Kansas’ own Koch Industries of Wichita is out to save America. Its crusade was page one in Sunday’s Kansas City Star and Wichita Eagle. Its object is to defeat Barack Obama and go on from there to remake the country. The vision it has in mind is an end to governmental regulations, still lower federal taxes, an end to all subsidies to agriculture and every other industry and much lower taxes — libertarianism on steroids. THE CITIZENS UNITED decision by the U.S. Supreme Court gave the Koch brothers and the rest of the 1 percent the right to spend their money without limit to support whatever candidate and whatever political philosophy they wish. The right to spend is guaranteed by the First Amendment, the court ruled. Speech and money are identical; corporations are people.
The Koch brothers are not new to politics. With unlimited wealth, they have been supporting far right political candidates for decades. What is new is their decision to move out front in their assault. Sunday’s lengthy feature stories are one example. Another was their decision to send “information packets” to their 50,000 employees and contractors earlier this month warning them a vote for Obama and other Democrats would be a vote against the company.
Here’s a quote from the missive:
“ . . . If we elect candidates who want to spend hundreds of billions in borrowed money on costly new subsidies for a few favored cronies, put unprecedented regulatory burdens on businesses, prevent or delay important new construction projects, and excessively hinder free trade, then many of our more than 50,000 U.S. employees and contractors may suffer the consequences, including higher gasoline prices, runaway inflation and other ills. . . .”
Included was a list of candidates the company supports.
It will probably take a constitutional amendment to right that wrong.
Critics of the Kochs like to argue that what they really want is an unlimited right to make money; to increase their wealth and, by doing so, to increase their power.
Reading the motives of others is an inexact science. The Kochs, like the rest of us, deserve respect as individuals. They say they believe that re-electing President Obama would lead to utter disaster and a catalog of horrors too long to list. They are entitled to their dark fears.
But the rest of us need to revisit our nation’s political campaign rules and ask ourselves if the role that money plays shouldn’t be examined anew.
It is clear that money influences elections. A campaign with $1 million to spend can be defeated by a campaign with $100 million in its coffers. Likewise, an individual with $200 million to spend — that’s how much the Koch brothers said they would spend to defeat the president — speaks with a louder voice than can you or I.
This is a fact that truly tests the fundamentals of democracy, a system of government that rests on the equality of the citizenry.
Campaign spending should be limited. Congress tried to do that with the McCain-Feingold Act that the court overruled. The American people are more than ready to make another attempt at leveling the playing field on Election Day.
Depend on the Koch brothers to fight that desperately needed reform. The fortune they will spend in the effort will be a powerful argument in its favor.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
