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NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Saturday 10 December 2011
“For decades, the Koch brothers and their foundation have funded ALEC and other groups that are now driving the attack on voting rights in states across the country.”
The Koch Brothers, ALEC and the Savage Assault on Democracy
Billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch finally got their way in 2011. After their decades of funding the American Legislative Exchange Council, the collaboration between multinational corporations and conservative state legislators, the project began finally to yield the intended result. For the first time in decades, the United States saw a steady dismantling of the laws, regulations, programs and practices put in place to make real the promise of American democracy.
That is why, on Saturday, civil rights groups and their allies will rally outside the New York headquarters of the Koch brothers to begin a march for the renewal of voting rights in America.
For the Koch brothers and their kind, less democracy is better. They fund campaigns with millions of dollars in checks that have helped elect the likes of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Ohio Governor John Kasich. And ALEC has made it clear, through its ambitious “Public Safety and Elections Task Force,” that while it wants to dismantle any barriers to corporate cash and billionaire bucks’ influencing elections, it wants very much to erect barriers to the primary tool that Americans who are not CEOs have to influence the politics and the government of the nation: voting.
That crude calculus, usually cloaked in bureaucracy and back-room dealmaking, came into full view in 2011.
Across the country, and to a greater extent than at any time since the last days of Southern resistance to desegregation, voting rights were being systematically diminished rather than expanded.
ALEC has been organizing and promoting the assault, encouraging its legislative minions to enact rigid Voter ID laws and related attacks on voting rights in more than three dozen states.
With their requirements that the millions of Americans who lack driver’s licenses and other forms of official paperwork go out and purchase identification cards in order to cast ballots, the Voter ID push put in place new variations on an old evil: the poll tax.
“We are in the midst of the greatest coordinated legislative attack on voting rights since the dawn of Jim Crow,” says NAACP President Benjamin Jealous. “Voter ID laws are nothing but reincarnated poll taxes and liter acy tests, and ex-felon voting bans serve the same purpose today as when they were created in the wake of the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteeing ex-slaves the vote—suppressing voting numbers among people of color.”
Voter ID laws represent only the beginning of the assault on voter rights. In states across the country in 2011, conservative governors and legislators who had swept to power in the 2010 election moved to restrict access to the polls in other ways. They ended election-day registration programs in state such as Maine, ending a practice that had allowed new voters to come to the polls, fill out a simple form and cast a ballot. They restricted early voting in states such as Ohio, making it dramatically harder for citizens to cast ballots in the run-up to an election. They scrapped weekend voting in Ohio, where working men and women had been able to cast ballots on their days off. They placed new restrictions on voting by students at colleges and technical schools, even going so far in Wisconsin as to move the primary election date to when most students were on summer break. They reduced the number of polling places in some states, making it harder for voters who lack transportation to get to the polls. And after they established the Voter ID requirements in Wisconsin, and said that citizens had to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get the proper paperwork, they tried to reduce the number of DMV offices.
“For nearly a century, there were Jim Crow laws in place that discouraged people of color from voting, explains Wade Henderson, the president and CEO of the Leadership Council on Civil and Human Rights. “Today, there are different laws, but the objective is the same—to prevent millions from exercising their right to vote.”
No one who is serious about voting and elections misses the point of the project.
The point is not just to make it harder to vote. The point is to make it harder for citizens to elect legislators, governors, members of Congress and presidents who will regulate and tax multinational corporations such as Koch Industries, while at the same time establishing programs that meet the needs of the great mass of Americans. “Now, just as before, they are seeking to block us from voting in order to make it easier to come after our other rights,” says Mike Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers. “Everything we care about is at stake, from the right to a quality education to the right to a fair wage.”
It is with all of this in mind that the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, the Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund and allied civil rights and civil liberties organizations, churches and unions have endorsed the “Stand for Freedom” voting rights campaign, which will launch with a march Saturday from the offices of the Koch brothers to the United Nations. At the United Nations, the groups will mark Human Rights Day by calling for an end to assaults on voting rights in the United States.
The choice of the Koch brothers office as a starting point is not symbolic. It is practical. For decades, the Koch brothers and their foundation have funded ALEC and other groups that are now driving the attack on voting rights in states across the country.
The people are pushing back. In November, Mainers voted by an overwhelming margin to restore election-day registration. In other states, voting rights has become a central political issue. And, now, that issue is being raised at the headquarters of the Koch brothers—and the United Nations.
“From the beginning of our nation’s founding, Americans have understood that voting was fundamental to their pursuit of freedom and equal opportunity,” says Lillian Rodríguez López, President of the Hispanic Federation. “Any attempt to undermine the right to vote, especially when that effort is directed at historically marginalized groups, must be treated as an attack on the very ideals that created our country: democracy and equality. And that is why we stand up for freedom and continue to fight for the right to vote for all Americans.”
