Friday, August 08, 2014

All that money makes such a succulent sound

You know how the Koch Brothers are buying up elections and destroying American politics in a sea of money? It's crap:
One of the first things you may notice about the 2014 list is that of the top 20 organizations, only two favor Republicans. The rest, with the exception of one “on the fence” trade association, all strongly prefer liberal policies and Democratic candidates. ActBlue, long a major player in directing small contributions to Democrats, tops the list of organizations. In addition, 11 of the top 20 organizations are unions. This is a pronounced shift from 2012.  In that election cycle, seven of the top 20 organizations favored conservatives.
That's from the Center for Responsive Politics, hardly a Republican shop. Their complete list is here and it tells a tale that's very different than what you usually are told. Here's a handy screen shot of the big dogs:

Money makes the world go round... or blue
So where is Koch Industries, despoiling the land with its evil money? Down a few quintiles:

But's it's a super powerful $2,664,860
But that's Koch Industries. What about their personal giving? Well, no Kochs in the top echelon:

I want to take you Steyer

So where does a Koch brother fall?

Still livin' off those ol' Herb Alpert records
That's right -- David Koch is number 90. His brother? Not in the top 100. The next time you hear someone, anyone, telling you that the Koch brothers need to be stopped, feel free to laugh in their face.


2 comments:

Gino said...

even more telling: how many of these groups tend to split the difference between sides. if you want to play, you need to pay... and if you dont want to play, you better buy out.

Mr. D said...

even more telling: how many of these groups tend to split the difference between sides. if you want to play, you need to pay... and if you dont want to play, you better buy out.

To paraphrase P. J. O'Rourke: when buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first thing bought and sold are legislators.