The Third Major Political Party (Effectively)

[MachineGhost]

I consider pissing away this much money on free speech a "lottery tax on the rich".  Palm Springs is a retiree enclave of rich upper class gaudy elitist white old farts.  That is representative of Koch's conservative base.  I'd say this is also their last chance to try to influence any election before they all die off into irrelevance.  Shed me a tear.

[quote=http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/us/po ... paign.html]The political network overseen by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch plans to spend close to $900 million on the 2016 campaign, an unparalleled effort by coordinated outside groups to shape a presidential election that is already on track to be the most expensive in history.

The spending goal, revealed Monday at the Kochs’ annual winter donor retreat near Palm Springs, Calif., would allow their political organization to operate at the same financial scale as the Democratic and Republican Parties. It would require a significant financial commitment from the Kochs and roughly 300 other donors they have recruited over the years, and covers both the presidential and congressional races. In the last presidential election, the Republican National Committee and the party’s two congressional campaign committees spent a total of $657 million.[/quote]

[Lowe]

I had not realized until recently they they finance Reason. This might explain why almost every mention I have ever seen of them is negative.  You must not make many friends backing personal liberty.

Recently I tend to appreciate more that the default state for human beings is tyranny, and see everywhere the common culture reverting to this default state, in small ways.  For me the public attacks on Brendan Eich are the most memorable recent example.  The suppression of free speech is an easy alternative to argument by facts, and respect for the private lives of others.

[Tyler]

Whenever I see complaints about the money the Koch brothers spend on politics, I like to look at this list for context:

http://tinyurl.com/pdlo74o

Koch Industries is #23, and 16 of the 22 above them donate primarily to Democratic causes.  Poltical cronyism is hardly a single-party problem.

[MachineGhost]

I wasn't even aware they co-founded the Cato Institute until recently.  I guess I better tone down my criticism!  The world would be batshit insane without libertarian counterforces to endless statism.  And when people lose confidence in government, it may take a lot of money from rich politically connected elites to keep the madness of crowds from swinging back to tyranny.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfishe ... e-america/

I'd say they need to walk the talk in terms of being transparent and then the criticism will decline (other than the usual political dialectic).

Here's Democrat propaganda for contrast:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ne ... e-20140924