated; chipping away at social safety nets of Social Security and Medicare which they consider a form of socialism; tax cuts on them and their corporations; weakening or destroying public sector unions in their visceral hatred of anything they consider communism. The list goes on. The Koch political organization is remaking this nation in every red state legislature they can reach with their cash.
Trump's entire cabinet was selected as a cynical joke on the nation to show right wing contempt for government. The very worst ideologues were deliberately chosen to ridicule good government and infuriate opponents.
Once the Kochs get enough red state governors in place their intent is to have a constitution convention to remake the constitution to their liking, as detailed here:
https://www.prwatch.org/news/2017/03/13229/koch-brothers-bankroll-consti...
Side note: No one elected Grover Norquist to anything either, yet the GOP signed and carry his pledge card around like it's their citizenship papers. We are destroying our future with deficit spending caused by manic obsession with tax cuts for the very richest.
We are in the midst of a perfect storm that will reduce the USA to a shadow of our current stature and personal prosperity.
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It's hard to believe that a number of plutocratic families in the US could influence elections with their money to the detriment of our democracy.
Congratulations to the republicans for siding with these wealthy individuals to buy American elections. The republicans were able to put together a coalition of plutocrats and low income and middle class workers to win the presidential election. It's remarkable that this coalition could have existed, especially since corporations and plutocrats have worked toward an economy where the workers were disenfranchised when their jobs were unlawfully taken overseas with impunity, solely for corporate profitability.
The disenfranchised workers then voted against their own interests, starting with their support of the right-to-work laws. Social issues (such as gay rights, abortions, etc.) were also used by the corportists and oligarchs as a way to distract from the important issue of economic disparity.
Trump was willing to lie over and over again to his supporters by saying he would hold the corporatists responsible and bring jobs back to America. His lies gave him their votes and his win on election day. Trump then turned his attentions to his Real Base -- the oligarch donors -- to give them their big tax cut, deregulation and destruction of unions.
Middle class workers who voted for Trump will eventually realize their mistake and Trump's betrayal when the jobs never return.
1
All I can say, Mr. Edsall, is that the old adage is true here: By the time you hear the news, it's too late. Two steps behind.
In the early 1930s the German elite business class supported Hitler while holding their noses at his most extreme policies. There was just too much to be gained and anyway they though they could control him. History has shown otherwise. In the case of Trump racism, divisiveness and the demise of the rule of law are the price to pay for massive tax cuts and deregulation.
This is the most succinct outline of the relationship between the GOP and Trump. It also leads to a moral indictment of the person/s behind "anonymous" within the Trump Whitehouse. As this makes clear, there is no resistance to Trump working with him, whether in the Whitehouse or you're Ben Sasse or Jeff Flake making grand speeches about civics and civility. There is one bargain. I hope the "Never Trumpers" get that this isn't just "unseemly" but abysmal on a moral level. And I hope that when this is over, there is a collaboration between progressives and conservatives to be fully transparent, countering the mutual exploitation of certain issues by Trump and today's GOP. We can clash passionately about ideas about how to run the country but what is going on is near subterfuge. That is corrosive to our democracy. Finally, the problem with Trump isn't his incivility or manners. It's policies that this GOP is ferociously moving forward at the expense of our future, nevermind transparency.
1
Koch Supply & Trading, a major element of the "Kochtopus" is reaching into countries worldwide to profit from energy sources, domestic & foreign. The big push to export American liquid natural gas will fuel the international economic bottom feeders, starving American manufacturers & ultimately American consumers as domestic costs rise.
Trump acolyte Larry Kudlow is a primary promoter of LNG exportation. The globalists are the only ones with a long term vision. And that is to fill their pockets at the expense of the American public.
1
If the ultimate goal of America is to sustain a vibrant democracy and strive toward a shared prosperity for all its citizens, than the Koch's and their clandestine network should be viewed as a terrorist organization. But unlike the many groups we commonly associate as such, the Koch network is quietly transforming society from within the highest echelons, inflicting grave damage to the republic. They are our Trojan horse of Troy.
2
Note my address. The Koch’s OWN this State. Their lackey Brownback, pillaged and plundered Kansas to within an inch of its life. It will take decades to return to the pre-Brownback baseline. THAT is their plan for the USA. And Trump and his Collaborators are their useful IDIOTS. Literally, in Trumps case.
Seriously.
3
I'd like to read an example of Trump's racially freighted rhetoric on immigration since he took office. Can you oblige?
The Republican Party should just change its name from GOP to WPP (White People's Party).
1
At last a NYT piece on the Koch brothers and their agenda. "Pro Publica" provided an excellent window into the organizational labyrinth Koch organizations use to funnel money to finance their causes, think tanks, candidates, points of view. Educational institutions at all levels which accept their money have to maintain certain conditions, provide a forum for their points of view or lose funding.
It remains difficult to fathom. This country is built to run on openness, to embrace all ethnicities, preserve the environment, have freedom of speech, thought, expression, honest debate, courage to fight for what is in the best interest of all, education and well being through all levels of society, especially those in need, abiding by The Constititution and the Rule of Law.
This timely article shows it is not what is being espoused or achieved. It is not what our forefathers intended nor best for the majority of Americans.
Thank you, Mr. Edsall, for this informative, important article.
4
Excellent insights.
What is the response from the current crop of urban progressives, other than appeasing a small but vocal minority of advocates for same sex marriage, transgender rights? The majority of the voters in the nation's 2600+ counties are socially conservative. It is time the Democrat party's leadership is wrested from the clutches of social liberals. Economically appeal to the masses who are struggling with job-robbing corporate globalism; instill immigration based on merit, promote policies of fair trade, punish companies that off-shore jobs, impose punitive taxes on unfair trade practices, ... the progressive economic list goes on. Include the 'deplorables' in solving their problems, and see the Democrat party bloom. The Republicans are con artists. The economic liberals need to be as well organized as the far-right charlatans.
1
We hear so much about foreign collusion on the media, but it ignores our legal domestic collusion between big money corporate donors and elected officials.
It’s blessed by our highest court, normalized and ignored on the media, so it’s insidious. It works with voter suppression and gerrymandering. It’s undermining our democracy worse than any Russian hacking. It goes on with both parties, as they vie for money to run for office.
A supporter, Mitch McConnell said, “All Citizens United did was to level the playing field for corporate speech…”
He thought the citizen majority had TOO MUCH power? Now, the playing field is sharply tilted away from any citizen influence on the issues affecting our lives.
McConnell speech on the Kochs--- “I want to thank you, Charles and David for the important work you’re doing. I don’t know where we’d be without you.”
Yes, where would they be?
Some positive push back:
Richard Painter, former Bush legal counsel, and fierce Trump critic, has left the GOP and is running for office as a Democrat, with no PAC money, only small donations from citizens.
And, PBS Politics Apr 5, 2018
“A growing number of Democrats running for Congress in 2018 are foregoing money from political action committees, opting for a grassroots approach to fundraising, to appeal to the party’s progressive base.”
Please discuss this opposing trend that needs publicity to gain strength. We want to get the money out of politics. But we have no clout.
Thank you Mr. Edsall, far too few in this country take the time to really understand what's at work here. All of this underscores the single most pressing issue of our time: campaign finance reform. While the McCain Feingold bill was an excellent start, the Koch Brothers have steadily whittled it to nothing over the years thanks to their self-funded "non-profits", think tanks and paid opinion programming on Faux News.
And now they are popping open the champagne over their golden boy's imminent appointment to the Supreme Court. Make no mistake, the worst thing about Kavanaugh's appointment isn't the drive to overturn Roe v. Wade (this is just red meat for their base), it's about full throttle deregulation.
We'll see the full effect of their distorted vision of a perfect society next year when the Treasury's coffers are dry thanks to the the tax cuts the Koch Brothers' minions in Congress ram-rodded through without any consideration. And with this will coming the hand-wringing and whining by the very same Congress about how "we" can no longer afford Social Security and Medicare, and nearly every aspect of our government. I cannot think of a more dangerous pair of individuals on this planet.
3
How hard is it to understand? I realize I'm better than average at math but this is not really higher math. The definition of capitalism - almost - is that money makes money. The more you have the more you will receive. It's not sweat of the brow or even intelligence. A billionaire makes another million like falling off a log. HIGH TOP TAX RATES ARE REQUIRED to even think about an equitable society. Why is that so hard to get across to ALL of the 99.9%?
5
I've just spent 10 days staying with friends in New York. I was amazed/shocked by the number of ads for politicians on TV. I asked if there was a limit to political ads, i.e. x air time per campaign. My friend looked at me as if I came from outer space. 'Limit? No. The only limit is how much money they can spend.' If the only limit the system allows is how much money can be spent, obviously those with more money will have more influence.
Trump is not an asteroid that fell on Washington. It is the result of shortcomings or failings in politics, from campaigning to how the judiciary is chosen. His only merit is to have made those defects so evident that it might become difficult not to correct them. Dream on, my friend would probably say.
1
Aren't there some liberal billionaires, or even Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, who are willing to use some of their excess wealth to counteract this oligarchic takeover of the US? Buffet puts his billions into the Gates Foundation to be distributed to worthy causes. How about the cause for democracy and having a government that does the will of the people? That would be a good investment for the future of our country. We need it very badly now I'm afraid.
9
In 1980, David Koch, at the urging of brother Charles, ran for Vice President on the Libertarian ticket. The Libertarian ticket won 1% of the vote in that election, while Ronald Reagan - a milder version of right-wing conservatism - won the presidency decisively.
The fact that only 1% of the population supported their agenda didn't deter the Kochs. It didn't stop them from wanting to gain presidential/governmental power. It didn't make them self-reflect and reconsider their ideas. It just made them change course in going about how they would achieve the power and control of the government that they craved; and decide to work towards abolishing democracy altogether because democracy stood in the way of getting what they wanted.
They never again stood for election. They simply bought out the Republican Party bit by bit and co-opted their brand, slowly over decades replacing the more mild version of conservative ideology with their own John Birch Society version, simultaneously brainwashing the GOP base via their think tanks and media sources to accept more and more propaganda and radical ideas - arch conservative libertarian ideas - as "Republican" ideology.
The Kochs couldn't get elected democratically - and they knew their anti-people agenda was unpopular - so they proceeded to corrupt then tear democracy down - what Steve Bannon refers to as "the deconstruction of the administrative state" - via proxies. Trump is their "hand with a pen" that Grover Norquist so wanted.
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@Pamela
Very clearly and succinctly (and accurately) stated.
Thank you.
1
Much has been made of the Koch/Trump rift. There was a hope that somehow this would translate into some sort of weakening of Trump politically. This was wrong. The Trump/Koch connection is at the very heart of the reactionary greedocracy that came out of the 2016 election debacle.
6
I remember when Obama's win was announced and the commentators saying there will probably never again be a Republican president because the demographics of America were changing so quickly and whites were becoming the minority. That is why Trump is president. That is why we have "tort reform" to end citizens right to due process. That is why we have been silenced to the point of putting long standing publications out of business in order to silence them. America is not "land of the free". It is "land of the white and rich."
4
This article sums up why campaign and lobby reform isn't just AN issue. It is THE issue. Without it, the chain of accountability between the elected and the electorate is bypassed, and government policy will always reflect the interests of the highest bidder. It is the 500 lb gorilla in the room of politics that neither Republicans nor Democrats want to address directly out of fear that they will be excluded from the feeding trough in the next handout.
9
@Robbin If you haven't seen "Hot Coffee" watch it. It isn't what I thought it would be and it covers campaign and lobbing issues through tort reform. Really good doc.
1
@RCJCHC I am familiar with it (ex-wife of a tort lawyer!). It is exactly an example of how corporate money circumvents our rights as individual citizens. I also work in a heavily regulated industry and have seen first hand the power of special interest groups to influence, not only elected officials but regulators as well. The fee-based funding that drives our regulatory systems also creates an atmosphere for abuse by clouding who the government considers its "stakeholders". These politicians have been able to use the universal distaste for taxes in order to gain support for policies that allow the wealthy to circumvent paying their share and undermining the necessary services that the government provides. It is a deeply broken system, and at the heart is the unfettered flow of money into our elections.
I don't watch Fox News, so I'm not sure that Trump is even aware that he's entangled in the Koch network. His vice president, political associates, and appointees are obviously following the Koch leads, perhaps at times despite Trump's rhetoric.
5
This surprises anyone? When casting about for well-heeled allies, how likely is it that Trump would cahoot with George Soros? Tom simply assumes that an alliance between Trump and Charles Koch, even a practical one with many cracks, is universally condemned in America as I’m sure he assumes that each individually is condemned; yet, millions support BOTH Trump AND Charles Koch, to one extent or another right up to complete acceptance. Liberals may express contempt at such acceptance, but they’d better pay attention to its reality.
It’s amazing to what extent Trump has affected the fabric of liberal punditry. We’ve lost Charles Blow – and increasingly the others – to gibbering anti-Trump “resistance”; and, believe it or not, Tom Edsall once took pains to offer his myriad charts and analyses in ways that couldn’t technically be called either “liberal” or “conservative”. Since Trump reared his head seriously in political matters, now well-over two years ago, Tom’s ideology has emerged starkly from the clouds and is patently liberal. So … why would anyone be surprised that he would condemn ANY common-cause between Trump and Charles Koch?
But let’s not seek to marginalize the impact of the Kochs in an effort to demonize all that leans right, and to deny the breadth of ideological support that they enjoy. The Kochs are merely the money-empowered machine that gives voice to a YUGE popular following.
Both members of the “alliance” are getting what they want. Despite the cracks.
