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Koch brothers deserve criticism they receive; Thomas M. Finch; Beaver County Times; October 28, 2015.
The BCT has published at least 40 letters from Mr. Finch since December 2004. At least 31 of these letters were anti-Bush and/or anti-Republican and they never disappoint. Here is one example. You can find the remaining Finch letters I critiqued in the critique archives. As usual, this letter is little more than a string of leftist talking points. I wish he could get a regular column in the BCT. I also wish he could get at least five minutes per day on a local radio and/or TV station. The most recent letter was “Last thing we need is more Tea-Publicans.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“Rita Gavert’s rant comparing the Democratic debate to a ‘Twilight Zone’ visit, and praising the Koch brothers, spurred my response.
“The Koch brothers deserve to be denigrated by every rational, clear-thinking, patriotic, American -- Democrat and Republican alike -- because of their attempts to subvert our ideals of a true representative democracy by spending billions of dollars to elect Republicans, smear Democrats, and buy whatever legislation is necessary to serve their own greed. They employ 60,000 people? How many of those jobs are union -- and pay a living wage?”
[RWC] You’ll note lefties never mention their own billionaire contributors like George Soros and Tom Steyer.
If you didn’t know before, you probably have guessed by now the Koch (pronounced “coke”) brothers are boogeymen to the left because they are wealthy and make their ideological/political contributions primarily to conservative and libertarian candidates and causes. If the Koch brothers contributed primarily to lefty candidates and causes, as do wealthy lefties like Peter Lewis (Progressive Insurance), George Soros (Wall Street hedge-fund manager), Tom Steyer (Wall Street hedge-fund manager), et al, they would be lefty heroes. For example, USW CEO Leo Gerard (a foreign national) once wrote of “Democratic benefactor George Soros.” The Kochs are primary owners (84%) and operators of Koch Industries ($115 billion in annual revenue and about 60,000 employees as of July 2013). Here’s a summary of charitable donations made by the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation. Lefties are so deranged about the Kochs they (1199 SEIU, New York State Nurses Association, NAACP …”) actually staged a protest (3/8/14) at the site of the future David H. Koch Center, a new ambulatory care center at New York – Presbyterian Hospital in NYC to which Mr. Koch donated $100 million! When the Kochs donated $25 million to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), lefties went even more nuts than usual. Some prominent leftists and leftist groups wanted the UNCF to return the donation, including AFSCME (a large public employee union) management who cut its ties with the UNCF and encouraged other leftist organizations to do the same.
“I’m sorry, but corporations are not people; and big money donations are not ‘free speech;’ and any politician who isn’t working to overturn the tragic Citizens United fiasco -- which includes all Republicans -- have no regard for the common good, or maintaining free and fair elections to preserve our democracy.”
[RWC] Mr. Finch failed to note labor unions also benefit from Citizens United. Citizens United v. FEC was about the ability of anyone (including groups of people) to take out their own ads, commercials, etc. expressing their position regarding candidates and issues. Sounds like a free-speech issue to me. As groups of people, the ruling applies to both corporations and labor union management. Direct contributions to federal candidates remain illegal for corporations and labor unions.
“Maybe one-party control by Republicans and their corporate ‘1-percenter’ partners suits Ms. Gavert; but you’ll never see me vote that way. At least the Democrats spoke about making things better. How can anyone argue against better health care and free college, if it helps people out? If it means more taxes on the rich, good -- let them pay it.”
[RWC] It’s cute how Mr. Finch thinks “1-percenters” are exclusively Republicans. No one is arguing against “better health care.” As for “free college,” seriously? There ain’t no free lunch, so who pays for “free” anything? Mr. Finch is a good lefty; he’s for “free stuff” as long as someone else pays for it.
“It’s ironic that a push is on to turn the county away from it’s [sic] Democratic heritage, labeling it as ‘corrupt;’ but Republican rule would be no panacea. Thomas Jefferson is rolling over in his grave at the very thought of it.
“As for the Republican debates, it was nothing but lies, bluster and Obama-bashing.”
[RWC] Given his letter-writing body of work, Mr. Finch should know.
© 2004-2015 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.