By Nancy Thorner –
Is it right for billionaires, whether Democrats or Republicans, to have so much clout and influence over individuals and organizations within their respective political parties?
The Koch Brothers come to mind as big donors for Republican and Libertarian organizations and individuals, while Soros and the 200 organizations he funds are part of a force which is dead set on trying to destroy the Trump presidency.
But are the Koch Brothers really guilty of debasing the political system? In accessing the situation, it all depends on which side of an issue an individual supports in any given situation.
Accusations of Debasing Political System
Jane Mayer is a writer for New Yorker magazine who specializes in long-form investigative journalism. In her book, Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires behind the Rise of the Radical Right, Mayer sets out to build a case that U.S. democracy has been systematically undermined by a small group of extremely wealthy men who are driven by greed and self-interest, effectively subjecting politics to corporate capture.
Central to Mayer's examination are the lives and careers of Charles and David Koch, who Mayer claims are debasing the political system with the scale and scope of their influence by pushing their political agenda. Mayer described how Charles Koch, even more so than his brother, David Koch, as an ideological who believe in some of the most hard-line libertarian philosophy that you can come across in American politics. further claiming that who wants the Republican Party to go where he is.
By inferring that the Koch Brothers are alone responsible for debasing the political system, Mayer's book can rightly be construed as a partisan, political hack job. After all, it was billionaire, Socialist George Soros on the Left who orchestrated the election of President Obama and then proceeded to advance his policies through his front groups.
In her book, Mayer points out that the Koch Brothers have been playing a very long game. It started four decades ago with a plan to change how America thinks and votes. So while some elections they win and some elections they lose, what they're aiming at is changing the conversation in the country.
Mayer's narrative starts with Fred Koch, the family patriarch. Continue reading the main story
As to the influence of the Koch Brother's network — the same is true on the Left — Mayer described it accordingly:
It goes through a network of groups, organizations, mostly nonprofit groups. But it encompasses both charitable groups and more political groups. The charitable groups create position papers. The political groups mobilize voters and advocate for positions. And the even more political groups back candidates. And so the largest of these groups is something called Americans for Prosperity, which is the Kochs' main political advocacy group now. And by now, it's become a rival power center to the Republican Party in size.
It's a full-service operation. It's a pipeline that runs from universities and colleges, where they recruit kids. They've got programs now in somewhere between 200 and 300 universities and colleges. It goes from there to state think tanks in every state in America. It's Koch Industries itself, which is a tremendous company with $115 billion of revenues which lobbies members of Congress to push its point of view. And then it's all these dark money organizations. So they all kind of working in concert and create a phenomenal machine.
Top priorities of Koch Brothers
1. Push the Convention of States (Article V ConCon).
2. Oppose global warming legislation and regulations.
3. Support "dark money" (secret financing, without limits, of organizations to influence policy and elections).
4. Support criminal justice "reform" (reduced sentences and greater employability as low-wage workers).
5. Oppose pro-life and much of social conservatism, but behind-the scenes.
6. Support globalism and more immigration of low-wage workers (from which the Koch Industries profits).
7. Vehemently oppose increasing the minimum wage.
Given the results of the November, 2016 election, it is evident that the influence of the Koch Brothers and their well-orchestrated resistance against Trump failed. Charles Koch, in speaking to donors who give more than $100,000 a year to political and policy groups backed by the Koch Brothers, warned that the US was facing a moment of “tremendous danger” without any mention of Mr Trump by name. This statement was made by the Koch brothers' top lawyer in speaking for them, 'If we can’t get comfortable with the policies that are in place, then we’re not going to support them." There was opposition to Trump's travel bans. Also questioned was Trump's skepticism of free-trade policies.
Koch Involvement in Trump's Tax Plan
But what could be interpreted as a reversal by Charles Koch and major financial support for President Trump was reported in USA Today on May 18, 2017. The report indicated that Charles Koch is launching a multimillion-dollar campaign to drive Trump's tax plan through Congress. A top official in Koch's Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, James Davis, although he would not disclose the specific amount, said the campaign, expected to last into the fall, would include advertising and mobilizing grassroots activists.
On the other hand, the Koch brothers were at odds over the March, 2017, U.S. House healthcare reform bill. While Trump and House leaders rounded up support for the bill ahead of the vote (the bill was pulled on March 24), groups threatened retaliation against those who did support the bill as not being conservative enough. Groups included the Club for Growth, the Heritage Foundation's political arm, and Americans for Prosperity. Of note is that all three organizations are part of the expansive political pressure network established by the Koch brothers. The Koch Brothers are major donors to The Heritage Foundation.