1
@Richard Luettgen -- your whole "analysis" here is as follows:
There are lots of Republicans
The Kochs are Republicans
Ergo Mr. Edsall is "deny[ing] the breadth of ideological support that they enjoy."
This is one busted loopy syllogism, and you immediately amplify it with "The Kochs are merely the money-empowered machine that gives voice to a YUGE popular following."
This is nuts. You might claim that Trump is doing so -- we could then get down to discussing what Trump has actually done to empower his followers. But the idea that the Kochs are "empowering" any popular following is risible.
The WikiP: "Koch owns Invista, Georgia-Pacific, Molex, Flint Hills Resources, Koch Pipeline, Koch Fertilizer, Koch Minerals, Matador Cattle Company, and Guardian Industries.... The company is the largest landowner in the Athabasca oil sands."
Companies are not people too, my friend. Go find the YUGE popular following for the Koch businesses -- there isn't any (not even other stock holders).
2
Of course that "YUGE popular following," actually amounts to a passel of libertarian fat-cats who take Ayn Rand seriously (and were I in need of an alibi for my billions, so would I), a passel of right-wing loons, a passel of Bible-thumping hypocrites, a splash of vicious racists, and roughly 25% of the American public who looked to Trump out of anger or out of hope for better days.
Myself, I feel a good deal of sympathy for the 25%. But the problem is, they ain't getting jack out of the Kochs and Trump, and they're never going to.
Are real wages up? Nope.
More jobs being created than under Obama? Nope.
Is coal coming back? Steel? Nope.
But by golly, they're losing health coverage, environmental protection, and a shot at education, and they're losing it in droves.
So hurl adjectives as one will, there are those pesky little fact thingies to cope with. And I think that in the end, folks'll figure it out. You see, Mr. Luettgen, I ain't Trump:
I don't view hard-working people as suckers, put there by Gawd to hand me stuff.
2
What is not discussed is the huge campaign support and election of conservative judges in every state. This is also clandestinely being done by the Kochs. Buying up the judges, especially in the areas where the brothers have financial interests, has been a wild west boondoggle for them. A very highly lucrative one. You don't just have to have heavy influence over those at the top. Locally, these judges rulings have huge impacts and also environmentally devastating outcomes.
The state of Montana comes to mind when it comes to these types of campaign manipulations to favor certain judicial candidates. They've been doing this for decades, completely under the radar.
9
@james Yes, you are so right. The judges being bought by "The US Chamber of Commerce" and other non-US entities to make the courts stacked against the consumer and pro-business. Caps put on jury awards and mandatory arbitration contracts are stacking the cards against the citizens every getting justice in our so called "justice system".
2
One of the main tenets of modern American Democracy is money and capital paired with influence. The Koch brothers represent this idea quite literally. I actually believe that the interaction between Trump and traditional conservatives--like the Koch Brothers--have always been a symbiotic relationship. Republicans believed that they could manipulate this president to fit whatever public policy decision they felt was important. I think this is because Trump's voter base cares less about specific policy but rather a more general antithesis to political correctness and the "standard politicians" that have been ruling the political class. This nation is currently is driven by these large money-funneling shadow corporations. As Edsall says, the public is opposed to most of the reforms and ideas that the Koch conglomerate has to offer yet still possess public support. As long as Trump can maintain those high approval ratings within his base and among Republicans in general, the opportunities are limitless for the Koch industry to piggy-back off Trump and behind the scenes enact policy that would be greatly harmful to many Americans. Many people in the United States hear Trump’s bombastic generalizations and broad scope plans of “make America great again” and have an unshakeable faith that he will accomplish this. Trump’s lack of specific information leads interest groups--such as the Kochs--to lobby for these policies and fill the void of Trump's rhetoric.
2
In many respects when it comes to the Koch Bros./Trump strange relationship, in some respects, Thomas Edsall has got it backwards. The election of Trump and with the Republican majority already in place, in order to enhance their full Libertarian agenda, this was a perfect situation for them. In David Frum's recent book about Trump and the destruction of democracy in America, he noted, despite the unwillingness of the Republican establishment to accept him, right after he "assumed" office, Trump made probably what has been the best deal of his life which broke down that "acceptance barrier". He told the heads of the party that if they protected him against all his nefarious activities, both questionable and illegal, he would sign any bill they put on his desk even sight unseen. Hence, the Republican Party as we knew it has now become the "Trump enablers". The Republican Party has now become the "Trump Party", they, in essence, no longer exist. Also notice those regulatory institutions that protected Americans have been systematically weakened and almost destroyed, another Koch dream scenario.
The Koch Bros. already owned much of the Congress and they inject almost $500 MILLION dollars into Republican campaigns. Put the two together and this is what you have, Oligarchs now in "full control" of America and for the most part, the Koch Bros. couldn't have a better President that fully serves their interests.
4
One of the problems is that no one ever really talks about what the Trump administration is really doing. We all know that they are cutting regulations and have been conditioned to believe that regulations are bad and cutting them is good.
But how frequently does anyone in the media -- even the NYT get around to letting the great unwashed public (including me) know just what regulations are being cut and what changes are being made to the ability of federal agencies to enforce environmental and work safety rules? If you tune into your favorite TV channel, you will find MSNBC, CNN and Fox equally silent about what the Trump administration is quietly doing to destroy the economic financial net, the environment, worker safety, worker rights, education and a dozen more areas of vital concern to most Americans.
Mueller and Trump tweets are more exciting than dry agency regs and our media are money making organizations. So our so called news organizations concentrate on the salacious or semi-salacious stories while depriving us of real information about what is happening that affects our lives.
Thanks Mr. Edsall.You are one of the few members of the press or media that occasionally 'bores' us with important facts.
2
There are at least two separate articles in this very edition that discuss Trump's rollbacks of protection for refugee families and food support for at least two million Americans.
I know this, because I read them.
What Trump and the Koch Brothers have in common is the desire to keep all the money they "earn" in their pockets, to have as few regulations as possible in place because they view it as their right to pollute, create unsafe working conditions, and keep the majority of Americans as poor as possible. They have persuaded people to vote for them by using wedge issues to divide us. What we have in common is not important to them and, apparently not to enough of us.
Rich or poor we need a decent place to live. We need access to medical care. We need a decent education. We need to be able to support ourselves and our families. We need safe workplaces. Every move that the Koch Brothers and their network make is designed to undermine this. They appeal to racism, to selfishness, to fear. Trump helps them as does the GOP.
The Kochs and Trump are dangerous to this country. They have no regard for civil rights, justice, freedom, or the well being of the nation. The Kochs want to own America. By electing Trump we may have made that possible. A wholly owned Koch United States of America will be more like living in a Dickensian work house than living in a democracy. And keeping the GOP and Trump in power will almost guarantee that most of us will not have decent lives.
Conservatives in America are not interested in conserving anything. They are our judicial activists, our extremists, and the ones taking away our civil rights. They are the Kochs and the Trumps.
4
since Trump has never released his tax returns, nobody really knows how much money he has, who he owes, or anything... but from all outward appearances, like the Kochs and the other wealthy families now ruling the roost, he appears to have money. and he clearly enjoys it because he has it and YOU DON'T.
it's not really enough to be filthy rich if everyone else is also rich; you can only really enjoy your wealth if everyone else is in penury. it is not at all about having enough, as it is for most of us. it's about having more than everyone else, proving you are better, more worthy, perhaps some kind of ideal.
personally, I think this is reprehensible, but who am I to say?
1
Let's face it, we were the first large representative democratic nation in history - we did it first, but the system had a lot of bugs (and 'bugs' as features). A lot of these have been fixed, but the real deep core 'code' of our electoral system is still deeply flawed. Namely, the massively distorted representation of the Senate and electoral college. These. Need. To. Be. Fixed.
Also, there is a marked dearth of rules, mainly involving gerrymandering, our ridiculously long political campaigns (actually, it seems like one bleeds into the next at this point), and of course campaign finance. It's almost literally the lawless 'wild west'.
(cont.)
1) - Fix the Senate by allowing some states more than just 2, and other less populous ones a single 'at large' Senator, like they have now for House members.
2) - Either eliminate the electoral college entirely or mandate 'proportional electoral voting' to eliminate the 'winner take all' system currently in place in just about every state.
3) - Mandate automatic voter registration when a citizen turns 18 years of age. Mandated paper backups for electronic voting and a copy for each voter upon request. Mandated mail in ballots for all primary and general elections. Make election day a national holiday.
4) - End gerrymandering by mandating that all states use non-partisan election commissions to draw up districts, as some already do.
5) - All political campaign advertising is limited to the 90 days prior to the election.
6) - Publicly funded campaigns. Zero outside money allowed, with strict enforcement.
1
You can say that the policies advocated by the Kochs are not popular, but they are mostly traditional Republican positions, and Republicans keep winning elections. Hillary wanted to raise taxes on wealthier Americans, and it didn't get people running to the polls to vote for her. You have to ask whether voters have been offered an attractive enough alternative to the policies advocated by Trump and the Kochs.
1
These people oppose an orderly liquidation of the petroleum industry with return of capital to investors to pay for next generation technology. It is that freaking simple.
4
"We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."
- Louis Brandeis
29
If it's true that "Taxes are the price we pay for civilized society" as Oliver Wendell Holmes said, then it seems obvious how little the Kochs and their ilk care about this country, and more specifically it's citizens.
13
Fine, but why is the price of civility so high? Why can’t we have a strong military with $25/month conscripts living in WWII style wood frame open bay barracks? Why do we pay Teamster wages to those who build our infrastructure then continue the madness when we pay $50,000/yr to keep the potholes filled, $100,000 to patrol those streets and set up $1 million pensions for teachers who work abbreviated days ten months a year? All of them have job security/pay increases/benefits/advancement opportunities the rest of us, who pay their salaries, will never see?
1
I honestly don't understand what the Koch brothers envision for the future of American business.
Do they and other businesspeople thinks it makes us globally competitive to have a healthcare system that is hideously expensive and relies on employer-based insurance?
Do they think the billions spent fighting wildfires and repairing hurricane damage is money well spent? Surely they know that oil and gas reserves will eventually run out, and that solar and wind power is a booming business that the Chinese are embracing with gusto.
On a pure cost/benefit basis, their goals seem baffling.
5
@Elizabeth A
They are old men with ossified imaginations, playing a game by an old set of very rigged rules.
Rules that are allowing them to destroy our democracy along with the environment.
Trump doesn’t really have an agenda.He is the clownish buffoon who keeps us distracted from government action which will eventually hurt all of us.This is the main reason Republican legislators won’t stand up to him.They know Trump will eventually self destruct and they don’t really care as long as they accomplish their long sought goal of permanently ruining the governments chance of reining in the excesses of the wealthy.When you think about it,Trump has actually accomplished very little by himself.He just signs the bills.When he leaves ,we will blame him for the carnage when it is really McConell and Ryan who are the culprits.Rather Trump and the Kochs hate each other is also a pointless distraction.
8
The Koch empire relies on deregulation, weak unions, bought politicans in their deep pockets. Unsafe working practises in unregulated work places. And, cheap labour.
Cheap labour. Understand? It's not hard. For most goods and many services, cheap labour can be exploited in unregulated markets outside the USA. But not for all — at least not yet.
For example, if you live in Manhattan, then you can't yet order pizza from industrial estates in the poorest industrial zones of Sichuan. Not yet. And your au pairs and nannies, your yard boys and janitors, your auto- mechanics, nail trimmers, beauticians and all the other cheap labour that busy, busy, important white Americans need to make their lives run smoothly need to be available at a moment's notice. So dirt cheap illegal aliens will remain an essential part of the Koch plan for America.
13
@Colenso
Yes, and the Kochs like lots of paved highways and cars, puffing up their income and letting the transportation infrastructure of this country decay and languish. No good rail service, no workable subways, no decent air travel, no rational planning--just more and more congestion, stress, pollution and walking away from solving problems.
For any job, if someone else will do it for less, you are thereby proven to be overpaid. Restricting immigration is merely a form of protectionism which is always wrong no matter if the aim is steel, autos, agriculture or labor.
Thank you for this piece. Many of us know that the Kochs are dancing in the streets. The Republican party uses images of Lincoln to wreak havoc on the average person. Hopefully the rich Democrats don't fall into the Koch power trap. Anyone that has lived in countries with a wide wealth gap or a heavily divided class-oriented culture has seen this movie before. In someways I see the anonymous op-ed as a signal from the Kochs to the base that it's okay, "we've got control of this situation, just look at all the great things we've done?. Do not be swayed. Stay focused and never let a Republican win anything. There are no good Republicans there are only Koch stooges and some in Trump clothing.
19
The Koch brothers entire network of political manipulation really makes me sick. It is the exact opposite of the ideals this country was founded upon, and like our healthcare system, postal system, etc., it is truly broken. It can, however, be corrected if enough people voted and changed a rigged system. We are not beyond doing this within the system; otherwise, we would have anarchy and revolution. I hope it doesn't come to that, but it could if we don't vote.
9
Tom, you wrote:
"For two decades, key Democrats have argued that as the party of the multiracial, multiethnic rising American electorate — and the political home of single women and younger voters — they have the demographic wind at their backs."
Right. And perhaps it's time for these Democrats to shut up.
By arguing this point over and over, all we do it scare potential swing voters into supporting monsters like Trump.
In 40 years, half of all those Americans currently alive will be dead - and so may be our democracy, at least if current trends continue.
As regards the Koch-Trump alliance, you make obvious points - and this alliance can like persist so long as our current debt-laden bubble remains inflated. But once that bubble begin to implode, and implode it will, Democrats will be thrust back into the game in a big way.
