A couple of years ago, I received phone calls, a long letter, and what seemed to be a focus-group invitation from a New York-based organization called Demos. The pitch was that this group, a sort of think tank with an activist thrust, wanted to encourage dialogue across the political spectrum, elevate the level of political discussion, and seek ways to bridge ideological divides to promote the common good. I’m a sucker for these kinds of projects, and responded with interest for a while on behalf of state-based think tanks. Then it became clear that the goal was merely to co-opt and to discover tactics to battle the “right-wing.” It has received significant funding from George Soros, and its mission is to combat the “values of extreme laissez faire ideology that have deeply permeated our society” (as if).
Recent work by a Demos senior fellow, Nomi Prins, ought to give a flavor of what is going on here. Her piece describes “how the Republicans can manipulate oil prices for political gain.” Yep — the conspiracy theory (though she describes it as “market forces with a lot of push from Washington-related signals”) has made its leap from the fevered swamps of DailyKos-land to the work of a former Goldman Sachs managing director now working at a Soros-funded outfit. Delightful.
Soros, you see, only sought to manipulate international currency prices for personal gain.