Koch Brothers: Money Can't Solve Our Problems

I know money’s what makes the world go around – but is it the key to beating a constitutionally corrupt president?

If so, then this weekend’s three-day retreat in California, attended by some of the richest billionaires (is there really a poor billionaire?) is a step in the right direction.

The Huffington Post reports (read full story here) David and Charles Koch of Koch Industries pledged a combined $60M to defeat Barack Obama in the upcoming election. Some 250-300 other billionaires made the remainder of a pledge drive netting 100 million bucks to the overall effort (and what does it say, really that the majority of the pledges came from two men?).

To this I say, ‘Thank you billionaires for holding yourselves up in a plush hotel all weekend, buying out all the restaurants so you wouldn’t be discovered AND sitting around on overstuffed couches plotting how to take back the country … then deciding all you really had to do was throw a hundred million dollars into the fight and you’ve done your job.’

If it were really that easy (and if we all had that kind of dough to throw around at our problems) … then would we really be in this predicament right now?

Money helps, don’t get me wrong. It’s noted Obama will have more than $1 billion in support for his reelection. And these generous donations by the Koch brothers and others allow us to get our message out there on billboards across America (ugh I have a story to write about a billboard here in Va that disgusts me … but another time); television stations in prime time and also gets us bombarded with email campaigns that basically end up in our SPAM folders.

These are all mediums we have learned to turn off. We run to get popcorn during commercials. We turn our radios down or change the channel when ads come on. And hopefully, we’re keeping our eyes on the road when driving and the billboards end up in our blind spot.

Continue to throw money after bad advertising and all we get are turned-off constituents who don’t know any more about our agenda than what they hear on Jon Stewart, Jay Leno and David Letterman. They think all they’re going to get in our leaflets or info packs is a bunch of negative campaigning, empty promises and rich-boy rhetoric …

It’s sobering when you think 100 million additional dollars doesn’t really make us any closer to winning a presidential election we so desperately need to get this country back on course. It’s damning … and all we can do (including me, the rich dudes in California and yes … even you) if we indeed can’t retake the White House this round, is point our fingers at ourselves for not using the common sense given to us to move along our cause.

Most of us of the conservative mindset are not rich. We’re not able to sit down and write enormous checks at all. But we can talk. We can stand up for what’s right in political circles and we also can make sure people know the truth about this government.

It pains me to no end to criticize an industry I love so dearly, but when I look at the liberal media now – it is sickening to see the bias and sensationalism. I know the media’s tactics. I’ve been involved in TV, newspapers and online for many years – back to when it was frowned upon to insert even an ounce of personal opinion into a story. Now, opinion , disgust, inflection and emotion rule a segment and taint real-life truth in “news” reporting. The media today isn’t going to give us the platform we need to get these points across.

Our candidates’ spots on Meet the Press or even during the debates do little to actually help us gain grown in the quicksand of politics. We’re sinking. And the people have got to take this election into their own hands.

The average voter does not take the time to watch multiple news sources or read more than one opinion on a political topic. In fact, they don’t even take time in most cases to research the Washington DC water-cooler chitchat. It converts to ‘fact’ and substance.

This doesn’t necessarily make people gullible … it makes them busy.

People of this country are thirsty for info in non-traditional ways because the traditional ways have become cynical, sensational and sometimes just horrifically stupid.

So … it’s up to us to be the evangelists of the change we want to make and need to make to keep this world safe and our country prosperous. Stop playing to people’s fears but speak truth, change and patriotism.

Rich dudes, take this cash and pay for people to get time off work and go door to door to talk to those who are undecided. Use the cash to throw a few big rallies for undecideds who can get their questions and concerns answered.  Organize a few bus tours of average joes and joannas to college campuses to help along the youth who really need to step up and take a stand for their future. …

… Step out from behind your check-writing desks and hit the pavement yourself. Use your notoriety for something besides throwing more campaign money down the drain. Show you’re willing to put money, action and reality behind your cause.

Time is running out. And it looks more and more like if we can’t get this election sewn up, we only have ourselves to blame for not doing all we can right now to turn the tables. And to truly make tables turn, we need all hands on deck … not just all money in the bank.