We know for certain that the Koch Family and affiliated networks had already poured a total of over $400 million into various Right Wing candidates’ campaigns as early as 2013. The volume has not let up, but, in fact, after Citizens’ United said that people giving to some campaign PACs could contribute anonymously in basically unlimited amounts, the totals have skyrocketed. And this is all because of people like the other billionaire members of the Koch Network, who will spend any amount to have their taxes reduced or forego the payment of fines for polluting your air and water.
Of course, they didn’t stop there. We have very good evidence that the Koch Network pours even more money in, but as it is “dark money” it is not traceable through normal financial channels. But we know many of the members of the Koch Network. They include people like Richard DeVos, Amway co-founder and spouse of Trump’s Secretary of Education Betsey DeVos, hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, Philip Anschutz, owner of the conservative Examiner newspapers, hedge fund manager, Robert Mercer, and funds, like the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the John M Olin Foundation and the Coors Family’s Castle Rock Foundation.
There are hundreds of such members in the Koch Network, which meets twice yearly to report on their successes in corrupting state politicians. People like hedge fund manager, Paul Singer; and Philip Anschutz, owner of the conservative Examiner newspapers, and others, like Sheldon Adelson, worth $29 billion, owner of casinos. Foster Friess, $500 million, from mutual funds. Woody Johnson, $2 billion, investor, owner of NY Jets NFL football. Ken Langone, $2.7 billion, co-founder, Home Depot. And there are many more. .
And what are the issues of Right Wing billionaires? They are not complicated. 1. Reduce taxes. 2. Reduce the size of government. 3 End all gun restrictions. 4. End Social Security. 5. Eliminate unions. 5. Reduce the number of people who are eligible to vote. 6. End environmental protections. 7. End Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act. 8. Reduce illegal immigration. 9. Eliminate abortion. 10. Increase the military budget.
These are uncomplicated issues. Billionaires want to pay virtually no taxes in a country that is totally safe, sells them private health insurance that covers everything at a reasonable cost for them, does not bother about them after they retire, and maintains order throughout society. In other words, billionaires.want to live in a society made up almost of only corporations, hospitals and prisons, with good roads and bridges and airports. Corporations will take care of everyone by providing jobs, offering insurance to cover other needs, and having a small government merely to lock people up or maintain the roads. The only problem: they will only do so on their terms.
Soon, the Republican Party, under Mitch McConnell, will violate every rule of fairness, good common sense, justice and respect for government. Again, Mitch McConnell will prove that he is a Fascist. In other words, he will do anything to stay in power and control government. He will bend rules and break rules in order to cater to his constituency. That is not the people of Kentucky. It is the Corporations of the United states. Just as in the Europe of the early 1930s, McConnell and his “Tea Party” (Fascists) do not care about senior citizens. They have a plan in the upcoming budget, should they be elected, to do away with some parts of our health care system, about a trillion dollars worth—various combinations to cuts in Medicaid, Medicare and even cuts to the least able to defend themselves…the disabled trying to get Social Security just to stay alive.
McConnell, though he held up a Supreme Court appointment for one entire year under the Obama Administration, will now try to rush through another Supreme Court appointment after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. In just weeks, rather than waiting for the upcoming election, he will try to jam through another appointment of a Right Wing Fascist judge. And by “Fascist” we mean someone who will be a candidate for only one reason—because he or she will follow the party line. Only a candidate who will do exactly as ordered, as Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh have done, will even be considered.
It isn’t merely the Supreme Courrt. McConnell has “packed” the Federal judicial system with judges who are not only totally Right Wing—do whatever corporations tell them, whatever the NRA wants, whatever Christian Fundamentalist religious leaders want—but are also often totally underqualified for their positions. In some cases they have been appointed even though the American Bar Association has given them a rating of “unqualified.”
When a society loses a justice system with fairness and equality, only death and destruction follow. It happened in Nazi Germany. Then it happened again, in Brazil, Argentina and Chile. These people, if not stopped by the vote, will only be stopped by the gun, with at least tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands dead.
Make no mistake, these people are bullies. If you do not stop them now, with your dollars and your vote, they will be stopped only by courageous people who will die for their faith in Democracy.
We need to win the propaganda war. You have heard how the odds are overwhelmingly in the hands of the rich, with the money to buy television ads and people to get out the vote. If you do not win now—and there is likely nothing you can do any time soon to win back the Supreme Court which is the final political authority in this county. It is almost certain to fall into the hands of Right Wing billionaires, the top ½ of one percent. They will decide some things, like abortion and gun control—for now. Later, the decisions may be whether you deserve Social Security, or even if a health insurance company can deny you care even if you have paid all your premiums.
Bernie Sanders proved that millions of people, donating small amounts, can raise the money needed to win the propaganda wars. And he also proved that an aroused public will go out and vote in a majority in the House of Representatives. This time we need the Senate as well. We are at a crossroads. Either we will vote for honesty, intelligence, fairness and action in the face of insurmountable problems—or we will not. Let’s hope that we all have the courage and the initiative as Americans to save this Democracy.