Letters: Scapegoating the Koch brothers

Re “In campaigns, Democrats target Kochs,” April 4

So the mudslinging begins.

Billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch are no more guilty of buying influence or pushing a partisan agenda than are George Soros, big labor, the Hollywood elites or any number of others who wish to advance the Democratic Party’s agenda.

In any case, why are the Democrats so worried about the Koch brothers? Is their collective memory so short that they’ve forgotten that President Obama raised and spent more than $1 billion in the 2012 election, and that he has twice eschewed public financing because of the restrictions it would impose on his own fundraising efforts?

W. Adrian Sauvageot

Tustin

There is an easy way to get politicians off their Koch addiction.

In the U.S., the airwaves belong to the public. The use of the airwaves is free and worth more than half a trillion dollars. We could simply, in exchange for this bonanza, ask broadcasters to offer free airtime to political candidates.

Presto, problem solved — no more special interests buying our representatives.

Too utopian, you say? It is being done successfully in Britain, France, Belgium and Ireland, where paid political ads are forbidden and the media have to offer candidates free spots to present their platforms.

Marie Matthews

San Pedro

What is worse, that the Koch brothers spend millions annually to buy elections and then complain when they are called out for it, or that about half of Americans polled do not know who the Koch brothers are?

Until voters take the time to inform themselves thoroughly by, for example, reading a national newspaper every day, they will get the government they deserve, even if a very large number of elected representatives act contrary to the best interests of the wishful masses who put them in office.

Bruce R. Feldman

Santa Monica

Charles Koch calls what the Democrats are doing character assassination. It isn’t; it’s character revelation. People deserve to know the powerful people behind the Republican puppets in Congress.

More disturbing than Koch’s feigned outrage is that only 48% of surveyed voters even know who these plutocrats are. Sadly, I suspect not even that many know the definition of “plutocracy,” much less recognize the danger it poses.

Paul Jackson

Chatsworth

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