Why the Attacks on the Koch Brothers?
The simple answer is, pop your head up and you’re going to get hammered. The right has been going after international billionaire megalomanic and currency crasher George Soros, so the left had to find someone on the right to do the same to.
As usual, the left's aim is cockeyed...
The Koch brothers are not on the “right.” They are pro-gay rights, anti-drug war, anti-war, anti-Patriot Act libertarians. They’ve even gone so far as to fund suspect activities like the ACLU and ballet! For more information on these patriotic Americans, go here, and here. For a particularly funny and (and true) take on the lefty attacks, go read epistemicfail’s righteous rant. It will take you less than five minutes, you’ll learn something, and you’ll split your sides laughing.
The “Anonymous” attacks on the Koch’s belies the fact that these shadowy WikiLeaks confreres of the internet are not info-anarchists, but just lefty nihilists wanting to burn it all down, man.
American Left: Unhinged, Unbalanced, Unencumbered by Reality
The attacks on these men are not surprising. Modern-day progressivism is an incoherent, personality-based movement of various caliginous interests and agitation groups, loosely gathered, each to protect his or her own particular ideological or financial turf.
They shout “science!” and talk about free thinking, but demand we all bow down when Reverend Al Gore, International Church of Gaia, declares the earth will catch fire if we (not he) don’t all start driving electric cars and living in Gilligan’s Island huts. They demand we perform the very unscientific act of accepting their self-serving models and theories as dogma, lest they anathematize us as stupid hicks not worthy of even debating.
This is why the Koch's Threaten the Left:
Crony capitalism is much easier than competing in an open market. But it erodes our overall standard of living and stifles entrepreneurs by rewarding the politically favored rather than those who provide what consumers want. (Why Koch Industries is Speaking Out)The Koch brothers have become the latest villain in the progressive narrative
The most effective lefty attacks are those that point out that the Koch brothers fund conservative causes. Although they are libertarian, they’ve got to plant the flag somewhere, and conservatism holds the firmest, highest ground right now. Would these critics expect libertarians to make common cause with politically correct, doctrinaire progressives who cheer the growth of the state?
Conservatives are not such a bad fit, since they share the goal of rolling back the size of the federal government. Yes, Democrats share Koch values on gay marriage, but the left’s belief in the supremacy of the state blows the whole deal. No, conservatives are a better, but not perfect fit. They want to roll back government power and restore personal liberty. And by the way, states continue to decide the gay marriage question on their own, abortion is still legal, and more and more republicans are blowing on their burned fingers, vowing to avoid touching the hot stove of foreign intervention again.
Libertarianism is an existential threat to Progressivism
Going after the Koch’s is stabbing at the heart of the anti-government beast. Modern-day conservatism is hard to defend and wholly complicit in bringing about our current fiscal calamity; libertarianism is not. It has a cachet right now borne of it’s inherent logic. It resonates with our founding principles and it is just the jolt conservatism needed to shock it back into some semblance of logical coherence and consistency.
Libertarianism has contributed greatly to the intellectual ferment on the right. Paloecons battle neocons, with moderates preaching a middle way while fiscal conservatives call for a truce on moral issues. Many religious conservatives don’t like libertarians, but it’s all in play, which is why the conservative cause is attracting interest (and votes) from those in the middle. For this reason I say the right will continue to surge, and the left will continue it embarrassing shrivel.
The Koch Brothers' Agenda is Clear--The Left's is Not
We know what the Koch brothers stand for because they state it clearly in person and through the organizations they openly fund, like CATO and Reason. The Koch’s stand for liberty and personal responsibility. For this reason they oppose an ever more overweening state that leaves the US Constitution getting smaller and smaller in the rear view mirror.
What does Soros and the left want? What are their guiding principles? What is their end-game?
8 comments:
Well, I'm sorry that you can not seem to fathom positions of progressives such as Soros. If you just read up on it, you'll learn.
The reason the Left is critical of the Kock Brothers is their positions on the environment, taxation, the social compact and safety net, and such. One common feature of most of these positions is that they seem completely sefl-serving and not with the national interest at heart.
Unlike Soros, who does not steer the positions of the Left, but rather helps them along, the Koch Brothers seem to steer the Right, in particular the TEA Party movement, into positions that seem contrary to the interests of the moevment, billionaire oilman positions, quite pro-crony capitalistic, that seem antithetical to TEA Party beliefs.
