Overwhelming evidence, Koch Network, GOP Extremism - 2016

Both of these authors and their work have been mentioned in these pages already.  Here I’ve copied and pasted their References for this study simply because I found them impressive and I figured they're a good indication of the amount of evidence that has been accumulated and that supports the claims made.  Quite the collection, check it out.  I've placed their abstract at the end of the references.

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The Koch Network and Republican Party Extremism

Theda Skocpol and Alexander Hertel-Fernandez

September 2016, Volume 14, Issue 3 pp. 681-699

Published online: 31 August 2016

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/the-koch-network-and-republican-party-extremism/035F3D872B0CE930AF02D7706DF46EEE

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References

Allen Mike and Vandehei Jim. 2013. “The Koch Brothers’ Secret Bank.” Politico, September 11. Google Scholar

Allen Mike and Vogel Kenneth P.. 2014. “Inside the Koch Data Mine.” Politico, December 8. Google Scholar

Americans for Prosperity. 2013. “Americans for Prosperity 2012 Annual Report.” Arlington, VA: Americans for Prosperity. Google Scholar

Making Sense of the Koch Network - Skocpol - 2016

In working through another short video, I'm again overwhelmed at the amount of frightening information out there.  Information that tells us plenty about Koch, et al. and their long term intentions.  Keep in mind, they are a couple decades into this hostile takeover effort. Historically, we truly are in the final innings of their political assault.  

With those dudes way ahead, along with their increasingly unfair advantages, along with their absolutist's ruthlessness to drive this thing home.  Our healthy Democracy's future demands an invigorated, enlightened, and engaged electorate like never before.

We Democrats and our Party of Complacency continue avoiding this evidence at our own peril.  Of course, I'm easy to dismiss, who am I but a bystander?  That's why I'm sharing all those articles and such.  Because they clearly add up - and they rationally explain why I live with this increasing sense of terror towards our future and what's happening in my own country.  Here I will be reposting, with permission, Theda Skocpol's Scholars Strategy Network's summary of the Koch Network and I encourage you to check out their website.

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Making Sense of the Koch Network

Theda Skocpol, Harvard University, www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org

In recent years, two multibillionaire brothers, David and Charles Koch, have become major players on the political right, inspiring journalists and public interest researchers to comb through publicly recorded donations to depict a vast Koch network – as, for example, in the widely distributed “Maze of Money” chart created by OpenSecrets for the 2012 election cycle. In the current legal environment donations are often secret, so this approach necessarily misses money flows. Ironically, it also includes too many groups, ranging from longstanding conservative giants that get modest Koch donations to short-term fronts set up to write checks for attack ads.

An Evolving Political Strategy

¶ Five Myths About the Koch Brothers - Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, Theda Skocpol - 2016

and Why It Matters To Set Them Straight

I've had a few more days to continue my crash course into Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers and "Libertarian" ideology in general.  The convoluted logic and the ruthless efforts I'm learning about get overwhelming.  Thankfully I have my Maddy dog who makes sure I get out for good long walks regularly, which helps clear my head and allows me to breath some fresh air and regroup.  

Why do I think this is so important to discuss and share?  Because liberalism, or more accurately, enlightened-self-interest, our democratic process of learning from and considering each other, and compromise - understanding critical thinking skills and the scientific process for assessing the world around us - all this is under existential threat.  

We have this group of faithful people who genuinely believe they have a personal reciprocal relationship with God (a Being billions of years old and encompassing the universe) and who now want to totally crush the Children of the Intellectual Enlightenment and our pluralistic society.

When all the layers are scraped away that's what I'm coming down to, this huge group of people who have convinced themselves that their own goals are God's own goals.  Think about this.

To believe that your personal goals are those of the God of Light and Time, Life and Love!  That is what's going on here!  Yet, the Bible warns us, God is beyond human understanding.  Yet, we have leaders marching around proclaiming they are doing God's Will and all who oppose them are damnable enemies deserving no quarter.

Self-certitude and absolutism, that leads right into totalitarianism and I understand too much history to delude myself into presuming it could never happen here.  It's happened in plenty of equally unlikely places before.  Particularly when few care to, or dare to, think about it, let alone talk about it.  A healthy Democracy demands an informed and engaged electorate.    

Well, that intro went way longer than expected, but than, this exercise is about wrestling with this information and ideas and seeing where they take me.

Okay, for the main feature, this addition to my Americans for Koch's Prosperity Collection is the product of two scholars who's investigations enabled them to share some important background information most have overlooked, important details worth thinking about if you're trying to understand what's happening today.  It does have a long history.

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Five Myths About the Koch Brothers — And Why It Matters To Set Them Straight

Democratic reformers need to know exactly what they are up against — now and likely for years to come.

BY ALEXANDER HERTEL-FERNANDEZ AND THEDA SKOCPOL | MARCH 10, 2016

http://billmoyers.com/story/five-myths-about-the-koch-network-and-why-it-matters-to-set-them-straight/

{Here again these quotes are simply a teaser to encourage you to read the entire article}