The Democrats, Citizen's United, and the "Evil" Koch Brothers

Last October, Senator Bernie Sanders stood on the steps of the Supreme Court building and railed against the high court's Citizen's United decision that allowed corporations to spend and attempt to buy votes with huge campaign donations.  In his ire he singled out the Koch brothers (Koch Industries) as examples of billionaires and corporations buying votes:



What's interesting about this video is that there are two placard holding individuals from the CWA (Communication Workers of America), a labor union, standing in solidarity with old Bernie.

Now, while it is true that the Koch Bros. and their corporation contributed $18 million in campaign donations in the recent years with 90% going to Republicans and only 8% going to Democrats, that was peanuts in comparison to the donations made by the CWA.  That union spent more than $36 million -- double that of the Koch's -- with 86% going to elect Democrats and the balance spent on Democrat initiatives and pro-labor Independents.  Not one dime was spent on Republicans. At least the Koch brothers spent some of their money on Democrats. Of the top 156 campaign donors who spent $5 million or more, 31 were labor unions.  In total, those unions spent $808.5 million dollars of which 81% went to Democrats and only 11% went to Republicans.

For years, liberal politicians have demonized the Koch brothers and Citizen's United case.  At the same time, those very same liberals were unabashedly taking nearly a billion dollars from unions.  They also don't mind it when other left-leaning billionaires, like Warren Buffet, contributed to their campaigns or when multimillionaire Hollywood types would fund raise for them.  In fact, when California billionaire Tom Steyer pledged $100 million in campaign funds in support of Democrats and environmental issues, none of those who would normally castigate big-time Republican donors uttered a single word.

The simple fact is that Democrats don't want any opposition.  They don't want Fox News.  They used the IRS in keeping many Tea Party activists from gaining tax free status, and they certainly don't want any villains like the Koch's contributing money to Republicans.  They also want the average American to believe that those evil brothers are destroying Democracy by buying votes with their massive wealth. On the other hand, they gleefully accept millions from labor unions and other rich campaign donors. It is impossible to wade through hypocrisy so deep!

References:

Center for Responsive Politics: Top Campaign Donors: https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php

Tom Steyer planning $100 million campaign push: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/tom-steyer-campaign-donor-103617.html