Could it be a grudge they've held for 80 years? Or is it simply that communism doesn't fully support the constitutional right to free speech?
Whatever the case, the Communist Party USA is attacking the Koch brothers, Charles and David, the entrepreneurs whose billions of dollars in wealth and conservative vision for the future of the United States have made them a constant bull's-eye for criticism from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.
Dozens of times Reid has ranted on the floor of the U.S. Senate about the perceived evils of the private business owners and their involvement in the American political process.
Now, in alignment with Reid's disdain for the Kochs, the Communist Party USA has issued a solicitation for a petition to knock down the U.S. Supreme Court's "Citizen United" decision that determined speech in political campaigns cannot be censored arbitrarily.
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The campaign positions the CPUSA as a backup for Reid's attacks on the brothers.
Reid, before the Democrats lost their majority in the U.S. Senate last fall, even posted on his Senate.gov government website a a series of "facts" about the brothers.
He stated "the Kochs spent $400 million on misleading attack ads in the last election cycle." And he claimed they "are trying to dismantle our public education system." He further charged the Kochs "made improper payments to win contracts in Africa, India and the Middle East" and "sold millions of dollars of equipment to Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism."
Politico opined last year Reid's "unscripted attacks can veer into bellicosity and take liberties with facts."
Reid, according to Politico, appeared "to blame billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch for the government shutdown."
"His staff affectionately refers to such ad libs as Reid 'getting out ahead of his skis,' but the professional left, which had spent years agitating for a high-level Democratic campaign against the Kochs, cheered and urged him on," Politico said.
Last year, from January to July, the report said Reid mentioned the Kochs "in 22 separate floor speeches, calling them out about 250 times, either by name (including referring to them as 'Charlie and Dave') or allusion ('two power-drunk billionaires'), and blaming them for all manner of ills including holding up aid to Ukraine."
"Reid's attacks have drawn cries of McCarthyism from around the political world, including MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and Mother Jones editor Daniel Schulman. And they've even created discomfort among liberal big-money donors and operatives, who worry the argument might expose them to charges of hypocrisy, while they also question the effectiveness of running against donors who won't appear on any ballots," the report said.
Koch officials responded at the time by citing the company's employment of 60,000 Americans. They also chided Reid for "waging war on private citizens and seeking to curtail their First Amendment rights of free speech, association and assembly."
So now the CPUSA is joining the attack campaign against the Kochs, who could not be reached by WND directly Tuesday.
"Did you know that the Koch brothers are planning to spend almost $1 billion on next year's presidential election?" the CPUSA email asks. "We are writing to urge you to join the campaign to overturn Citizen United. Please sign a petition to Congress."
80-year-old dispute
Remarkably, the political disagreement between the Koch family and communists dates back to the 1930s.
That was when family patriarch Fred Koch collected an early part of his fortune by building refineries in the Soviet Union, according to a PBS documentary on the family and its influence.
But he quickly saw the failings of communism and, according to the report, was so fearful that the U.S. would become socialist, he taught his sons to distrust big government.
The report said Fred Koch, while working in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, "became convinced of the evils of communism and instilled in his sons an aversion to government intrusion."
"As David said of their father in a 2012 interview with The Wichita Eagle newspaper in Kansas, he 'was extraordinarily fearful of our government becoming much more socialistic and domineering. … So from the time we were teenagers to the present, we’ve been very concerned and worried about our government evolving into a very controlling, socialist type of government.'"
The Communist Party cited its own publication's assertion that the Koch brothers now "are able to decide the results of elections throughout the country."
John Wojcik of the daily People's World wrote that the New York Times claimed the Kochs "have vowed to use their web of tax-exempt organizations to spend one billion dollars to get their candidates of choice elected in 2016."
The party email, signed by Joelle Fishman of the CPUSA Political Action Commission, said readers should join the move to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision and urge their friends and neighbors to do the same.
People's World said the brothers "held secret meetings in Palm Springs recently" with Republicans Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
The Koch brothers, whose fortune is estimated to be about $40 billion or more each, inherited their father's Wichita, Kansas, company and turned it into the second largest privately held company in the U.S.
Its products range from fertilizer and Dixie cups to electronics and jet fuel.
Advocates for a more socialist United States constantly criticize them for contributing from their wealth to conservative causes and candidates.
PBS said the amount of political donations by the Kochs isn't available because of the network of organizations they use.
But Reuters said this week an "eye-popping" figure of $900 million emerged regarding what the brothers' "political network" will spend during the 2016 cycle.
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