Our problem is, however, we can't expect to consistently win either local, mid-term or general elections without a compelling, unifying economic message.
"I've been a victim, you've been a victim" is not going to get it done - not if we consistently want to control state legislatures, governor's mansions, and House of the Representatives between now that imagined golden demographic moment that identify-focused Democrats envision.
And in the interim, we could indeed lose everything.
9
Well, yes, of course, their interests mostly align, and anyone looking dispassionately at the activities of the Kochs and Trump has always understood this. I do seem to remember, though, quite a few NYT articles emphasizing the supposed rift, presumably because that angle was viewed through the lens of liberal orthodoxy as somehow detrimental to Trump and his administration.
5
Thank you, Thomas Edsall. I've been waiting for someone to connect these dots. Ever since I read Jane Mayer's "Dark Money," I've been especially aware of the Koch's influence. They have essentially taken over a political party and are now in the process of dismantling democracy while our "useful idiot" president distracts us with outrageous antics.
It hasn't even been a century since American soldiers died for our freedom in World War II. Today greedy GOP politicians collude with the Koch's to dismantle democracy.
26
@Kathie
Were you NOT aware that the Democrats ALWAYS raise more moneyfor political campaigns than he Republicans?
Campaign money is why the Democrats in Congress NEVER break with their leadership and why Ms. Plosi will never give up her leadership post.
So are you saying that YOUR side's political money is all wnderful sweetness but the OTHER side's is terrible and dark and srary and ra-a-a-a-a-a-a-cist?
That's odd. Barack Obama's partner during his depredations on the American middle class and economy was George Soros, but we never heard a peep out of the corrupted Times on that. You think maybe we're just playing politics today, Thomas?
1
Soros was never the destructive force the Kochs are, in fact quite the opposite. He proved that you could be obscenely rich and still maintain a reasonable conscience. And it is typical of conservatives hypocrites to parrot the Fox News false equivalence of matching one reasonable liberal wealthy donor with hordes of regressive, detrimental, self-serving conservative destroyers. But a conservative observer will never actually seek the truth, no matter how obvious it is.
2
The story even notes that som of the think tanks are set up to counter other, liberal activities, specifically mentioning AARP. In typical liberal fashion, I guess AARP has a valid mission while anything opposing it is a special interest group.
@L'osservatore
So in your bizarre mind, any corruption that may have happened before justifies it now? You certainly live in a strange world, one of complete denial about everything.
2
What’s up with North Carolina first allowing gerrymandered maps to be used in 2018 elections, and now federal prosecutors demanding voting records? Something is not right here. Who are the federal prosecutors subpoenaing records? Trump appointees? This situation in North Carolina needs to be investigated.
7
I suddenly feel the need to spray disinfacnt over everything
2
The Kochs and other billionaires have seen the Russian oligarchical system that has flourished since the end of the USSR, and they love it. Their financial support and paid propaganda for right-wing candidates, combined with voter suppression efforts, misinformation campaigns, and the malignant force that is Fox News are pat of an attempt to buy, not only individual Republicans, but the entire government. They want Trump to be their Putin, and they see supporting and intervening on his behalf as the key to getting what they want, a rewriting of the Constitution that eliminates the concept majority rule.
Our wanna-bee Oligarchs don't care about guns, abortion, immigration. or any of the hot-button issues that send the right into paroxysms of outrage. They care only for power and the money it brings them.
15
@malibu frank
No accident, Koch Sr. enhanced his wealth during the 1930's working in concert with both The Third Reich and Stalin to develop their oil business.
By accident of birth, I was blessed with a middle class upbringing by a father who loved to hunt and fish (and therefore respected both the ethical use of guns and the fragility of the environment), and a mother who fostered many children of many ethnic backgrounds. It is no surprise that my biases lean toward liberal democracy. I retired from a professional position the same year that Trump began his reign, and decided I still had lots to learn about how others view the world, and why our country was so divided that we actually elected such an obvious demagogue to lead this country. So I read Flake's "Conscience of a Conservative", Vance's "Hillbilly Elligy", and Ziblatt & Levitsky's "How Democracies Die". Most recently I finished Nancy MacLean's massively footnoted "Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America". Mr. Edsall's opinion piece captures exactly what I've come to believe is a very dangerous nexus of forces that, controversial policies notwithstanding, threaten the very democracy that is supposed to help a complex society resolve competing demands in a relatively peaceful manner. And so an authoritarian president, who encourages disrespect and distrust of democratic institutions, now works in accidental concert with a multi-billionaire libertarian family which believes Social Security and Medicare robs them of even more of the wealth that is rightfully theirs. The ONLY chance to slow this descent is to VOTE in November!
341
@John O'Neill
What can I say?
Please don't listen to someone who has read Nancy MacLean's "Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America" and is apparently unaware that dozens of its key claims have been disputed.
I doubt that many serious scholars will rely on MacLean.
@John O'Neill - re-reading Richard Hofstadter's "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" also reminds that the Koch boys are children of Fred Koch, one of the founders of the John Birch Society, and they seem to have inherited his extreme views along with a lot of money.
So they might object to Trump in some policies, but it's not surprising that all these three men, who inherited rather than built wealth, share many views. Trump's more overt in racism, the Koch boys have replaced the Communist enemy with their current enemy - a properly-functioning federal government.
It's important to keep in mind that they don't represent traditional conservatism, which I wish the Republican Party turned back to. They're more interested in the kind of anarchy-lite that permits the wealthy to do as they please.
59
@John O'Neill
Thank you, John. Well stated and quite accurate. This is a confluence of disruptive, unethical and amoral forces encouraged by foreign activity that seeks to destroy our American Democracy.
VOTE INDEED! VOTE we must - the alternative solution is one I wish not to consider.
Remember how the Soviet Union crumbled - they were outspent by the U.S. We are headed that way with this totally irresponsible deficit spending which has done nothing to fix infrastructure, healthcare, SS. MC, education, etc. We are gifting our lower and middle-class resources to the already rich, becoming dumbed-down and selling your children into financial slavery.
3
In the last 40 years, we've had the growth of money-is-merit, along with money-is-speech which SCOTUS has codified in the common law, and now money-is-government. With the Randian goal of drowning the government in a bathtub, the Randians in charge could be in no better position than they are now to make it happen. It takes a lot of courage, effort and spine to break our government and the GOP are showing themselves up to the task.
2
Wouldn't the Koch brothers hire the Russians? Why would they hire "made in America" when it is so much more open to investigation? Are they the traitors we seek?
3
"racially freighted, anti-immigrant rhetoric" is the PC way of saying "the same policies that the NSDAP rose to power using."
Stop coddling these people with polite language.
5
Let's get the size of that massive tax cut stated correctly. It is 1.6 TRILLION not billion. As Everett Dirksen reportedly once said, "A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you're talking real money." The Irresponsible Republican tax cut heavily weighted in favor of large corporations and the wealthiest among us will further add significantly to deficits and the national debt while likely achieving little benefit, if any, for average Americans.
10
People should realize that one of the Kochs goals is a Constitutional Convention to repeal the 17th Amendment, allowing Governors to once again choose Senators, thus solidifying the GOP hold on the Senate due to the imbalance in red states vs blue states despite more citizens residing in blue states.
4
This article sums up perfectly why Trump stays in office despite his obvious mental impairment. These greedy jerks care more about power than they do about living in a democracy. I'm sure they'd love to actually overthrow our democracy and install a Republic of Gilead-type government if they could get away with it.
4
Americans follow-along. They eschew leadership based on class affiliation. How else can you understand why mid to lower class income earners that they are in concert with wealthier classes - upper and extreme wealth, on tax policy? There is one additional factor that conflates the interests of lower to higher income earners. That is the illusory, but true, possibility that lower class income earners believe: that they may 'make it' to the top of the income ladder. The American Dream keeps a lid on class warfare in the U.S. The chances of winning the Powerball Lottery or a rich inheritance, for the vast majority of Americans, is remote. At one time, when jobs were 'for life' and you need not obtain a university debt plan to get an average income job, frugality between generations of one or two children estates may eventually accrue a bountiful legacy for a future set of kids - maybe in the 10th geneation or 200 years. But, let's face it, America runs on a dream and stmbles on reality. Politics is the great distraction that provides a stage for believers in the American version of Christian faith - the Prosperity Bible. Until the Left shakes the money tree and provides healthcare and better education to lower income classes, America will be in deep sleep dreaming about a future that can be, rather than the reality T.V. show (The Trump Show) it has become.
4
About Democratic Money
From the Financial Times of London, 2012
Lunch with Paul Krugman , (by Martin Wolf)
"I ask whether he is disheartened by the failure of people on his side of the political argument to stand up for what they believe in."
"These things are always complicated but some of it is about money. Look, with even a few mild words of reproof, Obama has lost a huge funding source from Wall Street"
===============
1. Martin Wolf, is the associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times.
2. From
https://www.ft.com/content/022acf50-a4d1-11e1-9a94-00144feabdc0
3. The Obama administration did not prosecute anyone on Wall Street Finance involved in the Great Recession.
4
Because, as excellent Times articles explain, the Obama Admin prioritized getting the economy back up over prosecuting fat cats and not getting the economy back up.
It's oerfectly debatable as to whether or not that was the right decision; but that is what actually happened. Be nice if people wanting to yell at Obama did so on the several grounds he deserves a tad bit of yelling.
1
Trump is right to boast that he's doing a great job -- if you like tax cuts for those who don't need them, the end of environmental and other business regulation, the resurrection of White Power and attacks on the press. Don't blame the Kochs. They're spending to get results. There are plenty of Democratic billionaires who could do the same. But they've been cowered into silence. Are we becoming Germany before the Second World War?
6
The Koch network has in many ways eclipsed the Republican Party. Stop and think about that simple profound statement folks. Two private billionaire brothers are now more powerful then what is left of the Republican Party. And yet they keep calling the G.O.P. the Party of Lincoln. Honest Abe is no doubt spinning in his grave. The very idea of Trump and the ultimate "Citizens United/ Dark Money" boys working in concert is the ultimate witches brew in tearing democracy to shreds. Which of course is the idea all along. A nation where a handful of authoritarian Oligarch conservatives are in control of just about EVERYTHING. The pathetic reality is they have pretty much succeeded. That is why your rules, laws, and Constitution are now pretty much useless. You are being systematically turned into a Koch brothers Banana Republic. You think I am kidding? Look what is going on all around you. Who is really in power? It is sure as hell NOT "We the People." That train left two years ago.
4
Another day, another conspiracy theory. Sure, says Edsall, they disagree a lot but on some things they agree -- so they're supposedly "working on concert." Is that the standard now: political purity, or else?
I understand that the progressives can't stand Trump. But does that mean that logic and proportion have to be abandoned, as each of them -- Mr. Edsall included -- strive to find yet another reason why he or she can't abide by Trump?
Not suspension of reality needs to be made to despise Trump and everything he stands for. The opposite is true. Believing that anything Trump and the GOP does is for the good of the country is in fact the belief in the biggest conspiracy theory of all. Edsal, far from being conspiratorial, is in fact underselling the damage being done.
1
This only scratches the surface of what Charles and David Koch are up to. read Nancy MacLean's book Democracy in Chains and find that the Koch network's interest in governor races has more to do with their goal of a constitutional convention to amend the constitution to unwind all rights for anyone not in the GOP donor class. By 2021, with the help of their newest ally, Russia, the Kochs will have taken over all 3 braches of government. The WH, the Congress, and the Judiciary. Having also a 2/3 majority of the states in their pockets they can walk through a constitutional amendment to enslave all of us.
When the next revolution comes, and it will come, never forget who the real enemy is.
3
Trump needs voters; his talk of trade and tariffs are directed to them.
Brothers Koch's interest in voters is a derivative, they have found a lot of very powerful ways of manipulating aggregate votes. Hence, they may not value with similar intensity, the 'trade' and 'tariff' appeals, nor support the stifling of trade and slapping of tariffs. So there might be some public disagreement.
The Koch- Trump alliance explains why there is so little willingness to depose Trump in spite of his limitations and failings. The Koch brothers basically control Congress through campaign funding and both VP Pence and Sec of State Pompeo are loyal followers. If the Koch brothers decided to depose Trump he would be gone very quickly. In this light the anonymous piece published yesterday in the Times is interesting. While largely reflecting a traditional Republican viewpoint espoused by Sen. John McCain and the Bushes one of the statements in that op ed piece seems, however, to reach out to the Koch brothers to remove their stooge. “Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.”. At this point, however, the advantages to the Koch agenda of the Trump presidency seem to outweigh the disadvantages.
Dear Thomas,
You state "These policies are inimical or irrelevant to the interests of low- and moderate-income Americans. " They are not irrelevant.
The long-sought tax and regulatory policies are devastating to low and moderate-income Americans.
The term "regulatory policy" masks the fact that it means unleashing toxic disease causing pollution in the environment. Ozone pollution causes childhood asthma. Mercury is the reason that pregnant women are not allowed to eat fish because mercury from coal burning power plants make them unsuitable for consumption. Mercury is a poison that acts on the nervous system that causes retardation in fetuses. SO2 and NOx cause bronchitis, pneumonia, and other respiratory illnesses. Particulates pollution from burning coal cause autism:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/autism-risk-linked-to-particu...
I wonder, if this is the real reason that all right wing politicians from McCain to Trump, raised the false specter of unsafe vaccines to cover up the horrible impact of coal pollution on children, carrying favor with the Koch brothers and their toxic fossil fuel ilk?
