If you believe what you read in right-wing media and hear from the mouths of right-wing politicians—including the president—the billionaire philanthropist George Soros is a very busy guy these days. Falsely accused by Donald Trump of paying activists who protested the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, he’s also maligned by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida (and pretty much the entire far-right universe) who, less than two weeks ago, insinuated that Soros organized and funded the group of several thousand asylum-seekers and migrants from Central America who are walking to the U.S. border. On the right, the invocation of Soros’ name has long been a dog-whistle to anti-Semites.
That false narrative about Soros and the migrants, rolling around the internet since March, seemed to be enough to convince Robert Bowers, the alleged murderer of 11 Jews during worship at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue on Saturday, that “Jews” writ large were behind the so-called caravan, which Trump and such surrogates as former congresswoman Michele Bachmann, allege is composed of criminals and terrorists who are bent on “invad[ing]” the United States.
Now, the incumbent clerk of Harris County, the most populous county in Texas, is running his re-election campaign on the accusation that Soros is seeking to “control” the county’s elections in order to hurt Trump.
Soros has long been an all-purpose bogeyman for the sort of right-wing mind convinced by false conspiracy theories.
After all, through his foundations and personal largess, he supports liberal groups and causes, and is a donor to Democratic candidates. And he’s Jewish—an immigrant, at that.
As Right Wing Watch has shown, his name has become a stand-in for “the Jews” in the right-wing recycling of anti-Semitic tropes that go back to the 19th-century “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
As first reported via Twitter by Justin Miller of the Texas Observer, the homepage of Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart’s re-election campaign website features a large photograph of the bogeyman, labeled in red lettering, “George Soros is Coming…”
Make NO mistake, George Soros wants to control Harris County Elections and Stan Stanart is in his way. If Harris County, larger in population than 26 states, allows socialists like Soros to control our elections, then Texas is next. It is almost impossible for a Republican to win the White House without the 38 Electoral College votes from Texas.
Stan needs your help TODAY to fight the millions that Soros and his allies plan to pour into Harris County. There are many more Flag Waving, defenders of the Constitution then those who support Soros’ world views, but remember “All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.”– Edmund Burke.
To the right of the Soros photo, presented with no apparent sense of irony, is a call for prayers for the congregation of the Tree of Life synagogue, which was the scene of the mass murder of 11 worshipers by an anti-Semite on Saturday. “As a long time friend of Jews in America and throughout the world,” Stanart writes in a signed statement, “I call on us all to come together and love our fellow man.”
Below the statement in larger font are the words “Stop George Soros,” followed by a big, red button labeled, “Donate NOW!”
The homepage Soros image links to a Breitbart story about a 2015 memo from the U.S. branch of his Open Society Foundations, which lays out strategy for grant-making in the foundation’s voting rights programs. Discussed in the memo, according to the 2016 Breitbart report, are grants made to ensure an accurate census count, which will determine the apportionment of congressional districts.
