Care2: Koch Blocking Political Debate

By Jessica Pieklo at Care2

The Koch brothersmust be getting worried.

After all, there’s the recent ruling out of the D.C. Circuit Court that paves the way for uncloaking the flood of secret money they’ve been pouring into our elections and into our policy. And they continue their attacks against filmmaker and journalist Robert Greenwald. Not only do the super-wealthy conservative funders refuse to publicly debate their policy positions, they are using their vast wealth to distort those positions to the public to make them more acceptable.

They’re doing it with environmental policy directly by funding misleading ads and giving massive campaign contributions to lawmakers like Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) so as to keep any functional regulations at bay.

They’re doing it by funneling at least $1 million to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the group behind the horrific “stand your ground” laws, and the union-busting laws in places like Wisconsin and Ohio. And they’re doing it by propping up Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) who faces a recall election due entirely to his role as a Koch-funded puppet.

Unfortunately though the Kochs don’t believe in being candid or transparent with the citizens of this country, and that’s in large part because they are not interested in the democratic process per se, just what they can manipulate and extract from it.