Commentary - Soros drives Democratic Party: Author

Examiner: What is “The Shadow Party” and why do you call it that, instead of a “movement” or even a “conspiracy”?

Horowitz: Shadow Party is a term the Washington Post and other media organizations gave to a group of 527s — entities for funding political efforts — that were being organized by [billionaire activist] George Soros. It’s a transmogrification of “shadow government,” a political science term for a government in waiting.

Soros was the spearhead behind the McCain-Feingold [campaign finance] bill, and raised tens of millions of dollars to promote the cause. What it did was defund the Democratic Party in particular because it severely limited the contributions to a political party, and most Republican contributions went to candidates. At that point in time, the Democrats depended to a great extent on big union contributions, 95 percent of which went to them.

The Democratic Party lost $100 million or more to Soros-created entities like Americans Coming Together that collected that union money. So the control shifted from the Democratic Party to Soros’ network, which became the force behind Democratic Party politics. All Democratic candidates had to answer to Soros. Unions also provided workers during elections; 100,000 campaign workers amount to another $100 million, all of which were under the control of Soros-created 527s.

The second sense in which it’s a shadow party is that Republicans were in power and Soros Democrats were seeking power, first to unseat the Democratic Party regulars and then the Republicans.

Examiner: How is this different from, say, the GOP’s Goldwater movement in the 1960s?

Horowitz: The Goldwater movement was a grassroots movement. Here you have an immense concentration of wealth. Richard Scaife gives some money to Republicans, but Soros personally put $27 million into his campaign to remove George W. Bush, and the Shadow Party spent $300 million in the ’04 campaign. Before then, the largest individual contribution to a political party was $600,000 from a Clinton donor, so the concentration of money and resources has dwarfed anything previous.

And it’s top-down; 100,000 union members are not the same thing as Americans at a town meeting. This is very much an orchestrated effort by a very small group of people.

Examiner: Who are the big players in this Shadow Party?

Horowitz: Insurance mogul Peter Lewis, Stephen Bing of Shangri-La Entertainment, members of Americans Coming Together, and lawyer Harold Ickes — Bill Clinton’s fixer in the White House and Hillary’s silent chief of staff who is also CEO of the Shadow Party and ran its media operation.

Examiner: How would you track the activities of the Shadow Party?

Horowitz: You need to alert Examiner readers to the fact that a lot of these organizations such as America Coming Together don’t exist any more. They are not really grassroots organizations. Soros will just create a new set for coming election.

My Web site, discoverthenetworks.org, is an encyclopedia of the left. You can see our tracking of Soros’ Open Society Institute and follow his money and network ties to the Clinton machine in our Politics section. He’ll do what’s needed to elect Hillary Clinton.

Examiner: Is the level of critical media scrutiny commensurate with Soros’ influence on public policy?

Horowitz: Not at all, the reason being that the media is sympathetic to Soros and his biggest goal: to destroy Bush and take the Republican Party down with him.

Democrats are scared of him because he has too much power. Look what happened to Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., who challenged him. Soros put up a complete non-entity in the primary and defeated him. Other Democrats don’t want him going into their congressional districts and unseating them, too. Everyone has to look over their shoulder, which is why they march in real lock-step, with very little disagreement or dissent.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., was a very good national security Democrat; nobody who ran against her ever got 40 percent. But her politics — and her votes — began to change when the Soros machine threatened to go in with a credible candidate and resources to defeat her.

Soros has a deep anti-American sentiment. In his view, George W. Bush created the terrorists. He’s so historically ignorant that it’s breathtaking, but even John Edwards repeated that when he said that the war on terror is nothing but a bumper sticker.

Examiner: Can the Shadow Party change public policy on an issue of its choosing?

Horowitz: We still live in a democracy, however flawed, so Soros’ influence on a particular policy depends on the issue. He’s had a huge influence on the most important issue — the war — but he’s been less successful trying to legalize drugs, which cuts sharply against the American grain. He’s also a huge supporter of euthanasia, a Dr. Kervorkian fellow-traveler.

Examiner: How should conservatives respond to the Shadow Party?

Horowitz: Conservatives are really lame at political battles. Witness what we are up against: people who want to betray our troops in the field and end the war in Iraq with absolutely no plan what to do when the bloodbath begins — just to win the next election.

Conservatives should have been setting up mirror 527s three years ago. Republicans always lose the political battle because they pretend it doesn’t exist. Bush allowed the opposition to paint him as a liar and manipulator with very little response. And the surge should have been done three years ago. What kind of rules of engagement allow terrorists to have bases in big cities? What lunacy is that?

The first thing we have to do is fight the domestic movement that wants us to lose the war on terror. That includes Al Gore, the wretched Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi and half of the Democratic leadership who are more interested in getting elected one time than protecting Americans.

But the Republican Party pretends it’s just politics as usual. We’re not in the battle.

Examiner: What is the Shadow Party’s biggest objective for 2008?

Horowitz: Get us out of Iraq. Soros also wants Hillary elected president. She’s a very left-wing socialist and so is he. He’s also big on open borders: he’s already declared that American supremacy is the world’s number one problem. If you point out they have a similar agenda to the communists, the left will call you a McCarthyite and witch-hunter. We can’t even call traitors that, so they’ve won that battle.

We [you] need to be asking: Are you ready to defend this county and insist that legal immigrants are respectful of our institutions and language? We can’t even win that battle, let alone the battle over the Islamic invasion of the West. America’s only hope is to defeat the Islamo-fasists who want to destroy us, but the Shadow Party doesn’t want to defend this country.

The U.S. is in exactly the same position as Israel, held to a higher standard than anybody else. We’re cutting ourselves off at the knees.

Examiner: Will the Shadow Party win the next election?

Horowitz: If the election were held tomorrow, yes. The Democratic Party is a dangerous party that wants to disarm America. But the Republicans are in serious trouble and their base is demoralized. It’s terrible.

Examiner: Does the Internet make it easier for Soros to achieve his political objectives?

Horowitz: The Internet is neutral. It would actually be easier for us conservatives — if we did something. But there’s no leadership.

If the American people understand the stakes in Iraq — and the president hasn’t spent a whole lot of time explaining them — they’d respond the way they always have.

Bush would have lost the last election if not for the Swift boat guys operating on a shoestring, but the Bush White House attacked them. You don’t see any Democrats attacking Soros.