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The Kochs’ critics, it turned out, had no interest in the truth about them. What made the Kochs interesting was their usefulness as symbolic enemies: objects of the progressives’ latest two minutes’ hate.

A  Weekly Standard article written by Matthew Continetti explores the hateful and unwarranted attacks on the Brothers Koch, attacks that accelerated after frantic Wisconsin unionists discovered that Governor Scott Walker had received $43K in donations from KOCHPAC, the political action committee conceived by David and Charles Koch (never mind that Democrats also took monies from the same PAC, monies that they won't return, the disingenuous hypocrites).

Continetti...

For progressives confused at the heated opposition to their do-gooder agenda, the Kochs became convenient scapegoats. Invoking their name was a way to write off opposition to Obama as the false consciousness of racist rubes stoked by greedy businessmen. In the liberal imagination the Kochs ascended from obscurity to infamy in record time. Starting in the spring of 2009, whenever you turned on MSNBC or clicked on the Huffington Post you’d see the Kochs described in terms more applicable to Lex Luthor and General Zod.

Of course, to hear some of these nozzles of douche speak, you'd think the Kochs were the devil himself. See this from a porky writing at Leftard at Breakfast...

Calling the Koch Brothers people who are "perhaps best known for (their) family’s contributions to conservative causes" is like calling Sauron a jewelry aficionado. And it's thanks to pseudo-liberal rags like the NY Times that the Koch brothers are best known for their largesse to conservative causes. Because if we had a real, non-corporately subsidized mainstream media, the Koch brothers would be called out as right wing, white collar terrorists that pollute the environment only slightly less than BP and are dedicated to smashing public unions and had financed smear campaigns against school teachers even in states in which they don't live.

And the reason why that Koch joke didn't get more play in the media and called out for what it is is because in today's day and age, a billionaire who'd pumped tens of thousands of petrodollars into an anti-progressive, anti-union candidate's campaign is supposed to get immediate access to their employees, don't you know.

Just what you'd expect from a swilling slimeball. But this is typical-speak of far-left 'progressives' who won't rest until this nation is deprived of individualism and forced to adhere to Marx - Lenin - Stalin - Trotsky ideologies, their unwitting goal; to become totally free of the need to work.

So, who are these Brothers Koch? Continetti writes three pages, a well-written thumbnail biography; all of which you should read. 

The Kochs were instrumental in founding the libertarian Cato institute; where social liberal policies play well together with fiscal conservatism. This brings a smile to my stone face. Continetti...

The Kochs’ politics didn’t match traditional categories. Republicans, in their view, were just as implicated in big government as Democrats. To this day the Cato Institute calls for a much smaller defense budget, a noninterventionist foreign policy, and liberal positions on social issues. Some of these views have made movement conservatives uneasy. In June 1979 National Review went so far as to publish an essay critical of Cato Institute libertarians by Lawrence V. Cott. The title of the piece was “Cato Institute & the Invisible Finger.” The finger in question belonged to Charles Koch.

emphasis mine.

On our current political climate (brought on by George Bush's Iraq invasion and subsequent war (!), and Barack Obama...

Charles and David sensed that Bush’s failure would drive Americans into the arms of Barack Obama. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the financial crisis of September 2008 made a toxic brew, and Americans turned to the young Democratic senator who promised hope and change. Change is what they got. Ask Charles Koch what he thinks about Obama and he looks like he’s just bit into a lemon.“He’s a dedicated egalitarian,” Charles said. “I’m not saying he’s a Marxist, but he’s internalized some Marxist models—that is, that business tends to be successful by exploiting its customers and workers.”

David agreed. “He’s the most radical president we’ve ever had as a nation,” he said, “and has done more damage to the free enterprise system and long-term prosperity than any president we’ve ever had.” David suggested the president’s radicalism was tied to his upbringing. “His father was a hard core economic socialist in Kenya,” he said. “Obama didn’t really interact with his father face-to-face very much, but was apparently from what I read a great admirer of his father’s points of view. So he had sort of antibusiness, anti-free enterprise influences affecting him almost all his life. It just shows you what a person with a silver tongue can achieve.”

Of course, any criticism of the left's politics and ideology will provoke the sort of backlash we've seen. Again, Continetti writes a nice thumbnail history of the rise of the liberal (now 'progressive') hate machine, and it's destructive results. But the truth is what it is, and must be set free. I'm impressed that the Koch brothers have elucidated their beliefs so steadfastly, their 'community organized' foes notwithstanding. Good men, these Koch brothers.

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