In his essay, titled "Why The Democrats' Koch Brothers Fixation?", Frank James posits a question that he never answers.
Why The Democrats' Koch Brothers Fixation?"
After passing on a few, apparently unverified, claims by politicians from both sides (equal time and all), James' summation is that demonizing the Koch brothers is good business for Democrat fund-raising. James provides nothing but anecdotal evidence for his theory and seems completely ignorant of an idea that is at least as old as the early 1900s when Edward Sapir, and later, one of his students, Benjamin Lee Whorf, first hypothesized that language impacts a society which in turn impacts a society's worldview which in turn, impacts the language of a society.
Many more would expand upon this original idea, more of Whorf's than Sapir's thinking, and none more so than George Orwell and his treatise, "Politics and the English Language", written in 1946. Rushing through time and pushing aside larger, and minute, detail and fact, the fixation which Democrats seem to have with the Koch brothers might have something to do with what drove George Lakoff to write "Moral Politics"in 1996 after he witnessed the successful Republican campaign to win congressional majority in 1994 with their "Contract With America" (or, as some have labeled it, the "Contract On America"). Late Lakoff would slim down M"Moral Politics" into his Reader's Digestesque primer for Democrats in 2000, "Don't Think Of An Elephant". A friend of mine was working for a Democrat senator at the time and "Elephant" was required reading.
Briefly, Lakoff claims that the Republicans have done a far better job of uniting behind the same message. Writing in the May, 2005 issue of Vanity Fair (here, reprinted on Sentient Times), Robert Kennedy Jr pointed out the meshing of the GOP's ability to get behind ideological messages and the right-wing media.
The Disinformation Society
It was that right wing media, specifically AM talk radio, the top 100 practically owned, lock stock and barrel by right wing political talk shows, which, for years, has hammered away at the meme, "...the George Soroses of the world..." as if there were an army of radical left-wing political funders who are, like some liberal zombie apocalypse (a recent fascination of mine. Zombie apocalypse, not a political zombie apocalypse in particular...) while completely ignoring their own Soroses of the world; people like the Koch brothers.
No less than the savior of undocumented Asian street walkers, Bill Maher, made comment of on his show recently:
Bill Maher, "Dead Man's Party"
It seems that the donkey party might be coming around to a less fractious nature, and one better adroit at towing the line.
So that's why, Frank James, you might be hearing the name of the Koch brothers more these days.
Why The Democrats' Koch Brothers Fixation?"
After passing on a few, apparently unverified, claims by politicians from both sides (equal time and all), James' summation is that demonizing the Koch brothers is good business for Democrat fund-raising. James provides nothing but anecdotal evidence for his theory and seems completely ignorant of an idea that is at least as old as the early 1900s when Edward Sapir, and later, one of his students, Benjamin Lee Whorf, first hypothesized that language impacts a society which in turn impacts a society's worldview which in turn, impacts the language of a society.
Many more would expand upon this original idea, more of Whorf's than Sapir's thinking, and none more so than George Orwell and his treatise, "Politics and the English Language", written in 1946. Rushing through time and pushing aside larger, and minute, detail and fact, the fixation which Democrats seem to have with the Koch brothers might have something to do with what drove George Lakoff to write "Moral Politics"in 1996 after he witnessed the successful Republican campaign to win congressional majority in 1994 with their "Contract With America" (or, as some have labeled it, the "Contract On America"). Late Lakoff would slim down M"Moral Politics" into his Reader's Digestesque primer for Democrats in 2000, "Don't Think Of An Elephant". A friend of mine was working for a Democrat senator at the time and "Elephant" was required reading.
Briefly, Lakoff claims that the Republicans have done a far better job of uniting behind the same message. Writing in the May, 2005 issue of Vanity Fair (here, reprinted on Sentient Times), Robert Kennedy Jr pointed out the meshing of the GOP's ability to get behind ideological messages and the right-wing media.
The Disinformation Society
It was that right wing media, specifically AM talk radio, the top 100 practically owned, lock stock and barrel by right wing political talk shows, which, for years, has hammered away at the meme, "...the George Soroses of the world..." as if there were an army of radical left-wing political funders who are, like some liberal zombie apocalypse (a recent fascination of mine. Zombie apocalypse, not a political zombie apocalypse in particular...) while completely ignoring their own Soroses of the world; people like the Koch brothers.
No less than the savior of undocumented Asian street walkers, Bill Maher, made comment of on his show recently:
Bill Maher, "Dead Man's Party"
It seems that the donkey party might be coming around to a less fractious nature, and one better adroit at towing the line.
So that's why, Frank James, you might be hearing the name of the Koch brothers more these days.
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