George Soros

Houston has a public progressive lecture series called The Progressive Forum. About three months ago they had Al Gore come and talk. We did not go to that. Tonight they had George Soros talk. We went to that.

As most of you know, George Soros is a Hungarian Jew who fled the Nazis as a child and the Soviets as a young man (17 yo). We went on to London, and then New York to become an extremely wealthy hedge fund trader.

Since then he has used his money in the furtherment of democracy and progressive causes. He believes that Bush is using the “War on Terror” to do nothing more than consolidate his grip on power, and is misleading the American people to do so. He equates the “War on Terror” to the “War on Drugs”, which by its binary nature casts you as a good guy (against terror, against drugs) or a bad guy (A terrorist or a drug dealer) when the real answer is much more complicated.

I was disappointed in the format itself, though. They set it up as a Question and Answer with the audience. And a couple of things came through loud and clear. One is that most people have a very hard time producing a single coherent question, and the second is that the Democrats are the most defeatist people I have ever heard. TWO questions revolved around “Has the US gone so far down the wrong path that it is irretrievable”. He answered both times “no” but you can see why the Dems just don’t have their act together. You would never have heard a Republican – ever – say something like that.

Oh well. It was worth it to see Soros.