Recalling the days of the Great Depression, when social and
economic conditions inspired a number of gifted photographers and filmmakers to
document the American experience, in our time the nonfiction film appears to be
undergoing something of a renaissance.
The contemporary documentary often confronts subjects ignored by the
bland and timid mainstream media — revelations about the dangers of fracking,
Michael Moore’s films, “The Tillman Story,” even the docudrama “Fair Game.” A
common theme unites these works, a sense of outrage in reaction to the abuses
of some powerful and corrupt entity.
That outrage lies behind the new film, “Citizen Koch,” an
examination of the influence of the billionaire Koch brothers on state and
federal elections. It begins with a quotation from their father, a founder of
the John Birch Society, asserting that “the colored man” represents the threat
of Communism in the United States, and proceeds throughout its length to show,
almost casually, the extent of the racism that now sweeps the country, most of
it energized by the virulent rhetoric of right wing politics. Sarah Palin spews
hatred before a crowd of Tea Party followers waving Confederate flags and
posters of Barack Obama with a bone through his nose; armed yokels turn up at
presidential events; Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News hammer their
vicious talking points, and so on ad nauseam.
The movie traces the sources of the systemic corruption of
wealth back to the infamous Citizens United decision of the blatantly biased,
activist Supreme Court, which asserted that money equals speech, and therefore,
presumably, rich contributors to political causes earn the right to more free
speech than anyone else… It suggests a concerted, long-ranging scheme to
undermine the power of the people in favor of an oligarchy whose presence
already exerts considerable influence in the present system.
Most of “Citizen Koch” concentrates on the work of Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and his Republican-led
legislature to weaken the power of public service employee unions. The
governor, who asserted that Ronald Reagan’s defeat of the air traffic controllers
won the Cold War, succeeded in abolishing those unions’ right to negotiate
matters of salary, pensions, health care, etc., which inspired the failed
attempt at a recall. That failure, the filmmakers suggest, resulted from money
poured into the state by — guess who — the Koch brothers.
Aside from its archival footage of speeches, press
conferences, television news reports, etc., much of it familiar but still quite
compelling, most of the movie, in the uninspired tradition of contemporary
documentary, employs talking heads, which translates into many interviews with
the same people. Most of those heads belong to Wisconsinites who apparently
voted for Scott Walker regretting their choice and lamenting their governor’s
actions … too little, too late.
The film shows the amazing growth of anti-union sentiment and
action, which only begins with Wisconsin, but spreads throughout the Midwest,
with states like Michigan of all places joining the movement to pass a right to
work law and thereby castrating the state’s once powerful unions. It only
touches on the real causes of the Koch brothers’ victories and the workers’
defeats — the fact that since at least 1980, union members have voted for union
busting politicians, only to wake up and whine about the plight of the worker:
power is not taken away, it’s given up.
Though repetitive, unbalanced in its structure, too often
literal-minded and artless, “Citizen Koch” inadvertently adds to the growing
realization that the America we inhabit no longer exists as a concept, an
ideal, a beacon to the world. This country never waged unprovoked attacks on
another nation, never practiced torture, never arrested people without
warrants, charges, or trials, then imprisoned them indefinitely, never
kidnapped suspects off the streets of other countries and sent them to foreign
prisons, never tapped the phones of all its citizens, and never established the
means for a small group of enormously rich people to wage war on the worker and
control the governance of the nation. The movie suggests that quite soon the
growing influence of wealth will create the destiny of the country: God help us
all.
This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2014.
Oh, a satire. I’ll have to catch it.
Governor Walker has been an overwhelming success in Wisconsin.
Where is the movie about the unions trying to buy America? There are at least 12 unions who have donated much more money to politics in a recent study. The Koch brothers were about #52 on that same list. hmmm.
FDR opposed the establishment of unions in the public sector when the NLRB was passed for a very good reason which, as time evolved, proved he was prescient . He foresaw the tyranny of striking against the public and more so. the corruption endemic with politicians negotiating quid pro quo contracts with unions who contribute to the same politician in time and money. Ask yourself why government rarely works any more. The reviewer ignores the multitudes of Democratic party contributors such as the money speculator George Soros who somehow can exercise his free speech because purportedly he is on the side of the angels. I suggest the reviewer study some history before issuing polemics. It sounds like the movie is a sad polemic as well. One big thumbs down. Rich from Greece
Sounds like a thrilling moonbat fantasy, with cameos by every bogeyman that ever was, and imbued with marvelously expressive use of the race card. However, we the proletariat are traumatized by at least two trauma triggers contained in this article: One appears in the last line, invoking the oppressive patriarchal deity. Even worse perhaps is the castration reference, as if worker rights collectives are embodied with oppressive patriarchal genitalia. We demand that the reviewer be forced to publicly recant this heresy, and that this newspaper from now on include trigger warnings on all articles.
Furthermore, we are outraged and traumatized by the article’s implication that “the Amerikkka we inhabit” ever was anything other than the epitome of white supremacist Christianist heteronormative patriarchal fascist imperialism, oppression and torture.
I’m waiting for documenaries on liberal billionaires Warren Buffett and George Soros. Or maybe one on John Heinz Kerry. I won’t hold my breath.
“That outrage lies behind the new film, “Citizen Koch,” an examination of the influence of the billionaire Koch brothers on state and federal elections.”
But not apparently on the influence of liberal billionaires on state and federal elections.
One of the Koch Brothers just a couple of weeks ago graciously donated $100,000,000 to a NYC hospital. These are very nasty people
This world would be a much better place if there were more philanthropists like the Kochs, more reformers like Gov. Walker, and a lot fewer crabby old hippies.
How do I get in on this Koch money to post pro-Koch comments?
The Kochs spew hatred from their dark estates and fund the American Legislative Exchange Council, the partisan Republican group that define corporations as people and are intent on destroying climate change initiatives, environmental protections including water, air and wildlife habitat and really just about anything good in this world. Of course, their idea of goodness includes guns and the NRA, fracking, drilling, racism, Big Oil and Big Ag, Wall Street and destruction of regulations of any kind that would create a free-for-all where they feel comfortable that their class warfare wealth would prevail.
wow. I post a fact, that one of the Koch bros donated $100,000,000 to a hospital in NYC and get 6 negative comments (so far). I remember watching on the news as people were protesting that gift…???????????
Imagine a world without rich people. We would all starve to death.
And BTW, a corporation IS people. Imagine again a corporation without one employee. What product would it produce? Who would write the checks, especially the tax bill? When the government increases taxes, or regulations, it’s people who get laid off.
If unions can contribute to politics, then by all means a business should be able to. The union I belong to has donated faaaaar more money to politics than the Koch Bros. Much of the money the unions get is illegaly stolen from the members who don’t approve of their dues being spent that way