Low- and moderate-income Americans think of themselves as good parents but supporting politicians that support policies harming children make their actions those of bad parents.
Long-sought tax cuts also eviscerate government programs from prenatal care to support for college tuition, that are critical to low -and moderate-income Americans.
4
Our cowardly bully in chief is deeply incompetent.
Unfortunately, the Kochtopus and their allies are not, and they have been working for decades to provide authority and operatives for their anti-human agenda.
VP Pence is their conduit to power. Jane Mayer who wrote Dark Money has follow this (and they attacked her personally, since part of what they do is discredit anyone who reveals their dark shenanigans! https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/23/the-danger-of-president-pence
"The Danger of President Pence: Trump’s critics yearn for his exit. But Mike Pence, the corporate right’s inside man, poses his own risks."
3
So working in concert is now unAmerican?
Early in Obama's Presidency his own Simpson-Bowles commission put together a plan for entitlement reform. After lots of shilly-shallying, Obama abruptly abandoned his negotiations with the GOP.
Obama's failure to "work in concert" with the despised Republicans is going to cost the nation a ton.
1
No, but collusion is. Especially collusion carried out to defraud. Oh, and to collaborate with Russia.
2
@Ian Maitland
“Obama's failure to work in concert with the despised Republicans is going to cost the nation a ton.”
On the night of Obama’s election Republican leaders gathered together to devise a plan to make Obama a one term president. Their strategy was to vote “no” on anything Obama put forth. It was Republicans who failed to work with Obama.
Like Justice Stevens said back in 2010 when SCOTUS bought into Citizens United...
He argued that the Court's ruling "threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the Nation. The path it has taken to reach its outcome will, I fear, do damage to this institution." He added: "A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold."
Today the country has to live with the SCOTUS monster and it is more than a democracy can bear.
4
This article represents the current tip of the iceberg. Anyone who is deeply concerned that we have devolved into the best government money can buy should read Jane Mayer's Dark Money. It's sobering and something anyone concerned about the power of oligarchs in the US should read.
2
Oligarchs and racists converge to give us the new Republican Party and the most chaotic Presidency in history.
Any vote for any Republican at any level is complicit in this anarchy and conspiracy to defraud the common man and woman of their democratic inheritance.
Vote while you still can.
11
When I read the latest op-ed in the NYT from a member of the “secret resistance” group in the administration, it was obvious to me that it was from a member of the Koch/Mercer cabal. It stated very clearly that they were in favor of all that wealthy industrialists want, while abhorring the “crazy town” aspects of Trump’s foreign policy and personal immorality. Why was it written? Consider that this week should be almost entirely about the confirmation process of the latest Koch brothers nominee to the Supreme Court. And now it isn’t. Imagine that.
13
Little that surprises here and, for that reason, the piece is not at the level of Mr. Edsall's habitual mini-masterpieces of aggregating sophisticated data and conclusions from different sources. He refers to Jane Mayer's DARK MONEY which gets at the root of Koch activities in the pre-Trump era and the way they used both greed and racism to attract big donations from all sorts of people to fund the GOP and anti-environmental and anti-regulatory public opinion. When one gets right down to it, the Kochs do not want health care or clean air and water to be the norm for Americans. Obviously, this links them with the McConnells of the world and with someone like Trump who has never heard of clean air. So long as Americans have little interest in protecting their children and grandchildren from a toxic environment, things will only get worse.
3
A brilliant and important article. One small criticism. Mr. Edsall fails to elaborate the role of Mike Pence, who he correctly identifies as a beneficiary of the Koch's munificence. Pence, who Trump claimed would be the hardest working vice-president in history, is key to the influence the Koch brothers have in Trump's administration. I suspect that most of the appointees during Trump's tenure have been recommendations from Pence, who is, of course, influenced by the Kochs.
14
A truely terrifiying article that I hope wil lbe a wake up call to all who read it.
10
I'd argue the Supreme Court is the only real victory for the Kochs. Everything else is going to wash away when the pendulum swings. Judging by progressive and socialist enthusiasm under Trump, it's gonna swing hard too. I don't think true reversal will be achieved before 2020 at the earliest but generationally, Republicans have destroyed themselves everywhere but the courts.
Think about how the Republican legislative and regulatory victories were achieved. Everything executive was generally a reversal of Obama era initiatives. The process will simply be reversed again. Meanwhile, the Koch's signature legislature, the tax bill, altered the rules of legislative process dramatically. Major legislation under budget reconciliation is now standard operating procedure.
Obamacare could have passed under normal precedent in a variety of ways. The same is true for court appointments. McConnell torched both agreements first through obstruction and then through going the further dismissal of procedure. Democrats will return the favor. There's two budgets per term. That's two opportunities to reverse the more insidious aspects of the tax bill while also strengthening social programs. All Democrats need to do is raise taxes on the wealthy while expanding middle class tax cuts. Any remainder is free for other popular initiatives like health care.
I'll also remind you, Tax reform under budget reconciliation is a lot easier when taxes are going up rather than down. Just saying.
4
Trump was elected on two issues – immigration and trade. These aren’t just two of many issues, they are the essence of the President Trump’s agenda.
These are also the two primary issues for the Koch Brothers, who support open borders and free-trade with low-wage, low-regulation countries in order to weaken U.S. labor and government. This is why they have never supported Donald Trump. The Koch Brothers do support, however, establishment Republicans who rely on their money and organization to maintain their power.
McConnell presented Trump with a deal from the very beginning. The first two priorities for the Koch Brothers/McConnell would be overturning Obamacare and lowering taxes. In order to mollify the McCain-wing of the Republican Party, the next priority was a significant expansion of military spending. All along the way, the judiciary would be filled with strong conservatives. (This is the only place where Trump and McConnel/Koch Brothers are actually in a full agreement.)
Only after these were achieved, would McConnell and the Republican establishment consider supporting Trump’s immigration and trade agenda. Of course, that means that they would NEVER support Trump on these issues.
Unfortunately, Trump is holding a losing hand. Now that the Koch Brothers/Establishment Republicans have gotten what they want, they have no incentive to support Trump on trade and immigration.
4
The real deep state, the one with deep pockets. It is just that our deplorables do not understand.
9
The divine right of kings lasted for several thousand years. Soviet Communism stood for 70 years. The GOP has locked down the Supreme Court, the Senate, the House, the Presidency, and the majority of state legislatures and governorships. They have enlisted the help of foreign powers to destroy the electoral process and they have anthropomorphized money into human speech and corporations into people to magnify their power. The control of its media empire poisons millions of minds across the globe. It's manipulation of social media networks is a world wide evil. Their malevolence is deeper, wider and more encompassing than any of us can imagine. They are a feature and not a bug. We are hacking at its leaves.
4
Another aspect of the Koch strategy is buying, through “charitable donations,” business schools at cash strapped public universities where they insist the Koch brand of business philosophy be taught by professors they have approved. Obviously, their goal is indoctrinating students in their approach to business and government.
5
After watching former Secretary Kerry speak this morning, I am convinced that his premise is correct - unless the people in this country band together and take it to the streets as was done during the Viet Nam war, no changes will be made on behalf of anyone other than the one-percenters. As a result of the protests, we got clean air, water, women's rights, and the EPA. I see this spirit in the young folks from Parkland FL. Let's hope this adds change to the ballots in November.
5
Whoa! Is Trump even aware of this Koch influence? Are the saboteurs in Trump's administration working for the Koch empire? Answers to those questions are no and yes, respectively.
This is not a single big tent of the GOP. There are at least two significant tents. The first is the conservative Koch tent. The second is the fake tent where the inflatable baby-blimp Trump strokes his ego and fires up his base of proles.
Meh, Trump is probably fine with being an unwitting tool of the Koch brothers. Just keep the spotlight on the buffoon and he'll feel important.
4
Edsall is right. There is more to stories behind the scene than meets the eye. The know it all press often does not know it all. I have a feeling that what Trump says publicly may not be the same as what he says privately to his cabinet secretaries and attorney journal. The Wooward book and the anonymous guy are a smokes screen to keep the press from finding out what is happening behind the scene which is really fueling the successes of the Trump administration.
1
Hitler work with industry as well. They build him a well oiled machine. The CEO at that time disagreed with his rhetoric but they loved the money more. A complete lack of ethics. The Koch brothers are just as guilty as Trump is!
4
Had the koch bothers found the candidate they really wanted: A charming, handsome, well spoken version of t rump; or a fascist version of Bill Clinton; I'm not sure the Nation would survive.
Presently, I give it 50 - 50 chance of keeping out democracy.
If Democrats get the government back I am hoping the koch network can be destroyed.
And they can go to prison for treason.
3
Edsall's critique, though accurate, raises the important question: would you prefer a purely nationalist GOP?
The common wisdom from the elites are that GOP voters are rubes because they love the nationalist rhetoric but get shorted by policies designed to help the 1%.
...so do you actually want a GOP that reigns in billionaires and truly pursues a nationalist agenda? McCain and Romney republicanism is dead, it was gracious as it lost battle after battle which is why Edsall et. all pines for it.
When the GOP puts Trumpism in capable hands, I don't think Mr. Edsall is going to be too thrilled that it no longer is beholden to plutocrats.
Trumping IS plutocracy. You can't have on in "capable"hands without the lunacy of the other.
1
I've said this a million times. The Republicans need a fascist base for the votes but the establishment is a plutocracy.
2
The Koch Brothers prefer to rule from behind the curtain. They have achieved a level of success with the Trump Presidency.
Looking at 'their' government, the Koch Brothers oligarchy is as expected self-serving and very dysfunctional.
Their bought and paid for Congress has delivered to them their tax cuts and deregulation. It is delivering their SC justices. The Supreme Court has now been tarnished forever as a bought and paid for judicial institution working for the Koch Brothers and not the rule of law. Democracy dying by a thousand cuts of greed.
The Koch Brothers are now free to pollute America's land for their own profit. Between their fossil fuel gorging of public lands to their chemicals destroying clean drinking water, the Kochs disregard for the public, the American citizen, is astounding, pathetic and UN-American.
Their boy Pence has filled the Oval Office with wife abusers, grifters and religious zealots, none of them properly vetted for security.
The Koch Brothers employ Putinesque subversion of the democratic vote with their bought GOP operatives using various suppression techniques to dismantle one man-one vote.
The Koch Brothers are the poster boys of greed and the destruction of democracy.
8
Trump is simply the Koch party's feint.
1
Trumpism is not a new phenomenon but just the evidence that history is constantly repeating itself. Knowledge about social and political tragic events of the past would be sufficient to discourage any support to ideologies proposed by demagogues like the Trumps, the Kochs and so on. Yet such ignorance is too often welcomed and any critical thinking discouraged by those who are eager to dominate the masses for the benefit of a greedy elite. In the past access to education was just a privilege for few rich families. Today higher education in America is not different.
The Koch victories listed by Edsall with the help of Skocpol are principally attributable to the 2016 Trump win-- at least so far as they are national victories attributable to national legislation. True, the Koch Bros. may have been pivotal factors in the the few states that narrowly swung the election to Trump (and some GOP Senate candidates), but the same can be said for Putin, Stein voters, gaffes of Wasserman Schultz and Brazil's, rhetorical excesses of the Sanders campaign, Hilary Clinton and, to give a much overlooked actor his due, Robby Mook.
Mr. Edsall has it right. When the public is polled it's clear most of us don't think that what's good for the Kochs and their fellow capitalist cabalists is good for most of us or for the planet er live on--because it's not.
When you get down to it, the Kochs and their elitist, self-serving ideas are unpopular because, no matter how many museums they support, they are not very nice people. Like libertarian dreamers everywhere they are interested only in themselves.
The links between those not very nice people and Mr. Trump then is a natural one. He, too, is all about himself and he's not very nice either. He's just more publicly nasty about some of the things that make the Kochs, who like to pretend they are cultured, squirm.
The capitalists and the Creep are a truly unholy alliance who together are working great harm on the nation as fast as they can.
The only hope I see is a resounding midterm defeat for both, and if the the opinions expressed in opinion polling actually bother to show up at the polls in November, in the face of all the unfolding calamity I still prefer to believe sanity does have a chance.
4
The Koch’s are card carrying members of our ruling kleptocracy. They, and their plutocratic brethren, should be subjected to their own libertarian principles of narrowing the functions of government to property protection and defense, by being outlawed as political entities. Stiff jail sentences should be imposed, along with 9 -figure punitive fines, against those who defy the law. It is long overdue for the majority of Americans to take back rule over our country from the .001% and their minions. Down with kleptocracy. Power to to the people, regardless of their political party!
1
Really timely piece. Thank You!
We can cross off any Koch Bros operatives within the administration as the author of yesterday's anonymous NYT Op-Ed piece on Trump.
Say this for conservatives like the Koch Bros and the Federalist Society, they are really organized and willing to stick it for the long haul. That has enabled them to succeed with their very much unpopular programs as this piece so clearly lays out. Progressives got a lot to learn!
@Steven
“Say this for conservatives like the Koch Bros and the Federalist Society, they are really organized and willing to stick it for the long haul. “
They had billions to spend on this goal over the long haul.
Now with this latest tax cut they will be able to spend even more buying politicians who will do their will. All it takes is money!
"They disagree about trade, tariffs and immigration, but don’t be fooled. Neither side can get what it really wants without help from the other."
That can equally be said of the establishment control of both political parties.
That is why the Republican establishment lost control to Trump, and then the Democratic establishment lost to him when they had held on to control against Sanders.