This story originally appeared in The Nation.
Copyright © The Nation – distributed by Agence Global.
Copyright © The Nation – distributed by Agence Global.
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ABOUT John Nichols
John Nichols, a pioneering political blogger, has written the Beat since 1999. His posts have been circulated internationally, quoted in numerous books and mentioned in debates on the floor of Congress.
24 comments on "The Koch Brothers, ALEC and the Savage Assault on Democracy"
jairoc
rkpgjpx
January 09, 2012 10:46pm
ALL people of goodwill must band to together and VOTE. We cannot let let these Koch brothers and others like them destroy our democracy and our country.
December 25, 2011 7:23pm
When our country was new, the founding fathers required voters to be land owners. Now I see nothing wrong with restricting voting to intelligent, responsible individuals who pay a fair amount more in taxes than they and their children cost the government.
December 13, 2011 11:06am
Brilliant.. well said and I love the picture. Mike M.
December 12, 2011 1:19pm
"We the People" Demand Economic Justice for all? When will we demand that the Financial Institutions pay for creating 25,000,000 new Jobs for American Citizens in the United States of America? When will we get serious and stop supporting or start voting the stooges out of Elected Office that the "Rich and Powerful" paid to get elected and put into elected Office? When will we make our Demands known to our elected Congressional members and Demand that they be made into the Law of the United States of America by our Elected Officials?
When will we Demand a Constitutional Amendment to prohibit the "Rich and Powerful" from having the ability for buying elections for those they support financially? The Supreme Court of the United States of America, In a black-robed coup against our democracy, the Supremes ruled that a corporation's money is "speech" and that CEOs may dump unlimited sums of it into their own ad campaigns to elect or defeat any candidates they choose.
All the Amendment needs to do is clarify that an Individual is a Living Breathing Member of the Homo-Sapiens Species. Only Congress should have the ability and authority to place limits on who can make Contributions to a Political Party and to a Political Candidate. Only Congress should have the ability and authority to place limits on Who, What, Where, When and How a Contribution can be made to a Political Party or to a Political Candidate.
I recommend that all contributions should be made directly to the FEC with a stipulation as to which Political Party or to which Political Candidate it is to be given to. Then once a month the FEC should transfer the Contribution to the Political Party or the Individual Political Candidate anonymously, thereby eliminating the obligation a candidate might otherwise feel if they knew who it was that was support them Financially.
December 11, 2011 7:31pm
The Koch Bros own the following products: Brawny, Sparkle Vanity Fair, Lycra, and the best politicians money can buy. Boycott the products and get rid of Walker, Kasich, and the rest of the bums.
December 11, 2011 1:10pm
With all the publicity "outing" the Koch brothers as the source of what's been going wrong with democratic and financial systems in the US, I must say that I am amazed that no "nutbar" or zealot has targeted them for elimination, a variation of cutting the head off a snake.
December 11, 2011 7:25am
You are so right on! I have a hard time understanding how Republican, Tea Party and corporate blood-suckers and rapists and racists consider themselves Christians? They are not following the teachings of Jesus, and they shouldn't get absolution for the crimes they commit against their brothers and sisters. They are not humane. The almighty dollar is their church and savior; there is no compassion or love in their hearts. All for what? How much money is enough? How can they play games with the American people like this? What happened to them in their childhoods for people of this ilk to think and commit such atrocities to the rest of us? Pray and VOTE DEMOCRATIC!
December 10, 2011 9:03pm
ATTENTION: ALL MEMBERS OF THE 99%! WE NEED TO IDENTIFY ALL BUSINESSES OWNED AND RUN BY KOCH BROS AND CALL FOR A NATIONAL BOYCOTT TO STOP ALL FINANCIAL SUPPORT FOR THOSE RIGHT WING EXTREMISTS! SOMEONE PLEASE START POSTING TO PUBLICIZE A TARGET LIST! THIS WILL SEND A MESSAGE TO THESE HYPOCRITICS!
Info: they own Georga-Pacific...paper products and Invista....stainmaster carpet and carpet products. they also have their hands on investment firms and natural gas/ oil
I think we could use some Molly Maguires ...
December 10, 2011 6:48pm
That was funny, but you do realize that your reply is incomprehensible to them, right? Far, far to heady. You should stick with something more in step with their abilities, such as "I know you are but what am I?"
December 10, 2011 3:55pm
Takes an ideologue (Stryder)
to equate limiting the franchise (Koch)
with expanding the franchise (Soros).
But that's why they call it doublethink (Orwell).
