Are we dreaming? Charles Koch endorses Bernie Sanders (kind of)

[applegrove]

Are we dreaming? Charles Koch endorses Bernie Sanders (kind of)

by Sean Illing at Salon

http://www.salon.com/2016/02/19/are_we_dreaming_charles_koch_endorses_bernie_sanders_kind_of/

"SNIP............


The gaping irony of Koch’s concerns about the “lack of substance and civility” in our politics is hard to miss. After all, political discourse reached Cro-Magnon levels right around the time of the Tea Party’s rise, in early 2009. And the Tea Party, lest we forget, was an offspring of the groups Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works, both of which are Koch-financed. These groups, moreover, have their origins in a single organization called Citizens for a Sound Economy, which, naturally, was founded by the Koch brothers in 1984.

The Tea Party was a pet project of the Koch brothers (indeed they launched the first national website for the movement), and they used it to flood the process with money and obstructionist propaganda. As a result of the Tea Party’s success, dozens of legislative nihilists were sent to Congress with the sole mission of shutting government down. Compromise has been near-impossible ever since.

Koch lurched into the spotlight again this week with a guest op-ed in the Washington Post. And once again his remarks are dripping with irony. Titled “This is the one issue where Bernie Sanders is right,” the piece reads as a quasi-endorsement of Sanders. Quoting:


“As he campaigns for the Democratic nomination for president, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders often sounds like he’s running as much against me as he is the other candidates…Even so, I see benefits in searching for common ground and greater civility during this overly negative campaign season. That’s why, in spite of the fact that he often misrepresents where I stand on issues, the senator should know that we do agree on at least one…The senator is upset with a political and economic system that is rigged to help the privileged few at the expense of everyone else…He thinks many corporations seek and benefit from corporate welfare while ordinary citizens are denied opportunities and a level playing field. I agree with him.”


.............SNIP"

[wyldwolf]

1. :)

[DisgustipatedinCA]

2. Almost as if Ted Bundy had written a self-help book for women. No thanks, Charles Koch.

[nichomachus]

6. Of if a war criminal was the inspiration of one of the candidates.

And she even smiled as the war criminal "wagged his finger" at her.

Birds of a feather.

[nichomachus]

3. He said Bernie was right on "one thing"

Only is topsy-turvy Hillary world is that an endorsement. Maybe that's why Hillary is claiming so many endorsements as her campaign circles the drain.

[Chichiri]

4. All you need to know. I wish Bernie fans would see how much they're helping Repubs. nt

[nichomachus]

8. Actually it's Gang Hillary that's helping the GOP

By forcing a damaged candidate on the party.

[dana_b]

10. +1 n/t

[840high]

13. Yep

[djean111]

11. If you just read the headline, then you don't know all you need to know.

Or didn't understand the article.

[libtodeath]

5. Maybe you should have included the last paragraph.

"For a guy who insists we shouldn’t “allow government to pick winners and losers” because so doing moves us “further away from a society of mutual benefit,” he sure does enjoy self-interested interventions in the market. Which is perhaps why he closes his op-ed with a rhetorical question: “At this point you may be asking yourself, ‘Is Charles Koch feeling the Bern?’ Hardly.”

[jillan]

7. Did you actually READ what he wrote? Dumb question - obviously not! lol.

[djean111]

9. You may have been dreaming, but i actually read that this morning - no, Koch was just trying

to rehabilitate his own reputation. He agrees with Bernie that the deck is stacked, but says that the deck is stacked out of love and helpfulness for the masses, not the enrichment of a few.

He makes a point of not feeling the Bern.

Dang, I predicted this would be today's meme, and it is just now bubbling up out of the swamp?

[frylock]

12. "kind of"

[Gothmog]

14. The GOP really wants Sanders to be the nominee