Charles Koch Achieved His Political Goals, and We Are All Suffering For It

By Patrick Diehl

On May Day this year, the hyperbillionaire Charles Koch gave a little speech as he accepted an
award from the libertarian Cato Institute, which he cofounded back in 1977.

In his speech, he deplored the “mess we are [in] today.”

Entirely missing from his speech, it appears, was any acknowledgement of his significant
contribution to that “mess.”

Protestors from Climate Defiance were present to remind him of the climate change doubt and
denial piece of that contribution. And indeed, Koch’s active promotion of climate change doubt
and denial dates back to at least 1991, when the issue was not yet a political football. (He helped
change that.)

But his role in creating the present “mess” goes well beyond climate change denialism and the
resulting inaction that has exacerbated (among much else) the megadrought we are suffering
from in Arizona. Over the decades, he has used his personal wealth (currently estimated at
around $65 billion) to create a formidable political influence machine that fosters enmity toward
government and support for anti-government politicians and policies. Unfortunately, he and his
libertarian allies seem not to have reckoned on the power or the darkness of the popular passions
(such as resentment, frustration, cruelty, hatred, and racial hysteria) that they have helped to stir
up.

It is true that Koch has no love for Donald Trump. It is also true that his actions, and his money,
have contributed to creating the social and political conditions that have twice put Trump into the
White House. For instance, Koch’s promotion of climate change doubt and denial—basically,
lies and misinformation—has undoubtedly been a factor in the creation (and hardening) of the
“information bubble” inside which Trump’s MAGA followers are trapped. The “MAGA-
fication” of the old Republican Party can also be laid in part at Koch’s door, thanks to his
longstanding support of hard-right Republican candidates so long as they supported him on his
pet libertarian issues, which has favored the growing extremism of the party and the silencing of
any less extreme voices. And his support of litigious think tanks like the Goldwater Institute in
Phoenix hasn’t helped.

The result has been the savagely polarized, clenched-teeth ANGRY America in which we all
now live. Despite the grim history of the 20 th Century (and the start of the 21 st ), Koch seems not
to have reckoned on the “unintended consequences” of helping to set people against each other.
Or, to put it another way, of setting out to let the genie out of the bottle when you have little or
no idea of what the genie, once released, will be like.

Well, we, including Mr. Koch, are now finding out. In his speechlet in May, Koch
deplored people’s abandonment of “principles” (left unspecified). No doubt these “principles”
include a rejection of tariffs in general, and of Trump’s tariffs in particular. One suspects (or at least hopes) that they also include adherence to the rule of law, which Trump’s blizzard of illegal
and unconstitutional actions manifestly threatens. And possibly support for science (Koch is an
MIT grad). Koch did not comment on Elon Musk’s concurrent government-wrecking expedition,
but perhaps he is now reflecting, as he ought to, that wrecking may produce—not the brave new
world of the libertarian imagination—but just wreckage.

Dangerous times—and Charles Koch, whether he is capable of seeing it or not, has helped make
them so.