Americans for Prosperity, a foundation that promotes unrestrained capitalism in the name of "economic freedom," visited Overland Park on Wednesday.
Ostensibly a voter-education effort, the meeting at the Ritz Charles conference center encouraged tea-party sympathizers to mobilize against Stephene Moore, the Democrat who hopes to replace her husband, Dennis, in Congress. But the troop-mustering had be done carefully, because Americans for Prosperity is a nonprofit, and nonprofits are not supposed to be mucking around in political races.
Americans for Prosperity is an organization that libertarian billionaire David Koch founded in 2004. Koch and his brother Charles control Koch Industries, a Wichita conglomerate described as the "Standard Oil of our times" by the founder for the Center for Public Integrity in a recent New Yorker article about the Kochs and their support of right-wing causes. Their vast network of think tanks and front groups is known by some as the Kochtopus.
Derrick Sontag, the Kansas director of Americans of Prosperity, seemed to allude to the attention that Jane Mayer's New Yorker article has received. During his greeting, he rejected the premise that the people in the room had been manipulated by unnamed "fat cats," as he put it. "You are here first and foremost because you love your country," he said.
Sontag had opened the meeting by joking that the audience, predominantly white of hair and casual in dress, was a "dangerous, angry mob." He then talked about November Is Coming, an effort by Americans for Prosperity to punish politicians who supported the stimulus, health-care reform and cap-and-trade legislation, which targets air pollution.
Americans for Prosperity risks a slap from the IRS if the organization gets too politically explicit, however. So Sontag went through the charade of emphasizing the foundation's role in "educating" Kansans about where the candidates stand on the issues, which Sontag helpfully couched as "job-destroying" (in the case of cap-and-trade) and "so-called" (stimulus).
The featured guest speaker was a radiologist who opposes the health-care reform that Congress passed. Novelty aspect: He's also Barack Obama's second cousin!
Milton Wolf, who lives in Johnson County, talked about the superiority of cancer treatments in the U.S. versus the U.K. He described the Food and Drug Administration's consideration to revoke approval of a high-priced anti-cancer drug as "death panel"-type decision.
As for his famous relative, Wolf made a cheap joke about birth certificates (whoops and cheers for that one). But Wolf was mostly respectful, calling Obama a "good man" who profoundly misunderstands the proper role of government.
Once the folly of government-administrated health care was exposed, the Medicare recipients in the room received instructions on how they could support the cause of economic freedom by manning a phone bank. The Americans for Prosperity-provided script the volunteers will use nudges voters to call Stephene Moore and tell her to quit spending. This naked attempt to portray Moore as a big-government liberal caused some confusion, because Moore does not hold office -- her husband does. "She's not in yet," a woman called out from the audience during the phone-bank presentation.
Not yet and not ever, if Americans for Prosperity has its way.
Showing 1-4 of 4
I too am excited about my opportunity to vote this November as are several folks that have always maintained their 1 vote doesn't count......I think plenty of them have realized that they're not alone and their 1 vote would count if all together.
It's not a surprise to know obuma doesn't know the proper role of government. He also doesn't know the role of business. Gov't creates no value for society. obuma has never had a real job so he can't possibly connect with the value of free markets where billions of people choose daily to make their lives better through a beneficial VOLUNTARY exchange. Looking forward to November...
I don't know about Americans for Prosperity, or the Koch family, but Dennis Moore is a Obama/Pelosi "lead me by the nose" liberal. He hasn't made an actual decision on his own for quite some time. You should have read his scripted partyline response to why he voted for Obamacare. Couple that with no backbone in actually respresenting Kansas in the DADT debate. The title Representative actually implies (should imply) action backing it. Stephene just wants to continue the Congressional Health Care that no one else gets. Folks, it IS NOT what we get. Check it.
like
dislike
