ALEC and the Koch Brothers Show How Far They Are Willing to Go to Subvert Democracy

[applegrove]

ALEC and the Koch Brothers Show How Far They Are Willing to Go to Subvert Democracy

by Rmuse at Politicus USA

http://www.politicususa.com/2013/09/12/alec-koch-brothers-show-subvert-democracy.html

"SNIP...................................


The two Democrats, State Senate President John Morse and state Senator Angela Giron were recalled after voting for Colorado’s new gun law that imposed universal background checks on gun purchases and limited magazines to 15 rounds. They also voted for renewable energy measures that contributed to the effort to unseat them and elicited an influx of money from the Kochs and their Super PAC Americans for Prosperity. Although the lion’s share of publicity for the recall surrounded background checks, an underlying source of discontent was the Koch brothers’ opposition to Colorado’s stronger renewable energy standards. It is noteworthy that in northern Colorado Republicans are working toward seceding to form their own state, and one of the effort’s main proponents, a recipient of Koch donations, said “the whole purpose of doing this is to preserve and protect the energy sector that we feel is very much under assault.”

However, the face of the recall was NRA-supported opposition to background checks that incited them to spend heavily in the recalls they won, and evidenced by their quickly released statement celebrating its victory. The NRA statement read, “A historic grassroots effort by voters in Colorado’s has resulted in the recall of Colorado Senate President John Morse. The people of Colorado Springs sent a clear message to the Senate leader that his primary job was to defend their rights and freedoms and that he is ultimately accountable his constituents, and not to the dollars or social engineering agendas of anti-gun activists.” It is typical rhetoric from the NRA that conflates background checks for gun purchases with “social engineering,” and that voting for them robbed Coloradans’ rights and freedoms.

The president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Dan Gross, said the recall effort in Colorado was an anomaly, but that the real NRA goal was making gun safety activists nationwide aware of the risk they take in supporting commonsense laws such as background checks for gun purchases. Another political consultant supporting gun safety measures said “The unfortunate reality of the Colorado experience is that the NRA bullying tactics can still work,” and that “gun-control proponents should be sensitive to the power of the NRA and its ability to target districts.” After two of the nation’s worst mass shootings, there is evidence there was deep public support for background checks, but according to DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz; voter’s voices were not heard and she strongly asserted that voter suppression tactics contributed heavily to the low voter turnout.

Wasserman-Schultz said that “The recall elections in Colorado were defined by the vast array of obstacles that special interests threw in the way of voters for the purpose of reversing the will of the legislature and the people. This was voter suppression, pure and simple. Colorado voters are used to casting their ballots by mail, but because of lawsuits filed by opponents of common sense gun reform, voters were not mailed their ballots in this election. Tuesday’s low turnout was a result of efforts by the NRA, the Koch brothers and other right wing groups who know that when more people vote, Democrats win.” Although, as potential Republican gubernatorial candidate and former Rep. Tom Tancredo said, the recall effort was really “a shot across the bow” to warn other legislators that opposing the NRA and Koch brothers has consequences that should alert Democrats their primary goal should be registering voters and engaging in aggressive information campaigns. Even though the NRA and Koch brothers won the recall effort, Democrats still control the Colorado legislature and Governor’s office, and the gun safety and renewable energy measures that passed by popular vote remain intact; at least until the 2014 midterm elections.




...................................SNIP"

[BainsBane]

1. The gungeon crowd claims the recall was entirely "grass roots."

Amazing how far people will go to deceive themselves.

[billh58]

2. According to the

NRA apologists from the Gungeon, the loss of two Democratic seats was the fault of the Democratic Party for not working harder at getting out the vote. The NRA, the Koch Brothers, and ALEC are blameless they say, and there was absolutely no voter suppression. Their dire warning is that when Democrats vote for any form of gun control measures they will lose elections.

Of course, this is the same fear tactic used by the NRA and its right-wing supporters when they tell the lie about "Democrats are coming for your guns." Fortunately the American public is beginning to wake up to the reality of the growing menace of the gun culture in our society, and the NRA corruption of our politicians. Their lies, and attempts at fear mongering are losing their effectiveness, and an awareness of the need for sensible gun control is gaining traction.

[BainsBane]

3. Voter turn out is always an issue for Dems on non-Presidential elections

but the rest of that argument is pure gun lobby propaganda.

