Dr. Koch’s Monsters

I read in Politico the other day that the Koch Network is not supporting the anti-quarantine protests which “spontaneously” appeared across the nation. Spontaneously, if, of course, you mean by that word carefully orchestrated by astroturfing Right-Wing organizations associated with (among other things) the Trump White House.

But, for once, according to Politico, the Koch folks aren’t involved. Which is good.

What isn’t so good is why. According to the article, “The Koch network, avatar of the tea party, rejects shutdown protests,” by Maggie Severns, is the Kochsters feel that they didn’t get enough bang for their buck back when they backed the Tea Party and other groups which practiced the tactics of direct confrontation. The Koch folks, are advocates of extreme libertarianism -- i.e., they object to the existence of the government except in so far as it provides for an army, a police force, and, sometimes, for courts. Meaning, those aspects of government that protect their position and property.

And, well, the Tea Party didn’t do much to advance those ends. Oh, yes, it helped shrink the government to a size small enough to “drown in a bathtub” (and so which could not and did not react to the Covid-19 crisis) but it also helped bring about the Trump administration, which does not fit the Kochsters vision of what a real American presidency should be about. It, well, spends money, you see, and still acts (sometimes, sort of, in a weird kind of way) like a government.

Okay, so now they’re going for a quieter approach, working “behind the scenes.”

I find all this rather fascinating. Let’s face it. If it hadn’t been for the Koch Brothers (now down to one and change), then there wouldn’t have been a Tea Party. If there hadn’t been a Tea Party, there wouldn’t have been a Trump.

In other words,  the Kochsters created the monster...but it isn’t enough of a monster for them. It has only almost killed off the United States of America. It hasn’t gone all the way.

So, Frankenstein’s Monster not being enough, they’ve decided to go for their own Godzilla, something that will actually stomp us into ruins.

Lovely. Just lovely. I can hardly wait to see what comes after that. Maybe the return of Cthulhu, all singing, all dancing, in fabulous technicolor, and with almost as many tentacles reaching into almost as many places and with almost as toxic an effect...

As the Koch organization itself.

Koch and Kraken

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About me: I’m a writer and former journalist who has published material on everything from computers to the Jazz Age. (Among my small claims to fame is that I interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

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