No billionaires are more despised by the Left and their beloved Occupy Wall Street movement than the Koch brothers.
Despite this, according to Clare O'Connor of Forbes, David walked through Saturday's much-publicized Occupy DC protest with hardly any of the attendees giving him a second look:
New York-based David had a front row seat at the conservative Americans for Prosperity Foundation’s two-day conference (he’s the group’s founder and chairman). He provoked riotous applause during 2012 hopeful Herman Cain’s keynote address on Friday afternoon: Cain, a one-time AFP employee, called the Kochs his “brothers from another mother”; David responded by fist-pumping and jumping to his feet.
Outside the convention center, as the evening drew in, protesters from various Occupy movements and liberal nonprofits gathered to stand up against David Koch and his brother Charles’ influence on the political agenda.
For those that missed it, this protest turned violent when the crowd actually pushed over at least two female guests of the event as they were leaving:
One attendee, 78-year-old Dolores Broderick, was knocked down a flight of stairs and hit her head.
As the atmosphere worsened, I wondered: If a grandmother attending on a $169 ticket couldn’t leave without being shoved over and requiring an ambulance, how could the super-rich target of the protesters’ ire get out in one piece? David Koch’s face was projected on the side of the convention center at the start of the rally. His name was a lyric in a protest song I could hear intermittently over the din of the crowd.
Seemed like Koch was heading into the proverbial lion's den if he dared leave. Well, not really:
Since Saturday, dinner guests have called and emailed to tell me that David Koch left in the most conspicuous manner possible: through the front door. He walked out of the main Mt Vernon St convention center exit, across the park at Mt Vernon Square, and back to his hotel. He went essentially unnoticed. [...]
The fellow guest, who left right behind Koch’s group, said the billionaire industrialist seemed to go mostly unrecognized. “Most had no idea who he was, and were busy banging on the windows,” he said. [...]
“He walked out the door, through the protesters. It was literally a normal walk. I think some people did recognize him, but those who did weren’t sure what to do about it.”
So the object of these folks' utmost disaffection walked right through the crowd with most not knowing who he was and those that did having nothing to say.
This should tell you a lot about how this movement is filled with mostly useful idiots that have no idea who, what, or why they're protesting.
Sadly, the same can be said of most of their adoring press.