Have you ever wondered what planet the Left lives on? The Democratic Party’s most ardent defenders display plenty of cognitive dissonances to fuel that question.
For example, the latest story dealing with money in politics shows yet again that America’s leftist faction spends its time in some sort of Bizarroland. The Left lives there either blissfully unaware of politics or willfully obtuse as to how much cash its side throws around in politics each election cycle.
Barre Seid, an ultra-successful billionaire conservative, recently donated $1.6 billion to the conservative non-profit The Marble Freedom Trust, according to a report. That is a huge chunk of change and will undoubtedly allow The Marble Freedom Trust to influence politics across the country.
For that reason, Seid is earning the ire of folks like MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and countless others.
“This is nuts,” Hayes said in reaction to the news. He also took a potshot at the non-profit leader, attorney Leonard Leo, an influential conservative who has spent decades in the D.C. non-profit world working to elect conservative justices.
“Neat how Leo helped engineer a SCOTUS that guts campaign finance restrictions and opens the floodgates to unprecedented dark money and then raises hundreds of millions in said dark money,” Hayes said sarcastically.
Based on the MSNBC anchor’s reaction, you would think American politics has never seen this kind of money before in one election cycle.
Due to laws protecting donors’ anonymity (the so-called dark money laws mentioned by Hayes), it is unclear if an individual has ever donated $1.6 billion during one election, but the Left has constantly thrown around billions of dollars through numerous organizations and individuals.
That makes the outcry against the $1.6 billion donation all the more weak.
Matt Whitlock, a Republican staffer, responded to Hayes, saying, “Have to wonder if liberals who are shocked at this are genuinely unaware that their own side has been at this scale for years now and the right is just starting to catch up.”
“Or if they are fully aware and this is all Sheldon Whitehouse style performance art,” he said in reference to the Rhode Island Democratic senator who has often expressed outrage at big money in politics despite his party often benefiting from it.
Whitlock pointed out that the same New York Times article shared by Hayes reported that, “Democrats spent $1.5B in dark money in the 2020 election cycle alone — most of which linked back to Arabella Advisors.”
The New York Times has previously reported that “dark money” helped President Joe Biden defeat former President Donald J. Trump. Yet Hayes had no qualms with that reporting.
Hayes has also defended George Soros from criticism. Soros, of course, is a Jewish Hungarian billionaire who consistently donates millions to left-wing causes and candidates every election cycle.
For instance, in 2019, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, “And for those who don’t know who Adam Schiff is, he is not just a radical liberal, he is someone who has been hand-picked and supported by George Soros,” in reference to the Democratic California congressman.
“Shifty Schiff the Soros-picked Congressman! No tropes here. No sir,” Hayes said, implying that Trump Jr. was engaging in anti-Semitic behavior.
Absent from Hayes’ critique was any mention of the funds given by Soros. Soros is quite proud of his donations. He even wrote a recent Wall Street Journal opinion column explaining why he would continue to use his bank account to push prosecutors who agree with his legal philosophy. Again — crickets from the Left regarding that supposedly untoward financial influence.
Yet, when Seid — who is also of Jewish descent — uses his cash to advance causes he sees fit, it seems that criticism of his actions is fully encouraged.
Nor does it seem that big unions — which often support Democratic causes — deserve any scrutiny for throwing their weight around. In 2020, unions pumped a collective $1.8 billion into politics, according to the National Right To Work Committee.
It was barely a blip in the news when Democratic billionaire and crypto-king Sam Bankman-Fried threw out the idea that he might donate upwards of $1 billion in the 2024 election cycle.
“I would guess north of $100 million,” Bankman-Fried said at the time, regarding how much he would put toward the Democratic Party in 2024. “As for how much more than that, I don’t know. It really does depend on what happens. It’s really dependent on exactly who’s running where for what.”
“[$1 billion] is a decent thing to look at as a — I would hate to say hard ceiling, because who knows what’s going to happen between now and then — but at least sort of as a soft ceiling,” he added.
And then are folks like Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, who has donated hundreds of millions in dark money. Not only is he using his wealth to push American politics leftward — he isn’t even American.
Of course, money in politics is not actually the problem.
The issue for the Left is that if conservative billionaires actually start using their money effectively to win political battles, then the Left will start losing power and elections. That reality would be tantamount to an “assault on democracy,” or whatever the latest smear is these days.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.