The Kochs are modern America’s most influential dynasty. Their paterfamilias, Fred C. Koch, was a founding member of the John Birch Society, an anti-communist ultraconservative advocacy group associated with radical and far-right politics. It was thus jarring when it came out, decades after his demise, that Fred had once worked for Stalin, and helped him modernize the Soviet Union’s oil industry. A few years later, he did the same for Hitler. Below are thirty things about that, and more dark aspects of other powerful historic families.
30. America’s Most Powerful Dynasty
The Koch family is probably modern America’s most powerful dynasty. They own Koch Industries, America’s second-biggest privately owned company with revenues of $115 billion in 2019. Politically active for decades, the Kochs have been generous patrons of conservative and libertarian causes and figures. More recently, the brothers David and Charles Koch have garnered widespread attention for heading a network of hundreds of libertarian and conservative think tanks, policy groups, and candidates. The rise of the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement owed much to Koch’s generosity. The dynasty’s power was so great that in 2011, House Speaker John Boehner turned to David Koch when he needed votes to prevent a government shutdown.
The Kochs have been key financial supporters of climate change skeptics. However, although staunchly libertarian and conservative, they have at times partnered with progressives. In 2015, for example, they worked with the American Civil Liberties Union on criminal justice reform, specifically on the issue of asset forfeiture. It goes without saying that the Kochs have been adamant opponents of communism and all that has a whiff of socialism. As seen below, that did not stop the dynasty’s founder from working for Joseph Stalin, and helping him modernize the Soviet Union’s oil industry.
