What's In It For Us?

Some progressive bloggers are in high dudgeon over a recent report in the New York Times about efforts by libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch to push back against President Obama's ideas. The Koch brothers have apparently been holding private meetings with conservative bigwigs in order to work out a gameplan to stop the Obama vision.

It's hard to see what the big deal is about these meetings: as progressive blogger Paul Waldman notes, "Getting this kind of 'rare peek' is always interesting, but there isn't anything particularly sinister about the fact that these people get together to plot strategy. People on the left do it, too; for instance, there's a group called the Democracy Alliance, which is a collection of progressive donors. They, too, occasionally gather in one place, to determine how to best spend their money to advance the causes they believe in. George Soros, the right's bete noir, is even one of the alliance's members."

However, there is something disturbing about the most recent Koch-related meeting, the schedule for which was obtained by the progressive site ThinkProgress.org. According to the schedule, the June 2010 meeting focused on such matters as K-12 and higher education, opposition to Obamacare and defending the free-market system. All well and good--but where was the discussion of how these issues specifically affect urban America?

Apparently, the problems of urban America weren't prominent on the minds of those who attended the most recent Koch gathering. Why is that? This is not meant to be an attack on the Koch brothers, who have been turned into national villians for their libertarian activism. It's merely to point out that issues facing urban America often seem to get short shrift in the elite corridors of the right.

The Koch events are intended to "understand and address threats to American free enterprise and prosperity." Nothing wrong with that...but what good are these events if they do not place special emphasis on bringing the benefits of free enterprise and prosperity to those at the bottom of the economic ladder? What better way for the Koch brothers to slam shut the jaws of their progressive critics than by focusing on efforts to spread the benefits of prosperity to urban America? Maybe their next meeting should be devoted to such efforts.