ANYWAY.
I've been giving this a fair amount of thought since the impeachment vote is tomorrow, and then
the Senate will just do away with it even though Mitt Romney is totes gonna be fair and impartial.
So, I was like, "Waitaminute. The 17th Amendment gives the electorate the right to vote for Senators." And then I was like, "Well, I listened an NPR piece about the Koch brothers, about a year ago, where those cats have as part of their platform
to repeal the 17th amendment. Huh."
They literally have a platform, which requires strategy, which requires a plan, which requires action. They're very serious about this. Like.
They're not damned around serious. So, I'm like how can they get it so it reverts to state appointment?
So, this is how I, as a Republican strategist would probably go about things - up front Ajax is a retard and you don't want to split this country apart for trade reasons (business above everything, amiright?!?!), but you do need to wage a coup.
A soft coup.
1) Gerrymandering is the key.
As discussed before on this board, NC has some of the most ridiculous gerrymandered Congressional districts. With just a little over 50% the Republicans can control, Congressionally,
10 out of 13 seats in the state of NC. Locally, my state has split Salt Lake county in half, ensuring 3 out of four districts will be red, and more often than not all four districts are red.
Think about this for a hot minute. If the state legislature is unrepresentative, and it is gerrymandering Congress, and it is appointing the Senate - what role do
you play? There are 32 Republican states (state senates), that's 64 Republican Senators which would be appointed, which is three shy of a 2/3 majority.
https://ballotpedia.org/Partisan_compos ... te_senatesWhat are the Kochs trying to do? Well, as Republicans make gains in state legislatures through serving corporate interests (they get massive campaign donations which is just a fact), and then use their legislative ability to write laws they'll carry out the hard Right's agenda (think abortion going away).
2) Stack the courts.
So, you think you can just fight bad legislation in court? Lol, no. You fight this in the court and either they've stacked them or the judges rule in your favour and they just try again and replace the judges for the next round. If it goes to the federal courts either they rule in their favour, or its litigated for so long the courts declare its too late to change.
3) Get your people into place.
I can't recall all the names the NPR piece did, but holy shitballs the Kochs have people EVERYWHERE. The VP, some of the cabinet members, and quite a few of the administration positions are staffed with the Koch brothers' people. Add key appointments to the Fed, key regulatory and oversight positions at the DoE, and a host of other federal departments like the EPA the coup is actually happening. This is some no-shit real deal Machiavellian soft coup stuff.
4) Control the data.
It should be noted the Republican strategist that designed the REDMAP gerrymandering initiative, I don't recall his name from the NPR piece:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REDMAPhas concluded the questions on the 2020 census should favour rural white citizens over others via intimidating minorities into not participating, which ensures census data would be skewed allowing for district boundaries to be further gerrymandered, as well as Electoral College votes, and federal spending to be apportioned favorably to Republican-held districts. I can't regurgitate all the nuance explained in the interview given it was so long ago, but after reading a few articles about the census recently they were right. The GOP is trying hard to get the census to be friendly toward people who support them.
It should be noted the Kochs are involved in all sorts of 1930's era Conservatism:
- 'right to work' laws
- tax cuts for the rich which not incidentally put something like a billion dollars in the Kochs' pockets
- anti Public Transit ballots
- no food stamps
- repealing the income and estate tax
- balanced budget amendment
- dropping Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, the Department of Education, and all Federal regulatory agencies like the SEC and FDA and EPA and FEC
- anti-union measures
That's all I can really think of/remember right now.
One more thing, and this is actually a shoutout to EA because he has often mentioned the 'Overton Window'. The dude who came up with the 'Overton Window' co-founded a think tank (?) which basically advances BS policies little by little and who the “F” do they jump in bed with?
The Kochs State Policy Network.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackinac_ ... lic_PolicyHow do you stop this? You can't vote them out, the gerrymandering and disenfranchisement ensure their minority has a majority of power. We have that here in SLC and experience this every two years (CHRIS damned STEWART). I think Ben McAdams is going to get lubed up and screwed hard this next round. The GOP already has $400k in their war chest.
So. Yeah. ANYWAY. I know I'm ranting like Kevin Graham right now, but we do, literally, have a lunatic in the White House that's literally advancing the Koch brothers' agenda, and I can't really see how we stop it. It's a slow-motion coup happening and it puts a lump squarely in my throat. Hrm... Maybe Ajax will get his RaHoWa after all if the Right moves too quickly. They'd be smart to take another 30 years to implement this because it seems to be working like a charm.
- Doc