Do the Democrats have a Koch brothers equivalent?

[CozyMystery]

Forgive my ignorance.

I am alarmed by the amount of money the Koch brothers plan to spend on the 2018 election, around $400 million, according to WAPO.

Thank you.

[YCHDT]

1. IKR !?!!? I would love some of America's allies to side with this country instead of Red Don

[dalton99a]

2. Dunno, but Soros always sent me a big check for showing up at a Democratic meeting

Come to think of it, I forgot to cash some of them

[Initech]

7. I heard George Clooney pays better and gives us paid vacation.

[dalton99a]

8. Thanks for the tip

I'll shoot Soros a secret message next time I use the microwave. Pretty sure he can counteroffer

[Elwood P Dowd]

3. According to the repukes, George Soros spends tens of billions of dollars a year

on Democratic activities. He finances every single demonstrator at every single rally. He gives truckloads of money to every single group opposed to republicans. He has more money than all the billionaires in the world combined. Hell, he even spent billions to pay people not to attend Trump's inauguration just so he could claim Obama had a bigger crowd. The man owns a printing press.

[Amishman]

4. Yup, Mr. Soros is a big patron of progressives

He's just a little quieter about his works than the Kochs are with their dealings

[Igel]

5. They're out of touch.

Soros was a big supporter of Democratic or progressive causes for a while, and did chuck a helluva lot of money that way. This is '90s and '00s.

It always struck me that he wasn't so much a hardcore partisan as that he had certain policy goals and initiatives he wanted to achieve, and they were aligned with (D) or progressive goals at the time. It was overlooked that he made a ton of money doing illiberal things or that quite a few of his views disagreed with some commonly held (D) or progressive views. Our focus was narrowed: You're either for us or against us in those things which matter most to us right now, and if you're for us then other "not for us so therefore against us" things aren't noticed; if you're against us on those points, then "other not against us so for us" in other matters isn't noticed. (We all have political foveas.)

The Kochs are the same, but on the other side. I don't think they support (R) because they're (R), I think they support (R) when it meets their views and goals and not when it doesn't. Thing is, it's the same as for Soros: When a Koch foundation grant goes to set up a prison education system to help re-integrate ex-felons into society by giving them job skills and college credit, we don't notice it so it doesn't exist. When they do something involving shipping coke-production by-products overseas, that's what we talk about.

We all like simplifying things into "they're all good or all bad," of having only jedi masters on our side and only Sith lords on theirs.

[hunter]

6. You mean demon spawn from hell?

I hope not.

[Skittles]

9. repukes scream SOROS, but they are full of shit

meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of idiots voting repuke could not tell you who the Koch brothers are

[stevenleser]

10. Two big differences between the Koch brothers and Soros who I see brought up here a lot...

... Difference 1 - It's pretty easy to get on the Koch brothers dole. They have a ton of organizations and they recruit like mad. In the pundit world you see a ton of folks who are funded, ahem, excuse me, hired and working for a Koch brothers funded organization. They are all over the media.

Try and get hired by a Soros funded organization. Sure, there are folks out there who have done it, but it's a much more difficult proposition.

The result is that there is a huge Conservative farm team out there that the Koch brothers have produced.

Difference 2 - Koch brothers organizations have historically had a much bigger impact. I love me some Media Matters, ACLU and Human Rights Watch, but they don't have the impact in politics that Heritage, Cato Institute and AEI have.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_projects_supported_by_George_Soros


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_brothers#Organizations

[CozyMystery]

11. Thank you for replying. This situation sucks.