The Anti-Koch Protest

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2011/01/the-anti-koch-protest

A New York Times article on a protest in California outside a meeting that involved Charles and David Koch includes the following:

"You don't very often get a chance to be across the street from a bunch of billionaires who are scheming to do things against our democracy," said Kathy Clearly, 63, a retired schoolteacher who arrived by bus from Los Angeles and brandished a protest sign at the rally.

"Scheming to do things against our democracy" is quite a charge, but the Times article carries no evidence of it.

The Washington Examiner's Timothy Carney, who was there, reports that the protesters themselves were funded by George Soros. Mr. Carney writes, "while Soros money and Koch money are superficially equivalent, there's a crucial distinction. If we take both sides at their word, Soros and other liberal donors spend in order to impose their preferences on others while the Kochs and other free-market donors spend in an effort to be left alone to buy and sell with willing parties. The moral difference is this: Only one side is trying to compel others to conform to its preferences."

by Ira Stoll  |  Jan 31, 2011 at 9:35 am Related Topics:  George Soros, Politics, Press receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list