RUTHFULLY YOURS

There are a few things suspicious about George Soros declaring that he’s going to “sit out” the 2010 election, as The New York Times blogger Sewell Chan described. “I’m not in a position to stop it,” the billionaire financier said of expected Republican gains at the ballot box. “I don’t believe in standing in the way of an avalanche.” He is, of course, correct in saying that he’s not in a position to stop the coming shift in political power. Not even Soros’s pockets are deep enough to divert America’s attention away from the bumbling and bullying that have defined the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress. But sit it out? To believe this, one would have to: a) take Soros at his word, and b) believe that it’s possible for Soros not to influence an election in the United States — impossible, given what we know about him.

Consider the latter point first. Perhaps Soros won’t be funneling tens of millions of his own dollars directly through the many organizations that he sustains, but that’s not to say that the tentacles of the leftist para-political leviathan that Soros helped create during the Bush administration will suddenly be stilled. The Democracy Alliance ^[1] is still out there, hammering away for leftist causes and candidates. Moveon.org ^[2] hasn’t actually “moved on”  — it’s currently trying to raise a “…massive volunteer army to stop the Republican takeover of Congress and save our progressive heroes.” Media Matters for America ^[3] will continue its relentless assault on conservatives, conservative causes, commonsense and – while they’re at it – literary quality. These and dozens of other like-minded organizations ^[4] that Soros nurtured, directly, and indirectly, exist because of the mad Hungarian’s bizarre obsession with George W. Bush. Except for Soros’s admitted willingness to spend his last dollar in order to defeat Bush, many of these arms of the Left’s political empire would not exist and none would be nearly as influential.

In his misguided, brilliant way Soros, more than anyone else, has helped build a network of intertwined, supposedly grassroots organizations that, in aggregate, comprise a single-mined virtual leftist organization. And, in the grand tradition of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Soros believes that he can remake the world into a better place. To be fair (and less satirical) some of the billionaire’s efforts to help impoverished people in the third world can truly be characterized as philanthropic and apolitical. But, when it comes to influencing policy within his adopted country, there’s nothing apolitical about the way that George Soros operates in the United States.

The groups that he has funded and cultivated are teeming with leftists who believe that America and the concept of American exceptionalism are obstacles to the idealized global community they hope to create. Soros clearly recognizes, as so many do, that anti-Semitism is unquestionably on the rise in the twenty-first century. Yet, he duly considers this disturbing phenomenon and lays the blame squarely at the feet of Israel and its most important ally, America. That the rise in modern anti-Semitism might be the result of an Islamic resurgence is all but lost on him. As a result, Soros happily supports efforts to demonize the relationship between Israel and the United States, while providing funds to organizations that try to soften Islam’s image.

Soros can’t dissociate himself from the leftist juggernaut that he did so much to create, even if he is going to personally sit this election out. It doesn’t matter if the left’s candidates are going to lose a number of races this time around, the progressive network that Soros cultivated will have a say in this election, if only to ensure that not as many Democrats who might otherwise have lost manage to hang on to fight another day. Moreover, the concept that Soros is going to fade quietly away is highly dubious. History tells us that he is more likely biding his time, conserving his resources until the time to strike is right. In 2010, the organizations that he has nurtured can do the heavy-lifting on their own and perhaps some damage control will result. No matter. Soros made his billions in financial markets by knowing that the time to strike is when the market is most vulnerable. This is, after all, the man who built his legend upon “breaking the Bank of England” by taking advantage of structural instability ^[5] in the British financial system at exactly the right moment. Soros has applied those principles to the political world, financing the Left’s “Shadow Party” infrastructure in 2003, using it to build up power and then – when the time was right – conducting a full frontal assault that did immense damage to the conservative movement and the Republican Party.

At eighty years old, George Soros isn’t going to be able to personally intervene in the American political process for much longer. Like a hurricane approaching landfall, one imagines that this leftist crusader has one big blow left in him before he fades away. Nonetheless, Soros’ impact on the American political climate may likely take generations to correct. Having amassed a tremendous personal fortune on the back of the freedom and opportunity that the West’s commitment to the free market afforded him, George Soros used that wealth to engender and embolden a vast network of pernicious progressive organizations that will continue to influence American politics and thought. He may indeed be “sitting this one out,” but there’s little doubt that the Soros agenda will be on the forefront of manipulating the 2010 election — and elections for decades to come.