December 10, 2011 3:21pm
All this hysteria about the Koch brothers, yet never any criticisms regarding George Soros. Oops, I almost forgot. George funds many of the Leftist organizations. The smell of hypocrisy. Gotta love it.
December 10, 2011 3:06pm
Voter fraud, in perspective:
http://yfrog.com/nys1zxyj
Between 2001 to 2007, there were:
9 occurrences of possible voter impersonation;
352 deaths caused by lightning strikes;
32,299 reports of UFO's
The Republicans have been claiming "voter fraud" as the reason for the many new state laws requiring government issued ID, knowing this may disenfranchise 5 million people, aimed at the elderly, minorities and college students.
As much as we snicker at the thought of any of these GOP clowns running for President, we can't laugh when we consider two sets of brothers that could make it possible for one of them to reach the White House:
1. obviously the billionaire Koch brothers, Charles and David, who have the money and influence over members of the U.S. Supreme Court, and
2. the Urosevich brothers, Bob and Todd. "Their respective companies, Diebold and ES&S, will count (using BOTH computerized ballot scanners and touchscreen machines) about 80% of all votes cast in the upcoming U.S. presidential election."
http://www.thelandesreport.com/UrosevichBrothers.htm
Even though the article on the Urosevich brothers is a 2004 article, I have no doubt that the percentage of voting machines is at least the same or higher.
Another factor to consider is the testimony of Clinton Curtis:
http://videosift.com/video/From-The-Programmers-Mouth-How-The-2000-Elect...
"Computer programmer Clinton Curtis testified at the December 13th, 2004 Congressional hearing in Columbus, Ohio naming Republican Congressman Tom Feeney as the person who hired him to prepare vote-rigging software."
December 10, 2011 2:39pm
Amazing to me is the ability of 0.00001% of population to control the rest of us through the use of money in a system that allows such gross misrepresentation of interests... We need to find a way to counter their power. Any ideas?
December 10, 2011 1:56pm
If only George Bailey hadn'tna jumped from that bridge. Their ma maybe have been named Koch, but they were definitely fathered by mr. Potter.
December 10, 2011 12:47pm
During my rotation in Viet Nam 68-69, there was a memento many brought home. A silk windbreaker jacket with a big bold embroidered screaming eagle swooping down with claws out stretched in attack.
The banner had these words, “Kill them all! Let God sort them out!”
Made sense then & there, makes sense here & now.
God don’t bless America! ‘We, the people’…do!
December 10, 2011 12:17pm
Ah Kochism , the New American Fascism.
December 10, 2011 12:08pm
No secret, I really don't like the Koch Brothers.
NEW DIALOG FROM THE KOCH BOTHERS, REPUBLICANS, AND THE 1%.
Did you ever wonder what the Koch Brother / Republican / Wall Street big shots say in their ivory towers?
Here you go.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“The Koch brothers new how-to book, “Fun with World Domination” is a must read.”
“Cantor, Ryan, Walker, Bachman, are all actually Cybernetic Robots. Wow, you really gotta hand it to those Koch brothers!”
“ I ran the numbers J.B., and it’s cheaper to pay out for a few dead people than build safety controls into our food processing equipment.”
“Uh, Mr. Cantor, did you say…Michael Moore is a hit, or…put out a hit on Michael Moore?” …Ohhhh…right…we’re Republicans.
“We use Walgreen’s for our women’s healthcare. They have drive-up breast exams now.”
“So J.B., is bringing back slavery still off the table, or…..?”
“These grapes from Argenovia are dirt cheap. Of course I don’t eat ‘em, are you crazy? They use their own urine as a pesticide.”
“A classroom size of 85 gives kids the “tools” to understand a kill-or-be-killed work environment.” said Governor Walker.
“What oil spill? People will love these self-igniting shrimp.”
“Get your fresh dolphin filets here!”
“Let’s cut more Firemen. People have garden hoses don’t they?”
“Let’s cut more Policemen. People can run can’t they? Hey, remember that Seinfeld episode where that fat guy got mugged? Now that…was funny!”
“So J.B., you never answered me about that slavery thing…”
“Global warming, pollution, deteriorated o-zone, blah, blah, blah. What can happen?”
“Get your fresh polar bear burgers here!”
“Nice job killing off Planned Parenthood. Sweet! Now we’ll have enough new product coming in to launch our “Buy a Baby at Wal-Mart” program.”
“We made billions each time we moved our off-shore manufacturing from America to Japan, to China, to India, and now…to Africa. Ha, ha, ha! Sure, it’s great sticking it to the Germans, British, and Italians…but we really love screwing the French!”
“Air safety, nuclear safety, food safety…blah, blah, blah. What can happen?”
