Today is May Day, the international Left’s day of solidarity. What better day, then, for nationwide demonstrations against President Trump and his policies?
Something called 50501 is coordinating a score of “grassroots” events around the country. 50501 is shorthand for “50 protests. 50 states. 1 Movement.”
An apparently overlapping coalition called May Day Strong is promoting May Day National Day of Action. 50501 is identified by May Day National Day of Action as a member of “Our Coalition,” which includes groups like Indivisible and MoveOn that are bankrolled by the Open Society Foundations, funded by George Soros.
How much of this is “grassroots” and how much is “astroturf?”
The 50501 website proclaims, “Stop the Billionaire Takeover. We are Many. They are Few.” The high profile of Elon Musk in the Trump administration is actually the exception that proves the rule: the activist Left is the beneficiary of oceans of cash from billionaires, dwarfing that available to groups in the center or on the Right.
Billionaires like George Soros, Reid Hoffman, and Bill Gates long ago took over the Democratic Party. The interests of billionaires are not the those of middle-class people who work for a living. That is why the Democrats lost the election, and their approval rating is at an all-time low.
As reported by Simon van Zuylen-Wood in the April 22 New York Magazine:
Amid the right’s obsession with demonizing George Soros, there is scant mainstream understanding of what OSF actually does. One thing it does is fund the Groups. In the summer of 2019, eight progressive NGOs teamed up on a campaign to pressure the Democratic presidential field into pledging to decriminalize border crossings. They were United We Dream Action, Working Families, MoveOn, Indivisible, the Center for Popular Democracy Action, Women’s March, Sunrise, and Bend the Arc: Jewish Action. Though the policy polled poorly, eight of ten presidential candidates at a debate that June pledged their support for it. (Joe Biden and Michael Bennet did not.) OSF has funded seven of the eight groups. Later, a ninth group, Latino Victory Project, vowed to apply pressure on Biden. It also receives OSF funding.
The same networks that can ensure that the Democratic Party remains a captive of the Left can organize nationwide protests. Soros funding is ubiquitous.
Certainly, there is authentic anti-Trump sentiment that can be harnessed. But the infrastructure is a thicket of activist groups funded by Soros and others that exist in every corner of the nation. It doesn’t matter how many people take part in these protests, or how often organizers claim their efforts are “grassroots” or how they are organized by “volunteers.” The protests are conducted in the service of the billionaire Left.
The Groups have outsized influence and can enforce their rigid agenda on all kinds of institutions, including the Democratic party. In return, the billionaires get a free pass from those who would otherwise challenge the morality of wealth.
The May Day events were preceded by the “Tesla Takedown” protests, organized by many of the same groups, which coincided with violence, vandalism and firebombings directed against Tesla dealers, owners and charging stations.
The May Day website asserts, “A core principle behind our May Day actions is a commitment to nonviolence. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.”
There are two problems with this disavowal of violence. First, the previous violence was directed against innocent persons and private property, not from confrontations with Trump or Musk sympathizers, which never happened.
Secondly, no one believes it. When the recurrent messaging and imagery at all these protests is that Trump is Hitler and Musk is a Nazi, the organizers can’t simply disown such extremism. They are going to be linked to the violence, and justifiably so.
Promotion of violence, even if by proxy, is not a tax-exempt activity. Yet the Open Society Foundations enjoys tax-exempt status. Some $25 billion sits in its coffers, ensuring division and chaos for many years to come.
Peter Flaherty is NLPC Chairman.
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
