JAMES TARANTO: Speak of the Devil: The silly, sinister campaign against the Koch brothers.
There are some clues here that this campaign isn’t aimed at a mass audience. The Kochs are so obscure, even to Times readers, that the reporter felt obliged to identify them right off the bat, necessitating a yawner of a lead paragraph. They’re also sufficiently unknown that the pun on their name needs a pronunciation guide, which deprives the joke of all its sting.
This is a play to the base–and are they ever base. Back in February 2011 we noted an anti-Koch rally in California where various “progressives” were captured on video calling for the assassination of Supreme Court justices who voted to uphold the right to free speech. Establishment Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid haven’t gone that far, but they are joining in the demonization of private citizens, following Saul Alinsky’s 13th rule: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” . . .
We’re torn between finding this effort sinister and ridiculous, and the truth is it’s both. Alinskyite tactics were meant to be applied against the powerful by the powerless. When applied by powerful men, like Reid, who are supposed to be public servants, they take on the character of tyranny rather than rebellion.
No doubt the Kochs can take it, but note that his attack aimed not only at them but also at ordinary Americans who have been victimized by ObamaCare and spoken out about it. The aim is clearly to intimidate others and thereby suppress information about ObamaCare’s failures.
It’s unAmerican. Have they no decency, no decency at all? Well, no:
On the ridiculous side, the Washington Free Beacon reports on an anti-Koch protest over the weekend staged by a pair of unions, the New York State Nurses Association and the Service Employees International Union Local 1199, along with the state chapter of the NAACP. They were protesting a new hospital wing.
Yes, you read that right. They objected to “the soon-to-be-built David H. Koch Center at New York-Presbyterian Hospital,” for which the eponymous donor gave $100 million.
But it’s all about discouraging other rich people from donating to Republicans, lest they be demonized too. But, as a great man once said, get in their face and punch back twice as hard. You get more of what’s rewarded, and less of what’s punished. So punish this.