The Koch brothers’ impact on the American political system

The Koch brothers’ impact on the American political system

By Tom Hamburger at Salon

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-koch-brothers-impact-on-the-american-political-system/2016/01/15/6a3694aa-b579-11e5-9388-466021d971de_story.html

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Mayer’s final chapter, “Selling the New Koch: A Better Battle Plan,” describes the Kochs’ campaign to pursue their political goals while softening their tough reputation, a lesson she believes Charles Koch learned from his studies of the John Birch Society, of which his father was a founding member. Recently, the company has run nationwide advertising aimed at letting the public know that Koch’s diverse employees appreciate working for the growing, highly successful conglomerate. The Kochs also recently formed a very public alliance with the United Negro College Fund, a move that accompanied a bipartisan push to reform criminal sentencing guidelines. The changes would help imprisoned minorities but could also provide relief to corporate executives who face criminal charges.

Many reporters, including those at The Washington Post, have written about the Kochs’ massive network of nonprofit organizations that permit donors, both corporate and individual, to contribute money secretly to influence not only politics but American education. Discussing programs aligned with the Koch-funded organizations in 238 colleges and universities across the country, Mayer notes that these programs, among other things, recruit students to work on campaigns while seeking to eliminate liberal bias from instruction at the college and even the high school level. In Topeka, Kan., a Koch-backed group provides online education to public school students, lessons that contend Franklin Roosevelt didn’t alleviate the Depression and that government, rather than business, caused the 2008 recession.

Mayer repeatedly argues that the Kochs’ political ambitions are entwined with the family’s narrow personal interests, even as she quotes Charles Koch dismissing the idea as “ludicrous” in a recent interview in USA Today.

She ends the book with a quote attributed to Charles as a boy. “When called upon to split a treat with others he would say with a wise-guy grin, ‘I just want my fair share — which is all of it.’?”



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