The Narrative of the Koch Brothers Tapes: The Debate We Have to Have
Mitch McConnell, speaking of the Republican Party, said, “I want to start by thanking you, Charles and David, for the important work you’re doing. I don’t know where we’d be without you.” Joni Ernst made absolutely clear, multiple times, that she would never had a chance to win her primary without the donors in the room. Tom Cotton thanked the billionaire financiers for reviving the Republican party in his state, and Cory Gardner begged them to invest heavily not only in Colorado but in the entire Rocky Mountain region, which was “ripe” for them to come in and exploit.
In fact, McConnell does know where his Republican Party would be without the Kochs and their network of millionaire and billionaire donors — nowhere. Saddled with a deeply unpopular economic and social agenda, locked down by a primary electorate that won’t allow even occasional forays into moderate policy or rhetoric, crippled by demographic trends that are making their voting base smaller and smaller, Republicans have lost the popular vote six of the last seven presidential elections. Without the Koch money, there would have been no tea party movement or 2010 tidal wave. Without the Koch money, the 2012 presidential race wouldn’t have even been competitive. Without the Kochs’ attack ads, most of the Senate races that are currently closely fought would be trending Democratic. The only thing keeping the Republicans in the game is the Kochs and their big-money friends dumping hundreds of millions of dollars ($290 million this cycle according to some accounts, $500 million according to at least one source) into the pot, and McConnell and other party leaders know it.