The nation has two major internal threats: Donald Trump and Charles Koch. Trump refuses to play by the rules, a pitiful sociopath who can’t stand to lose an election. And Koch wants to shrink democracy and eliminate government regulations that make the nation safer and healthier. He and his syndicate of fellow billionaires now control virtually every red state’s legislature, Utah’s included.
Once secretive, Koch’s empire has now been revealed in his new book, “Believe in People,” in which he brags that his syndicate has: “seven hundred of America’s most successful business leaders,” “over one thousand professors at three hundred universities and other post-secondary organizations,” “tens of thousands of K-12 teachers and educators,” and “millions of grassroots policy advocates in all fifty states.”
Also included are think tanks like the Cato Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, the Club for Growth, Americans for Growth, Freedom Works, Citizens for a Sound Economy, State Policy Network Tax Foundation, and Reason Foundation, all funded by the Koch machine and led by a totally indoctrinated cadre of acolytes.
Koch wants a nation without Social Security, Medicare, public schools and libraries, unions, or universal voting rights -- a nation where free enterprise takes over most government services. Koch’s American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC (meeting in SLC soon), is an anti-democratic organization whose members pay legislators handsomely to limit regulations, often at the expense of human life.
The gun violence epidemic (NRA) and toxic air (Koch Industries) are both at scandalous levels and with Koch’s anti-science Tea Party in control of the Republican Party, too little progress is made addressing climate change.
Trump is a self-aggrandizing fool while Koch has become the “uber mensch” of an oligarchy with tremendous power. If you don’t feel threatened ... you should!
Ron Molen, Salt Lake City