Fields: Let’s Change The Name Of The GOP
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BY SAM FIELDS
Miami did not name its cultural centerpiece “The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts” because Adrienne Arscht has displayed remarkable dance skills. The city had thirty million other reason and they all had the pictures of presidents.
The Dolphins did not name it Sun Life Stadium because we are The Sunshine State. Same for the Bank United Center and thousands of other sites in this world
Naming rights, with or without the actual ownership, are perfectly reasonable to sell.
I was thinking about this the other day when I was wondering what it would cost to buy a national political party along with the naming rights?
Tah, dah!
The answer is $890 million.
That’s what the Koch brothers are paying for the Republican Party.
So it’s time to stop calling it “The Republican Party” or the “GOP”. Without exception, it should now be called “The Koch Brother’s Party,” since like Brawny paper towels and Dixie Cups, it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries.
David Koch has certainly upped the ante since 1980 when he bought the Vice Presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party for $100,000-a-month.
And bought is the right word.
Now David and his brother Charles Koch have raised the stakes. Their $890 million funneled to the GOP, its candidates and causes make Sheldon Adelson’s $30 million in 2012 look like chump change.
In the worst scenario, the Koch Brothers have veto power over who the Republicans nominate.
On a more practical level, without a Republican President to make decisions, the shot-callers at the Republican National Committee are the guys with the biggest wallets.. In this case the Koch Brother’s wallet is bigger than all the other wallets put together. They can hire and fire just like a sitting President who has the final say so with the Party. They decide whether or not the money goes directly into the RNC or its adjunct Super Pacs
The Republican National Committee is now like any other business with control in the hands of the majority stockholder…which brings me to my next point.
The Koch Brothers have certainly paid enough for the naming rights. And it’s not beyond the bounds of politics as usual.
This is no different than Republicans who uniformly call us The ‘Democrat’ Party and not the Democratic Party.
Republican pollster Frank Luntz is absolutely right about the power of language. He is the guy who substituted “job creators” for “billionaires” and “death tax” for “estate tax”.
In the beginning these new words always sound awkward. The first few times you hear it on the Sunday morning news shows it will seem strange. Within a couple of months they will become part of the political lexicon. After a while the Koch Brothers Party will become the norm.
The KBPers will go apoplectic and point to people like George Soros, Tom Steyer and Bill Maher giving millions to the Dems and liberal causes.
But that opens the discussion to the two main contrast points.
First, Bill Maher’s million dollar gift amounted to .1% of what the Obama campaign raised.
Secondly and more importantly, Steyer, Soros, Mahar, and other rich Democrats are campaigning against their own financial interests. Steyer, Soros and Mahar care about the future of the country.
Their goal is not to change the laws so they can pump up the size of their already bloated bankbook. Like the Koch Brothers.
February 13th, 2015 at 10:26 am
Soros cares about the future of the country Sam? Do you know how he makes his money? He speculates on currencies and the stock market. His bets enrich him but ruin those on the other side of the trade.
Some believe he had a hand in the collapse of the mortgage backed security market in 2007 which plunged our country into a deep recession, made him $ 2.9 billion, and perhaps helped Obama’s election in 2008 as the voters blamed Bush and Reps for that collapse.
And Styer? He made his money investing in coal. Since he already made his money on the backs of coal miners, he is now a leading force to putting them and other energy industry workers on the unemployment line.
But if you want to talk naming rights for the Reps, then I would suggest if the Soros or Steyer Party don not suit you, then perhaps the Dems should rebrand as the Goldman Sachs Party? Or maybe the Union Party?
February 13th, 2015 at 10:46 am
What makes Mr. Fields attribute bad motivations to Republicans like the Koch Brothers and good motivations to Democrats like Soros is simply blind partisanship. He can not see that Koch might simply believe in free markets and less regulation. Sure that could result in more money for them. I believe their motivation is purely that they see this country is going in the wrong direction and want to change it. The same influence that the Koch’s have on the Republicans is exercised by the three Democrats you mentioned on the other side. Don’t be so sure those rich Democrats are pure. One wiser than I said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” The problem, Mr. Fields, is too much money in politics on both sides.