[freshwest]

4. The balkanization of America brought to you by those who do it best.

Balkanization, or Balkanisation, is a geopolitical term, originally used to describe the process of fragmentation or division of a region or state into smaller regions or states that are often hostile or non-cooperative with one another.[1] It is considered pejorative.[2]

The goal is creating fifty or more fiefdoms in the Koch Kingdom - my term, but it's my view of what we are observing. It's the creation of social identity based on Koch funded propaganda. There are more dollars in their hands than there are voters. These people are no longer Americans, they have no allegiance to western ideals. They are feudalists.

[applegrove]

5. Great word balkanization. +100

[solarhydrocan]

6. The Rightwing Koch Brothers fund the DLC -- article from '06--DU archives

posted by CrossChris Thu Feb-24-11 11:32 AM
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x498414

The Rightwing Koch Brothers fund the DLC -- article from '06

I saw this posted elsewhere recently, and thought this was very interesting to revisit:

http://www.democrats.com/node/7789

The Rightwing Koch Brothers fund the DLC

Do deep-pocketed "philanthropists" necessarily control the organizations they fund? That has certainly been the contention of those who truck in conspiracy theories about the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations funding liberal and neo-liberal organizations. As for the rightwing, journalists such as Joe Conason and Gene Lyons uncovered that the "vast right wing conspiracy" -- or the New Right network of think tanks, media outlets and pressure groups -- was marshalled under rightwing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife for his Get-Clinton campaign. Prior to the work of Conason and Lyons, Russ Bellant extensively documented in "The Coors Connection" how the Coors Family, Scaife and other wealthy rightwingers have funded the New Right movement since the early '70's. Among these rightwing benefactors are the Koch brothers. But the Kochs have been working both sides of the fence. As Bill Berkowitz writes, the Koch brothers have also been funding the Democratic Leadership Council.

According to SourceWatch, a project of the Center for Media & Democracy, the brothers are "leading contributors to the Koch family foundations, which supports a network of Conservative organizations and think tanks, including Citizens for a Sound Economy, the Manhattan Institute the Heartland Institute, and the Democratic Leadership Council."

Charles Koch co-founded the Cato Institute in 1977, while David helped launch Citizens for a Sound Economy in 1986.

This is no less stunning than if Scaife or the Coors family were funding the DLC. So do the Kochs just throw money at the DLC -- as long as the Council supports a free-market" (i.e. unrestricted/unregulated corporate power) agenda that the Kochs generally agree with. Or is it more than just that -- does this really buttress what Greens and other disaffected liberals contend -- that the DNC has just become a party of "Republicrats", thanks especially to the DLC? They would say that corporate backers like the rightwing/libertarian Kochs have co-opted the Democratic establishment -- a hostile takeover of (what was once) the opposition. (continued)...


Koch Industries gave funding to the DLC and served on its Executive Council
8/25/2010 2:01pm by Joe Sudbay
http://americablog.com/2010/08/koch-industries-gave-funding-to-the-dlc-and-served-on-its-executive-council.html

But, here’s a key piece of information: the Kochs haven’t just given to right-wingers. Back in April of 2001, The American Prospect’s Bob Dreyfuss reported that the Kochs also funded the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC):
And for $25,000, 28 giant companies found their way onto the DLC’s executive council, including Aetna, AT&T;, American Airlines, AIG, BellSouth, Chevron, DuPont, Enron, IBM, Merck and Company, Microsoft, Philip Morris, Texaco, and Verizon Communications.

Few, if any, of these corporations would be seen as leaning Democratic, of course, but here and there are some real surprises. One member of the DLC’s executive council is none other than Koch Industries, the privately held, Kansas-based oil company whose namesake family members are avatars of the far right, having helped to found archconservative institutions like the Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy. Not only that, but two Koch executives, Richard Fink and Robert P. Hall III, are listed as members of the board of trustees and the event committee, respectively–meaning that they gave significantly more than $25,000.

The DLC board of trustees is an elite body whose membership is reserved for major donors, and many of the trustees are financial wheeler-dealers who run investment companies and capital management firms–though senior executives from a handful of corporations, such as Koch, Aetna, and Coca-Cola, are included.

[hootinholler]

7. Which is why the DLC (Now calling themselves teh Third Way) candidates need to be rejected

Sorry folks, but this includes Hillary.

[Mojorabbit]

8. +100 nt