By The Tribune-Review
, 412-321-6460
Published: Friday, March 7, 2014, 8:57 p.m.
An abhorrent floor speech by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., revealed such a twisted conception of both the First Amendment and the facts that all Americans, whatever their political persuasion, should be repulsed.
Mr. Reid singled out billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, who express their libertarian conservatism through political donations. He called the Koch brothers' political involvement “un-American,” accused them of trying to undermine “democracy” and even claimed that Koch Industries subsidiaries do business with Iran, which their company quickly denied.
Reid apparently thinks the First Amendment, which protects free political expression for all Americans, shouldn't apply to the Kochs. Yet he said nothing about leftist unions that spend more on politics than they do.
A Center for Public Integrity study found unions and other Democrat-friendly groups outspent the Kochs on 2012's state-level elections. And in an OpenSecrets.org ranking of donors in federal elections since 1989, six of the top 10 are unions — and Koch Industries is 59th.
Such political expression is quintessentiallyAmerican. What Reid wants — free speech only for him, his liberal colleagues and the unions and other leftist groups that pull their political strings — would be truly un-American. And if money's the issue, the left has far more to answer for.
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