Meet the New Kochs: The DeVos Clan's Plan to Defund the Left

[handmade34]

Kids tend to bully with their mouths and fists," says one Republican lawmaker targeted by the DeVos family. "Billionaires tend to bully with their pocketbooks.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/devos-michigan-labor-politics-gop


"...THE DEVOSES sit alongside the Kochs, the Bradleys, and the Coorses as founding families of the modern conservative movement. Since 1970, DeVos family members have invested at least $200 million in a host of right-wing causes—think tanks, media outlets, political committees, evangelical outfits, and a string of advocacy groups. They have helped fund nearly every prominent Republican running for national office and underwritten a laundry list of conservative campaigns on issues ranging from charter schools and vouchers to anti-gay-marriage and anti-tax ballot measures. "There's not a Republican president or presidential candidate in the last 50 years who hasn't known the DeVoses," says Saul Anuzis, a former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.

Nowhere has the family made its presence felt as it has in Michigan, where it has given more than $44 million to the state party, GOP legislative committees, and Republican candidates since 1997. "It's been a generational commitment," Anuzis notes. "I can't start to even think of who would've filled the void without the DeVoses there."

The family fortune flows from 87-year-old Richard DeVos Sr. The son of poor Dutch immigrants, he cofounded the multilevel-marketing giant Amway with Jay Van Andel, a high school pal, in 1959. Five decades later, the company now sells $11 billion a year worth of cosmetics, vitamin supplements, kitchenware, air fresheners, and other household products. Amway has earned DeVos Sr. at least $6 billion; in 1991, he expanded his empire by buying the NBA's Orlando Magic. The Koch brothers can usually expect Richard and his wife, Helen, to attend their biannual donor meetings. He is a lifelong Christian conservative and crusader for free markets and small government, values he passed down to his four children..."

[Timez Squarez]

1. A new candidate for an IRS seizure

Guy probably hasn't paid taxes since 1950s.

Also a Bircher like the Koch Bros.

[PeoViejo]

2. One doesn't make 6 Billion and be a good 'Christian' at the same time.

The Philosophies run counter to each other.

[handmade34]

3. Ahhh

that is why "Prosperity Theology" was created... Joel Osteen would disagree with you


...that is what religion has become... just an excuse to justify errant behavior

[Brigid]

5. Nobody got that rich honestly.

Nobody.

[caraher]

6. And these are the worst of the worst

These are the Amway folks - a flat-out pyramid scheme and cult. They recruit suckers whose job is to recruit more suckers to sell overpriced crap:

The Amway “hook” is simple enough. You become a “distributor” for a low, low entry fee. This makes you a retail franchise. You sell Amway products for a profit, or you buy them for yourself. But if you want to make real money, you sign up other “distributors”. They’ll be your “downline”, and when they sell anything, you get paid a commission (they call it a “bonus”). Note that you can get commission on sales of both products and so-called “sales tools”, ie- the motivational books, videos, and audio tapes that constantly stream out of Amway and many of its top distributors.

I say "cult" because of a story a friend told me about the dark days when he was under Amway's spell. He knew it was time to get out when he was at an Amway convention and someone asked how to handle things when one's spouse isn't supportive of Amway activities. The reply was that they probably need to re-evaluate their marriage!

The DeVos crew are among the most unapologetically crooked and evil predators in the business world... it's only natural that they'd bankroll the Republicans!

[blkmusclmachine]

4. The DeVos' are mixed up w/Christian Dominionism (which would replace democracy w/theocracy), yes???

[starroute]

7. Defunding the left was invented by the Heritage Foundation in the 1980s

It's been behind much of the right-wing agenda ever since. Attacks on ACORN or labor unions or liberal university departments aren't just an expression of a hatred of liberals. They're part of a highly focused strategy to identify every place that money is available for progressive candidates or even progressive ideas and make that funding inaccessible.

[handmade34]

8. "highly focused strategy"

you bet and they are devious