The Democratic Party, especially the top leadership responsible for messaging, sucks ass. The Party is a directionless clusterf*ck, attempting to woo voters by being a slightly less vile version of the GOP. I think we can all agree on that much. Now they are going up against the Koch Bros and their $1 billion in attack ads. The bottom line is the beltway consultants who have wrecked the party are shitting themselves, and for good reason.
When news broke Monday that conservative billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch (pictured) planned to spend almost $1 billion in the 2016 campaign cycle, Democrats fretted. Not only would that hefty sum be spent against them, but there’s no comparable billionaire on the left, Democrats noted to TPM, to counter that.
The new funding means that even in a cycle more favorable to Democrats than the last, they will face extreme fundraising pressures. The significance goes beyond just the amount of money the Kochs are spending, said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at University of California at Irvine. “They also have a ground operation and can rival political parties in what they can do, both in influencing the [Republican] primary and in get out the vote and registration efforts in the general election,” Hasen wrote in an email to TPM.
The Kochs’ plan to spend $889 million through their network of 17 allied groups in the 2016 cycle would more than double the $407 million they spent in 2012. By comparison, the Republican National Committee and its Senate and House counterparts spent a total of $657 million in 2012.
“That amount of money can create all kinds of things,” said Nick Rathod, a former staffer in the Obama White House’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and founder of the State Innovation Exchange, which aims to be a liberal alternative to the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. Through their network of organizations, the Kochs can shape “an issue environment” and frame debates around issues they want to focus on.
Rathod said “to have a billion dollars to spend on any kind of debate or frame around issues I think is very scary because you can just drown out any other voice.”
If the Democrats response to this is more of the same scare tactics and pants pissing, they deserve all the electoral misery the GOP can dish out. I certainly will not be voting for “I am slightly less awful than my Republican opponent” and I wouldn’t blame anyone from avoiding the voting booth.