We need to talk about Charles and David Koch’s politically-motivated “well-being” outreach. A new report form The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer exposes it for what it is: A PR-motivated sham that targets and disingenuously manipulates America’s poor, all while indoctrinating them with “values” in line with the Kochs’ self-enriching agenda.
Public Relations Sham
First some background, from Politico’s Ken Vogel. To begin with, there’s the PR angle: “Inside the network,” Vogel says, “the well-being initiatives are viewed as a legacy project for Charles Koch and his longtime lieutenant Rich Fink.” That’s not surprising. In the past we’ve written extensively about the Kochs shameless PR maneuvering and “legacy building.” (Some examples: This; and this; and this; and this; and this; and this; and this; also: this.)
Political Motivations
But the Koch “well-being” initiatives are about more than a relatively-harmless white-washing of their shadowy history. They’re also about disingenuously
[I]n [2012] post-election strategy sessions, Charles Koch and his inner circle fixated on an exit poll finding that highlighted a so-called “empathy gap” that plagued GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Among voters seeking a candidate who “cares about people like me”, Obama clobbered Romney 81 percent to 18 percent ― by far the widest gap among the four traits commonly measured (the others are vision for the future, shares my values and strong leader)…
Koch and Fink concluded that winning over empathy-seeking voters could help them tilt the electoral map in their favor.
For more evidence of the program’s political purposing, just look to where the Kochs’ Bridge to Wellbeing — whose outreach tactics include “turkey giveaways” and “couponing classes for the under-employed” — was first launched, per Vogel:
The Bridge to Wellbeing pilot program was launched in key swing states like Colorado, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.
That says it all.
Promoting The Selfish Koch Agenda
Now let’s get to the latest Bridge to Wellbeing revelations, courtesy of The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer. First of all (and Vogel gets into this as well), the Koch “well-being” initiatives are about disingenuously promoting the Kochs’ selfish priorities as beneficial to the poor:
The Koch network, [Fink] said, needed to present its free-market ideology as an apolitical and altruistic reform movement to enhance the quality of life—as “a movement for well-being.” The network should make the case that free markets forged a path to happiness, whereas big government led to tyranny, Fascism, and even Nazism.
Part of that larger plan is grounded in nuanced messaging:
At another panel that weekend, James Otteson, a professor of political economy at Wake Forest University’s business school, argued that using the term “well-being” would be “a game changer.”
The Upshot
That, in-sum, is why Koch groups love talking about “well-being.” They were told that it’s a strong frame for promoting the “free-market” priorities that are an ideological cover for their selfish agenda.
That’s why Americans for Prosperity and Charles Koch Institute, and Koch Industries, among other Koch-linked organizations have gotten into promoting projects as “well-being” initiatives. As with anything the Kochs do, it’s all a PR sham.