Charles Koch Screams to be Understood on the pages of the WSJ

And now, with an income of billions you want us to believe you are intimidated by people writing about what you have, provably, done? It is time to grow up and stop whining about Saul Alinsky when you obviously studied him and began using his techniques yourself, along with those of Edward Bernays and others. 
 

To quote you, “I have devoted most of my life to understanding the principles that enable people to improve their lives. It is those principles—the principles of a free society—that have shaped my life, my family, our company and America itself. “

And family? That is enough to make me laugh. Your grandfather came to the US, not for freedom, but to be a part of the gilded age.  He wanted to get rich and saw ordinary Americans as marks to be picked dry. That, is your real heritage. 
 
Men like, him, and you, have destroyed the freedoms won by people who fought the Revolution, living out a direct and often harsh understanding of the will for freedom which drew them to the New World. They died to make us free, paying for their own guns, powder and balls. These are some of my people and we remember. Do not pretend this is your heritage.
 
Business is something people do, a way to improve the time and be productive – as long as no one is harmed by our actions. 
 

Your life choices have destroyed our freedom. You miss the enormous distinction between living the principles and a rhetoric intended to deceive. 
 
If I had not been subjected to these same lies while active in the Libertarian Party it is possible I could be brought to believe your vehement protestations. But I was there, experiencing the frustration of seeing the work we had done destroyed by your paid flunkey, Ed Crane, who you placed as an employee at CATO, and who worked for you as an agent for centralizing control of our movement. Your arrogance is both unseemly and vile. 
 
What you and Crane put us through was bewildering, anguishing, demeaning. And we did not know then it would only get worse. 
 
Today Americans are losing their homes to a corrupt system of banks and financial institutions which follow the principles for deceit you lived. People, real people, are dying and in danger of life-altering diseases because of the 'Koch Methods,' used to run Koch Industries. 
 
There is no dignity or moral credit here for you to hide behind. Our rights and freedom are under constant attack because of the real principles you have lived. Those are – More for you, more for you, more for you. And some for David, too. 
 
Rhetorical maundering mean nothing if you are not making the words real through action.
Growing numbers of Americans every day are becoming more desperate and willing to follow in the steps of our Founders, standing up for their rights and freedom againstsuch men as yourself.
A free society is based on the internally held power of the individual, knowing they can care for themselves, families, and others in communities where they live. All of us need to look inward for strength, not to government or a corporation for charity. 
 
Also required is a secure confidence in courts which deliver justice, accountability for everyone, not just those who lawyer up and use their political connections to evade the corrective impact of a real justice. 
 
You are, yourself, a big government, a wealthy nation of Greed with 60,000 subjects. Evading every attempt to exact accountability has been your own, personal, goal all of your life. 
 
Remember Danielle Dawn Smalley and Jason Stone? Their families will never forget you. 
 
Thomas Jefferson said too, “No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.”

Equal rights are the ground on which all of us stand when we hold our own power inside.
When you neglected the upkeep of your pipelines you consigned Danielle and Jason to a hideous death. Was the sting of punitive damages a violation of your rights? No, it was simple justice you used political connections to evade. 
 
Don't bother to deny how you have worked like a little beaver, employing so many to assist you, in rigging the system. We know. 
 
I suspect we only know of a few of your deceits, manipulations, and ugly thefts of the health of ordinary Americans. Our knowledge is imperfect, but soon you will stand before one who knows everything. 
 
When I first started researching you and your former employee, Ed Crane, years ago, I fast discovered most people are terrified of crossing you because of the 'consequences' you exact. Would you like to tell us about the cost plus contracts you have gotten from government? The man who told me would not let me use his name, but he obviously needed to talk about your 'methods.' He was not as explicit as those cited in the Bloomberg article, but I recognized the strategy, experienced personally as a Libertarian, when I read the article. 
 
As the son of a multimillionaire and now a billionaire yourself, you have always been able to immunize yourself both from criticism and avoid confronting the reality of your own actions. That has now ended, I hope in time for you to get right between yourself and God. There are some reckonings which will come, no matter how much money you pile up on Earth. 
 
Americans could have clean energy today if you and your friends had not worked so diligently to stop us from climbing off your grid, one of so many. Don't think no one noticed. 
 
I'll let my partner in Green Field's Renewal, Dave Lincoln, comment on your safety record. Dave is a geoengineer who left the petroleum industry, disgusted at what he saw as standard practices for all the majors in your industry in 1996.


Dave's Safety Report on Koch Industries-
You flunked, despite the awards you give yourself.


And you said – “Far from trying to rig the system, I have spent decades opposing cronyism and all political favors, including mandates, subsidies and protective tariffs—even when we benefit from them. I believe that cronyism is nothing more than welfare for the rich and powerful, and should be abolished.

Koch Industries was the only major producer in the ethanol industry to argue for the demise of the ethanol tax credit in 2011. That government handout (which cost taxpayers billions) needlessly drove up food and fuel prices as well as other costs for consumers—many of whom were poor or otherwise disadvantaged. Now the mandate needs to go, so that consumers and the marketplace are the ones who decide the future of ethanol.”

Careful, your nose is growing. 
 
Let me explain something to you, in your gilded tower in Wichita, Kansas. Perhaps you have been so busy with Dorothy, Toto and the Ruby Red Slippers some relevant facts have evaded your notice. 
 
Freedom Matters
What Americans have lost is confidence in themselves, the knowledge they can take care of their families and communities. Once, they had it built through lifetimes which proved this to be true. This is what we were trying to accomplish with the Libertarian Party when you decided it would make a great tool for your own plans. 
 
Did you think Crane cared about freedom? Crane is not a libertarian, he is just a libertine. He has used his position as your flunky to become wealthy, not work for freedom. 
 
If you want to grow an oak tree you must start with an acorn. A free people must free themselves and for this to happen the power must be re-established and renewed, by the people, at the most local level. 
 
I knew we had to rebuild America from the roots by getting people to do it locally. Your money washed all thoughts of real change out of the equation, focusing attention on how to make a living selling services you wanted. Money can also be toxic. 
 
And your money was carefully directed to the use of Ed Crane, wasn't it? They got big salaries and developed even bigger egos, which they still have today. 
 
Privatizing is not the word which was accurate or appropriate. The right word is 'corporatizing.' This different way of looking at our rights shaved off tiny pieces of them, to be commodified by government. Again, this is just making money by incrementally making people less free. 
 
How did you expect people to govern themselves, if they did not learn by re-establishing their own rights and power locally? I heard Crane and his cronies talk about 'fooling people into being free.” but I can see you all shared this same bizarre idea.

You said, “Instead of fostering a system that enables people to help themselves, America is now saddled with a system that destroys value, raises costs, hinders innovation and relegates millions of citizens to a life of poverty, dependency and hopelessness. This is what happens when elected officials believe that people's lives are better run by politicians and regulators than by the people themselves. Those in power fail to see that more government means less liberty, and liberty is the essence of what it means to be American. Love of liberty is the American ideal.”