Koch is a name that has dominated the business world for decades but who are they and why do they matter?
Fred Koch, the patriarch of this dynasty became integral in helping the Soviet Union develop oil-processing plants. While working with Stalin, Fred developed a fierce ultra conservative ideology and went on to instill that in each of his four sons. The intensely taciturn family had a public legal battle over control of the company for almost two decades. Now, two of the four sons have disassociated themselves from the rest of the family and their involvement in the political arena. When talking about the Koch’s and their role in American politics people are most often referring to Charles and David.
So what do they mean for American Politics? Well, the Koch’s are now the owners of one of the world’s largest fortunes, having a $1.96 billion net worth as of 2015. They have decided that a huge portion of their wealth will go into conservative PACs and super PACS. For those of you unfamiliar with what those are, we will start with what a PAC is. A PAC is a political action committee. They raise and spend money to elect (and defeat) candidates. They are capped at donating $5,000 per candidate per election. The government monitors these pretty heavily.
A super PAC on the other hand is forbidden from any kind of direct ties to a candidate or party. They are however allowed to run ads, send mail etc.…. and, wait for it- have no caps on their spending. Example, a super PAC could run an anti abortion commercial which is in accordance with the republican parties stance on pro-life however it can be no way linked to the party as a whole. And that ad has an unlimited budget. Super PAC’s were made possible by; you guessed it the Koch’s, in a 2010 case known as Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. This case forever changed the way elections are run in America because the Supreme Court ruled that it is okay for labor unions as well as corporations to spend as much as they want influencing voters towards or against candidates.
Fast forward to modern day, the Koch brothers now own and operate several extremely influential PACs. About a year ago, Koch’s corporation Freedom Partners started their first super PAC. It has a budget of $25 million. $4 million of which was funded by the Koch’s themselves, the rest was provided by personnel of like status and ideology. Freedom Partner is now the group inherently linked to the term “dark money.” Dark money describes the unregulated copious funding from corporations, individual citizens and unions. According to Open Secrets, in 2006 undisclosed donors donated around $5 million. In 2012, for the presidential election that number jumped to over $300 million.
Recently, Koch invited potential donors, presumably all with like ideology to a weekend getaway. There they undoubtedly discussed and debated issues and strategies to ensure the GOP will not face a third consecutive presidential loss. According to the NY Times “these donors represent the largest concentration of political money outside the party establishment, one that has achieved enormous power in Republican circles in recent years.”
The Koch family has established a budget of $889 million to spend on this election. Let that amount sink in. That amount rivals the spending both the Republican and Democratic Party. They have plans to spend close to $900 million to aid a campaign. God forbid they use that money to help world hunger, the refugee problem, homelessness, or the zika virus.
Now, I believe whole-heartedly that it is their money and they should have the freedom to do what they want with it. I simply am wondering how people with so many resources could be so narrow sighted and selfish in their usage of said funds. Aside from the blatantly obvious fact that this is the clearest example of the elite dictating politics, it is even more disheartening to look at all the poverty in the world and think how many people this money could have helped. This also raises the question, at what point, if ever will there be a cap on election spending? The courts have already ruled that putting restrictions on that is putting restrictions on free speech but at what point is it too much? At what point do we look at that and say we are wasting valuable resources for column inches in newspapers that will wind up in trashcans and on airtime, which will be muted? At what point do we look at the fact that 1 in 5 children in America is hungry and we are throwing ghastly amounts of money at advertising when we should be using it to ensure that a child never dies again from hunger.
The Koch dynasty has a unique opportunity, they are arguably the most powerful people in America- lets hope they use that for good.
