Senator Thom Tillis, capitalism, and the prosperity of billionaires

 I chased a rabbit today, and learned something very interesting.  I received a pro Thom Tillis political flyer in the mail.  Here is a photo of part of the flyer.  

I’m always curious about the Political Action Committees which send out mailers and fund television commercials, and more recently, Youtube advertisements.  Fortunately, the website OpenSecrets.org, which is run by the non-partisan, independent, non-profit Center For Responsive Politics, tracks money in politics, so that anyone can know who supports these PACs financially, and how the PACs are spending their money.  I decided to learn more about Americans For Prosperity Action.

I may as well say this upfront:  I’m voting against Thom Tillis, not because he is a Republican (I’m a moderate independent), but because of his longstanding support of internet provider monopolies by large cable TV and telecom companies, in rural areas of North Carolina, where NC citizens have very limited internet access, to the extent that it impacts access to education, small business development and growth, telemedicine, and even routine personal internet use.  For those not having direct experience with rural NC living, internet access is also impacted by the lack of 4G mobile telecommunications access.  For anyone wanting to learn more about how and why, in 2020, there is still such limited access to high speed internet in rural areas of North Carolina, the site Followthemoney.org, explains what happened in 2010-11, when Republicans took control of both the house and senate in the North Carolina General Assembly, and passed House Bill 129 in the 2011 session, when Thom Tillis was Speaker of the House.  This bill was intended to prevent municipalities in North Carolina from repeating what the town of Wilson did, when it established its Greenlight Community Broadband network, so that the existing corporate internet providers would not face competition.  This episode of North Carolina politics is documented in detail on the Institute for Local Self Reliance website.  This page provides a detailed downloadablearticle describing the actions taken after the town of Wilson acted on its own to provide broadband internet to its citizens.  Here’s a quote from the conclusion of the article,

It certainly makes sense for these big companies to want to limit local authority to build next generation networks. What remains puzzling is why any state legislature would want to limit the ability of a community to build a network to improve educational outcomes, create new jobs, and give both residents and businesses more choices for an essential service.

This page provides a podcast of the same story.  In 2010, Thom Tillis received the mostcampaign donations from cable TV and major telecom corporations than any other person running for office in NC.  All this to say, I’m voting against Thom Tillis due to his role in shepherding House Bill 129 through the NC General Assembly in 2011, leaving much of rural NC without high speed internet, even today in 2020. 

Back to chasing the rabbit.  When I looked up the super PAC, Americans for Prosperity Action (AFPA), on the Open Secrets site, I learned that the primary sources of funding come from two entities, Koch Industries, Inc (based in Kansas), and Ronald Cameron (Littlerock, AR).  These two donors account for $10.5M in donations of the $34M raised in 2020 (31% of all donations to AFPA).

  

Everyone who pays attention to U.S. politics knows who the Koch brothers are, but who is Ronald Cameron?  As you see in the image, he is the CEO of the privately held MountaireCorporation, a business I knew absolutely nothing about.

Mountaire is a wholesale chicken processing company which operates in six states, including North Carolina.  The New Yorker published a long and interesting investigative piece on Mountaire and its labor practices.  I understand that The New Yorker has a liberal bias, but that doesn’t mean that everything they report is untrue.  In fact, Mountaire does have over $9M inworkplace violations on record.

So it’s interesting that the CEO of Mountaire is willing to invest so heavily in the reelection of Thom Tillis, a politician who has a clear track record of supporting legislation for the benefit of large corporate interests, even to the detriment of individual citizens.  An interesting side note – AFPA has spent more of its funds on Thom Tillis’ 2020 reelection than on any other candidate by far (31% of current AFPA expenditures). 

Also, there’s a bit of irony here, in how AFPA presents itself, as well as its affiliated political organizations.  Take a look at what AFPA claims to support:    

• Foster economic growth?  How does supporting a candidate who clearly favors large corporate monopolies do that?
• Eliminate burdensome regulations that stifle innovation?  How does Tillis’ support of NC House Bill 129 do that?  It clearly does EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE! The town of Wilson was innovative, and set up their own successful broadband internet network, which could have served as a model for other rural NC municipalities.  But that must not be the type of innovation which is acceptable to AFPA (since it clearly presents a risk to the profits of established monopolies, and their wealthy executives)
• Improve the well-being of individuals?  You know what would improve my family’s well-being?  High speed internet.
• Expand opportunities for students to access the highest quality education?  What about students in rural areas?  Wouldn’t access to high speed internet help accomplish this?

Chasing the rabbit a bit further, one can view required super PAC documents on the Federal Election Commission site (here is the information page for AFPA).  Its statement of organization document provides the name of a contact person (Alex Varban, Treasurer), and a quick search online shows the same person is the Director of Financial Planning and Analysis for Stand Together, a non-profit organization.  It turns out that Stand Together is fully funded by the Koch brothers (which is easily demonstrated by visiting the “About Us” page on the Stand Together website.  Their ‘About Us’ page presents yet another irony, as they assert their support for education and economic development.  Here is a quote directly from this page, 

“Business is dominated by special interests that rig the system in their favor rather than create value for society”  

Like how Thom Tillis clamped down on local innovation to preserve the internet service provider monopolies of a few?  Keep in mind that Koch Industries has contributed the most money to AFPA (20% of AFPA’s total receipts), and AFPA has spent 31% of their funds in support of Thom Tillis’ reelection.  In case the Stand Together website disappears, here is a screenshot from Charles Koch’s letter on the About Us page:

 

Mr. Koch is correct – as a result of business being dominated by special interests that rig the system in their favor (like when the cable TV and telecom lobbyists in NC wrote NC House Bill 129 in 2011, which Thom Tillis helped pass), people ARE being left behind.  YES, Mr. Koch, I couldn’t agree more!  Just like Mr. Koch exhorts, let’s “Stand Together to Help Every Person Rise”.  Which must also mean, at least to Mr. Koch, supporting the effort to re-elect Thom Tillis, who will help keep Mr. Koch and Mr. Cameron (Mountaire Corporation), and CenturyLink and Frontier Communications executives as wealthy as can possibly be attained, by protecting their business interests, to the exclusion of innovation, economic development, and educational access in rural areas of North Carolina.  Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

I know there’s lots of things to consider, when determining who one votes for to represent one’s interests, and the interests of one’s community.  Here’s one thing that is clear to me:  Senator Tillis is a great friend to the large corporations who help him stay in office.  I’m not as confident that Senator Tillis really has the best interests of ordinary North Carolinians in mind, and certainly not those who live in rural North Carolina.  That’s something worth thinking about.  So if you live in North Carolina, and you are not obligating yourself to vote the Republican ticket, you might consider helping your rural neighbors, and voting out Senator Tillis, with the hope of removing a key impediment in opening up the opportunity for rural communities to resolve their internet access issues.  If you vote for Tillis, keep in mind that you’re doing so to the detriment of rural citizens, rural economic development and rural educational access.