Top Koch Strategist Argues the Minimum Wage Leads Directly to Fascism Posted: 09/03/2014 9:04 Am EDT Updated: 09/03/2014 10:59 Pm EDT

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Lauren Windsor Becom e a fan [email protected] Top Koch Strategist Argues The Minimum Wage Leads Directly To Fascism Posted: 09/03/2014 9:04 am EDT Updated: 09/03/2014 10:59 pm EDT

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S hare Twe e t Share Co mme nt Definitive Proof T hat T ed Nugent Is A Dick At a political strategy summit hosted on June 16 by the conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, Richard Fink, their top political strategist, told the private audience that when he sees someone “on the street” he says, “Get off your ass, and work hard like we did.” Fink's anecdote came during his presentation titled “The Long-Term Strategy: Engaging the Middle Third,” which capped off a session of four speeches detailing the intellectual foundation of Charles Koch’s political ideology. Audio of the event was obtained by The Undercurrent and shared exclusively with The Huffington Post. New 'Human Barbie' Says She's T he T oy Of Controlling Parents Charles Koch opened the session by laying out his grand vision for the conference; Dr. Victor Hanson, a military historian, described the nature of the threat of collectivism; and Dr. Will Ruger, vice president of research and policy at the Charles Koch Institute, discussed the features of a free society. Fink rounded out the set, outlining the path to achieve the goals of deregulation and limited government. The message, he said, should focus on intent, meaning, and well-being. Women Answer Questions Of the four speeches, Fink’s was the longest and the most candid, offering About Sexual Arousal T hat Men observations on fascism, environmentalism, and the application of business May Be T oo Scared T o Ask marketing principles to the Koch brothers' political messaging. His statements were not offhand remarks, but rather should be seen as representative of the Kochs, as he was hailed as their “grand strategist” by emcee Kevin Gentry in the proceedings and sits on the boards of several of their organizations. Full transcripts are available here. Spo nso red Links Messages left for Koch, Fink and Ruger with Koch Industries and the Best Anti Aging For Men Charles Koch Institute were not Jonathan Rhys Meyers Apologizes After T roubling Men, How To Reduce The Look of returned. Wrinkles, Sagging Skin and Fine Photos Emerge Lines TheModernMan.Today Collectivism: Framing Liberals as Fascists How She Avoids a Facelift In his speech titled “American 74 year old making waves after Courage: Our Commitment to a outsmarting plastic surgeons and Free Society,” Charles Koch echoed saving healthylivinglifeguide.com an op-ed he wrote earlier this year Buy a link here in the Wall Street Journal in both his T atum O'Neal Reveals A paranoia and self-pity. The Surprise Fact About Her billionaire oil industrialist, hosting some of the most powerful men in Sexuality Washington, without irony claimed in his speech that he and his brother were “put squarely in front of the firing squad.” He later framed the path ahead for America as a binary choice between freedom and collectivism, a catchall term he used to describe liberalism, socialism, and fascism.

Koch refrained from drawing explicit parallels to fascists, but his lieutenants did not. (Perhaps he learned from a past audio leak wherein he seemed to liken President Barack Obama to Saddam Hussein.) Ruger warned that liberalism sets society on a march toward the fate of totalitarian North Korea. Mama June T hreatens T o Sue T LC If T hey Don't Cancel '19 “We clearly see the diﬀerence between free societies and collectivist regimes Kids And Counting' in this nighttime satellite image of the Korean peninsula, where the collectivist north is literally in the dark due to its poverty,” said Ruger. “This is what collectivism gives you.”

This conﬂation was a running theme throughout the session, articulated in large part by grand strategist Fink. An economist by training, he pointed to psychology to explain the dangers of raising the minimum wage vis á vis totalitarianism. Priest Fired As Seton Hall “Psychology shows that is the main recruiting ground for totalitarianism, for Chaplain Comes Out As Gay fascism, for conformism, when people feel like they’re victims,” said Fink. “So the big danger of minimum wage isn’t the fact that some people are being paid more than their value-added -- that’s not great. It’s not that it’s hard to stay in business -- that’s not great, either. But it’s the 500,000 people that will not have a job because of minimum wage.”

He continued, “We’re taking these 500,000 people that would’ve had a job, and putting them unemployed, making dependence part of government programs, and destroying their opportunity for earned success. And so we Dan Savage Points Out Hypocrisy Of Duggar Family see this is a very big part of recruitment in Germany in the '20s.” Values “If you look at the Third -- the rise and fall of the Third Reich, you can see that,” Fink said. “And what happens is a fascist comes in and offers them an opportunity, finds the victim -- Jews or the West -- and offers them meaning for their life, OK?”

