There are no figures more unfairly attacked by the left than the Koch brothers.
Power Line has an extensive write up on the demonization of the Koch brothers by Think Progress and other left-wing groups, and we have delved into the subject as well.
One of the ironies is that in many ways the Koch brothers — being libertarians — share much with old-fashioned liberals when it comes to keeping people out of the lives of citizens. But they are anathema to the modern Democratic Party “liberal” machine which seeks to control every aspect of your lives.
So it was good to see the paragraph highlighted below in a write-up about the Koch Brothers at Forbes:
Charles’ many critics on the left–including the President of the United States–accuse him of accumulating too much power and using it to promote his own economic interests through a network of secretive organizations they call the “Kochtopus.” Ironically, the Koch brothers believe they’re fighting against power, at least in the political realm. For the Kochs the real power is central government, which can tax entire industries into oblivion, force a citizen to buy health insurance and bring mighty corporations like Koch Industries to heel.
“Most power is power to coerce somebody,” says Charles, in a voice that sounds like Jimmy Stewart with a Kansas twang. “We don’t have the power to coerce anybody.”
The November elections–which David, in a separate interview shortly after the results were finalized, termed “bitterly disappointing”–seem to confirm Charles’ last point. Not even the Koch brothers, who spent tens of millions of dollars during this election cycle (they won’t disclose the exact amount) funding direct political contributions and issue-driven “nonprofits,” could coerce voters to back their candidates. Mitt Romney’s loss was a huge blow to them, both in terms of likely policy outcomes and personal reputation.
But those who think the brothers, older and chastened, will now fade away don’t understand the Kochs. Not a bit. Obama’s victory was just a blip on a master plan measured in decades, not election cycles. “We raised a lot of money and mobilized an awful lot of people, and we lost, plain and simple,” says David. “We’re going to study what worked, what didn’t work, and improve our efforts in the future. We’re not going to roll over and play dead.”
We’re not rolling over and playing dead either. And neither should you.
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Comments
This is a war that will be fought on many fronts, in thousands of battles.
We need patience and a willingness to engage the enemy whenever we can.
FREEEDDDDOOOMMM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLCEUpIg8rE
I’ll keep fighting, but I’m not optimistic.
Conservative leaders either get destroyed or corrupted, while the left just keeps marching on. It’s uncanny, really, how they ALWAYS win the important battles no matter how hard our side fights. Our expected victories are so often given away by treachery.
I have just emerged from a six-week struggle with whether to sell out and go to the other side. Although I’m a conservative, I’m tired of getting beaten up and losing all the time. I was “this close” numerous times to going to the dark side, tempted by the possibility of being on the winning side most of the time (hell, I reasoned, it’s going to happen anyway; I may as well get my piece of the victory, rather than be frustrated and angry). Then I realized that the dark side only wins by brutality, lies, and destruction. In other words, they are terrorists and can be defeated by a small group of courageous people speaking truth.
Despite that, I’m pessimistic. Our side won’t win until we stop toppling good leaders for stupid, irrelevant personal peccadilloes (often made-up ones, just to show “we’re better than them”), and exploits victory without trying to be “open” or “collegial,” but really sticks it to the libs, stomping up and down on them (figuratively) until there’s nothing recognizable left. Kinda like they do to us under false pretenses, except we’d be doing it for good reasons. In short, I’ll believe it when I see it.
Remember the Happy Warrior paradigm.
Ask yourself every day if that is what you are being.
Some of you might also ask yourselves how the HELL you think anyone with a healthy sense of self would expose themselves to the kind of utterly unhinged attacks from people supposedly on the same side I’ve seen here the last few days.
If you think about that, it is a miracle we have the quality of people we do in public office IN SOME INSTANCES.
Well, I might play dead until those jackass Democrats go away or forget I’m here and then *CHOMP* I’m gonna bite ’em in the a$$.
Being underestimated isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Walk around meekly and carry a f’n club.
It’s probably premature to submit or to revolt. Neither the Bolshevik Revolution nor the French Revolution are at our door. There are still sufficient number of empowered competing interests to keep the honest people honest and others from running amuck. At the moment, we are simply experience a progressive mucking, which may or may not permanently stain us. America is neither Russia nor France.
Never give up.
Never surrender.
Attack rapidly, ruthlessly, viciously, without rest, however tired and hungry you may be, the enemy will be more tire, more hungry. Keep punching.-George Patton
Even the UN observers were surprised at how lax our voting laws were. We need to clean that up.
The media pattern I observed was the media did all it could to destroy the Republican candidates before the primaries, until only Romney was left, and they only kicked him around enough to make it look like they were not playing favorites, to anyone not watching closely.
My son’s life-long best friend works for one of the Koch brothers shipping companies. They treat their employees very well, much like small mom and pop companies did at one time. And unlike Prez-O-Bama’s many cronies, these folks actually made their money, the old fashioned way.
“Kochtopus?”
“Kouktopus” makes absolutely no sense. The Koch brothers pronounce their name as “kouk” not “cotch” as in the ex-mayor of New York and not “cook” as in Greg Koch, an ex-Packer who played offensive right tackle.
Typical Lefties. They can’t even get insults right. 😉