It could happen.
A presidential campaign today costs $1 billion, but oil and chemicals billionaire Charles Koch is so rich he could easily pay for one himself.
As it is, Koch funds a vast array of conservative think tanks, policy groups, and political action. No one is more responsible for the blizzard of rightwing legislation in recent years than he is.
Koch (photo, left) isn’t a Trump supporter, and he sat out the 2016 and 2020 elections.
But the political network he controls with his limitless money “is preparing to throw its money and weight behind a single Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential primary,” CNN says (read story here).
Grassroots Republicans exercised extremely bad judgment by choosing Trump. By playing kingmaker, Charles Koch wants to ensure that doesn’t happen again. But the notion that one man can effectively choose the GOP nominee is anathema to our nation’s democratic principles.
And make no mistake, Charles Koch is a bad guy; his companies are notorious polluters, and he’s a major force behind climate denial. It’s not in most Americans’ best interests to let him choose our president. What he wants is very different from what’s good for the rest of us.
But even if he was a good guy, democratic principle argues against any individual having so much control over our political process.