4
Excellent as usual, but you have left out a crucial third interest whose full support makes the Koch-Trump alliance work. The political evangelicals have sought power for decades, gaining a pittance of it under W Bush, but receiving Trump’ss full and loyal backing. Without them, no President Trump, no VP Pence, and Dem control of House and Senate. The Kochs want oligarchy, Trump wants money and adulation, and the political evangelists want their concept of God and history to reign.
8
Of course the Kochs are running this coup d'etat. Of course they've salted the Trump administration with their own home-grown and groomed puppets (Pompeo was elevated as a tea party candidate from a microdot Kansas town). President Trump is a useful tool, for now, and will be set aside without regrets when they're ready to buy and use someone else. Of course.
4
The corruption runs deep.
Great and what do we do about it? Koch money and the “experts” it can buy can’t be matched. They are especially good at turning people against each other - the young against the old, the not quite poor against the poor. I’ve read Confessore, Mayer, Phillips-Fein, MacLean, Varoufakis and on and on. I’ve heard people bemoan the death of the Occupy movement. People in that movement needed to go back to work, to pay bills. The Kochs can spend all day thinking about how to get more, about how to convince us that freedom is slavery. Voting for an Obama or Clinton, whose idea is that the rich should be nicer, doesn’t get us anywhere.
Trump is a bubonic plague carrying flea and the Koch Brothers are malaria carrying mosquitos compared and beholden to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin's aka the Russian Bear's malign manipulative manufacturing more American mayhem. Putin's growls supercede and suppress their flea jumping and mosquito buzzing trivial pursuits.
MAGA equals making Russia great again. Despite being an aging and shrinking nation of 145 million in conflict with an American nation that has an annual GDP that is 15x Russia's and an America that annually spends 9x Russia on it's military.
This article lays out clearly the roots of the new gilded age in which the uber wealthy guide us plebeians to the promised land (for them of course). That said, we have only ourselves to blame. Crappy, shallow and bent candidates get elected by us. We have only to vote differently and the problem is solved. I don't blame all the ads and disinformation for doing all of this. The electorate still is in charge in this country and if we vote to dismantle that which gave us clean air, cleaned up the Great Lakes and the rivers and reduced lung disease so that the profits of the few can grow, then we deserve what we get.
5
The Russians, The Kochs, Conservative Republicans . . . your democracy is in deep trouble. Vote, vote, vote!
5
More than a decade ago Lewis Lapham published in HARPER'S a definitive statement about the way in which the Republican party had been organizing its onslaught on what was at the heart of the American experiment - government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The frog-in-the-saucepan analogy, and the scorpion on the frog's back parable have both been apposite as the years have gone by since Lapham issued his warning.
It is time it got to be better known.
4
Dark money. One of the difficulties I have with the argument that the NAACP could hide donors and another group could not. Are we not equal, ALL, NOT SOME, under the law?
In a discussion I had dealiing with this issue, my friend said: There are two parties coming in and one is very needy and the rich one wins the day, that is a conservative judge. What is missed is that in our courts there is a third interest and it rules in the courts or should: The Law. The question is not which side wins and preferring one over the other going in, but what is the law. And if the law is wrong,, change the law. This is an issue for the nation.
Those with money can garner support for their position. Still we can and do from time to time defeat the rich. The Kochs have libertarian views,, well known, and they fight hard to win. But they aren't hiding but are right to assert their right to do so if that is the LAW, and they should not be denied just because they are rich.
@Monty Brown
Unfortunately, most people who have not gone through law school do not realize that there is no such thing as "the law." Congress writes a statute using general language to achieve a general policy goal. Then, maybe, the relevant federal department (the IRS, DOL, etc) provides some regulations to help interpret that law. But primarily that law goes out into the world without anything like clear meaning, at least insofar as how it will be applied in practice. What then happens is people interpret it differently in practice, and sooner or later a lawsuit is brought and a court decides what that particular clause of the law means. This goes on, case after case, with further aspects of the law defined by a court, or clarified by a court. A JUDGE decides what Congress's written words, called a law, really mean. This is why judicial appointments are so important--because a judge will "interpret" the law but, in actuality, s/he will make the law by shaping its meaning through court cases that come before him or her. The enumerated rights in our Bill of Rights, for example, have gone through this process thousands of times. For example, law enforcement must now give you "Miranda warnings" -- because a guy named Miranda was arrested & didn't know his rights, and it went to court. Our Constitution doesn't require these warnings; the S.C. interpreted our constitution to require them. This is the case for all our laws.
1
Trump ran on a populist agenda but is governing non the full Federalist Society agenda. There is no plan for better cheaper healthcare, infrastructure or jobs- nothing
These facts are what democrats should run on every single day.
No one voted for the Koch’s and the Federalist Society- they voted against her and to put a check on her. Now it is time to put a check on him.
126
@Deirdre In fact, just across town the NY Post publishes this article...
https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/09/06/jobless-claims-unexp...
Drill baby Drill, go President Trump go! He's making America great again one job at a time; by the 10's of thousands. Don't know where you get your news, you may want to check it on the 'fakeness' meter!
@Deirdre Infrastructure and jobs? Ohhhh, you must read the WashPost or HuffPost, or watch CNN, MSNBC, etc. Earth to liberal; we have the highest job participation; ever. Don't have job? You can start tomorrow making over $100k in many parts of the country. By the way; thats job participation for Latino Americans, Black Americans, Asian Americans, etc. All ethnic groups. We conservatives pray that you liberals run on jobs. We'll win, again.
It should also be noted that the Koch brothers are major contributors to the Federalist Society, which, if Trump and Republicans have their way, will soon have five of its members on the Supreme Court. The Federalist Society’s agenda and the Koch brother’s agenda are one and the same: a government of, by, and for the plutocracy. Both entities seek to legitimize and to legalize corruption, a goal beautifully achieved in the Citizens United decision.
Read Zephyr Teachout’s “Corruption in America”. Then encourage her to run for President in 2020.
1
Of the many ingredients making the stew of oligarchy, dark money is by far one of the essential malodorous flavorings.
Such is the extent of the worst abuses of oligarchical power in interpreting the 1st Amendment for the rights of the dollar.
3
trimp is not just an aberration. He is a natural outgrowth of a political system in hock to billionaires who want to preserve and expand inequality.
4
From my own experience,the right wing controls higher education in Colorado and finding progressive allies to oppose them has proved to be challenging. I assume the Kochs are involved, certainly Anschutz is. They have privatized much in the state system. They must be defeated and I pray for the good of the state and country that progressives get out and vote in November.
4
So sad that the Kochs and Trump and their billionaire allies, already so wealthy beyond comprehension, are so, so greedy for even more wealth that they are willing to use bigotry and hate to become richer, willing to pollute the countryside, destroy wildlife, ignore the climate threat, and attack democracy itself in order to pile up more billions. That they succeed shames us the voters who maybe collectively deserve to be fleeced.
4
"For the love of money is the root of all evil" is a quote from the the New Testament of the Christian Bible.
Farcically, the Republican Party has rallied, duped and fleeced its White faux-Christian voter base into world champions aiding and abetting the love of money while flushing actual Christianity down a Trump Toilet of profitable racism, rapacious Republican greed and shameless Christian corruption.
40% of Americans will vote against their own economic interests as long as they think their Whited Sepulcher 'way of life' is diabolically validated by an iteration of the GOP's enormously successful Whites R Us Southern Strategy metastasized nationwide.
That's why there's a Snake-Oiler-In-Chief in office ripping off the treasury while abandoning healthcare, infrastructure, the environment, and the truth while the Russian-Republican Duma gerrymanders, vote suppresses, vote rigs and stacks the courts with apostles from the God of Mammon.
There is only one possible way out of this greed-based Republican swamp and moneyed hell.
Massive voter registration and massive voter turnout on November 6 2018.
The one thing that Russian-Republicans and oligarchs cannot stand is democracy and free and fair elections.
We won't have fair elections until America's blackbox voting is eliminated, but we have to start with massive voter turnout that rejects the Greed Over People party.
Donate. Vote. Restore Democracy.
https://www.voterparticipation.org/support-our-work/donate-to-vpc/
108
Why not reveal the ties between the Koch Brothers and the Federalist Society with Leonard Leo? They are running the GOP de facto, and have been responsible for installing their ultra right justices who will guarantee SCOTUS results to benefit them and their dark money.
Whitehouse astutely argued that the Roberts 5 were chosen by the Federalist Society, the same notorious group who were insourced by Trump to choose Kavanaugh. Sheldon Whitehouse’s rhetorical questions to Kavanaugh, “Are you bought? Are you paid for? “are self evident.
11
You can make a deal with the Devil but, at some point, the bill must be paid. Brace yourselves.
8
If Trump is the best example of government 'money-bagger' oligarchs such as the Kochs and the Mercers (remember them?) can buy, well - that pretty much sums it up.
5
Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions - Thomas Paine
15
Mike Pence is a shill for the Koch brothers. This has been well-known at least since Jane Mayer's New Yorker article about Pence, published some number of months ago (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/23/the-danger-of-president-pe.... The White House is populated with Koch Bros. loyalists. Senator Whitehouse said "“If Pence were to become President for any reason, the government would be run by the Koch brothers—period. He’s been their tool for years,”". Steve Bannon echoed the sentiment.
6
And herein lies the problem:
“If public opinion were the guiding force, key elements of the Kochs’ policy goals would be dead in the water. “
There is a vast, and perhaps increasing, disconnect between our “representatives” and their constituents. There is probably a statistical correlation between the number of terms served and the difference (or indifference) between how a representative votes and what his/her constituents really want.
Public opinion was why Trump lost by nearly three million votes. The Electoral College doesn’t reflect public opinion, therefore he’s president.
Term limits (actually, the lack thereof) and big money are our political bogeymen. Until changes are made in those areas public opinion is just so much noise.
The only threat public opinion presents is the voting ballot. When representatives know that they’ll be held accountable, then they may act in the public interest rather than for their own job security.
2
@SMK NC, good post but also this: the 1918 faux ceiling set the House to 435 members, without a mechanism to increase, nor an effort by either party since to pass new legislation. Increasing the House to the ration noted in the Constitution should be the first order of business of any democratic regime. Why hasn't it been? USA with such a high ratio of citizens to reps in populated areas causes an even more remote House-- beholden to nobody, except the money.
Like pigs in a trough these men will forever have mud on their faces!
5
First, can we please stop calling it a $1.5 trillion tax cut? That number hides what really happened.
What really happened is that the global owners of capital got a $5.5 trillion tax cut and High Tax State workers got a $4 trillion tax increase. To subtract one from the other hides the complete rip off of the working class that Republicans just used to pay for most of their tax cut, with $1.5 trillion in debt paying the difference.
And in the long run, the change to the Chained CPI will cause bracket creep, which is a perpetual and exponentially growing tax increase, forever. Of course that will not matter top people who just got their tax bill cut by ten or twenty percent.
Second, I never believed that Trump and the Kochs are not natural allies. Trump is a pathological liar. Just because he says something doesn't mean the believes it. The Kochs are more subtle, but are still willing to do whatever it takes to increase their wealth and power.
8
What options do the common people have against such wealth? The Kochs continue in their powerful role despite which party is in power. Their view of the proper direction runs counter to 90% of America's success.
Even with the likes of Trump out of the picture, they will continue as a force beyond the reach of logic or law.
4
ALL the divisions on the far Right--between Trump and ''establishment'' Republicans, between Fox and InfoWars, between the GOP and its media, between John McCain and Mitch McConnell, between Susan Collins and James Inhofe--are wildly exaggerated. Don't get me wrong; there are a lot of small disagreements among individual Republicans. But when political push comes to legislative shove, everyone in on board the same boat, for the simple reason that Right has succeeded in uniting media, money, and politics around one unitary and facile idea.
The idea is that money, not democracy, should govern society. The politicians, the financial and business interests, the media, all embrace a perfect confusion between their own material interests and the good of the world, and so between corruption and democracy. If money is speech, then laws are commodities. If money is the point of life, then the wealthy know what's best for everyone. Power replaces argument, and dissent is a political failure. When the rest of us accept this idealization of corruption as a legitimate political position, when we accept the bribery and the propaganda are legitimate strategies instead of crimes, then aren't we exaggerating the difference between us and them as well?
9
I am still amazed that a single issue can override the common sense that indicates one is voting for persons an policies that are not in their best interest. Thomas Frank was right in his book "Whats the Matter with Kansas". We get what we deserve because of our own narrow mindedness and the Koch's play this like a concert violinist.
138
@Albert Petersen
Does our nation and the world really "deserve" what the electorate has brought, or " Citizens United" has wrought?
Sadly, 40% of the American people in their best judgement, stand by this president; and 15% who may no longer be on his band-wagon, thought better of him enough to elect him president, but maybe no longer.
If I accept that our country "deserves" what 55% voted for, then I accept Clinton's characterization that this 55% is "deplorable," and I feel no hope for the future.
What our nation deserves, and the world needs, is a continued onslaught by a free press against the dark forces (dark money) that have taken hold of our democracy / presidency.
Finally, what we need and deserve, is a re-institutionalization of a robust course in civics and debate in high school; too many are being graduated who have no idea what our democracy is about ('checks and balances' anyone?), and as a result, it has been stolen from them.
@Albert Petersen....and see Thomas Frank's new book, Rendezvous with Oblivion: Reports from a Sinking Society. The daily news is now confiming this.
See Frank's Cspan video.
@Chuck
55% ?
Please check your math again.
That 15% is part of the 40%, not in addition to it.
The problem is well identified, I don't sleep at night. The Kochs own Congress and many/most state legislators, Putin owns Trump. The people are on their own. Rise up folks, vote the Koch and Putin puppets out. Vote Democratic, our lives depend on it.
