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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"To Strike at Kochs, Democrats Revive Tactic That Hurt Romney"
To Strike at Kochs, Democrats Revive Tactic That Hurt RomneyBy JEREMY W. PETERS and CARL HULSE at the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/us/politics/to-hit-back-at-kochs-democrats-revive-tactic-that-hurt-romney.html?smid=re-share&_r=0
"SNIP.................
WASHINGTON After months of wincing in the face of negative ads funded by the industrialists David and Charles Koch, Democrats believe they have finally found a way to fight back: attacking the brothers sprawling business conglomerate as callous and indifferent to the lives of ordinary people while pursuing profit and power.
By drawing public attention to layoffs by subsidiaries of Koch Industries across the country a chemical plant in North Carolina, an oil refinery in Alaska, a lumber operation in Arkansas Democrats are seeking to make villains of the reclusive billionaires, whose political organizations have spent more than $30 million on ads so far to help Republicans win control of the Senate.
The approach should seem familiar. President Obama and his allies ran against Mitt Romney in 2012 by painting a dark picture of Bain Capital, the firm Mr. Romney founded, as a company that cut jobs and prized the bottom line over the well-being of its employees.
Senator Mark Begich, Democrat of Alaska, has called out the Kochs whose combined net worth is estimated to be $100 billion in his latest ads. In one, which features a picture of the brothers grinning, one of them wearing a tuxedo, Alaskans look directly into the camera and unload. They come into our town, buy our refinery, says one. Just running it into the ground, says another. A lot of Alaskans are losing jobs, and Im definitely concerned about the drinking water, says a young woman holding a baby.
................SNIP"
Voice for Peace
(13,141 posts)GOOD!!
Educate the public about them, what they're really up to, what havoc they wreak with their billions.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,308 posts)applegrove
(118,022 posts)that the 1%/Kochs are using their wealth to buy the country.
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)cyclezealot
(4,802 posts)Its OK for the Koch's to attack everyone else, but they are above reproach. Sen. Harry Reid is right to go on the attack. This is Democratic money wisely spent. They are the Democrat's main vilifier's. Cut them off at the knees or they win.
erronis
(14,955 posts)Aren't we being forced to play by their rules?
Your opponent is spending $xxx therefore you must spend $xxx+100, with us?
drm604
(16,230 posts)We have to respond to them.
erronis
(14,955 posts)1. Stop watching/patronizing any MSM that is in the pocket of political groups (and I think that should include democratic ones too.) We need objectivity.
2. Make a point of boycotting companies that are advertising in RW-oriented media.
3. Use the blogosphere, social media, emails as much as possible.
4. Wear your bumperstickers, t-shirts, placards proudly.
5. Write op-eds for inclusion in local papers. Even the biased local papers will frequently publish a contrarian piece if only to get their normal readers "involved".
6. Join one of the local walks for political reform:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_the_unstoppable_walk_to_political_reform
Now, I need to get off my ass reading/writing and do some of these!
Triana
(22,666 posts)applegrove
(118,022 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Eff that, frickin "tactics" .....
Idiot dumb downed media, False equivalence, disconnected from game strategies and real suffering caused by titans of greed......
Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)I kid, I kid.
I'm reminded of that great quote from Harry Truman: "I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they though it was hell."
And while Googling to get the quote right, I found what I'm sure is my second-favorite Harry Truman quote:
"Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day."
I have no clue what that means, but I like it...
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)How did you manage to see through my clever disguise?
and thank you for that lesser-known Harry Truman quote. LOL!!
demwing
(16,916 posts)no need to wander away from either word
KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)How soon they forget. But, of course, Corporations can forget things because....
randome
(34,845 posts)It should never have stopped.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)progressoid
(49,827 posts)Cirque du So-What
(25,812 posts)is that these thin-skinned bastids will continue whining about how they're being 'persecuted,' and the obedient lapdog corporate media will dutifully polly-parrot their every utterance to the public - unwitting allies in our effort to get everyone acquainted with the reprehensible Kochroaches, who are not very pretty in the light of day.
applegrove
(118,022 posts)has to cover the topic.
