WaPo: Charles Koch along with Brian Hooks founds new "Stand Together" organization, focused on 5 priorities, wants to work with Democrats and GOP

[Deleted member 17092]

It's just Koch PR to not look as bad as they are.

 

[Strike]

There has to be some kind of ulterior motive. There always is.

How do they want to bridge the difference between folks wanting to call me a nigger, and I not wanting to be called a nigger?

Click to shrink...

See, now you're just being divisive. Nothing should be off the table when debating in the marketplace of ideas.

 

[Slayven]

Translations:
1. Cut benefits to force the worst-off to work
2. Mandatory drug testing and work-for-welfare
3. School vouchers
4. Tax cuts for the rich and big business
5. Don't call racists racists

Click to shrink...

Pretty much, GOP has been all in on the "dignity of work"

 

[Deleted member 3812]

How can we eliminate the rich and wealthy from having a say in what happens to the poor and middle class?

 

[PeakPointMatrix]

can we stop killing brown and poor people and also can everyone get healthcare?

Republicans: Mmm... no.

 

[Deleted member 47942]

I'm willing to listen to policy ideas that come from this if they're rational, productive, and founded in reality. I'll concede that the Kochs did some good with some aspects of the criminal justice reform they pushed the Republicans on that was passed last year. "Broken clocks, etc."

Of course, I'm also willing to look at the Kochs as something other than a boogeyman. Whenever people start talking about them or George Soros as some modern Emperor Palpatine, my eyes roll into the back of my head.

 

[Deleted member 3812]

I'm willing to listen to policy ideas that come from this if they're rational, productive, and founded in reality. I'll concede that the Kochs did some good with some aspects of the criminal justice reform they pushed the Republicans on that was passed last year. "Broken clocks, etc."

Of course, I'm also willing to look at the Kochs as something other than a boogeyman. Whenever people start talking about them or George Soros as some modern Emperor Palpatine, my eyes roll into the back of my head.

Click to shrink...

It sounds like Charles Koch and Brian Hooks wants to bring about policy ideas that are rational, productive and founded in reality:

Stand Together, the new entity, still plans to stay out of the presidential race in 2020, and, unlike in the past, there is no public target for spending on policy and politics in the coming election cycle. I asked Hooks how they're going to deal with liberal ideas that have been gaining traction, such as Warren's proposed wealth tax of 2 percent a year on all incomes over $50 million, Sanders's Medicare-for-all plan or Andrew Yang's advocacy for a universal basic income.

"It's not as though we don't care about those issues. We do. We just want to be effective in how we engage on them," Hooks said. "I think the best way to challenge a bad idea is with a good idea. In the absence of good ideas, people are prone to gravitate towards bad ideas – even ideas that have been proven failures for decades every time they've been tried. None of these are new ideas. We'll continue to make the case for what we see as the best policy in every arena where that case needs to be made, but ultimately there's a real problem that people are concerned about, and we think the best way to address that is by offering an actionable alternative. That's what this future initiative does."

Click to shrink...

 

[phonicjoy]

It sounds like Charles Koch and Brian Hooks wants to bring about policy ideas that are rational, productive and founded in reality:

Click to shrink...

Sounds like "access to healthcare" to me.

 

[Deleted member 3812]

Well, I guess we will need to wait and actually see what happens. Charles Koch was one of the people who worked with Van Jones on U.S criminal justice reform and pushed through the bipartisan reform bill that was ultimately signed by Trump that had a lot of criminal justice reform supporters saying the bill was a great step forward towards reforming the criminal justice system.

 

[Slayven]

I'm willing to listen to policy ideas that come from this if they're rational, productive, and founded in reality. I'll concede that the Kochs did some good with some aspects of the criminal justice reform they pushed the Republicans on that was passed last year. "Broken clocks, etc."

Of course, I'm also willing to look at the Kochs as something other than a boogeyman. Whenever people start talking about them or George Soros as some modern Emperor Palpatine, my eyes roll into the back of my head.

Click to shrink...

Kinda of a false equivalency. The Kochs pretty much what the right project Soros to be and a learn part of the reason the political landscape is in the shape it is.

 

[zashga]

It's just sugarcoating the usual stuff:
1) Jobs. Both parties shout this from the rooftops.
2) War on Drugs.
3) Charter schools.
4) Tax cuts.
5) Civility.

Click to shrink...

Yep. This is the same old conservative schtick. Right down to the "we'd love to work together with liberals, honest" line.

Impressively gormless reporting by WaPo here.

 

[Everybody Lies]

So one of the top ten polluters in the country that funded the divide and astroturfed the tea party want to offer a hand across the aisle to fix the problem they created? Nah, we're good.

Go fuck yourself, Chuck. You don't get to polish up that legacy on the way out. The harm you have wrought on this nation is irredeemable in my eyes and you deserve the stain from it. Your money and glossy pitches won't change the harm you've caused and we will remember.

Also, people need to stop looking to billionaires to fix things. Most of them have no idea how you live and don't care about you. They will certainly use you though.

 

[¡ B 0 0 P !]

By giving you ear muffs, that way, everyone is happy.

Click to shrink...

Excuse me, giving away earmuffs!? That's socialism! They'd sell you earmuffs for a great low, low price of $19.99! Buy Now!

This proposal is a PR campaign/propaganda. The rich are embarrassed by Trump's boorish stupidity. More importantly they are threatened by his endless trade wars and crackdowns on illegal immigration. Worst of all the Trump era has seen a rise in socialism on the left. The Democratic Party becoming dominated by leftists is terrifying for them.

However they love Trump's tax cuts, his attacks on Obamacare, and his judge picks. So hence this organization claiming unity and centrism. Centrism always being of course tax cuts, smaller government, free trade, and less regulations with the only liberal things included being tolerance and civility.

The wealthy GOP oligarchs don't give a crap if gay marriage is legal, but they do give a crap that minimum wage laws exist.

 

[Vic Damone Jr.]

It really hurts their self esteem if their net worth takes a hit. The guillotine will never come in America (white citizens will always protect them from violence) so they don't fear that as much as networth plummeting. They would rather kill
half the planet before facing the potential embarrassment of being reduced to double digit millionaires.

Click to shrink...

Exactly. I just really don't know why they're so afraid though. Majority of people are perfectly fine with the status quo.

 

[UCBooties]

"Help neighbors beat poverty and addiction" means pushing for people to rely on private charity so that publicly funded safety nets can be removed.

 

[Penny Royal]

Yeah, I'd totally trust a person who has spent decades building up a network of right-wing law schools, colleges & political consultancies and whose driving philosophy is the work of James Buchanan to be remotely interested in the well-being of the working class.

As said above, this is clearly based on a recognition that the current income disparity is reaching the point where historically rulers have ended up with their heads in baskets.

 

[fontguy]

I trust this.

 

[Kasey]

Hug it out and bow to our billionaire overlords.