Two things happened after philanthropist Alex Soros hosted Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for a recent fundraiser. Both of them are things I have seen time and again as a Democratic politician and as a leader in a progressive advocacy organization.
Someone on the right (in this case, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy) let loose with a disgusting, antisemitic trope, smearing Soros as a puppet master pulling “marionette” strings.
And some folks on the left wrung their hands and warned that it’s “probably not helpful” for Soros to be seen with Walz.
I’ll preface the rest of this by saying that Alex Soros has been my friend for nearly a decade. Also, my organization, People for the American Way, is among the many groups that have received support from Soros’s Open Society Foundations over the years. And we are proud of that support.
The hatred directed at him and his family is next-level. I’ve watched as seemingly well-meaning people adopt the attitude that they are doing the progressive cause a favor by creating daylight between it and the name “Soros.”
So let me say this: It’s time to change that attitude. First, it’s our responsibility to call out a smear of this kind as not just an inexcusable attack on a specific individual — but an attack on all people of Jewish culture or faith. And second, this year in particular, we have an obligation to point out how attacks like this are dog whistles to a particular set of conservative voters, because antisemitism on the right is flourishing more than ever.
It’s deeply disturbing to see how former President Donald Trump’s campaigns and administration appear to have created a permission structure for antisemitism that is both subtle and in-your-face.
Earlier this year, The New York Times reported that “through the Trump era many Republicans have helped inject into the mainstream thinly veiled anti-Jewish messages with deep historical roots.”
Often this code refers to conspiracy theories about “globalists” or a “global cabal” that controls world events. Trump himself seems to be all-in on the antisemitic tropes, with fundraising emails attacking Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as a “bought-and-paid-for Soros prosecutor” carrying out his “puppet master’s plot.” That was just one of hundreds of such Trump campaign communications sent to supporters in which he parroted “global cabal” themes and often invoked the Soros name.
Against this backdrop, the right has done everything in its power to make “Soros-backed” an epithet aimed at silencing progressives.
Want to know if it’s working? If you’re an organization or a politician that trumpets support from the United Auto Workers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Gates Foundation or the Ford Foundation, ask yourself if you whisper instead when it comes to the support of the Open Society Foundations.
Now ask yourself why.
Progressive advocacy organizations in particular can and should be proud of support from the Open Society Foundations, an organization with a history of supporting abortion rights, environmental protection, criminal justice reform and an end to racial and religious persecution.
For organizations like ours, to say anything less is to be cowed by the opposition’s narrative that a charitable organization like the Open Society Foundations and the family behind it are bogeymen. We know too well what happens when the fear of bogeymen grows and is nurtured by cynical politicians.
In American history, we’ve seen that fear turn into Islamophobia, racism, homophobia and, of course, antisemitism. We’ve seen it turn dangerous, and deadly, here and around the world.
So here’s my charge to my fellow progressives. If the right takes a swing with a hateful attack on us or our allies, we don’t duck. We lead a chorus of condemnation. We proudly embrace one another, and we don’t let the bigots win.