Cirque du So-What
(25,812 posts)as I expect talking heads to read straight from Koch-produced transcripts, and if they do that, it'll go over like a lead balloon with the public.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)onecaliberal
(32,489 posts)We need our own ads highlighting every last detail of the extent these anti American slime balls have gone to destroy our environment and economy all in the name of more money. Because 92 Billion isn't enough for these people. No amount will ever be enough.
Douglas Carpenter
(20,226 posts)rocktivity
(44,555 posts)they were his reality.
rocktivity
applegrove
(118,022 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)but they will.
mazzarro
(3,450 posts)gulliver
(13,142 posts)Might as well talk to the bosses, not their Republican work force.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)eShirl
(18,466 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)DesertDiamond
(1,616 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)mindwalker_i
(4,407 posts)Sounds just a little bit suggestive.
cprise
(8,445 posts)When politicians have to run against people who aren't even trying to get themselves on the ballot!!!
ShazzieB
(15,958 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)deutsey
(20,166 posts)As if this line of attack were some hidden mystery that the great brain trust in the Party have been diligently working to decipher, lo, these many years.
I've been wanting them to fight back this way since Reagan.
hue
(4,949 posts)Auggie
(31,067 posts)Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)We know all about the Kochs, but most people don't. They have to be told that these are the people financing all the other ads. And why.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)For $300,000--one time payment- I will tell them what to do..
Just for starters---
Tell the truth about corporate thieves and liars, about the stupid teapartiests who don't even know what the Boston "Teaparty" was about, and while they are at it prepare a defense of some sort for millionaire/billionaire Democrats giving money to Democrats.
Then don't run ads with the same old dumb 'this is a political ad' copy. make ads with human beings! Human beings who SOUND like human beings.
I mean, how hard can this be? A third grader could figure it out.
MaeScott
(878 posts)...keep it up, please
Blanks
(4,835 posts)Don't get me wrong, they're despicable - but I've seen clips of Glenn Beck go on and on about George Soros and he looks like an obsessed moron. Is that really how we want to look?
I get 6 or more emails a day from everyone from Al Franken to Harry Reid where they mention the Koch Brothers. I think it can be over done. They have come to represent the generic conservative contributor and I think its lazy to associate them with ALL the bad things that are going on. There are bound to be other conservative contributors that can be targeted and discussing specific Koch brothers ACTIONS can be pointed out as despicable - they don't have to be mentioned every time.
My concern (and I've already seen it) is that in the social media people will begin defending the Koch brothers and then all of this bluster will look like a Glenn Beck schtick. I'd rather see specific areas that they are poisoning highlighted and let the people defend the generic polluters. Constantly attacking the Koch brothers is putting all the eggs in one basket, and it's like a couple of people have pointed out - it isn't like Romney. Romney's problem was his complete lack of charisma and social skills.
The Koch brothers can simply donate a couple of million to feed the children and make that known and any gains by this smear campaign will evaporate almost instantly. I don't agree with the approach.
TBF
(31,922 posts)and if you want to save it you'd be very smart to destroy them.
I personally would rather get rid of capitalism itself but I sense many on this site think it can be reined in. If you believe that the only way to do it is to rein in the excess - and the Koch Bros. typify that excess.
YOU may be fatigued, but the average person on the street has no idea who they are. It's time to change that.
(If you'd like to discuss resistance - getting rid of capitalism - we discuss that to some degree in progressive socialists & on other websites)
Blanks
(4,835 posts)I recognize it, and have no problem with it. However, a lot of people have kind of a gag reflex toward the words socialism and communism. The tea party puppeteers use this 'gag reflex' as a way to lead people around by the nose.
