George Soros Warns His ‘Social Engineering’ and ‘Redistributive Policies’ are Threatened by ‘Fascist’ Trump

Globalization has had far-reaching economic and political consequences. It has brought about some economic convergence between poor and rich countries; but it increased inequality within both poor and rich countries. In the developed world, the benefits accrued mainly to large owners of financial capital, who constitute less than 1% of the population. The lack of redistributive policies is the main source of the dissatisfaction that democracy’s opponents have exploited. [Emphasis added.]

There you have it. In the world Soros would create, “redistributive policies” would be pursued by elected officials to dramatically reduces the differences in wealth among citizens. We know this as Marxism, or a very close variant of it.

Now Soros turns to the EU and his disappointment with where it stands today.  Again, emphasis will be added below to show the phrases that betray Soros’ real beliefs and goals.

I was an avid supporter of the European Union from its inception. I regarded it as the embodiment of the idea of an open society: an association of democratic states willing to sacrifice part of their sovereignty for the common good. It started out at as a bold experiment in what Popper called “piecemeal social engineering.” The leaders set an attainable objective and a fixed timeline and mobilized the political will needed to meet it, knowing full well that each step would necessitate a further step forward.

Then along came a financial crisis — in this case, the crisis of 2008. These things happen all the time. But an EU in the form envisioned by Soros should have handled this crisis differently. He laments that the EU was not robust enough to respond according to his vision. And he further laments recent political events.

After the Crash of 2008, the EU and the eurozone became increasingly dysfunctional. Prevailing conditions became far removed from those prescribed by the Maastricht Treaty, but treaty change became progressively more difficult, and eventually impossible, because it couldn’t be ratified. The eurozone became the victim of antiquated laws; much-needed reforms could be enacted only by finding loopholes in them. That is how institutions became increasingly complicated, and electorates became alienated.

The rise of anti-EU movements further impeded the functioning of institutions. And these forces of disintegration received a powerful boost in 2016, first from Brexit, then from the election of Trump in the US, and on December 4 from Italian voters’ rejection, by a wide margin, of constitutional reforms.

His vision of a global community based on his concept of an open society is in peril. The result, according to Soros?

Democracy is now in crisis. Even the US, the world’s leading democracy, elected a con artist and would-be dictator as its president. Although Trump has toned down his rhetoric since he was elected, he has changed neither his behavior nor his advisers. His cabinet comprises incompetent extremists and retired generals.

Mr. Trump’s “America First” policies embodied in his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” is the antithesis of everything Soros stands for — open borders, global governance, and redistributive tax and benefit policies.  It explains his radical and unjustified criticism of Trump and his appointees. The defeat of Hillary was an absolute disaster for Mr. Soros. The nation-state is the enemy of Soros, and those who promote are, in his warped view, tyrants.

Looking to the future, he turns his attention first to the United States under the leadership of Donald Trump:

But the US will be preoccupied with internal struggles in the near future, and targeted minorities will suffer. The US will be unable to protect and promote democracy in the rest of the world. On the contrary, Trump will have greater affinity with dictators. That will allow some of them to reach an accommodation with the US, and others to carry on without interference. Trump will prefer making deals to defending principles. Unfortunately, that will be popular with his core constituency.

That last dig, proposing that what Soros views as offensive principles will be popular with Trump’s “core constituency” sort of reminds us of Hillary’s swipe at Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables.”

On to the EU.  Again, emphasis will be added to phrases that especially betray Soros’ globalist views. Note that he does not like Mr. Putin any more than he likes Mr. Trump. Also note that he trots out not only the unproven allegation that Russia hacked the email servers of Democratic officials, but builds on that likely falsehood to propose that it was Mr. Putin who spread lies to get Donald Trump elected.

I am particularly worried about the fate of the EU, which is in danger of coming under the influence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose concept of government is irreconcilable with that of open society. Putin is not a passive beneficiary of recent developments; he worked hard to bring them about. He recognized his regime’s weakness: it can exploit natural resources but cannot generate economic growth. He felt threatened by “color revolutions” in Georgia, Ukraine, and elsewhere. At first, he tried to control social media. Then, in a brilliant move, he exploited social media companies’ business model to spread misinformation and fake news, disorienting electorates and destabilizing democracies. That is how he helped Trump get elected.

The same is likely to happen in the European election season in 2017 in the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. In France, the two leading contenders are close to Putin and eager to appease him. If either wins, Putin’s dominance of Europe will become a fait accompli.

It all fits, doesn’t it? Global government implies open borders and income redistribution. Some people call this a New World Order. Others see the influence of Marxist ideology.

However, the bright spot is that people increasingly see through what Mr. Soros and his allies such as Obama and the Clintons wish to inflict on the peoples of the world. And they are rebelling at the polls as the Brexit vote and Mr. Trump’s victory show.  As Mr. Soros’ ideology is repudiated, true economic and political freedoms will grow.

Soros couldn’t have been more wrong with his predictions about a Trump administration.

Source: Project Syndicate