“Hey boss, that’s a great idea, putting nicotine in baby pacifiers. “Start ‘em young” we always say right? Haw, hawww!”
“FEMA was too costly, but now we’ll give you earthquake victims the “tools” to be self-sufficient. Here’s a shovel. Oh, and we’ll want that back later.”
“Get your fresh snow leopard fritters here!
President (!?) Walker said today, “As a cost cutting measure, every state will only be allowed ONE air traffic control tower…but it should be really, really tall.”
“Hmm…you know J.B., I’m really warming up to this slavery thing….”
“We’re cloning chickens for KFC, making mystery meat for McDonald’s…hey, so why not Soylent Green in school lunches?
“Hey kids, get your fresh Soylent Green meat-balls here! Mmmmm…yummy…”
By V
December 10, 2011 12:04pm
How about an OWS assault on the Koch Brothers?
The Koch Brothers are the poster boys for "American Piratical Capitalism."
THE AMERICAN PIRATES OF WALL STREET, ARE KILLING AMERICANS.
This is not about glamorized or fictional piracy. This is, “real piracy.”
Hundreds of our wealthiest leaders and most powerful corporations know that in the next few years, they will be able to siphon, skim, and steal, so much “NEW CASH,” that they and their progeny will be ultra-rich for generations to come.
No, this is not funny, or fiction, or a conspiracy, it is just simple greed and simple theft.
The new pirates of America have launched an all-out siege on us in order to capture, amass, and hold trillions of dollars for themselves.
All of the recent political power grabs and nonsensical debating is purely a slight-of-hand deflection. President Obama, Democrats, Republicans, the International Press, and even the Tea Party, are watching the tiny pea in the shell game…while the rich and powerful “Piratical Right” is stealing America right out from under us.
Consider that their combined total plunder from corporate flipping, downsizing, offshore labor, speculation, price fixing of oil and energy plus, corruption in defense, healthcare, banking, student loans, foreclosures, etc., etc., is a trillion dollar treasure for these pirates.
Go ahead, put your own calculator to it.
Are they smarter than we are? Yes, and they are laughing at us. I, we, you, and all of us, have not been able see the big picture of what is happening to our own country and to our own people. The rape and theft of America, has been cleverly packaged, promoted, and sold under the guise of “cost-cutting,” “deregulation,” and “free enterprise.”
The “Piratical Right” is directly responsible for millions of people dying, getting sick, losing their jobs and homes, losing their ability to fight, their spirit, and even losing their will to live. The sick smell of this carnage now permeates the air across America.
To us, this is all unimaginable, because we look for some sense or the morality of things. These modern-day American pirates however, have no moral compass. They are devoid of any conscience, humanity or soul, and are feeding on the flesh of the American people.
Don’t look to the President, the Senate, Congress, the press, or any political party to help. Sadly, they just don’t see it, don’t care, or are part of it. “We the people” are on our own. Start asking questions. Demand answers. If we don’t fight back America…who will?
History has taught us how to stop piracy.
V
December 10, 2011 12:01pm
HUMBUG!
HUMBUG!
HUMBUG!
HUMBUG!
So, say you the Koch Brothers.
So, say you the 1%.
So, say you the Republicans.
So, say you the corporate fat cats.
Yes, you people are the “real Dickens’ characters” in a new novel straight from HELL!
You people make Scrooge look like a Saint.
Humbug, to caring!
Humbug, to tolerance!
Humbug, to compassion!
Humbug, to helping the less fortunate!
Humbug, to better schools, better health-care, a better America, and a better planet!
Yes, we can see that you people are greedy, selfish, liars, cheaters, intolerant, bigoted, cruel, vile, repulsive, and are pathetic excuses for human beings.
You are the proverbial wolves is sheep’s clothing. You are lower than the low.
More, you people are truly a waste of human skin.
You cannot be a Christian, and be a Republican.
You cannot be a Christian, and be in the Tea Party.
You cannot be a member of any modern religion and do what you people are doing to the earth and to your fellow human beings. The philosophies are diametrically opposed.
So, greedy Republicans, eugenicist Tea Party, and blood-sucking corporate fat cats…
You are not blessed people. And, you don’t deserve to be part of Christmas. Everything that you say and stand for taints the very spirit of Christmas.
We, the 99%, hope that you are very proud of yourselves, because you’re not fooling us, and you’re not fooling God. (Good luck with that by the way.)
Certainly, you are all going to HELL in hand-basket and the sooner the better for America and the rest of the world.
Peace on Earth and Good Will to Everyone
V
December 10, 2011 6:57pm
The point is not to wait for "Hell" but to bring them to justice now. They'd just love us to wait for Divine punishment. That's how so many tyrants have gotten where they are--a complacent populace content on waiting for God. They're laughing at you.