Sir Lawrence Olivier was perhaps history's most recognizable stage Hamlet.

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SAD SEDUCTION: Jeb & Mitt Out as Rand, Ted and Marco Drink Koch Kool Aid

February 1, 2015
By: Dave Rogers

Why are supposedly impartial commentators like Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski now admirers of the infamous billionaire Koch brothers?

And why did Mitt Romney, leading in Republican polling for President, suddenly drop out of the race? And why does even Jeb Bush now seem to be on the bubble?

Romney quickly found out tacking to the center and standing for more income equality was not going to be the approved course to gain support from the Kochs who are more of the "are there no prisons?, are there no workhouses?" kind of guys, you know, like the early version of Scrooge.

The Koch brothers no doubt had something to do with those developments, according to the usually well-informed underground "punditocracy."

"The agenda of the Koch brothers is to repeal every major piece of legislation that has been signed into law over the past 80 years that has protected the middle class, the elderly, the children, the sick, and the most vulnerable in this country," says Senator Bernie Sanders, Vermont Independent, punctuating his opinion:

"It is clear that the Koch brothers and other right wing billionaires are calling the shots and are pulling the strings of the Republican Party."

No, not the more or less moderate Republican Party of Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney, the far right over-reaches of Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker.

"And because of the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, they now have the power to spend an unlimited amount of money to buy the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the next President of the United States," says Sen. Sanders.

The kind of garden party David and Charles Koch held recently in Palm Springs, California, was something to scare even the likes of the ditzy Alice in Wonderland.

About 450 donors and political operatives attended the weekend summit hosted by Freedom Partners, the business league that raises and distributes hundreds of millions of dollars that flow into Republican politics, reported Bloomberg.

Even ostensibly logical and reasonable television talkers Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezinski succumbed to the Koch blandishments and drank the Kool Aid. They blithely blathered in a post Koch party retching on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that the Koch boys actually are concerned about the middle class and are not all that bad fellows after all. An obligatory payoff for accepting tainted Koch charity? Some would say so.

Will Democracy or Oligarchy prevail when the Kochs spend their intended $889 million on the 2016 Presidential election? That's a pittance compared to their alleged $80 billion fortune but double the $400 million they spent on Romney last time.

Democracy or Oligarchy? That is the question akin to the one the doomed Hamlet asked: "To be or not to be?"

"Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them."

Those who propose to oppose the Kochs will need to do more than just "take arms" to overcome, they will need a king's ransom of a war chest to stand up for Democracy.

Otherwise, outrageous fortune beyond comprehension will be the legacy of 2016.

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