2
Time and again the evidence shows that whether or not they “like” each other, the koches, Stephens and douhatts of the world make common cause with trump to push the rethuglican agenda. They can do this at the federal level because we have a president who lost the popular vote, and because 18% of the population controls a majority of the senate. Reform requires those things to change. When they do, the complexion of the Supreme Court will also change. In the meantime we must continue to play the rigged game under difficult conditions. But the orcs will not prevail.
1
The USA is in big Trouble. DJM
2
In 1933, Germany elected Hitler with a 43% plurality. It was the enablers in the Reichstag (congress) that moved the needle to the 2/3 necessary to give Hitler dictatorial powers.
All enablers involved thought that that Hitler could be controlled. That includes the military, industrialists, clergy, even a Jewish person here and there thought that Hitler would not be so bad.
The US is not Germany in 1933, and fascism today is not the old fascism either. But without real checks and balances, bad policies for human rights of citizens and all people in the world will increase rapidly. Vote all Republican enablers out in November.
7
@Newman1979, in my little CA town we have a qualified and energetic young REPUBLICAN man running for city council, a non-partisan office. I am encouraging everyone to vote against him, as a vote against an evil political party. We must vote dem, even if we don't love the candidate. (or god forbid wish to have a beer with him or her!)
When I read Jane Mayer's shocking book, "Dark Money", I became more shocked when I realized that most of my friends and colleagues (I'm an attorney) just don't seem to care all that much. I'm afraid that life has become too good or too busy for so many that it really doesn't matter if our democracy disappears . And it takes work to stay on top of this stuff. What with these so-called "conservatives" co-opting the word "Freedom" and the identity of what it means to be a "Christian", it seems overwhelming at times. Unless the Democratic Party gets it's act together I'm afraid there will be no turning back. Right now, the Democratic Socialism of Ocasio-Cortez is a fantasy. I wish her luck, but on a national level we need leaders who will confront the immediate issue which is the hijacking of our self- government by oligarchs. Who will stand-up for us? Where is the 21st century FDR?
279
@Richard Winkler
Where is the 21st century FDR? Trump.
You folks are just too blinded by your own rhetoric to see it.
@Richard Winkler
FDR was a democratic socialist up until WWII. When the war started, he pivoted to something more like a liberally democratic fascist. However, his leadership ended the Great Depression and ushered in a generation of economic prosperity and US hegemony.
What enabled all this you might ask? His popularly socialist programs of 1930s to which we still owe a great debt and gratitude towards today. He the congressional support to pass what he wanted because he was trying to help everyone. I would say issues of race and internment were his two biggest failings. That and conceding to Stalin.
That said, what's to say someone like Ocasio-Cortez can't usher in a new era of transparent democracy? You're putting the chicken before the egg. Popular socialist programs can lead to consistent electoral victories. Electoral victories can translate into legitimate reform. If you can bench the Kochs and others for a few decades, their legacy gets washed away. That's what they are trying to do to FDR.
The answer isn't compete in kind. It's to refute their model entirely. That's what the progressive and socialist movements are accomplishing by crowd sourcing their funding. Pretty clear line in sand between finance transparency. Clinton couldn't act Republicans on the issue because she was doing the same thing.
1
@Richard Winkler
In order to have a 21st century FDR, you need a 21st century Great Depression. Luckily it didn't happen... Yet!
These are historic times when the Koch’s money and Trumps anti democratic rhereric are highjacking American government. I applaud those in the administration who support the anonymous email. I support the repeal os Citizens United and pray that we can save the country from Trumps S. C.
If there are traitors, they are Donald J Trump and the Koch brothers
Carolyn Jacobson
1
The "working class" who voted for Trump will reap what they have sowed.
Unfortunately, the rest of us are stuck with the same rotten harvest.
VOTE in November!
13
“An April 2017 Gallup poll, conducted as Congress began consideration of the Koch-backed tax bill (which was passed in December ) found that 63 percent of voters believed that the rich pay too little in taxes and 67 believed that corporations paid too little.”
“Similarly, a Reuters/IPSOS poll earlier that year found that 61 percent of voters backed E.P.A. regulations either strengthened (39 percent) or maintained (22 percent).”
Having read “Dark Money” and plenty more about the long game the Koch’s have been playing from many years back, there isn’t much that surprised me in this opinion piece, but that doesn’t make it any less depressing. It continues to be achingly clear that the lawmakers in the GOP Congress no longer answer to the wishes of the majority of their electorate, but only to their donors. Only informed and engaged voters can break this stranglehold on our democratcy by going to the polls- beginning this November, and voting out the corporate shills currently running the country.
A single question really puts this in all in perspective. Would you let ( fill in the blank here) do your brain surgery? Assume that it's not about whether they went to medical school.
Would anyone let the Moron In Chief perform their brain surgery? Relatively, brain surgeons are a dime a dozen compared to POTUS. There's only one. Just about any one of those real brain surgeons is more qualified, demonstrates judgment and discretion, and understands the risk involved in what they do. No one would let trump do their brain surgery.
As for the kochs, no one would let them do their brain surgery either. The threats are different. Their brain might be stolen and replaced with the leftover exhausted byproducts of turning coal into energy. They might wake up so lobotomized all they are good for is digging for coal -- by hand. And too stupid to notice the fumes coming from the water in the shower not to mention the windows. No, at the most basic level, the Kochs can't be trusted to even be orderlys.
By this test, no one would choose trump, the kochs but also all the other turtles all the way down: pence, mcconnell, ryan, grassley and in my state young.
Thanks for this very important piece. From the moment I read about the Trump-Koch "rift" I laughed. It was so obvious on whose behalf both are working. The fact that Trump's base continues to support him shows that either their racism overrides all other considerations or they choose to remain clueless or indifferent to how they're being used as pawns. I suggest everyone recommends this piece to anyone they know who still reads.
4
This is what comes when fewer and fewer Americans find it 'essential to live in a democracy' (check out the graphs):
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/world/americas/western-liberal-democr...
where SCOTUS seats in a post-Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions world are spoken of as becoming elective positions:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/06/27/ted-cruz...
These effects have been papered over by GOP'er administrations aiming to placate voters by ensuring 401-k's go up, but when the markets go back down (and they will) voters may not think they made such a great deal with the devil(s).
P.S. - Wednesday's missive from the 'senior official' about the 'quiet resistance' in the White House to Agent Orange from KAOS just confirms that the useful idiot of the 'conservative agenda' crowd has now become inconvenient.
The service of the 'quiet resistance' in pursuit of the Koch's conservative agenda is typical banana republic rationale - especially since Koch Bros. Inc. apparatchik Pence would still be prosecuting the same agenda once His Unhinged Unraveling Unfitness is gone.
The missive's aim is to jettison the Rolling Trumpster Fire before Dems get control of the House and subpoena power, which would reveal how truly awful things are.
6
Born in the 1950s, I've witnessed our country shift from Jim Crow laws to voter protections, from strip mining and factory pollution to the implementation of environmental protections, from back alley abortions to safe, legal abortion rights for women. I've watched our country embrace consumer's rights, protections for the disabled, support for public education, the ACA, rights for LGBT people, etc. Now I am witnessing a backward shift, to racist, anti-women, to hell with the environment, shut-the-government-down practices. The middle class, the working class and the poor are being scammed and ignored while Koch and their like, with the unfettered influence that their billions of dollars of dark money has, corrupt our government and dangerously erode the achievements of the 20th century.
2
Thank you, Mr. Edsall, for pointing out who really is in control of the country. Too bad this fact is so narrowly understood. One of the most powerful tools in the regressives' arsenal is the campaign to keep people ignorant and functionally illiterate. If ever progressives come to power, this must be one of the first things they try to change.
1
"It can't stay like this forever." I would certainly hope so.
Having read Jane Mayer's book "Dark Money" I can certainly understand the influence of people like the Koch brothers and their ilk. But isn't this they way capitalism works? The rich always want to get richer, no matter what. And that is exactly what the Koch brothers want, no matter the cost to the American people. And their followers, the Ryans and the McConnells of the Congress believe completely in this agenda.
As suggested by Woodward in his new book and the anonymous op-ed piece in the NYT yesterday, we are living in a world where an idiot is in the White House, and a very dangerous one at that. We must take control of the House and possibly the Senate so that we can begin to put a stop to this horror.
Vote!!!!
2
This is the real “Deep State”. This is who the anonymous ‘resistance’ in the White House is really working for - not the average American, and certainly not in defense of the Constitution.
This is who the GOP Congress answers to. The GOP Senate represents just 15% of the voting public - but they answer to the .1%.
This is who gave us Citizens United and a Supreme Court that ruled money is speech. This is who is stuffing the judiciary with judges who serve corporate ‘citizens’ before mere flesh and blood humans.
This is the world the Powell Memo was aimed at creating. Mission accomplished.
Their next step: gain control of enough state governments to call a constitutional convention - and enshrine the rule of money forever, a government of “We the rich” instead of “We the people.” So much for the rule of law.
The libertarianism these people tout is just anarchy for the rich; this is the real “road to serfdom”.
4
In one respect, Trump is a typical politician: he has no shame. He can stab you in the back in the morning and clap you on the back in the evening because it's all part of the game.
The Kochs and the Trumpies don't need friends. Life is transactional. It's a marriage made in hell--our hell.
1
Trump is ranting about the anonymous op-Ed writer within his ranks while the un-elected Koch brothers dictate ultra-conservative policy to a willing Trumpocracy. The difference is that the anonymous Oval Office policy shepherd has everything to lose while the Koch brothers have everything to gain.
2
Exactly right!
Too much commentary has it that there are somehow two Republican parties, or a divided Republican party. But there is a single Republican party. Trump is instrumental to this party. He is used to mobilize support in favor of an agenda that concentrates power in the hands of a propertied elite. And this strategy predates Trump and will outlive him. It is this party that must be defeated and this can only be done by a united opposition party. So, I hope the opposition has a healthy debate about its leadership and its policies for moving forward. But, at the end of the day it must unite to defeat its class enemy.
1
At some point, the deficits of the Trump Presidency will outnumber the assets for the Republicans. The timing of the inevitable break will be a tough call. What will turn off the Republican base ? There is one person who could hold on to a significant segment of that base should there be a break with Trump. He is firmly a member of the Koch operation. Is it realistic to believe that yesterday's groundbreaking NYT Opinion piece would have been submitted if the Vice President was seriously opposed to it ?
1
There has to be a better way to limit the outsized influence of billionaires in politics.
Everyone has freedom of speech but when your money drives your personal agenda to a degree that so called elected representatives cater to you versus the best interests of your constituents, there's a problem. And it has been this way forever.
I don't care if its the Koch Bros, Soros, Adelson or Steyer. At the very least they need to be called out equally. Even if their undue influence is unavoidable, at least it has to be transparent and not selectively acceptable.
3
RE: "Politically speaking, they are in fundamental disagreement over trade, tariffs and immigration."
But that's nothing compared to what binds them together: unmitigated, unrestrained, uncontained greed and wealth.
Blood may be thicker than water but money glues and rips apart like nothing else can.
What the Koch spin machine does is to take what is terrible for most people and frame it as something that will benefit them (even though it probably won't even do that as the Kochs are even further enriched) so they will vote or support something that otherwise hurts them or that they are against. Ex. "the reestablishment of slavery and child labor will insure that you and your family will be taken care of and will have jobs to do."
1
First, can we please stop calling it a $1.5 trillion tax cut? That number hides what really happened.
What really happened is that the global owners of capital got a $5.5 trillion tax cut and High Tax State workers got a $4 trillion tax increase. To subtract one from the other hides the complete rip off of the working class that Republicans just used to pay for most of their tax cut, with $1.5 trillion in debt paying the difference.
And in the long run, the change to the Chained CPI will cause bracket creep, which is a perpetual and exponentially growing tax increase, forever. Of course that will not matter top people who just got their tax bill cut by ten or twenty percent.
Second, I never believed that Trump and the Kochs are not natural allies. Trump is a pathological liar. Just because he says something doesn't mean the believes it. The Kochs are more subtle, but are still willing to do whatever it takes to increase their wealth and power.
5
Dark Money has no effect if there are no dark politicians to take it. But, there is no shortage of those.
The Kochs, and the other dark money contributors, should have figured out by now that Donald Trump never keeps a promise or repays a debt. He has stiffed every one who has ever worked with him, why wouldn't he stiff them too?
That is OK, they have been at this for more than 50 years, they can just wait until the next round of politicians every two and four years and find new lackeys.
65
''Koch also told donors, “We’ve made more progress in the past five years than I’ve made in the previous 50.”'' - and there you have it folks.
It is more money/profits with less regulation at all costs, and if that means using tribal politics or just plain lying to the ''base'', then so be it. (or even with the help of a foreign power(s) such as Russia)
By the time (as usual) Democrats are put in power to reverse the reversal, clean up all of the mess, and try and put money back into government coffers to use for programs and infrastructure, then the theft (to the tune of TRILLIONS) will be complete. - and non refundable.
Of course the cycle of republicans using the filibuster to thwart anything that Democrats wish to do will be ratcheted up again with the backstop of now having the Supreme Court ruling in their favor for any challenges.
Even if the 25th Amendment, impeachment, or just plain losing power by being voted out happens, then the ''Agenda'' will have been advanced exactly as quoted : ''more in the last 5 than in the last 50''.
These guys play hardball and it is high time that we at least do the same if we have any chance at wresting Democracy back of the people, by the people and for the people.
Just a thought.