This is laid bare by the way the Kochs initially denied any involvement with the TEA Parties, only to eventually be proven to be heavily involved. Unlike Soros, however, the Kochs were always operating behind the scenes, underground, so to speak, leaving an air of conspiracy rather than that of advocacy, begging the question, why?
Why? Because their positions are self-serving corporate crnyism at it's worst.
Only a sucker believes the Koch brothers care at all about America. They hate America, they hate the American people, they hate our government, they hate our constitution. These guys are sick scumbags.
JMJ
Stopped by to read the intelligent comments that get left here abouts.
I'll come back later just in case one pops up.
Jersey: If we'd wanted MSNBC/Daily Kook talking points, we'd have tuned in.
The Koch's have funded these organizations for years and it was all reported.
As for the rest of your comments, pure unwashed ignorance.
Coo Coo! Coo Coo!
we all know what Soros wants..tragically....Have a beautiful night my friend..:)
Gald I came back, three outta four works.
Exactly, WHT. We do know what Soros wants. What do the Kochs really want???
JMJ
The Koch's back conservative causes and they if they want to use their money to get conservatives in and Dumbo out that's good enough for me.
We do know what Soros wants that's why we don't like him medling:
Soros made a fortune by high-stakes gambles such as currency speculation in the world economy. In 1992, for example, he wagered $10 billion that by concerted attack he could devalue the British Pound. He won, pocketed at least $1.1 billion profit in a single day, and ever since has been called “the man who broke the Bank of England.”
This was an act of economic rape upon ordinary British working class savings accounts.
In the process of destroying the purchasing power of the British Pound, Soros dealt a political blow to the government of British Prime Minister John Major from which the Tory Party has yet to recover. This is the same kind of damage he hopes to inflict in 2004 on America’s Republican Party.
Businesspeople tend to admire Soros for his power and skill, wrote Andrew Leonard at Salon.com, and liberals tend to applaud his generosity to leftist causes. But what if it had been Osama bin Laden using financial machinations to break the Bank of England? Soros’ “life raises some troubling questions about the autonomy of capital in the era of globalization,” writes Leonard. “Make enough money, and you don’t have to obey anyone’s rules.”
Similar high-roller global financial machinations by Soros over the years have led to accusations that he caused the economic collapse in Asia in 1997 and, according to one anti-Semitic publication, the near-50 percent devaluation of the Russian Ruble in 1998.
Soros “was involved in the Mexican bailout with their President Ernesto Zedillo,” reported the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review last July, adding, “Most recently, Soros worked on the Euro, pushing the U.S. dollar down to a near all-time low.” Soros has, in other words, caused you to pay more for every imported product you buy.
Soros’ 1998 book The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Open Society Endangered called for more government controls to prevent abuses and shortsightedness by “amoral” multinational capitalists. In effect, Soros’ message was, “Stop me before I kill again!”
But he was not so sanguine in 2002, when a French court found him guilty of insider trading and fined Soros 2.2 million Euros (roughly $2 million). He told reporters he would appeal the verdict but as of yet has not, dismissing the court’s ruling as “a queer decision.” To this multi-billionaire, a $2 million fine is a trifle, a mere slap on the wrist.
Today Forbes Magazine ranks him the 28th richest person in the United States, with an estimated fortune worth $7 billion. This comes after Soros has given away an estimated $5 billion to causes ranging from the Solidarity Movement in Poland to Vaclav Havel’s dissident movement in Czechoslovakia and to Leftist groups in the United States (including the Democratic Party).
(When another eccentric named Ross Perot in 1992 bought his own political party and used it in a rumored secret scheme with Bill and Hillary Clinton to divide the vote and thereby conquer incumbent Republican President George H. W. Bush, Perot was only the 44th
Soros is not just a nominal capitalist made rich through Communist connections, as was Armand Hammer (who we now know delivered millions of dollars from Moscow to the Communist Party USA). Soros may dislike President Bush and American dominance in the world, but he generally prefers private institutions to government bureaucracies and favors local governments over the United Nations.
In his own eccentric way, Soros appears to be an opportunistic, misguided idealist whose warped, surrealistic childhood produced a warped view of society.
Yes I copied and pasteD but the rest of the article was too long.
Jersey:
Go read Cato and Reason. That's what the Koch brothers want, based upon where they put their money.
Now, where can I go to see what Soros wants?
Why don't you give us the shorthand version?
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