Fink cited the historical examples of Nazi Germany and communist Russia and China to segue to terrorism. “This is not just in Germany. It's in Russia, in Lenin, and Stalin Russia, and then Mao,” said Fink. “This is the recruitment Cher Is Right About T he ISIS War ground for fascism, and it's not just historical. It's what goes on today in the - - in the suicide bomber recruitment.”

Lack of Meaning in Life Leads to Environmentalism

Fink’s commentary on collectivism led to observations on the psychological underpinnings of the environmental movement. According to Fink, in the same way that lack of meaning in life leads to terrorism, it leads to environmentalism. Oh No T hey Didn't! T he 12 Craziest New Baby Names “The environmental movement. Occupy Wall Street. These kids are searching for meaning. They're protesting the 1 percent. They are the 1 percent, but they're protesting the 1 percent. The environmental movement and climate change. It's not about climate change.

I studied climate change for six years. I can't ﬁgure it out, quite frankly. Charles is ahead of me on this. I'm not a climatologist, but I'm not completely stupid. I can tell you I meet with people, particularly in California, that are convinced the world is going to burn up in you know, a year or two. They convinced the world is going to burn up in you know, a year or two. They don't know the answer -- they don't even know the question, because it's FOLLOW HUFFPOST not about climate change. It's about a cause. It gives their life meaning.”

Fink's statement that he's not a climatologist is notable considering both his education and employment. Koch Industries is a leading proponent of climate Email Address Sign me up! change skepticism. David Koch has posited that climate change may turn out to be good for humankind in that longer growing seasons would support The Morning Email Politics greater food production. And Charles Koch was on the board of a direct Get top stories and blog posts emailed to me predecessor of the Institute for Energy Research, a group that defends oil each day.. industry tax subsidies. Despite his actions, Charles Koch railed against this type of behavior during the seminar. “So to truly help the poor and the THE HUFFPOST/YOUGOV POLL economy, we have to eliminate cronyism,” he said. “We have to eliminate welfare for the rich.”

Fink also pointed to blocking cap and trade as a success of the Koch network, appearing to give it equal weight to their success in flipping the House of Representatives. Cap and trade, a market-based approach to curbing carbon emissions, was first implemented on a large scale during George H.W. Bush’s administration to combat acid rain. The measure, derided by the tea party as “cap and tax,” died in Congress in 2010, chiefly as a result of staunch oil industry opposition. Later that year, the movement would claim victory in the historic landslide election that turned the House of Representatives over to Republican control. Both Koch Industries and David Koch have previously been reluctant to acknowledge any involvement in the early days of the tea party movement, though Americans for Prosperity has fueled much of its rise. AFP was founded by David Koch and is the primary vehicle of the brothers’ political activity.

Applying Business Marketing to Political Messaging

Fink described the diﬀerences between the three thirds of the electorate -- the "freedom" third, the "collectivist" third, and the non-ideological middle third of voters, whose recruitment he said is crucial for the Koch network’s success. “Mitt Romney won on leadership. He won on the economy. He won on experience,” Fink said. “What did he lose on? He lost on care and intent. Intent is extremely important.”

Fink spoke at length about the appearance of the Koch network’s motives to the middle third, and the business-oriented solutions for improving its political brand.

“Yeah, we want to decrease regulations. Why? It’s because we can make more proﬁt, OK? Yeah, cut government spending so we don’t have to pay so much taxes,” said Fink. “There’s truth in that, you all know, because we’re in the 30 percent of the freedom ﬁghters. But the middle part of the country doesn’t see it that way.”

“When we focus on decreasing government spending, over-criminalization, decreasing taxes, it doesn’t do it, OK? We’ve been reaching the third by telling them what’s important -- what we think is important should be important to them. And they’re not responding and don’t like it, OK? Well, we get business -- what do we do? We want to ﬁnd out what the customer wants, right, not what we want them to buy,” he said.

Fink concluded that if the brothers' network could solve its messaging problem, it would “earn the respect and good feeling through the middle third.” He also held up the Koch partnership with the United Negro College Fund as emblematic of their strategy.

This article has been updated to specify more precisely Charles Koch's part in the founding of the Institute for Energy Research.

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