The Sound of 'Splainin'
I've been through a few presidential cycles in my cycles around the sun. Not as much as many, but more than a few. I know there are differences and similarities in each. But this time, this time feels ... different.
( Cut for my rocking chair on porch moment. )
( Cut for my rocking chair on porch moment. )
Which means he does not see her policies as that threatening to his own privileged position.
Well, at least he sees them as less threatening than Trump's.
I'm not sure how much the Kochs should care about the details of campaign finance reform. It's not like they were uninfluential until Citizens United. But they were exerting that influence largely through the Republican Party (and related organizations), and that is quite a bit less likely to continue to exist in its previous form if Trump wins.
I'd guess that Charles Koch's support for Clinton over Trump has more to do with the effect of a Trump victory versus a Trump loss on the Republican Party than it has to do with the relative effect of either candidate on campaign-finance regulation.
other than to good-naturedly quip that a real progressive would pick a logo that didn't point to the right.
That seems like it's deliberately obtuse in service of a line. While "right" and "left" are used to refer to conservative and liberal, the directions are rarely used as a visual metaphor. The arrow in Hillary Clinton's logo points forward, same as the play and fast-forward icons, same as the direction of the flow of time on a timeline, the direction the figures are ordered in Zallinger's March of Progress. It's an obvious metaphor because English is read left-to-right.
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Not so much. The scope of the Koch's activities are mind-blowing, reaching into more than just the GOP. We're talking every branch of government at the federal, state and local level, and not just for election support; media; education; the list is long and depressing.
And let's remember that very little of that money is wasted. It is, every bit of it, an investment, most of which will pay off handsomely toward enriching their coffers or reducing their overhead. Again, several shows planned examining this phenomenon.
If Trump wins, he knows he will need the Koch's and folks like him to stay his full four years. I admit I haven't been following current events (been reading stuff most recently dating back a 100 years, stuff that is still relevant), but I can't see him advocating a complete Sanders-esque revamp of financing-let alone the truly drastic moves that cannot pass legislative muster, but that I see as absolutely essential.
That seems like it's deliberately obtuse in service of a line.
Exactly! That's what gives the line punch! It's obvious that her logo points to the right, and that progressives don't! Someone who sees or hears that line will have to think about it, if only for a second.
True story: Shortly after I came up with the line, I used it on my step-mom, a Hillary supporter (natch). She pointed out that it does point left, if you are looking at it from the perspective of the person wearing the button (as she was at the time). She was laughing at the weakness of her own defense.
I gave her the obvious rebuttal: "So, Hillary points left only if you naval gaze?"
Nice detail about the Marchers!
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I agree, maybe I should've come up with a better way to express that than "and related organizations"? But the GOP is central in that complex, when it comes to the important role of getting candidates into office. And for all they can exert influence elsewhere, it doesn't seem like "the party of Trump" will be interested in electing the Kochs' preferred candidates.
(Leaving them to do what? Build up the Libertarians? Try to take over the Democrats?)
I still think that matters way more to the Koch's than whether campaign finance reform laws end up in a pre- or post-2010 state.
Exactly! That's what gives the line punch!
I agree it's evocative, it's just that what it evokes is, "Oh, you're an asshole!"
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That's the confusion, I think. The Party has become the Party of the Koch's, of money. Trump is in line with the GOP, of course, but he is not beholden to money. Which is what the electorate have been craving since they joined the Tea Party.
Note I did not say "since they started the Tea Party." According to Mayer's very well researched history, money has been trying to start a Tea Party for decades; only now has it caught. Trump is the ideal TPer for the electorate, but not for the moneyed founders.
I agree it's evocative, it's just that what it evokes is, "Oh, you're an asshole!"
I can't argue with facts. ;-)
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