These guys don’t really mind all the negative publicity they get for throwing their money around our political system. That’s obvious.
The conservative Koch brothers’ political network plans to spend $889 million during the 2016 election cycle, according to media reports out of the network’s donor meeting being held early this week in California.
The massive investment planned by groups founded by Charles and David Koch was announced in a Monday morning meeting at the Rancho Mirage Ritz Carlton, The Washington Post and Politico reported.
The thing is, people get very upset about stuff like this. It has a tendency to backfire against the persons, ethnic groups, financial classes, etc., associated with the political corrupters.
Most likely, the Kochs and their confederates will not get what they want and will eventually get their comeuppance.
Remember that after the era of the robber barons came the Progressive Era.
It will come again, and the Kochs will be enemy No. 1.
Thank you crooked Koch brothers. You just gave me another point to bring out to those that are sitting on the fence on whether or not to vote in 2016.I find nothing angers people more and motivates them to vote, then telling them how very rich TP/GOP members are trying yet again to buy the 2016 elections!
This is America, the home of the temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
Money conveys virtue.
$889 million conveys a lot of virtue.
I don’t expect a backlash.
Kinda tilts the whole capitalism thing on its head to consider just what their billions have bought us/them & their ilk. And yet, they seem content with tossing their money to Palin and resting on their Messiah complex laurels.
It takes a pretty optimistic person to predict a political backlash against the Koch Boyz. In any event, they are untouchable.
The Kochs’ ability to throw $1 billion into throwing the 2016 elections is a result of the Citizens United decision in 2010, which is the result of the 5 conservative male activists of Roberts’ Repubs.
This is the direct line of succession, if voters actually don’t like the rigged game our elections have become—although few media figures make this clear, and precious few Dems.
If its rigged what’s the point of voting?
Well, it is rigged but not voting only enables the monied interests to exert even greater sway over our lives. Only by voting do we have a chance to change the direction of the political pendulum back towards progressive-ism in which ordinary folks have a voice in the system that governs them. Undoing Citizens United in such a way that the SC cannot undo that undoing is the goal.
The Dred Scott v. Sanford decision required a Civil War and Constitutional Amendments to overturn it.
revolution and/or war rarely favors the progressive cause, even the driving force behind the Civil War in the north was preserving the union which is a pretty conservative viewpoint
iirc it was the south that started the Civil War. While abolitionists and many others in the north dicked around with how to get around Dred Scott.
The outcomes of wars/revolutions are unpredictable. Depends on what forces start it. The objectives of the combatants. Who wins. Etc. And short and long term consequences. The US revolution did result in a progressive changes. And the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were progressive. However, regressive forces don’t die quickly and often remain poised to reassert the old in small and large measures when an opening exists.
Nope. Remember in the progressive era there was no teevee. The usefulness of billions of dollars in politics was not as great. Now they can pound their propaganda into people’s brains every 5 minutes for months on end. It’s not 100% effective, but it makes a big difference much of the time.
Waiting for the next progressive movement is like waiting for the next 9.0+ west coast earthquake. Last one was in 1906. We’re overdue; should happen soon. But who knows if it will happen in our lifetimes.
Nobody ever said the Koch Bros. were political geniuses. They just have unlimited supplies of money, are relentless, and are not troubled by anything resembling a conscience.
If we turn the Koch brothers into our Benghazi and never ever shut up about their money in politics, maybe we’ll have a chance of creating a backlash. I suspect we won’t because it’s way too much fun to cover the clown car and all their rage bait. If just once we could stay focused on one important message about the Republicans they way they do, we might get somewhere.
That billion will be passed and washed through so many campaigns and PACs. By 2016 the Kochs will have created at least 25 new millionaires.
It MIGHT, but I’d be wary of saying that it definitively will. There was no TV to keep the masses entertained leading up to the Progressive era…
Throw enough money out there, some of it’s eventually going to stick. Look at Wisconsin. What state will be infected next? Lots of stakeholders benefit from this huge infusion of money and they’re not talking.