OPINION:
George Soros recently announced that he had turned his financial empire over to his 37-year-old son, Alex. Alex Soros says he is more political than his father. Not sure how that is possible, but if it’s true, conservatives are in even more trouble.
In 2020, George Soros funded Democratic candidates and liberal causes to the tune of half a billion dollars. But this just scratches the surface. According to CNBC, Mr. Soros also finances a complex network of related nonprofits, research funding, and charities totaling more than $32 billion over the years.
No doubt the left has massive marketing, messaging, energy, and financial advantages over conservatives, who do not have a single mega-conservative movement donor in the category of Mr. Soros, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg, etc. Mr. Zuckerberg alone spent $417 million in 2020 to turn out Democratic voters.
Yes, there are many generous donors to conservative causes. Still, there is no one who will put tens or hundreds of millions of dollars into conservative movement causes or projects as some on the left do.
Politics is the religion of the left. Their worldview revolves around gaining power and controlling people. Freedom is not their song; it is tyranny through government dictates and mandates.
In the 2022 election cycle, Democratic congressional candidates outraised Republicans by $274 million. That year, abortion radicals poured almost $500 million into ads against Republicans, who spent barely $10 million on the issue.
The left has more than 20,000 single-issue nonprofit organizations, vs. about 1,500 for conservatives.
Each nonprofit organization needs five to seven officers, e.g., president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, fundraiser, event director, etc. This gives the Democrats more than 120,000 people training and learning leadership skills to become future candidates for school board, city council, state legislature and Congress. It’s called community organizing.
Each year, Democratic nonprofits raise 700% more money than conservative nonprofits ($21 billion vs. $3.5 billion).
Democrats have 700% more unique donors (21 million vs. 3.5 million). As of April 15, Act Blue alone had 14,231,377 unique Democratic donors.
I have devoted most of my life and career to marketing and fundraising for conservative causes. Now in my 10th decade of life, I have studied, researched and read how the left operates while creating opportunities for conservatives to compete.
As of 2022 (the last year for which figures are available), the 20 largest liberal private family foundations had assets of $166 billion, whereas conservative foundations had $16 billion — a 10-to-1 advantage for the left.
The 20th-largest liberal private family foundation (the Annie E. Casey Foundation) has assets of $2 billion, vs. $10 million (the Clause Foundation) for conservatives.
Democrats have far more high-level professional marketers than conservatives do.
Democrats have worked hard for more than 60 years to take over foundations founded by conservatives or by people who weren’t political but were capitalists. As a result, most large foundations are in the iron grip of the left — the Ford, Rockefeller, Pew, McArthur, Hilton, Hewlett, and Packard foundations.
Besides the big bucks, the left also has high-energy, world-class strategists like John Podesta, David Axelrod, Marc Elias, Eric Holder and Barack Obama.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Newt Gingrich was the major national strategist for conservatives and Republicans, leading the effort to gain control of Congress in 1994 after 40 years of Democratic control.
Unfortunately, conservatives have no Newt today at the level of our opponents.
The left acts independently of the Democratic Party. They act as a third political force, pulling everyone in their direction. Think environmental issues, climate change and the LGBTQ agenda. The left has its own agenda, issues, money, supporters and donors. Most conservative leaders, however, act as an appendage of the Republican Party, as an arm of the GOP — with no vision or plans to govern America.
Most conservative leaders lack the energy, skill and desire to win that the left has.
A high percentage, if not most, on the left are atheists or, at best, agnostic. So, their religion is government. They believe that government is the way to make people do the “right” thing. The difference in approach by the left vs. the right is much bigger than politics. Sadly, I see the divide in the country as a spiritual civil war. The battle is good vs. evil, liberty vs. tyranny.
Young liberals who want to “do good” and “help people” go into the nonprofit world and politics. They work for the government and for nonprofit organizations.
As a rule, the best and brightest young conservatives and apolitical young people go into the private sector. Many will “do good” by starting, leading or managing businesses that employ people who will then be able to marry, buy a car and a home, raise and educate children, and live happily ever after.
Conservatives volunteer for and give money to their church, missionaries and community. They coach their children’s sports teams or teach Sunday school.
Despite being out-led, outspent and outmaneuvered by the left, half of the country still votes conservative/Republican.
In the long term, however, we cannot continue to play defense and expect to win. It’s time for conservatives to recognize we’re in this spiritual civil war launched by the Democrats. Conservatives need bold, risk-taking entrepreneurial leadership.
• Richard A. Viguerie is the pioneer of political direct marketing, chairman of American Target Advertising and ConservativeHQ.com, and author of seven books, including “Go Big” and “How Conservatives Can Outlive Liberals.”
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