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Show 9 networking hundreds of millions of dollars with academic research, think tanks, and political groups to promote the Koch brothers' libertarian views. Using discrete, but forceful, webs of conservative and libertarian groups to channel donations that fuel political zealotry, Koch Industries has demonstrated that politics is simply a matter of controlling networks. A recent documentary titled Citizen Koch discusses a few examples of how Koch Industries has used its financial networks to buy elections and destroy the core of American democracy by creating its own political subjects that carry out its political work in Washington. For instance, it turned a libertarian-edged group of political rabblerousers called the "Tea Party" into a real political force by financing many of its protests and Super PACS through funds dispersed by affiliated groups. While the Tea Party has staged national protests, events and caucuses, Koch Industries has remained silently in the background, funding the group that funds the group. To Schulman (2014), Koch Industries provided "key financing and organizational support that allowed the Tea Party to blossom into a formidable political force within the Republican Party - one that paralyzed Congress and eventually ignited a GOP civil war" (p. 5). Koch also "purchased" Scott Walker (Borowitz, 2015), the governor of Wisconsin, for at least $11.6 million to advance its political advocacies against labor rights, health care securities, and state funding for education (Fischer & Bottari, 2015), while also spending $8 million to help him achieve victory in a recall election that bitterly divided the state (Kertscher, 2012). Walker is now positioned as a real contender in the 2016 presidential election. "We will support whoever the candidate is," David Koch recently told a group of Republic donors, "but it should be Scott Walker" (Fischer |