67
Let's hire a patriot to ride around the country before the midterms to announce, "The Trump-led Kochs are coming! The Trump-led Kochs are coming! They are big, they are hard, and they drip only nastiness."
5
They certainly share a tremendous level of selective-ignorance which these days more so than ever seems caused by excessive access to the dollar.
2
The Kochs are Exhibit A on why no citizen should be able to accrue a billion dollars. I was always shocked at the apathy of the electorate when the Citizens United ruling was handed down by Scalia & Co. , and McCullough v. FEC. It was effectively the end of our democracy, but there was barely a whimper, especially by the Democrats. Plus the fact that "White Working Americans" continue to vote for the party that screws them while protecting the rich from the consequences of their greed and avarice, just shows how un-American they are. And foolish.
82
@JP Barely a whimper, especially by the Democrats, you say? The Democrat party leadership are right in the thick of it, and have been for decades. We know who they are, and they are the reason the Republicans have been allowed to overturn the economy and the environment for the second time this early in the century.
The Democrats have been maintaining for far more than two decades that "they have the demographic wind at their backs": I have been hearing the argument since I worked in Gene McCarthy's campaign half a century ago. America's liberal awakening is just around the corner — and always will be.
6
I am terrified of what Edsall describes in this piece...it cannot be good for our country. When will this national nightmare end? I only hope that the damage that results is not permanent.
11
@Mark Mark, if you’ve been voting Republican through ignorance of what’ going on in our country (yours and mine, as is our state), you are part of the problem. Be informed and vote Democratic if you want even the possibility of reversing the damage.
The story of the Koch network and the other very wealthy individuals and corporations who put so much money into our political system ought to be a bigger story than Russian "meddling." It goes way beyond contributing to politicians, although that undermines democracy in a time when those politicians must spend most of their time asking for more money.
The Koch network funds social groups to appeal to Hispanics. They, and others, pay for the think tanks that underpin an increasingly rigid ideology. They have even established law schools to produce those "free-market" judges.
Their efforts support the vast right-wing conspiracy that Hillary Clinton railed against. They helped discredit her just they will help to discredit any opponent who challenges them.
It's not just Fox News, although that makes its own contribution. When money is speech, there seems to be no way to counter their influence. Democrats may try to emulate their example, but it seems they are just not so good at it.
18
@Betsy S Yes to all of this but the Russia thing is important too. It's not either/or.
I am white, over age 70, college educated, and hate everything Trump, Putin, and the Kochs are darkly working for.
Just want to point that out, as in some quarters, Trumpism seems to be considered a white "thing".
And as I sift through all this, I cannot help but come to the conclusion that this battle, this war, was inevitable. All cultures create wealth, and the supremely wealthy, sooner of later, come to declare that they, not the common people, are the true owners of the land and the rest of us are only temp workers in our own land. Happened to Athens, to Rome, to London, to Moscow, and now, perhaps to Washington.
The Russian people clearly lost that battle, and now, for many decades, will have to endure the hidden machinations of those who own everything and everyone, including the religions and the courts. America may lose, and we will end up as Russia has, with a pretend independent media, pretend rule of law, and pretend democracy.
With a Putin strutting about, demanding all belong to his childish cult.
Resist indeed. Many of us will be marching to the polls this November, and I do hope we don't get taken in by the pretend changing Republican Party...they are bought and sold.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
535
@Hugh Massengill
Great comment! Congratulations on putting it so well. I agree with every word, and will be marching to those polls with friends and family.
BTW, I am white and over age 80.
1
@Hugh Massengill
Kind of ironic that the end of Communism unleashed Capitalism Uber Ales, which is taking us down too. Glad I saw the writing on the wall in 89.
@Hugh Massengill
"...and the supremely wealthy, sooner or later, come to declare that they, not the common people, are the true owners...." Succinctly put. Only Ayn Rand could write "Atlas Shrugged" and only Paul Ryan could suggest reading it.
The Kochs and the Trumpanik have their spats
But the three are hand in glove
They get along like pussy cats
And deregulation love.
The tax cut bill? The Kochs adored
It really was so cool
His feckless tactics they ignored
Had he really gone to school?
They'll take the bad because the good
Has brought a ton of loot,
The Koch boys really understood
Trumpanik is a beaut.
15
''Koch also told donors, “We’ve made more progress in the past five years than I’ve made in the previous 50.”'' - and there you have it folks.
It is more money/profits with less regulation at all costs, and if that means using tribal politics or just plain lying to the ''base'', then so be it. (or even with the help of a foreign power(s) such as Russia)
By the time (as usual) Democrats are put in power to reverse the reversal, clean up all of the mess, and try and put money back into government coffers to use for programs and infrastructure, then the theft (to the tune of TRILLIONS) will be complete. - and non refundable.
Of course the cycle of republicans using the filibuster to thwart anything that Democrats wish to do will be ratcheted up again with the backstop of now having the Supreme Court ruling in their favor for any challenges.
Even if the 25th Amendment, impeachment, or just plain losing power by being voted out happens, then the ''Agenda'' will have been advanced exactly as quoted : ''more in the last 5 than in the last 50''.
These guys play hardball and it is high time that we at least do the same if we have any chance at wresting Democracy back of the people, by the people and for the people.
Just a thought.
6
Thank you for this informative article. I hope God takes them all down, trump, republicans, kochs, and all their organizations.
17
@dupr
God needs your help and the help of all thinking Americans. "Let God do it" is cop-out. We all have civic responsibility. Please do something, just one thing, to help Democrats in the coming election!
1
A corrupted Supreme Court.
And we thought the threat of nuclear war was our worst nightmare all these years.
The enemies within, the Koch's, the totally corrupt republican party, the republican Supreme Court, The NRA and a significant number of the voting public who are predisposed to indoctrination by shady social engineering consultants.
No wonder Trump's go to rant is "fake news!".
How are we going to claw our way out of this hole we dug for ourselves?
How do we effect change when even the Supreme Court is corrupt?
Those activists yelling at Kavanaugh's hearing? I wouldn't discount them.
Their voices, as thin and as scattered as they are now, may be the beginning of the end of the takeover of our democracy.
It would be better for any democrats involved in the hearing to remain silent when Grassley, or any other republican, looks for their support in denouncing them.
14
"Any realistic assessment of the policy victories achieved by the Kochs shows that the public is firmly opposed to much of what the Kochs have gained from the Trump administration and a pliant Congress — and the public is opposed to much of what the Kochs still want and have not yet achieved."
I have been waiting for a column that, in sum, gives the quick essence of the Trump voter in particular and the Republican Party in general. They are all afraid, have become willing prey to the "ethnonationalism" of Donald Trump, a not-so-unique political trait that also defines the longevity of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan on The Hill.
Americans, in the main, aren't willing to subscribe to the theory that government will harm them even as they continue to write Republicans into their state legislatures and Congress, not bothering to remember that Ronald Reagan took office declaring that "government is the problem."
Richard Nixon was the modern Republican father of the "us vs. them" wasp's nest. He was preceded by a toothless John Birch Society, fronted by Barry Goldwater, who failed miserably in 1964 to implement the Robert Welch breakfast juice fortune.
The Koch Brothers, whose massive "right wing conspiracy" was the theme of Jane Mayer's great "Dark Money," have systematically attacked the democratic foundations of the Republic in their quest to cement an unforgiving, tiny, autocratic minority of plutocrats who exist to rule the nation, primarily using race as the bait.
12
The Koch Brothers have waged a grand campaign to support certain amoral candidates to Congress and across state legislatures using ALEC templates who are more than happy to do the bidding of their oligarchical masters. Oppose climate change legislation, undermine, if not abolish the EPA, deregulate environmental laws to favor their fracking endeavors, oppose solar, wind & other clean energy innovation in order to promote oil & fracking energy regardless of the environmental impact on the Earth. Their fortune based on strip mining the Earth for profit in order to create a monopoly to enrich themselves is despicable. Their greed has no boundaries as they sought to buy up TV shows like PBS's News Hour and NOVA with the sole aim to distorting the intellectual conversation regarding climate change, which is the biggest dilemma mankind has faced since the development of the atomic bomb. As the oceans rise, the weather becomes unsustainable and the Earth becomes uninhabitable, as climate migrants uproot and immigrate en mass for cooler climates and our water supply becomes polluted as well as endangered, what will the Koch legacy be? One greedy family responsible for quickening the pace of man's last few decades on Earth before extinction most likely.
12
@Dunca
I've been pondering the same issue that you expressed in the last few sentences of your excellent comment.
Will the Kochs, Inhoffe, and all the deniers (actually liars, as they knew and suppressed the truth about the climate), eventually come to the awesome and shattering understanding that they are among the founders of a cabal of greed and political lunacy that actually destroyed the viability of an entire planet and 5000 years of human advancement. No other humans will bear that curse. All because they thought that no amount of money was enough for them and that they should be the ones running the world. I'm afraid that an apology won't do it. Better start praying,
The essence of this is misdirection
The public is being deceived by several bad actors who continue to enrich themselves
Trump, the Koch’s, the Russians, Frank Luntz, The Sacklers opioid scam, Rupert Murdock’s Fox propaganda, Limbaugh, Colter, Ingram et al
Repeal and replace, means the loss of coverage of preexisting conditions
Safe narcotic pain control, the opioid epidemic
The tax cut, is actually a cut to future entitlement benefits as the government goes broke
Clean Coal, really?
What is the way out? How do you convince the 37% of the Trump voters that they are being misled?
How do you simplify this message so that the vote their own self interest?
13
What Tom conveniently ignores is that similar if not not more damaging factual commentary could be written about George Soros and his relationship with the Democratic Party. Let's also through in the liberal media which functions as attack mutts for Democratic Party, and also ensures a filter is in place to downplay any of their childlike theatrical antics. Lastly, I find the authors racial characterization of the GOP extremely offensive and bordering on race baiting.
4
@George
Well, Soros being a wealthy influencer is true, but as far as I know George Soros is not out to destroy the middle class, the land we live on, the water we breath, or to leave us to be sick and die, or to replace our personal freedoms with those of the corporation. Soros has sought to support, education, civil society, and liberal democracy not undermine for his personal wealth.
1
@George Methinks you know little about George Soros and the "liberal media".
For one, Soros is transparent in terms of where he spends his money. For another, he is far less interested in political parties.
As for the dreaded "liberal media" they were the ones who gave Trump his platform, the ones who gave cover for the start of the second iraqi war, and they were even much harder on Clinton then they were on Trump during the 2016 election.
@George, the difference is OUR rich guys are not trying to destroy our way of life. Rich GOP donors ARE. Whether that means undermining public schools, easing regulations that give us healthy water and clean air, the establishment of a state religion, destroying SS and Medicare. Name me something as nefarious that OUR side is trying to implement and I will be your listening audience. Until then-- false equivalence.
1
Trump is the quintessential "useful idiot", (certainly as well in Putin's world) that the Koch brothers have used as "cover and shield" for all the degradation of our nation as so eloquently stated in this piece. Maybe Gen. Kelly can "upgrade" his assessment of Trump from just a plain idiot to one of the "useful" kind.
27
"For two decades, key Democrats have argued that as the party of the multiracial, multiethnic rising American electorate — and the political home of single women and younger voters — they have the demographic wind at their backs. "
Yes, key Democrats have
But these groups arr not those who FINANCE the key Democrats. Below are the top ten campaign contributor, of Charles E Schumer, leader of the Democratic Party in the Senate
Charles E Schumer
Senator (D - NY)
Campaign Committee & Leadership PAC Combined Fundraising, 2013 - 2018
Contributor
Paul, Weiss et al
Deloitte LLP
Lockheed Martin
PricewaterhouseCoopers
NorPAC
Top Industries, 2013 - 2018 Industry
Securities & Investment
Lawyers/Law Firms
Real Estate
Insurance
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary/charles-schumer?...
Top individual contributors
1 Paul, Weiss et al
2 Deloitte LLP
3 Lockheed Martin
4 PricewaterhouseCoopers
5 NorPAC
6 KPMG LLP
7 Blackstone Group
8 Alphabet Inc
9 Lazard Ltd
None of those who finance Mr. Schumer has an economic interest in improving the wages of working Americans
57
@ Woof:
Good Research! Thanks.
Schumer is one of eight Senators (as was John McCain on the bi-partisan "Gang of Eight" Senators who are anti-American worker pro-big business immigration policy. Marc Rubio is another member. One of their goals is to triple the number of H1-B (STEM) Visas to replace even more American STEM workers with cheap immigrant labor.
It is very clear that Trump is a front man. It is however a statement by the Republicans that they have chosen a man deeply connected to Russians and others of the same ilk and without any skills in statesmanship. Anyone who pays attention can see the direction in which we are headed and from where his support comes. "Dark Money speaks to the Koch Bros. His threats the no longer just a monologue to his ticket holders, it is a message to us all.
21
This opinion piece highlights the reason why Mr. Trump was elected and remains in power. The traditional conservative wing of the GOP dislikes Mr. Trump's trade and immigration policies but since they are getting their tax cuts, they continue to support him. The religious right wing of the GOP dislikes Mr. Trump's fondness for adultery, porn stars and prostitutes, but since they are getting their anti-abortion Supreme Ct. justices, they continue to support him. Voters in the Farm states dislike the impact of Mr. Trump's tariffs on their agricultural products, but since he is slashing environmental regulations applicable to agriculture they continue to support him. Add in land developers, coal and oil mining interests, etc. and you can see why Trump is going to remain in power for a long, long time even though many people and groups claim to dislike him.
17
These relationships - between big money and government, and between big money and judges on the SCOTUS - are common knowledge.
