We were told they wanted to turn the country around from the direction in which it was headed. We were told they were out to rescue us from special interests, and if they had their way, the days of corporate power being in control of government were over. It was supposed to be a group independent of political affiliation. We were told it was a group seeking greater transparency.

We were told they were out to serve our best interests. Those interests being in line with ordinary people who, since the 1970’s, have witnessed wages stagnate and fall. They spoke to the concerns of those who had none of the monetary power. These were the concerns of people who had just the morals and principles they had been brought up on and little else.

They had the power of the shovels in their hands to dig foundations for buildings and homes. They had the power of the hands gripping the wrenches turning the nuts helping to drive the machinery of industry. They had the power of those who were present to help our great nation prevail on the battlefield time and again.

Most importantly (politically), they had the power of the vote. They had the numbers to make sure the nation went in ways they believed favored themselves. They had the power to change history and proved it each time the fruit of another election season became ready to pluck.

Much money has been spent over the years to influence that voting power. Much money has been poured into keeping ordinary folks in the fields, factories, office buildings and such at bay. There isn’t much we can do in the workplace to ensure our rights. From home there isn’t much either. We have to tend to ourselves there. But, collectively, we assert our power best, and always have, by casting our votes.

We haven’t always helped ourselves there. We rely on education from various sources, and when those sources work to effectively mislead or misguide us we can at times fall victim. But that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from our mistakes.

When we see antlers behind the bush, and recognize the shape, to surmise there is a stag isn’t far fetched. But, sometimes those antlers can be camouflaged or staged, so vigilance is pertinent. Throughout our nation’s history moneyed interests have attempted to deceive us in many ways into thinking we could benefit from things not actually in our interests.

On both sides of the political spectrum of this nation’s big tent parties are big corporate interests donating and attempting to guide things toward shaping policies beneficial to them. Money is the bottom line – their money – and we are, but a means to an end. Our work for the smallest investment on their part translates into higher profit margins. Our votes steered towards candidates they believe support their interests’ enables them to ride roughshod across the nation paying little attention to those that helped them get there.

Recently the revelation of such an event brought to light has given many pause concerning where things are headed both in Washington and with the choices being offered in the upcoming election. Apparently once again, a wealthy powerful interest is attempting to shape votes and take another election.

A corporation known as Koch Industries and the brothers behind it, Charles and David Koch, has apparently been working for a long time to sell us on a bag of goods beneficial to them not us. They have been looking for years to find a way to sell the rest of us on the idea that more power shifted to large industries is good. They want us to believe it’s mutually beneficial all the way around.

They have failed time and again on the grass roots level. However, they have managed to get people into powerful positions, like the last president Bush, who went to work deregulating. For this they utilized numerous concerted efforts and strategies. One way was to set up shell non-profit organizations, like Triad Management, to pour millions per election season into aggressive, often misleading, negative ads against people they have targeted as being in favor of things that would not be beneficial to their interests.

These and other traditional methods were working, but were hit and miss. They needed to come up with a strategy to try and get devoted followers behind a cause that seemed to be beneficial to us – the ordinary folks – they found one. They developed a campaign to set up organizations to appear grass roots, but that, like their other political and business ventures, would be controlled by them in the directions they wished. They created a “not for profit” organization called Americans for Prosperity.

The New York Times reported that earlier this year, “the advocacy wing of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation—an organization that David Koch started, in 2004—held a… gathering. Over the July 4th weekend, a summit called Texas Defending the American Dream took place in a chilly hotel ballroom in Austin. Though Koch freely promotes his philanthropic ventures, he did not attend the summit, and his name was not in evidence.

“Five hundred people attended the summit, which served, in part, as a training session for Tea Party activists in Texas. An advertisement cast the event as a populist uprising against vested corporate power. ‘Today, the voices of average Americans are being drowned out by lobbyists and special interests,’ it said. ‘But you can do something about it.’ The pitch made no mention of its corporate funders.” (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=1)

Surely they understand that one of the nation’s biggest corporation’s owners, together the third wealthiest people in the nation, behind Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, are not average Americans. Surely they understand direct honesty. The lack of transparency is disconcerting, especially as that is something they have accused big government of.

The Times found, “in April, 2009, Melissa Cohlmia, a company spokesperson, denied that the Kochs had direct links to the Tea Party, saying that Americans for Prosperity is ‘an independent organization and Koch companies do not in any way direct their activities.’ Later, she issued a statement: ‘No funding has been provided by Koch companies, the Koch foundations, or Charles Koch or David Koch specifically to support the tea parties.’ David Koch told New York, ‘I’ve never been to a tea-party event. No one representing the tea party has ever even approached me.’

“At the lectern in [Texas], however,( Peggy) Venable—a longtime political operative who draws a salary from Americans for Prosperity, and who has worked for Koch-funded political groups since 1994—spoke less warily. ‘We love what the Tea Parties are doing, because that’s how we’re going to take back America!’

“Americans for Prosperity has worked closely with the Tea Party since the movement’s inception. In the weeks before the first Tax Day protests, in April, 2009, Americans for Prosperity hosted a Web site offering supporters ‘Tea Party Talking Points.’ The Arizona branch urged people to send tea bags to Obama; the Missouri branch urged members to sign up for ‘Taxpayer Tea Party Registration’ and provided directions to nine protests. The group continues to stoke the rebellion. The North Carolina branch recently launched a ‘Tea Party Finder’ Web site, advertised as ‘a hub for all the Tea Parties in North Carolina.’ ” (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=1) No direct links eh?

When they were asked for an interview they dispatched someone else to talk for them. Who did these loathers of government and big business being in bed together send? They sent former Governor of New York George Pataki. This directly contradicts what they claim their philosophy to be, and doesn’t exactly typify grass roots Tea Party non-corrupt - keep government and corporations separate – mantra. The fact some of their companies have large government contracts isn’t exactly helping to stem pork either. (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=1)

So are these guys just wealthy folks who once were like you and me? Did they scrap it out with little to nothing and make it to the top like Gates and Buffet? Let’s hear what they say about that. “David Koch joked about his good fortune in a 2003 speech to alumni at Deerfield, where, after pledging twenty-five million dollars, he was made the school’s sole ‘lifetime trustee.’

“He said, ‘You might ask: How does David Koch happen to have the wealth to be so generous? Well, let me tell you a story. It all started when I was a little boy. One day, my father gave me an apple. I soon sold it for five dollars and bought two apples and sold them for ten. Then I bought four apples and sold them for twenty. Well, this went on day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, until my father died and left me three hundred million dollars!’ “ (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=1)

So that’s who’s been running things? These guys and their cronies? I mean they had everyone believing this was a grass roots conservative movement against among other things corruption stemming from wealthy corporate interests linked to and involved with government. This was supposed to be in the interests of the little guy. Wow. Good one.

To read about my inspiration for this article go to www.lawsuitagainstuconn.com.