In 1st Statement Since “Prank” Call, Defiant Koch Bros Vow to ‘Continue the Fight’ in Wisconsin
In their first published remarks since a prank caller tricked Gov. Scott Walker into thinking he was speaking with big-bucks backer David Koch himself, Koch executives said that that hoax and nearly two weeks of Madison protests have only strengthened the Koch brothers’ determination to continue to use their billions to promote a national agenda that includes gutting the power of unions and deregulating industry.
Their statements in a Thursday night story by Robert Costa of the National Review Online, itself a bastion of conservatism, were defiant.
“With the Left trying to intimidate the Koch brothers to back off of their support for freedom and signaling to others that this is what happens if you oppose the administration and its allies, we have no choice but to continue to fight,” says Richard Fink, the executive vice president of Koch Industries. “We will not step back at all.”
Got that, they’re not backing off from their “support for freedom.” That would be a good thing, if their definition of that word weren’t completely perverse.
Here are a couple of graphs from the first chapter of my book:
Dig a little deeper, and it becomes clear that “freedom” for the Right offers most of us anything but. It’s the freedom for companies to screw their workers, pollute, and otherwise operate free of any meaningful regulations to protect the public interest. It’s about the wealthiest among us being free from the burden of paying a fair share of the taxes that help finance a smoothly functioning society.
The flip side, of course, is that programs that assure working Americans a decent existence are painted as a form of tyranny approaching fascism. The reality is that they impinge only on our God-given right to live without a secure social safety net. It’s the freedom to go bankrupt if you can’t afford to treat an illness; the liberty to spend your Golden Years eating cat food if you couldn’t sock away enough for a decent retirement.
Cross-posted elsewhere, to share the love.
Joshua Holland
I write for AlterNet. I've written a book, The 15 Biggest Lies About the Economy, which I recommend. You might also consider following me on Twitter.
Recent Comments
- Kucuka.net on Intellectual Property is a bad thing.
- evgeniy levchenko datums aangemeld on Debt slavery is a natural consequence of unregulated capitalism
- best career counselor on What will it take to address the climate emergency
- hyip on Debt slavery is a natural consequence of unregulated capitalism
- Tony Williams on Debt slavery is a natural consequence of unregulated capitalism
Blogroll
- 4dancers
- Aaron Krager
- Amygdala
- Autonomy for All
- Away Point
- Blue Jersey
- Bluemars
- Brad Blog
- Campaign for America's Future
- Cassandra Files
- Clear It with Sidney
- Cogitamus
- Crooks and Liars
- Cucking Stool
- Daily Show with Jon Stewart
- Dirty Hippie Sports Talk
- Disaffected and It Feels So Good
- Dispatches from the Culture Wars
- Dork with a Nerd Rising
- Eastern Sunz
- Florida Progressive Coalition
- Focal Points
- FOK News Channel
- Frederick Clarkson
- Frustrated Teacher
- Greatscat!
- HandPicked Nation
- Jazz from Hell
- jazz89 KUVO Public Radio
- Kenneth J. Bernstein
- La Bloga
- Lee Camp
- Litbrit
- Live Free or Die Alliance
- Live from the Left Coast
- MarioWire
- Media Matters
- Merge Left
- Mind Potion Radio
- MPA Political
- New York Communities for Change
- Nuclear Diner
- Political Carnival
- Progressive Leadership Action Network
- Progressive PST
- Radio or Not
- Republic Report
- Scholar as Citizen
- Scholars and Rogues
- Seeing the Forest
- Smirking Chimp
- Smoking Politics
- SomaFM
- Somos Tejanos
- Speak Out California
- Spedwybabs
- Spocko's Brain
- Stark Reports
- StarTalk
- Suburban Guerilla
- Symphony of Science
- Talk to Action
- thereisnospoon
- Today's Workplace
- Truth Vigilante
- Waking from the American Dream
- Worldwide Hippies
- WTF Is It Now?!?
- Error: Could not open handle for fopen() to http://heyhippies.tumblr.com/api/read?num=2
Category Cloud
Activism Americans Barack Obama Blogging Budget Bush II Administration Business Capitalism Class Warfare Congress Conservatives Corporatism Corruption Democracy Democrats Dirty Hippies Economy Education Elections Extremism Government Greed Health Care Jobs Journalism labor Media messaging Obama Administration Politics Progressives Religious Right Reproductive Rights Republicans Satire Social Security Taxation Tea Party Uncategorized Unions US Politics Violence Wall Street Wealth Wisconsin