Not only is it the week for the press to sing Scott Walker's praises, it's also the week where everyone from MSNBC's Morning Joe crew to the Fox talkers talked up the Kochs and their network. Because Billionaire Bucks are not to be trifled with, right?
David Brooks wants us to pay no attention to that billion-dollar elephant in the center of the room. Speaking to Judy Woodruff, he waved away the entire investment, saying, "in these big national campaigns, whether they devote it to Senate races or presidential or even House races, the money is vastly overvalued. There’s just a ton of political science on this, that you can dump in a ton — once people reach a threshold, you can dump in a ton of money and have very little effect."
What is this political science you speak of, Bobo? And what makes you think they spend it all on ads?
In fact, more Kochtopus funds are invested in think tanks and civic organizations intended to build the ground game Republicans consistently failed at.
But Brooks got more specific about the effect of an independent investment of $1 billion into the 2016 campaign, suggesting that the impact is more on candidates than it is on voters.
Well of course it is, David. The idea here is to present voters with Koch A and Koch B, and let them decide between carbon copies of one another. Meanwhile, their policy shops grind out fake papers and pressure their newly-bought Senators and Representatives to do the will of the Billionaires who bought them.
It's a tricky business. On the one hand, it would be nice to dismiss the billion spent by billionaires for billionaires, but that would be a stupid mistake no one should make. On the other hand, that money doesn't have to buy elections if people get out and vote.
Notice how the voter never gets mentioned in this little esoteric discussion?
