The Democratic Party will be launching a major effort to make the Koch family a punching bag, starting a digital campaign with the childish slogan, "The G.O.P. is addicted to Koch".

While that's not far off the mark - the rightwing is to a good extent under the sway of the Koch brothers - what the Democrats won't tell their followers is how close the Kochs and the Democrats are on some issues and how much the Koch brothers help them.

More on that below, first here's Ashley Parker of the New York Times (nytimes . com/2014/03/06/us/politics/new-democratic-strategy-goes-after-koch-brothers.html):

...Democrats are embarking on a broad effort that aims to unmask the press-shy siblings and portray them, instead, as a pair of villains bent on wrecking progressive politics...

...Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, foreshadowed the campaign by taking to the Senate floor on Tuesday — an unusual move — for the second time in two weeks to accuse the Koch brothers of unfairly meddling in the political system by helping to pump more than $30 million dollars so far in television advertising and other activities into the most competitive congressional races across the country. On Wednesday, he attacked them again during his weekly news conference...

...n an interview in his Senate office on Wednesday, Mr. Reid said his outspokenness against the Kochs stemmed from his concern for the middle class. “Right now, because of people like the two brothers, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is getting squeezed out of existence,” he said. “They’re against everything that’s good for America today.”...

...Democrats say the strategy of spotlighting the Koch brothers’ activities is politically shrewd. The majority leader was particularly struck by a presentation during a recent Senate Democratic retreat, which emphasized that one of the best ways to draw an effective contrast is to pick a villain, one of his aides said. And by scolding the Koch brothers, Mr. Reid is trying to draw them out, both to raise their public profile, and also to help rally the Democratic base...

Now for the dirty little secret you won't hear from Harry Reid and other Democratic Party leaders: on very fundamental and vital issues like immigration and trade, the positions of the Democratic Party and the Koch brothers are very close. There might be a few differences here and there, but overall there isn't much daylight between them.

The Koch brothers fund loose borders groups like Reason Magazine, and loose borders would very greatly help the Democratic Party get new voters.

David Koch even joined with George Soros to give $10 million dollars to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Koch brothers are libertarians who have little time for the culture wars unless it impacts their bottom line; like Mitch Daniels they'd only oppose the far-left on cultural matters if it cut into their profits. The more the Kochs influence the rightwing, the less resistance there would be to progressive cultural campaigns. The long march through the institutions wouldn't take that long after all.

For much more on them, see the Koch family page. Go take a look and realize just how much the Koch brothers help the Democrats.

Want to do something about this? Tweet @KristenOrthman ("National Press Secretary & Nevada Communications Director for @SenatorReid") and @AJentleson ("Communications Director, Senator Harry Reid") and ask them when Harry Reid will be disclosing how close he and the Koch brothers are on immigration policy.