CHARLES KOCH'S MEA CULPA.

     "We scewed up." Charles Koch, along with his brother David was the bette noir of progressive politics for 6 decades. David has now left the stage, Charles may be hearing the footsteps. As a final crie de coeur he has written a book with this startling admission. "We screwed up", in creating a system of hostile partisan politics. There have been recent indications of the last living evil twin having a change of mind. Faint hints in the 2016 presidential election, and more audible indications in the 2020 presidential election. Now, he intends to use his final years to "bridge the political divide". A political chasm (not divide) that he and his brother carved out as surely as glacial ice carved the Grand Canyon, and at the same glacial pace. His first act is a book, written with his partner in rightwing Libertarianism, Brian Hooks. The awkward title: "Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions For a Top-Down world." It must not be forgotten that that "top-down world" was made even steeper by various Koch partisan organizations. It has not been apparent if such groups as ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Committee), Americans for Prosperity, the Heartland Institute, and others will be begging for funding in the months to come. Forgive me if I remain skeptical. The much maligned, George Soros spent the same years making it possible for the people Koch now believes in to push up from the bottom against that top-down world. In an additional irony, Koch wishes to leave this life known as a philosopher. The philosophy of "Objectivism" attributed to his Libertarian north-star, Ayn Rand, was what drove the Koch brothers, and others like them over their lifetimes. Since he has not turned his back on Libertarianism, we may suspect it will remain the focus of his own philosophical writings. Perhaps we have lost sight of the difference between philosophy and sophistry. Time will tell if he rises to the heights necessary to gain the accolade of philosopher. I am not hopeful. 
     We must judge Mr. Koch on the title of his book. The sine qua non  of his entree into philosophy is ..."Bottoms-up solutions For a Top-Down world". I could be wrong about this, but it seems to me our founding fathers gave us the solution to a bottoms-up world, some two-hundred forty four years ago in the Declaration of Independence. The preamble contains the unique idea of a "government by the consent of the governed". My recollection of Charles and David Koch's lifetime activities was, creating a government by the consent of the Fortune 500: the rest of us "governed" are shunted aside. So now he wants to help the people he shunted aside believe in ourselves and find anew that promise of Thomas Jefferson made nearly two-and-a-half centuries ago. With no real apologies to Ronald Reagan, it sounds like, "I'm from a multi-national corporation, and I'm here to help you." I'm not buying it. And I'm certainly not buying his book. It is said that some 4500 books are self-published each day. I am quite certain that there are titles that I wish to read that I will never have the time to read. It will not hurt if I pass this tome by. Mr. Koch, fledgling philosopher, can place his book next to such luminaries as Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingram, and others in the bargain-book section of the book-stores. Once the book-stores reopen from Covid 19.

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