Monday, March 28, 2011

When Research Leads One Another Direction

It's kinda funny. With all the noise about The evil Koch Brothers and Koch Industries, the great puppet masters of our age, while large financial contributors to conservative and libertarian causes, are relative lightweights compared to the real heavy hitters. At least, that's how Open Secrets reports it:

Top All-Time Donors, 1989-2010

LEGEND: Republican Democrat On the fence



= Between 40% and 59% to both parties
= Leans Dem/Repub (60%-69%)
= Strongly Dem/Repub (70%-89%)
= Solidly Dem/Repub (over 90%)
RankOrganizationTotal '89-'10Dem %Repub %Tilt
1ActBlue$51,124,84699%0%
2AT&T Inc$46,292,67044%55%
3American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees$43,477,36198%1%
4National Assn of Realtors$38,721,44149%50%
5Goldman Sachs$33,387,25261%37%
6American Assn for Justice$33,143,27990%8%
7Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers$33,056,21697%2%
8National Education Assn$32,024,61093%6%
9Laborers Union$30,292,05092%7%
10Teamsters Union$29,319,98293%6%
11Carpenters & Joiners Union$29,265,80889%10%
12Service Employees International Union$29,140,23295%3%
13American Federation of Teachers$28,733,99198%0%
14Communications Workers of America$28,376,30698%0%
15Citigroup Inc$28,065,87450%49%
16American Medical Assn$27,597,82040%59%
17United Auto Workers$27,134,25298%0%
18National Auto Dealers Assn$26,311,75832%67%
19Machinists & Aerospace Workers Union$26,229,47798%0%
20United Parcel Service$25,290,03936%62%

83Koch Industries $11,002,23510%89%

We do have a lot of misconceptions in this country.

I was busy trying to make a point elsewhere about how corporations tend to fund both Ds & Rs so that they can play the game of corporate largesse. That point seems to be supported by what I found on Open Secrets. But it just jumped out at me how much noise we hear about the Koch Brothers, so I looked for them. I looked right at the top. Then I scrolled down. And scrolled down, and down, and down. #83.

Look at the top 20. 11 unions represented. Look at who they support. Is it any wonder there is a political war going on, with unions at the center of it? It takes a willful ignorance to look at this and to feign surprise.

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