Koch Brothers and ConCon
Of all the many activities and causes that the billionaire Koch Brothers are influencing through their money, an orchestrated push for the Convention of States (Article ConCon) heads all else. The Koch network is the vast array of organizations that are under the control or influence of the Koch Brothers.
KochPAC is the political action committee funded by the Koch brothers, Charles and David, which contributes money to state legislators who support the ConCon. KochPAC donated heavily to Texas state candidates for the 2016 election, so much so that the media called Texas the "Koch Star State" rather than the "Lone Star State."
The American people have never exercised their legally enshrined right to convene a new Constitutional convention, despite an effort started in 2010 to convene a new one. Although proponents of a Constitutional convention call the effort a success, pro-business groups with ties to the Koch brothers, having pushed Constitutional convention (ConCon) legislation in more than 30 states, have only convinced 12 states to enact bills calling for a convention (Missouri has a sunset provision) that would create a more overbearing federal.
According to Article V of the Constitution, just two thirds (34) of the 50 state legislatures need to call for a convention for the purposes of “proposing constitutional amendments” (no governor’s signature is required). Those amendments would then need to be ratified by three quarters of the states, currently 38, to become law. But beyond those very basic requirements, nobody knows what the rules for a convention would be, since one hasn’t occurred since the original in 1787. That single instance, Constitutional law experts warn, provides a harrowing precedent: Delegates tore up the Articles of Confederation they had convened to improve, and produced a whole new governing document.
Proponents of ConCon say that Congress is incapable of reining in a nearly $20 trillion national debt; opponents believe that the Article V convention would create taxpayer-funded abortion, eliminate the Second Amendment, eliminate the Electoral College, and advance globalist goals such as repealing the Treaty Clause that requires 2/3rds consent by the Senate.
DeMint Joins Push for Article V Convention (ConCon)
One of the two main groups pushing an Article V convention is the Convention of States, a project by Citizens for Self-Government, a nonprofit that doesn’t disclose its donors, but has a variety of connections to David and Charles Koch.
The Convention of the States was co-founded by Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots (aligned with the pro-Constitutional movement), and is chaired by Eric O’Keefe, veteran political operative and longtime Koch brothers ally who worked on David Koch’s 1980 presidential campaign, chaired the now-defunct Sam Adams Alliance, which trained tea party activists, co-founded the Campaign for Primary Accountability, a super PAC that supported primary challenges to incumbent lawmakers of both parties, and directs the Wisconsin Club For Growth.
Announced on Monday, June 19, is that former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, who was one of the first elected officials to embrace the Tea Party movement and was recently ousted as the head of the Heritage Foundation, had joined the Convention of the States. DeMint was making millions as president of Heritage until a secretly arranged takeover forced him out and gave him a generous severance package. Part of his severance package may have required him to promote ConCon, or he may have simply signed up with COS afterwards to make more big money. Either way, DeMint's alignment with ConCon, and that of Mark Meckler who co-founded the Tea Party Patriots, is a sell-out of the conservative movement, the Tea Party, and our country.
Constitutional Convention (Con Con) as a Threat
David Super, a law professor at Georgetown Law, told IBT that Con Con is a very real threat. Super warned how there is nothing in the Constitution that provides for a limited purpose convention. Instead, there is precedent, as convention proponents have argued, that suggests officials selected by the states become federal officials once they take office, and can’t be recalled by the states if they deviate from their stated objective, as convention proponents have argued. Additionally, the Supreme Court has largely established that it rules within the confines of the Constitution, so a convention would be outside of its jurisdiction. A convention could therefore be subject to a flood of special interest money, with no rule stating that the Constitution would have to be open to the public.
But is the requirement a meaningful one that 38 states ratify the proposed amendments? If an Article V convention is convened, then states will automatically ratify whatever it produces, just as many state legislatures passed the 17th Amendment unanimously due to the media pressure.
It has been argued that pushing for a ConCon would have a positive effect on Congress, such as when a call was made in the 1970s and '80s for a convention to enact a balanced budget amendment, which was then credited with spurring Congress to act to reduce the deficit. To the contrary, Congress did not balance the budget. It benefited from the "dot com" economic boom in the late 1990's but did nothing meaningful to cut spending and balance the budget, despite how close ConCon came to passing in the 1980s.
In regard to the billionaire Koch Brothers and others who are pushing for ConCon, are they not confident that Trump will react in a similar way by taking measures to reduce the deficit, or might there be personal motives, such as re-writing the Constitution in ways that benefit their interests?
One thing is for sure, our Constitution should not be for sale.
