Four days before this year’s presidential election, Charles Koch—the voluble Kansas billionaire who has spent a fortune injecting his particular brand of prairie libertarianism into the American political debate—pauses at the other end of the line when asked if he will vote for Donald Trump or Joe Biden.
“That’s a very divisive question, because however I answer, that’s going to upset a bunch of people,” he says. “That’s why there’s a secret ballot.”
Mr. Koch, whom Forbes calls the 15th-wealthiest man in the U.S., says he isn’t interested in more division. At age 85, he says, he is turning his attention to building bridges across partisan divides to find answers to sprawling social problems such as poverty, addiction, recidivism, gang violence and homelessness. His critics are skeptical, noting that his fierce Republican partisanship over the years blew up a lot of bridges.
Mr. Koch has written (with Brian Hooks) a new book, “Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World,” which will be published on Nov. 17. It is part mea culpa, […]
As I heard when living in Massachusetts “light dawns on Marblehead”. So near the end of a very prosperous life when he and his family used their vast wealth to drive politics that maximized profits for the uber rich he decides that maybe things have gotten too “divisive”. Really after all the years that you Randians promoted this division that created the greatest wealth inequity in US history you are kind of sorry. I would very cynically say you may be thinking of the “eye of the needle” you may soon transit.