Citizens United (an interesting euphemistic misnomer for wealthy corporations who want to pervert the course of democracy with unlimited and unattributed political-influence money) was a watershed moment in the history of the SCOTUS that the country may never recover from.
It unalterably changed the whole fabric of our democratic political process and our judicial system - which despite protestations to the contrary - is stacked with political appointees who make politically-influenced judgements on the cases before them.
And for me, the most interesting thing is how we, as Americans, have accommodated to, have adapted to this adulteration of our political process. "That's just the way things are done..."
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@Midnight Scribe - interesting euphemistic misnomer
The right wing branding machine has been expert in naming things the opposite of what they are with something that appeals to the masses.
“Dark Money” by the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer — Mr. Edsall refers to it passingly in this piece — is a detailed account of how the Koch brothers and other key conservative and libertarian billionaires have created an extremely powerful and influential donor network over the past decades. Their plan has used a patient and artful long game (Democrats take note) and has been hugely successful in influencing elections and even more importantly policy (always to serve their own interests). Much of the cash they pump into key races is invariably used for sleazy attack ads created by the “best” (in the Willy Horton sense) in the business. Voters are kept in the dark. The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision was a additional disaster — the work of justices who are naively out of touch with the reality of political warfare. Until we find a way to choke off this vast river of money — masquerading as “free speech” behind patriotically and innocuously sounding super-PACs such as “Americans for Progress” — our political system is a total farce, a hollowed out shell of a democracy. Senator Bernie Sanders is the only politician I know who has focussed on this travesty. He should be in the White House right now, expect we weren’t smart enough.
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@Gerald, Thanks you very much for your insightful comment. It brought tears to my eyes when you said that Bernie should be in the White House right now. I am still aghast at even the NYT buying the smear campaign on Bernie. It makes me shiver and shake to think why that is. Here was the honest man as you say trying to do the right thing for America, and still trying and the back lash is incredible, I expect it from the Republicans and the corporate Democrats because they do not want to lose their hand outs from the oligarchs, but ordinary people scoff and bluster around how Bernie's ideas are crazy and impossible. Thankfully there are now young progressives who have been inspired by Bernie and they are winning primaries and they do not take dark money. Thank you again for your clarity!!
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@Gerald
Refusing to take money from PACs, and making this refusal a key difference from one's opponent, is another tactic that has succeeded in places. Restricting our donations to such candidates is a way we can fight the PACs. As commercials from mysterious PACs become a disadvantage for candidates, PACs will wither.
It would be nicely ironic if a few PACs supported this development. Something like "Mystery money paid for me. Believe me at your peril! Let me influence you and you will regret it!" with a soundtrack of demonic laughter.
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@Gerald
We? I was stumping for Bernie my friend.
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Trump and the Kochs work only for themselves. Only when it is mutually beneficial to each of them do they work together.
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It is important to expose those forces which have brought us to this terrible "now", with frightening chaos in the White House, and a soon to be crowned fully partisan Supreme Court Justice. The public needs to understand how and why a political novice like Trump with dubious business credentials received the nomination of a major political party at rocket speed and then went on to win a questionable election. What role does Fox News play? Is it news or propaganda? What media outlets are controlled by Koch and Co.? Is it believable that the Koch's hold such power alone? Who else is involved? Why were other credible, experienced Republican hopefuls passed over on the way to this dance? We want to know who controls Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. Who controls those white haired men in Congress who control our lives but not our wishes? And now, why are the one or two honest Republican leaders so silent, and so complicit?
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So much depends on a blue tsunami this November. Vote, and encourage everyone you know to vote.
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This alliance is the most important factor in American life today. The press needs to cover it more often and more prominently.
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@Jim We are being attacked by Russia, but I believe that money in politics is by far a greater danger to democracy and future of the country.
American oligarchs are parasites destroying the host.
My tax software allows me to see what my 2018 taxes would be if my 2017 income and deductions are used as inputs. My taxes would go up by more than $3000 under the new law. Looks like I won’t be getting a tax cut. But the Kochs will.
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@Nb - My taxes would go up by more than $3000 under the new law.
Would? Did you stop working?
My taxes WILL go up $4000 under the new law described by commenter McGloin as a $4 trillion tax increase on High Tax State workers. Earlier in the year the IRS as well as tax services said everyone should check their taxes and withholdings as they won't be enough to cover the increased amounts due come April 2019. I was glad I did! I adjusted my withholding to take a significant take-home pay cut for the new law. And even that may not be enough.
Another insidious way in which the Koch’s spread their influence is by placing operatives in key government positions, such as on the staffs of compliant members of Congress. One recent example is Mark Short, who served as the director of legislative affairs for Trump until he left to take up an even more lucrative lobbying business. Short was a Koch acolyte who served two client in his government position: Koch and Trump.
There are dozens upon dozens of other examples in Washington and state capitols where Koch errand boys do their best to sway government action in favor of their benefactors’ private interests. It is a shadow government, so to speak, like barnacles stuck on the hulls of ships.
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And an anonymous source to The Times lists a replica of Koch initiatives also funded with taxpayer's dollars.
Every dime Koch brothers put in to elections through their foundations which are not taxed they get back tenfold in hard cash.
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The Kochs don't care about trade, tariffs, and immigration. All they want is continued subsidies for fossil fuels and lumber, along with weak or zero prosecution of atrocities such as pipeline spills and toxic chemical poisoning.
They have been doing pretty well even under the Democrats. Household members of 70% of the residences in Crossett, Arkansas got cancer as a result of the nearby Georgia Pacific paper mill, which dumped toxic chemicals into their water supply. They had little recourse, since Koch legal teams can tie them up in court for years, long after money for lawyers has run out.
It's a similar situation with pipeline spills, polluting refineries, horrible clearcuts from Koch subsidiaries like Georgia Pacific, and tar sands oil from Canada. That is what motivated McConnell to refuse to allow any hearings for Merrick Garland last year, with 11 months to go in the Obama presidency. Like most Republican Senators, he is joined at the hip with Charles and David Koch, and goose steps to their every wish.
Trump is not the President. He is a functionary of the real deep state, the one that destroys ecosystems and kills people with toxic chemicals and climate destroying fossil fuels. The Kochs, with their $100 billion bankroll, are in charge of the Senate. If the Democrats ever retake it, they need to hold hearings about a malevolent and out of control corporation, whose roots stem from building refineries for Adolf Hitler.
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And,.............. both have contempt for the American people.
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The Kochs, Mercers, et al represent nothing less than a de facto coup d'etat by the plutocracy. Relatively robust democratic structures and traditions precluded a violent overthrow of the government à la the third world, but there's been a usurpation of power just as surely.
This is the way Democracy ends, this is the way Democracy ends, this is the way Democracy ends, not with a bang but a whimper.
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@Len Safhay The current situation explains why there is growing support for socialism. If enough people get out and vote, the extreme ramifications of capitalist oligarchs can be thwarted. It is an uphill struggle to educate the complacent and easily manipulated but it is possible.
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@Len Safhay - not with a bang but a whimper.
Or, to thunderous applause
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@Len Safhay I believe the whimper will be followed by many a bang.
"$1.5 billion tax cut"??? Don't you mean "trillion" over the coming 10 years or so? Billion is pocket change to the Kochs.
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Good grief! How long did it take you to figure that one out? I thought it was patently obvious from the start. Trump has no ideas about governing and doesn't know as much as a third-grader about how government works, so where else would this agenda come from?
Pence, who Trump neither knew nor wanted, and the rest of the cabinet was put in place by the Koch machine to carry out their agenda knowing full well that Trump was a buffoon. Trump had no idea who most of them were when he took office. Pence, in charge of the transition - which should tell you something - hands him the list of names that he got from the various arms of the Koch machine and voila! the WH and administration is staffed and a conga line of aspiring judges are waiting for appointments. No need to search. The Kochs did all the work for you.
The United Corporations of America in all but name.
Vote democratic or you will never vote again.
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@nora m, it was nice to see Governor Chris Christie on Good Morning America today. He made a passing reference to President Trump's tossed-out transition plan. What he was too classy to go into was how he had put together a transition plan and team, only to be dumped as the transition chief on the first day of the transition. The story behind this is that Jared Kushner was out to get Chris because of how years ago Chris had carried out his duties as a U.S. Attorney and had prosecuted Jared's father for financial misdeeds, resulting in a well-deserved prison sentence. Yet I always thought the way this went down was a bit strange. So maybe you're onto something--maybe the Kochs also had a hand in this. This is absolutely scary stuff--the people running our government include a bunch of shadowy crooks and a few brave guys trying to make the place work, and everybody BUT the guy we thought we elected as President.
Another great column by Edsall. Trump is like those Deep South pols of the 1920s -- tough-talking demagogues who shamelessly promoted racist hysteria while protecting the railroads and the oil and timber companies. The difference is that the Koch brothers and their friends are doing more than just protecting their business interests. They are also trying to prescribe what government should do in all areas of policy, particularly social welfare programs. Which is why Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are still under attack.
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Of all the depressing things I have read about our country, this takes the cake. I knew intellectually that the United States is nothing but an oligarchy, run for and by the rich, but this makes it crystal clear why. Just think what good that $1.5 trillion tax cut could have done if it had been spent on building new infrastructure, providing health care, improving education or any of the other things the poor and middle class so profoundly lack. Instead, the GOP has poisoned the tree and now 99% have is rotten apples. I used to think voters could make a difference but I'm honestly not sure anymore.
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Kissinger (likely channeling others) once said, in reference to foreign policy, that there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests.
The Kochs and Trump are perfect examples of this. They both want to keep the U.S. a white male-controlled country where there are as few limits as possible on the wealthy and their ability to take as much as possible, and as few rights as possible given to labor and the working classes. They have this interest in common and they are fully aligned in their desire to achieve it. The petty feuds, the nasty tweets and the backroom chatter is only minor noise in an otherwise functioning partnership.
The same relationship would hold true even for people who left the White House in apparent frustration with Trump, like Gary Cohn and Rex Tillerson. They may think Trump is an idiot, but are more than happy to see him advance their mutual interest.
This is why the GOP has taken virtually no steps to reign in an obviously corrupt, intellectually bereft and ethically challenged Trump. Their interests are aligned. To them, he is neither friend nor enemy. He is simply a tool to achieve their common interest.
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Wow - people who disagree on some things (and vie to get their respective views adopted) and people who agree on some things (and work together to get those views adopted)!!!
Wow - who would think that there's something wrong with that, in the democratic process? The New York Times?
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Thank God I'm old.
Conservatives' children will pay the price of their ... blindness? willful ignorance?
<long sad sigh>
As you concluded, there will be a reckoning.
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I wouldn't be so quick to say that Trump and Koch brothers are in "fundamentally disagreement" over things like immigration and Trump's "racially freighted" rhetoric. Jane Mayer, in her book "Dark Money", details quite clearly that Fred Koch, the patriarch of the Koch dynasty, worked extensively with the Third Reich in the 1930's and into the 1940's, even after Americans were barred by law from doing business there due to the outbreak of WWII. The man was a traitor who made his fortune by working with a genocidal enemy of the United States -- a fortune which his sons are now using to further attack the country nearly a hundred years later. Do you seriously believe that the topic of race never came up in the Koch family?
By the same token, the patriarch of the Trump dynasty, Fred Trump, while not a proven traitor (he was investigated for war profiteering though), was a documented and avowed racist who marched with the KKK in 1927, and I'm sure Donald picked up some of his worst racist instincts from him.
The Trump and the Koch families have eerily similar origins and are very well aligned on their core values: profit above all, even if it means committing treason, and a penchant for racism. The apples don't fall far from the trees, folks.
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You might take a look at the Birch Society and the Kochs, as well as Wichitans involved in the founding of the Society.
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Don't forget the Bushs - a dynasty that also amassed their fortune working for Germany and the Nazis until the actual onset of WWII. They only stopped selling materials to the Germans when threatened with heavy fines or arrest.
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@TB
Jane Mayer's excellent book, Dark Money, should be required reading for everyone of voting age.
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Thank you shining a light on the activities of the Koch brothers to forefront. This and their relationship to the true agenda of Trump and the Republican Party need to be front and center every day so that no one can underestimate the long game they have been playing to the absolute detriment to democracy . I recently finished reading Jane Mayer's comprehensive book, Dark Money and could barely sleep at night realizing how much the Kochs influence nearly every facet of a Libertarian agenda. I would add to the list of organizations cited in the article, the 300 colleges and universities that accept large donations for the establishment of chairs, centers and departments in order to groom a future generation of economists. lawyers and policy analysts brainwashed with their extreme ideology. George Mason University, a public university in Virginia has accepted 95 million dollars to become the flagship center of libertarian economic thinking. The idea that colleges and universities are left wing hotbeds is a myth. Follow the money.
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@MF6317
Like you, I couldn't sleep at night after reading Mayer's Dark Money either. Frightening. Nice encapsulation of her main points, by the way.
The decisions by (majority Republican) SCOTUS that 'money is speech' and that 'corporations are people' will be the Dred Scott decisions of the future - or the future will be more dystopian than it is already destined to be.
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This analysis is spot on -- the Kochs needed a strongman to realize their dreams, just as democrats needed a "strongman" in FDR to realize ours. They have a well-established propaganda network in Fox, so this has been years in the making. No establishment republican could have or would have accomplished this.
The idea of us coming together is fiction, I hope we can set that dream aside and get real. This is war. We need to vote and act like it is.
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Excellent article and covers what Americans should truly understand as they vote in November. Jane Mayers book, "Dark Money" should be required reading. America has become an oligarchy and only voters can save our democracy.
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