Monday, January 30, 2012

A simple answer to a simple question.

Eli,

You ask if I think the Koch Brothers and their allies are spending their money out of some civic-minded dogoodedness? Fair enough. I don't know. Nor do I care. There are a variety of motives why you and I are making our conversation public, and I don't think those motives are particularly relevant either. What we, and the Koch Brothers, say will be evaluated by the public, thrown into the soup of its decision-making process and votes as well as letters to representatives will be cast and written accordingly. That's the way it's supposed to work. As far as throwing around money and not getting a return, you should ask Jon Corzine in his battle against Chris Christie, Linda McMahon in Connecticut, Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman in California and Ross Perot whenever he ran for President. Plenty of contrary examples: Mike Bloomberg, Johnson in Wisconsin. But that's the point. It's a pretty high risk gamble.

Every day I am bombarded with pleas to drink Coke and Bud Light. Every day I manage to avoid those entreaties. From the moment we are born advertising tries to convince us of the efficacy and value of products, services and ideas. I believe we are rather sophisticated at separating the nonsense from the truth. If the Koch Brothers, or you and I, want to spend our time and resources convincing the public of something, I see no problem with that.

A point of clarification please. The schmedrick responsible for the lack of tolerance and respect in our politics is who?

Bill.


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