Yesterday, Alexander Soros, George's son, published an op-ed in the New York Times, titled "The Hate Among Us." He wrote:
My family is no stranger to the hostilities of those who reject our philosophy, our politics and our very identity. My father grew up in the shadow of the Nazi regime in Hungary. My grandfather secured papers with false names so that they could survive the onslaught against Budapest’s Jews; he helped many others do the same. After the war, as the Communists took power, my father escaped to London, where he studied at the London School of Economics before embarking on what ultimately became a hugely successful career in finance.
My father acknowledges that his philanthropic work, while nonpartisan, is “political” in a broad sense: It seeks to support those who promote societies where everyone has a voice.
Soros has been branded, by some, as an enemy of democracy. The irony is -- of course -- that those who see him as an enemy of democracy are working hard to tear it down. The younger Soros admits that those people have always been there. But, in 2016, something changed:
With Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, things got worse. White supremacists and anti-Semites like David Duke endorsed his campaign. Mr. Trump’s final TV ad famously featured my father; Janet Yellen, chairwoman of the Federal Reserve; and Lloyd Blankfein, chairman of Goldman Sachs — all of them Jewish — amid dog-whistle language about “special interests” and “global special interests.” A genie was let out of the bottle, which may take generations to put back in, and it wasn’t confined to the United States.
In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán launched an anti-Semitic poster campaign falsely accusing my father of wanting to flood Hungary with migrants. This included plastering my father’s face onto the floor of trams in Budapest so that people would walk on it, all to serve Mr. Orbán’s political agenda.
Now we have attempted bomb attacks. While the responsibility lies with the individual or individuals who sent these lethal devices to my family home and Mr. Obama’s and Ms. Clinton’s offices, I cannot see it divorced from the new normal of political demonization that plagues us today.
Yesterday, a line was crossed in the United States. Bombers are nothing new. But bombers who threaten to imprison and kill political opponents is new. And those attacks have been praised and encouraged by Trump.
Trump may hold the title of president. But, by now, it should be clear to everyone. Trump is a public menace: a clear and present danger. There is much more at stake than his presidency.
Image: The Wire
