‘Koch Industries had a reputation for screwing over its business partners.’ →
Charles' philosophy had been deeply influenced by their father, whose experiences helping to modernize the USSR's oil industry in the early 1930s turned him into a rabid anti-communist who saw signs of Soviet subversion everywhere. A staunch conservative and Barry Goldwater backer, Fred was among the John Birch Society's national leaders; Charles joined in due time, and by the '60s was among a group of influential Birchers who grew enamored with a colorful anti-government guru named Robert LeFevre, creator of a libertarian mecca called the Freedom School in Colorado's Rampart mountain range. From here, Charles fell in with the fledgling libertarian movement, a volatile stew of anarchists, devotees of the "Austrian school" of economics, and other radical thinkers who could agree on little besides an abiding disdain for government.
By late 1979, as tensions with Bill were escalating, Charles had become the libertarian movement's primary sugar daddy. He had cofounded the Cato Institute as an incubator for libertarian ideas, bankrolled the magazine Libertarian Review, and backed the movement's youth outreach arm, Students for a Libertarian Society. He had also convinced David to run as the Libertarian Party's vice presidential candidate in the 1980 election (Bill had declined). David was able to pour unlimited funds into his own campaign, circumventing federal restrictions on political contributions.
Their father had loathed publicity, scrupulously guarding the family's privacy. But, to Bill's dismay, Charles and David's activism was beginning to draw attention to the company and the family. Worse, at the very moment that the Energy Department was investigating Koch Industries for violating price controls on oil, David and his Libertarian Party running mate, Ed Clark, were on the campaign trail openly antagonizing the agency by calling for its eradication.
Picking an excerpt from this piece is nearly impossible; the piece itself is an excerpt from Schulman’s book “Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty.” But considering the role that (two of) the Koch brothers play in American politics right now, it’s worth reading to see what it is that’s driving them. It will come as no surprise to anyone (or at least, Freudians) that it all essentially comes down to Daddy/Mommy issues.