Paul Krugman- Things Go Better With Kochs
Hey, I had to use that headline before someone else claimed it.
David Weigel reports that Democrats are finding the Koch brothers an effective fundraising tool — emails that bash the Kochs raise three times as much as emails that don’t.
And you can see why: the Kochs are perfect villains. It’s not just what they are — serious evildoers who use their wealth to push hard-line right-wing, anti-environmental policies that redound very much to their own benefit. It’s also what they aren’t: they’re wealthy heirs, not self-made men, they aren’t identified with innovation (which you can at least argue for Bill Gates), they haven’t made money for other people like Warren Buffett. So focusing on the Kochs is a way to personalize a vision of conservative politics as a defense of people with unearned privilege.
And here’s the thing: that vision is basically right. Very few of the superrich are movie stars, even if the usual suspects love to pretend otherwise. Not many are innovators. A fair number are self-made wheeler-dealers, but a growing number probably were born to great wealth.
In effect, Koch-bashing is a way of making Piketty personal and concrete. It’s the real thing.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/things-go-better-with-kochs/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
This is why there is so much panic in the RW media about this. For example:
Whining about the Koch brothers is a losing strategy
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/national-interest/65971-whining-about-the-koch-brothers-is-a-losing-strategy
We’re supposed to believe the Kochs are evil but leftist billionaires are disinterested givers?
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/373927/medias-democratic-donor-delusions-matthew-continetti
Kochs Add Life
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/373959/kochs-add-life-deroy-murdock
Democrats Are Addicted to Koch
http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/democrats-are-addicted-to-koch-20140313
and so on. The more they squeal, the more we should press this.