The point that I try to get across is that it isn't REALLY capitalism that is so great, but competition in the marketplace that makes a good economic system. This is one of the reasons why Obamacare is good - because it forces competition in a marketplace where none existed. So the problem isn't socialism, but any economic system that allows markets with no competition. Which is what capitalism has become without the anti-trust laws that used to be so ubiquitous.
I understand that the Koch brothers are unknown to the person on the street, that's one of the reasons why I don't think an anti-Koch blitz will work. If awareness is raised about THEM then all they have to do is do a few good deeds and then point out those deeds - it'll probably break about 50-50 (pro-Koch vs anti-Koch). It is the bad deeds themselves that should be pointed out.
I posit that the Koch brothers are so opposed to Obamacare because they are polluting in areas where poor people have no health insurance (Kentucky for example) and with Medicaid expansion 'clusters' will emerge where they are polluting and making people sick. These poor sick people will have class action suits against the Koch brothers and environmental regulations that they are violating will be brought to light - so they will not only have the class action suits - they will have EPA fines, and mandatory clean-up expenses. This is just my guess (as to why they are so opposed to Obamacare). There's a limit to how much I can know sitting in my living room typing on my iPhone.
If I were a campaign guru - I would be out identifying those 'polluted' areas and tying them back to Koch brothers industries. Then at a time close to the mid-term election make a mad dash to tie the Koch brothers to these industries (and the republicans to the Koch brothers) so that they don't have time to slick up their image. As it is with the full court press against them - they have over six months to 'shape' their image.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Can't we go back to pretending they don't matter?
The Koch brothers are a target because of the vast attacks they are making against Democrats. Pretending those attacks don't matter is utterly moronic. The attacks have to be countered, and one of the best ways of countering in this situation is to show who is doing the attacking.
The Koch brothers are not at all appealing. So yes, we are going to have to talk about them. So that people don't just hear the Koch-funded ads talking about how Obamacare is going to kill us all.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)as I was just getting sick of the emails. I understand they need money, but getting pounded with up to 5 emails a day from the two lists alone is just fucking overkill. After dropping those two the volume of emails I get has been cut significantly. Some of the emails like petitions and other stuff I wouldn't mind still getting. I've contributed in the past to both as well as a lot to the campaign for Obama.
sheshe2
(83,355 posts)whathehell
(28,969 posts)on Morning Joke.
Schumer may be a blue dog, but he's a pro.
TBF
(31,922 posts)ProSense
(116,464 posts)playing a big part.
Charles Koch whines in WSJ op-ed
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024774266
bluemarkers
(536 posts)first, I'm so glad I don't watch a lot of TV, but when I do it's full of negative ads about Obamacare funded by the Kochs.
second, the ads that are running against Thom "where did I go to school" Tillis links him directly to the Kochs
third, I'm already tired of the political ads! It's freaking April
Sadly, I had a conversation with a young kid who works at Target. He said something to the effect that the Koch's have more to lose so they should have more influence.... omg. I tried to explain that with their wealth they will never loose, That working people will continue to lose (minimum wage, medical care, retirement etc) if they continue to influence - don't know if I made my point but that's the point that needs to be made. This was before the SCOTOS ruling.
CanonRay
(14,038 posts)What, are the Koch bros going to get mad at us?
they could withhold all their toilet paper ..
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)I wonder why they are this century's Washington Generals?
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)SomethingFishy
(4,876 posts)If this is what they consider making progress, you know, using common sense, then we are in worse shape than I thought.
BumRushDaShow
(127,322 posts)Sarah Ibarruri
(21,043 posts)Veilex
(1,555 posts)You can't make the Koch brothers into villains... they've already done it.
They ARE villains. Or at the very least villainous.
They've done enormous amounts of damage to our country.
Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)WHEN CRABS ROAR
(3,813 posts)Cha
(295,929 posts)B Calm
(28,762 posts)alfredo
(60,065 posts)Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)that Romney's problem is that he is Mitt Romney. The man is so wooden, I'm pretty sure he pisses sawdust.