Rare Interview with David Koch Focuses on Right-Wing Politics, Cancer Research

David Koch
(photo from Kansas City Star)

David Koch, one of the two Koch brothers prominent in American right-wing activism, recently talked with a Palm Beach Post health reporter about two topics of importance to the billionaire industrialist: cancer research and politics. The story was noted in a blog post by Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel political writer Don Walker.

In the interview, Koch makes no bones about his support for Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. The Kansas-based industrialist, whose wealth places him in the Top Ten of the Forbes 400 list, strongly asserts his belief that labor unions are inimical to unfettered free market capitalism. Walker's gutting of most Wisconsin public employee collective bargaining rights was something Koch ardently supported, and continues to support. Koch's political front organization, Americans for Prosperity, has supported Walker with TV commercials and other funded initiatives in the current recall campaign against the Wisconsin governor.

Koch's ideology has family antecedents. His West Texas father, according to the Palm Beach Post article, sold technology to the Russians during the Stalin era. That capability was used to help develop the Communist nation's nuclear capability. Koch père's upset over that development has been cited as a reason why he became a founder of the John Birch Society.

Today, David Koch and his brother Charles are visible tips of the right-wing political iceberg. They proudly welcome supposedly impartial Supreme Court justices, such as Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, to events with a clear political and judicial agenda. Discussions from these meetings are divorced from public scrutiny, a stance more in keeping with Communist government practice than transparent democratic ventures.

Wisconsin Governor
Scott Walker

The Koch interview is a timely one, as the recall campaign against Scott Walker is something of a tossup right now. The vote matters greatly to the unions and to the right-wing. The Walker maneuvers leveraged resentment that it has exploited to political gain far beyond the stated goals of overt limitation of union benefits. Liberals need to face the fact that a considerable portion of Wisconsin's electorate backed Walker's campaign and subsequent efforts to attack and ultimately destroy unions. While the Kochs' and their formidable allies are playing to win, one wonders where Barack Obama is on this debate. The president has never really been friendly with the labor unions he will ultimately need to win the Midwest in the 2012 presidential elections. His silence is even more curious as Obama's power base is Chicago, just a short drive from Wisconsin.

Regardless of the Wisconsin recall campaign's results, the Koch brothers fully intend to pursue their push to drive American political institutions and legal apparatus further to the right. They've just begun to fight.

Koch Donation to Florida State University Comes With Controversial Strings

Earlier this year, the conservative Koch brothers made headlines during the imbroglio over Wisconsin public union employees. The Kansas siblings have returned to the news. The new venue is Florida, where the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation offered Florida State University (FSU) a lucrative donation. In exchange for the money, FSU would establish an economics department initiative "for the study of 'political economy and free enterprise,'" according to a story in today's Miami Herald that originally appeared in the St. Petersburg Times.

Of course, the Koch handout came with strings. Most significantly, the foundation could cease funding the program if "faculty hired with its money were not complying with (Koch's) goals." Academic freedom, which universities have solemnly sworn to uphold, would be at risk in this arrangement.

While it's hard to sympathize with a money-first university, it's nearly impossible to feel simpatico with right-wing funders such as Mr. Koch (see photo). Brother K's idea of free enterprise is to keep things as free as possible for him, and let others provide the sweat equity. In that sense, his willingness to corrupt has found a match in morally (and often financially) bankrupt academia.

Protest Against Koch Brothers' Sponsored Conference

The LA Times reported in today's editions a protest liberal groups are planning against a right-wing conference in Rancho Mirage, California.

The bi-annual event, sponsored by David and Charles Koch (David is shown in the Kansas City Star photo above), brings together conservative activists, fellow traveler jurors such Antonin Scalia, propagandists such as Glenn Beck, Republican congressional members, and deep pocketed businesspeople.

The Kochs' have a long history of involvement in extreme right-wing activities. In a way, the sons have followed the footpath of their father, Fred Koch, who was an original member of the John Birch Society. Jane Mayer's piece in an August 30, 2010 issue of The New Yorker discusses the father's background, the Koch sons' current anti-Obama jihad, the family's collection of enterprises whose profits fund a range of activities from political activism to think tanks, and other aspects of the Kochs' political and economic interests.