David Koch: "I'm a social liberal"

[Maxwell]

Also, from what I've read about the brothers' relationship, Charles is more of the evil genius figure, who hates anything that has to do with government, while David kinda just goes along.

why do you think there is an "evil genius figure" involved here?  They have a lot of money, and they give it to various interest groups.

Because they're not his interest groups.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Also, from what I've read about the brothers' relationship, Charles is more of the evil genius figure, who hates anything that has to do with government, while David kinda just goes along.

why do you think there is an "evil genius figure" involved here?  They have a lot of money, and they give it to various interest groups.

Because they're not his interest groups.

that should hardly explain the "genius" part.

[Miles]

^ I recommend you read Sons of Wichita.

Shua, why do you always defend the Kochs?

[Deus Naturae]

Social liberalism, in other words, properly refers to the whole of what we in the United States call liberalism, not just its views on a specific set of issues.

That's how it's generally used in Europe. But, that's not what anyone means when they use it in the context of American politics.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

^ I recommend you read Sons of Wichita.

Shua, why do you always defend the Kochs?

It's really more that I find the obsession so many have with them to tend toward an absurd and unhealthy narrative.

[DrScholl]

That doesn't really matter, since he spends money to influence economic policy, not social.

[IceSpear]

Also, from what I've read about the brothers' relationship, Charles is more of the evil genius figure, who hates anything that has to do with government, while David kinda just goes along.

why do you think there is an "evil genius figure" involved here?  They have a lot of money, and they give it to various interest groups.

Yes, that's clearly all they're doing. Not buying an entire political party and the politicians contained within. They're just like the blue collar worker contributing $20 to their local politician.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Also, from what I've read about the brothers' relationship, Charles is more of the evil genius figure, who hates anything that has to do with government, while David kinda just goes along.

why do you think there is an "evil genius figure" involved here?  They have a lot of money, and they give it to various interest groups.

Yes, that's clearly all they're doing. Not buying an entire political party and the politicians contained within. They're just like the blue collar worker contributing $20 to their local politician.

That's the sort of absurdity I was talking about. The Kochs accounted for about 1% of all political spending in 2012. Yes, that's more influence than someone contributing $20. No, that doesn't mean they own half of American politics.

[The_Doctor]

Never fear, the Koch Brothers are part of the glorious battle to reclaim America from the radical Left. So doesn't matter what they believe.

[ElectionsGuy]

As has been the case for a long time. Liberals are just mad that the Koch's fund conservative groups.

[Vega]

Actions speak louder than words.

[Rockefeller GOP]

The GOP depends upon a coalition of greedy b@stards who want to turn the American (and probably ultimately the world) economy into an engine of prosperity for themselves alone and people who do not care how miserable the world gets for themselves because God will bless them in the Afterlife for the suffering that God mandates for any who are to reach Heaven -- all others being damned to Hell. For the latter, 'non-biblical' beliefs of secularists and non-Christians condemn one to Hell as if one were a serial murderer.

That coalition works well enough because the two parts of it never meet each other. It's analogous to the Democratic coalition that lasted until the 1950s -- Southern racist agrarians who hated protectionist economic policies of the Republican Party and a combination of non-WASPs and blue-collar workers in the North. Once the Northern part of the Democratic Party found out what the Southern agrarians found out how nasty the Southern agrarians were toward blacks, the coalition fell apart.      

Yeah, Northern Democrats had no idea that the Southern members of their party were racist until the '60s.  For all the heat the GOP gets for the "Southern Strategy" (at least from a historical perspective), Democrats from the 1850s to the 1960s were a thousand times worse.

[IceSpear]

The GOP depends upon a coalition of greedy b@stards who want to turn the American (and probably ultimately the world) economy into an engine of prosperity for themselves alone and people who do not care how miserable the world gets for themselves because God will bless them in the Afterlife for the suffering that God mandates for any who are to reach Heaven -- all others being damned to Hell. For the latter, 'non-biblical' beliefs of secularists and non-Christians condemn one to Hell as if one were a serial murderer.

That coalition works well enough because the two parts of it never meet each other. It's analogous to the Democratic coalition that lasted until the 1950s -- Southern racist agrarians who hated protectionist economic policies of the Republican Party and a combination of non-WASPs and blue-collar workers in the North. Once the Northern part of the Democratic Party found out what the Southern agrarians found out how nasty the Southern agrarians were toward blacks, the coalition fell apart.      

Yeah, Northern Democrats had no idea that the Southern members of their party were racist until the '60s.  For all the heat the GOP gets for the "Southern Strategy" (at least from a historical perspective), Democrats from the 1850s to the 1960s were a thousand times worse.

Yup, you're probably right. But it's your problem now.

[Rockefeller GOP]

The GOP depends upon a coalition of greedy b@stards who want to turn the American (and probably ultimately the world) economy into an engine of prosperity for themselves alone and people who do not care how miserable the world gets for themselves because God will bless them in the Afterlife for the suffering that God mandates for any who are to reach Heaven -- all others being damned to Hell. For the latter, 'non-biblical' beliefs of secularists and non-Christians condemn one to Hell as if one were a serial murderer.

That coalition works well enough because the two parts of it never meet each other. It's analogous to the Democratic coalition that lasted until the 1950s -- Southern racist agrarians who hated protectionist economic policies of the Republican Party and a combination of non-WASPs and blue-collar workers in the North. Once the Northern part of the Democratic Party found out what the Southern agrarians found out how nasty the Southern agrarians were toward blacks, the coalition fell apart.      

Yeah, Northern Democrats had no idea that the Southern members of their party were racist until the '60s.  For all the heat the GOP gets for the "Southern Strategy" (at least from a historical perspective), Democrats from the 1850s to the 1960s were a thousand times worse.

Yup, you're probably right. But it's your problem now.

Fair enough.  But that fact should be consolation enough for Democrats, I don't get where the need to rewrite the history books to absolve the party of all past sins comes from.

[pbrower2a]

The GOP depends upon a coalition of greedy b@stards who want to turn the American (and probably ultimately the world) economy into an engine of prosperity for themselves alone and people who do not care how miserable the world gets for themselves because God will bless them in the Afterlife for the suffering that God mandates for any who are to reach Heaven -- all others being damned to Hell. For the latter, 'non-biblical' beliefs of secularists and non-Christians condemn one to Hell as if one were a serial murderer.

That coalition works well enough because the two parts of it never meet each other. It's analogous to the Democratic coalition that lasted until the 1950s -- Southern racist agrarians who hated protectionist economic policies of the Republican Party and a combination of non-WASPs and blue-collar workers in the North. Once the Northern part of the Democratic Party found out what the Southern agrarians found out how nasty the Southern agrarians were toward blacks, the coalition fell apart.      

Yeah, Northern Democrats had no idea that the Southern members of their party were racist until the '60s.  For all the heat the GOP gets for the "Southern Strategy" (at least from a historical perspective), Democrats from the 1850s to the 1960s were a thousand times worse.

Yup, you're probably right. But it's your problem now.

Fair enough.  But that fact should be consolation enough for Democrats, I don't get where the need to rewrite the history books to absolve the party of all past sins comes from.

Being right -- or having power. For the fanatic, being right is so important that basking in the self-generated rays of self-righteousness is enough. For the thug, power is everything even if it means the destruction of everything precious so long as one gets the broads, the booze, and the filthy lucre. For the rest of us we have to make compromises.