February 13th, 2015 at 10:49 am
In the past, I’ve worked for KII and a few of their subsidiaries…
If you think their intentions are benign, you’re just plainly fucked in the head.
February 13th, 2015 at 4:34 pm
Ironically, on the day fields attributes “pure” motives to Tom Steyer, a Democratic Governor resigns (partially) over payments from Tom Steyer.
February 14th, 2015 at 1:35 pm
Dear Readers:
Republican money is bad. However, Democratic money is good.
Sincerely,
Fake Same Fields
February 14th, 2015 at 1:45 pm
The brutal truth is that the Koch Brothers fund politicians who share their views, which are NOT MINE, but they never have had “dirty hands” in the kinds of desception Tom Steyer has pulled in backing candidates to help his bottom line financially then described it as “ethical poliics” or George Soros’ history of destroying businesses in both Europe and American with currency manipulation. My ancestors founded and owned the merchant bank, called investment bank in this country that George Soros got his start with and still uses for some of his investments. His “investing” consists of “getting around”if not violating US Laws to make huge profits in transactions any US based firms’ owners and officers would go to jail for. The sad truth is too much of the money supporting “liberal” if not “left causes” comes from financial gonifs who lie and delude well meaning people ignorant of both the motivations and self-interests of their financial backers.
February 15th, 2015 at 11:18 am
Once again, the comments left here for discussion make looking at porn the superior intellectual pursuit.
Morris Berman is right: Americans are morons.
February 16th, 2015 at 7:50 pm
I agree…when you agree to name the Democrtic party…. Corruption Party
February 17th, 2015 at 11:36 pm
I was leaning more to corruption inc. Just take a look at the democrats running in miramar . seems they never heard of the florida sunshine law and the money man is actually a ticket agent for a airline
an the 1 candidate claims to be a HOA President but never heard of the Sun Shine Law????? An they really think a person who lives in the far west can represent the east end of the city with homes in his area 1/2 a million and east miramar is 100K max…btw the entire city commish lives west of flamingo road except for Commish Barnes…Hmm no wonder they dont want individual districts…
February 18th, 2015 at 10:25 am
I appreciate the ranting comments from all the “Kochheads”.
You have made my point!
February 18th, 2015 at 8:38 pm
Thank you for appreciating. I never heard of a Kochhead. Is that like an “Obamatron”?
You have made my point.
February 19th, 2015 at 7:14 am
“As far as strange bedfellows go, the membership of the Coalition for Public Safety, an advocacy group being announced on Thursday, is impressive.
“There’s Koch Industries, a frequent target of liberal criticism, teaming up with one of its toughest critics, the Center for American Progress; the American Civil Liberties Union with Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform; the conservative crusaders at FreedomWorks with the human rights advocates at the Leadership Conference Education Fund. The disparate list goes on.
“Their common goal: an overhaul of the criminal justice system.
“The coalition grew out of a meeting in October, when about three dozen activists of widely varying ideologies were called together to evaluate ways of fixing the criminal justice system, even if they didn’t have much else in common.
“’I think all of them came into the meeting never having sat in the room together,’ said Christine Leonard, a former White House and congressional staff member who will be the director of the new group.
“No fist fights broke out. Instead, the meeting planted the seeds for the coalition, which will promote comprehensive proposals to reduce prison populations, overhaul sentencing laws seen as too severe and reduce recidivism, among other initiatives. It is being funded by Koch Industries, the Kansas-based company controlled by Charles G. and David H. Koch, and three philanthropic groups.
“There is a growing bipartisan consensus that the criminal justice system must be changed, and the coalition is giving itself three years to see if it can produce results on one rare issue that is capable of uniting often-feuding factions.”
—NY Times
February 22nd, 2015 at 11:48 am
The Kocheads support of a few liberal causes is a sham.
dear ignored,
In the end, without exception, they support politicians who agree with their economic ideas that make them richer at the expense of those who agree with their libertarian social agenda.
If you know of a case where they have chosen otherwise, I would like to hear about it.