The embodiment of everything that drives the Freedom-Haters up the wall

I've long tried to parse just what it is about the Koch brothers that brings the Left's stuff up so violently. As we know, they contribute to arts organizations along with conservative and libertarian groups.  They finance hospital wings.  They're pleasant individuals, by all appearances.

We may get some clues now that they have raised $889 million for the next campaign cycle.  This, of course, is sinister in the extreme as far as the Left is concerned.

But Rich Lowry, writing at Politico, says the lefties brought it on themselves:

For all that campaign reformers hate the Kochs, the brothers’ network is, in part, their creation. “This is the natural consequence,” campaign-finance reformer Lawrence Lessig griped to POLITICO about the $889 million, “of a regime with essentially no contribution limits.”

Actually, it is the inevitable — and long-ago predicted — consequence of contribution limits. The campaign-finance reformers knee-capped the political parties with malice aforethought and then are stunned that, in a free country, political activity has found other outlets.

If Reince Priebus and Debbie Wasserman Schultz are limited to raising $32,400 per donor annually, they will inevitably lose ground to outside groups.

But perverse consequences are a specialty of the campaign-finance reformers. They made it so difficult for candidates to raise money ($2,600 per donor per election) that politicians have to spend an inordinate amount of time raising money. The soul-deadening fundraising grind that afflicts almost every federal officeholder is a bitter fruit of campaign-finance regulations.

Advocates of greater regulation want to spread the pain by making it as difficult, or perhaps even impossible, for everyone else to raise and spend money on politics. The only obstacle to this ambition is — damn you, George Mason — the Bill of Rights, specifically the First Amendment.

The Kochs' main focus is freedom, and the Freedom-Haters know it.  David and Charles speak about, and spend money on organizations and politicians that speak about, liberating human activity from the fetters of regulation as much as possible.  The FHers try to make it about money and power, but that's because power is their chief preoccupation.  Most folks, the Kochs included, just want to get up in the morning and do great things.