I don't know if you realize that Charles Koch, like his brother David, is an actual human being. Judging from the way Democrats talk about him, you might have gotten the impression that he is some sort of alien overlord. (I would have said demon but the left would never acknowledge that anything biblical is real.)
Koch Industries is a very real company that has a positive impact on the lives of a lot of people, and the brothers who own the company choose to invest some of the money they earn in the promotion of ideas they believe in. For some reason Democrats think they have a winning strategy in painting these two American businessmen as a green-eyed, fang-toothed monsters. But if you read the actual words of Charles Koch in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, what you'll find is that he is not only earnest and serious, but he has good reasons for being committed to the particular beliefs for which he and his brother put their money where their mouths are:
More than 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson warned that this could happen. "The natural progress of things," Jefferson wrote, "is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." He knew that no government could possibly run citizens' lives for the better. The more government tries to control, the greater the disaster, as shown by the current health-care debacle. Collectivists (those who stand for government control of the means of production and how people live their lives) promise heaven but deliver hell. For them, the promised end justifies the means.
Instead of encouraging free and open debate, collectivists strive to discredit and intimidate opponents. They engage in character assassination. (I should know, as the almost daily target of their attacks.) This is the approach that Arthur Schopenhauer described in the 19th century, that Saul Alinsky famously advocated in the 20th, and that so many despots have infamously practiced. Such tactics are the antithesis of what is required for a free society—and a telltale sign that the collectivists do not have good answers.
Rather than try to understand my vision for a free society or accurately report the facts about Koch Industries, our critics would have you believe we're "un-American" and trying to "rig the system," that we're against "environmental protection" or eager to "end workplace safety standards." These falsehoods remind me of the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's observation, "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts."
Koch goes on to lay out some of the statistics about his company:
They have 60,000 employees.
They make thousands of different products.
They generate $11.7 billion in compensation and benefits.
Their factories are consistently cited for low emissions, which will come as a surprise to leftists who are sure they are dastardly polluters looking for a way to get away with soiling the Earth.
Left-wing assaults on the Koch brothers really are beneath contempt, but it's pretty much standard fare these days. Demonizing American citizens who oppose your policies and aren't afraid to get in the arena and take action - whether it's the Koch brothers or people hurt by ObamaCare and branded as liars by Harry Reid and liberal "fact checkers" - is really what Herman is talking about when he distinguishes between the political class and the working class. You may not think so, but the Koch brothers are part of the working class, which means they focus on earning what they have rather than getting it through politics and government.
Just because they advocate on behalf of policies they believe are best for the country - and maybe for themselves as well - doesn't mean they aren't working for every penny they have. (And by the way, running a company is working. Try it some time if you don't believe me.)
People like Charles and David Koch are responsible for the productivity that even makes it possible for the political class to exist. Those inside the Beltway suck on the teet of private companies like Koch Industries to create income and power for themselves, and they don't like it one bit when someone like Charles Koch points out that it's out of control. His job is to keep paying his taxes and stop getting in their way.
I'm glad Mr. Koch spoke up. I hope prominent Republicans won't be afraid to speak up too and let it be known that people like the Koch brothers are the drivers of not only American prosperity, but of the resources necessary to run American government as well. Democrats should be thanking the Koch brothers for generating the wealth from which their socialist gambits derive their funding. But of course they will never do that, because it's not enough just to generate the resources that fund government. You have to also support the left-wing agenda without any dissent, and if you don't, you're the wild-eyed monster that must be destroyed.
Read the whole piece, and you'll find out that is not what Charles Koch is at all. Far from it.
