Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) launched another tirade against libertarian philanthropists Charles and David Koch on Tuesday over their maniacal efforts to "buy America."
It was the latest salvo in the Democratic Party’s war against the septuagenarian brothers, both of whom are strong opponents of cancer. Reid had previously attacked the Kochs as "immoral and dishonest" and "about as un-American as anyone I can imagine."
He’s not alone. Left-wing billionaire and reluctant democracy advocate Tom Steyer has mused that David Koch, a prostate cancer survivor who has donated more than $300 million to cancer research, will go down in history as a "famously evil person."
Liberals have even gone so far as to question the integrity of a cancer patient who told her story in an ad produced by Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-affiliated pro-freedom advocacy group. In one of his earlier outbursts, Reid suggested that Julie Boonstra’s story was among the numerous "untrue" horror stories about Obamacare. Now Democrats are threatening her with legal action if she doesn’t shut up.
Democrats may claim to be anti-cancer, at least when the cancer is caused by Mitt Romney, but their actions suggests otherwise. There's something deeper at work here. How else can we explain this disturbing trend of pro-cancer rhetoric? Since when does surviving cancer, and spending millions to find a cure, make someone a "famously evil" person? This has all the symptoms of a sinister dogwhistle campaign to rile up the cancer skeptic wing of the Democratic base and delegitimize the Koch brothers.
This same overt bigotry was on display during the government shutdown in October, when Reid questioned the intelligence of a female reporter who asked why Democrats were refusing to fund cancer-research for children.
"If you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn’t you do it?" CNN’s Dana Bash wondered.
"Why would we want to do that?" Reid grumbled.
Nobel prize-winning psycho-historian Paul Krugman has taught us that online comments are an accurate reflection of broad political movements. So you can see for yourself the sorts of individuals the Democratic machine is targeting here:
@AFPhq wouldn't @Koch_Industries brothers feel more at home in Putin's undemocratic Russia run by a handful of oligarchs? #revealdonorlist
— Retrievals (@Retrievals1) February 27, 2014
@bayonnebernie @edshow KOCHS R SEDITIONISTS & TRAITORS TOO Top Senate Dem: Koch brothers R un-American http://t.co/W8Y6Cz5SQ4 via @YahooNews
— BayonneBernie (@bayonnebernie) February 27, 2014
I wonder if we could bring the Koch brothers (just the two worst ones) up on charges of treason? Just a thought.... http://t.co/0CSS2QQhWf
— Kelly W Knox (@kwknox50) February 27, 2014
Koch Brothers can eat shit and die. Better yet, leave this country and renouce your citizenship. American people do not want you. #scum
— Grace Laine (@TAW3333) February 27, 2014
Koch Brothers legacy will be one of deceit, greed, and evil. History will not be kind. What a waste. #tcot
— Brian Amble (@ManitobaViking) March 3, 2014
@WoolfolkLarr @thomasj17431826 Always$, #Koch by any name rapes the globe 4 $ never out of love.#Putin/Koch are blood brothers JOHNBIRCH SOC
— ColorsOfAlgebra (@AlgebraPoints) March 2, 2014
Are the Koch brothers dead yet? I forgot to check the obits today. #Politics #democracy #fuckthoseguys
— Sheep Dip (@sheepdip66) March 2, 2014
Df each my curb john sign Koch Fag mmHg fgc check f much fuck hfhg dog hfhg fgc but still fuck date dog fun fgc fgc look fgc ah I've check n
— Neck Beard Nick (@Nickgoesmeow) March 2, 2014