By Kathleen Parker April 4, 2014

 Rush Limbaugh can relax. The popular “demon of the right” has beenreplaced at least through the midterms by the Koch brothers, Charles and David.

Who?

Exactly. Though cable and online news junkies know thenames, the vast majority of Americans probably have no idea who theKochs are. They’re about to find out.

For the uninitiated, the brothers are libertarian billionaires whose vast industries in petroleum, asphalt, natural gas liquids, coal and ethanol employ 60,000 people. More to the point, they are spending gobs of their own money to swaypolitics toward free-market principles and away from current governmentexpansionist trends.

For this, they have been targeted byDemocrats, who are not exactly penniless when it comes to advancingtheir own politicians and policies. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reidbroke down all barriers to protocol recently when he called the Kochs “un-American.”

Charles Koch, in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, responded by calling Democrats “collectivists.”

“Instead of encouraging free and open debate, collectivists strive to discreditand intimidate opponents,” wrote Koch. “They engage in characterassassination. (I should know, as the almost daily target of theirattacks.) This is the approach that Arthur Schopenhauer described in the 19th century, that Saul Alinsky famously advocated inthe 20th, and that so many despots have infamously practiced. Suchtactics are the antithesis of what is required for a free society — and a telltale sign that the collectivists do not have good answers.”

Billionaires, ya gotta love ’em.

But they’re so much easier to hate.

Thus, Democrats are trying to make the Koch brothers the new face of theRepublican Party. Conveniently, the name Koch is pronounced the same asthat other capitalist goliath, Coke.

Appointing a person — or apair of brothers — as the human face of the “enemy” is not a novel idea. During a previous election cycle, the Obama administration identifiedLimbaugh as the true leader of the Republican Party. This was an easysell as many Republicans genuflected to Limbaugh, even apologizing whenthey might have offended him.

And Limbaugh, whose grandiosityneeds no buffing, was all too willing to accept service on thecredential. The more the left hates Limbaugh, the richer he gets. Oh, please, Mr. Democrat, hate my guts some more.

Mr. Limbaugh, take your bow, it’s Koch time.

The doubling down on the Kochs has been in play for some months, advanced by frequent mentions among liberal commentators who, though perhaps not as influential as Limbaugh, have largefollowings. But Reid’s McCarthyesque name-calling took hell to thedevil. It was not only cringe-inducing but also profoundly sad. Onewould hope the leader of the Senate Democrats might have betterrhetorical devices at his intellectual disposal.

Reid suffers no remorse and fired back that he was delighted if people now knew who those un-Americans are.The more who despise the Kochs, the better. The Kochs aren’t justleaders of the Republican Party, as Democrats are proposing; they arethe face of the Haves. To dislike the Kochs is to dislike the wealthy in general.

This is really the heart of the Democratic proposition. As the midterm elections take shape around the debate about incomeinequality, the Kochs personify the uncaring-est of the 1 percenters.Before November comes and goes, the Kochs may as well have been tarredand feathered and made to ride backward on a mule down PennsylvaniaAvenue.

One needn’t support the brothers’ preference forunfettered markets or their willingness to fund positions that mightfavor them. Plenty of conservatives disagree with their support for teaparty insurgents and their climate-change skepticism.

Allowing the super-wealthy to disproportionately influence political outcomesmay indeed be bad for the democratic process — and that’s of legitimateconcern to all. But one’s eyes should be wide open when people aresingled out as un-American. What’s next? A Senate committeeinvestigating such un-American activities as advocating free-marketprinciples or pursuing capitalist endeavors?

Of course, I’mkidding. That could never happen here, except it sort of already has.When Reid called the Kochs un-American, a powerful government officialfired a shot across the bow of two private citizens who have actedwithin the law while contributing wealth to the economy throughemployment.

Yes, it was bad when right-wingers called Obamaun-American, but Obama is the most powerful man in the world and therabble is just that. Reid owes the Kochs — and the American people — anapology.

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