The Koch brothers haven't spent the last 30 years consolidating their power just to let an unanointed candidate win
David Brock
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Donald Trump has good reason to feel confident after last week’s debate.
After all, he seems incapable of saying anything so inflammatory or dumb that it turns the Republican base against him. Indeed, even after being upbraided by Carly Fiorina for his ugly personal attacks, he continues to lead all polls.
The Republican establishment is hoping that someone will emerge to stop Trump. The Koch brothers’ favorite, Scott Walker, is now out of the running for the job. Tellingly, in his swan song, the Koch’s messenger boy called on the GOP to rally around an anti-Trump strategy. But efforts by party leaders to date to rein in Trump have only made him more powerful.
With Walker’s implosion, the Kochs aren’t looking especially fearsome in this week’s news cycle. That said, Trump should make sure to enjoy this moment while it lasts. Because when the Kochs – the GOP’s true power brokers – decide it’s time to put an end to this show, Trump’s bubble is likely to burst faster than he (or, in this case, the Kochs) can say, “You’re fired.” For all of Trump’s bluster, Charles and David Koch are the alpha dogs of the Republican Party. And the only thing more implausible than Trump’s hair is the notion that he can beat them at their own game.
As I detail in my new book, “Killing the Messenger,” the Koch brothers have spent the last 30 years (and hundreds of millions of dollars) consolidating their control over our political system via what Charles has called a “vertically and horizontally integrated” strategy – in his words, the Kochs have their hands in everything “from idea creation to policy development to education to grassroots organization to lobbying to litigation to political action.”
The Kochs’ state-based infrastructure helped Republicans seize control of legislatures and governors’ mansions so they could gerrymander district lines, practically ensuring a GOP majority in the House until the next census in 2020. The Kochs’ attack ad factory helped demolish the Democratic Senate majority in 2014, handing the GOP complete control of Capitol Hill. And with a Koch-approved agenda already road-tested in states like Wisconsin and North Carolina, the only thing the brothers need to complete the hijacking of our democracy is a president they can call their own.
There are plenty of candidates who still aspire to that position. Jeb Bush’s Koch ties go back decades, pre-dating his first run for governor of Florida. Marco Rubio has taken special care to support every aspect of the Koch agenda, from opposing the Export-Import Bank to blocking a raise in the minimum wage. Ted Cruz is a longtime favorite speaker at Koch events. Even Carly Fiorina, a relative newcomer to politics, has been courting the brothers, hiring a former Koch Industries employer as her campaign manager.
One after another, these Republican candidates have strutted their stuff at private auditions for the brothers, as if they were interviewing for a job at Koch Industries (which, of course, they kind of are).
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