April 23, 2020 10:19 AM UTC

Koch Empire Commendably Refuses To Help Kill Americans

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Politico’s Maggie Severns reports–the most powerful “astroturf” conservative political group on the ground in Colorado, the nationwide Americans For Prosperity organization funded heavily by the Koch network of right-wing philanthropy, made a decision regarding the recent far-right protests demanding an immediate reopening of the U.S. economy during the COVID-19 pandemic that might surprise our readers:

Americans for Prosperity — the main political arm of the Koch family — decided not to join some of its former collaborators from the tea party movement, such as FreedomWorks, in embracing the protests…

The move reflects a dramatic shift in tactics within the network, which in the past has spent hundreds of millions of dollars a year on political action. It also demonstrates how the grassroots activist wing of the Republican Party — which was once funded and largely molded by the Kochs — has veered away from the small-government priorities of an earlier era. Now, much of the take-to-the-streets anger channels President Donald Trump’s skepticism of the kind of expertise that lies behind the coronavirus shutdowns.

…Though the number of protesters against social distancing has been relatively small so far, the mere existence of a tea party-like movement has been an awkward subject for Koch leaders, multiple people affiliated with the network told POLITICO. By not backing the protesters, they said, the Koch network risks alienating some of its longtime donors, who want to see it embrace the economic argument for reopening the country, as well as conservatives who are beginning to line up in favor of rolling back stay-at-home rules.

But leaders like [Americans for Prosperity CEO Emily] Seidel did not believe that rejecting the approach of public-health experts made sense. [Pols emphasis]

For an organization which has been on the front lines of basically every conservative policy push in Colorado for the past decade, from repealing the Affordable Care Act to preventing even the most modest solutions to the state’s self-imposed fiscal chokeholds from seeing the light of day while Republicans had any legislative power, seeing AFP blanch at the idea of encouraging Coloradans to defy public health orders is a surprising–and welcome–development. AFP may want to “drown government in the bathtub,” but it appears they don’t want their supporters to catch a deadly disease out of spite over government possessing the authority to tell Americans to stay home.

What would be even more helpful? Send an email blast to AFP’s huge list with the same message, instead of only reading about it in Politico. That would be putting this message where it matters–directly in the ear of misguided protesters.

That’s the step we never seem to see, and there’s a simple reason.

This is AFP’s base we’re talking about. And today more than ever, the tail wags the dog.