Billionaires Battle for America's Soul

ON AN AIRPLANE FROM L.A. TO MIAMI–

Donald Trump isn’t the only billionaire in the eye of a seemingly treacherous Florida hurricane that threatens to destroy us all or at least change our world as we know it.  Two others — one or more of them far richer than Trump — are singing “Bye, bye, Miss American Pie.” Only it’s not a Chevy they are taking to the levee.  It’s a Tesla.

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They are Linda Pritzker of Hyatt Hotels, the late Peter B. Lewis of Progressive Corp., and, of course, George Soros of practically everything.  These three billionaires were (and in the case of Pritzker and Soros still are) the principal backers of MoveOn.Org, an organization whose devotion to our constitutional republic, specifically its First Amendment, is somewhere between suspect and non-existent.  It is MoveOn that has instigated many of the demonstrations against Trump and may be inspiring “lone wolves,” one of whom may sooner or later do what “lone wolves” are prone to do.

These supporting billionaires are fueled by a moral narcissism that knows no bounds, so convinced are they that they are “right” on practically everything.  They have enabled the (most often) young people at MoveOn who undoubtedly believe that they too are “right” and have the “right” to suppress the speech of those with whom they disagree.   They behave as if they think it their noble duty. This is the not-so-royal road to totalitarianism and is the tragic consequence of the miseducation of our young for which those billionaires are also, in part, culpable.

This is not to exonerate Trump, whose language has been, to say the least, challenging.  But this is no normal election and we are not in a normal time.  Our country has to decide whether it seeks to be like Europe or like America.  Although I have lived several wonderful years altogether in Europe and love many things about it, the decline of Europe is evident and on the cusp of irreversible.  It is also evident that the Democratic Party, in varying degrees, wishes to take us in that direction. Soros, Lewis and Pritzker are accelerating that process.  Whether they are overt supporters or not, they could aptly be called “Billionaires for Sanders.” The irony is palpable — I’ve got mine but none of you will ever get yours.

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So that leaves us with Trump, the barbaric “bad medicine” of today’s America.  Who is he exactly and does he know himself?  As of this writing, his Republican adversaries — Rubio, Kasich and Cruz — are to one degree or another aligned against him.  Understandably, they don’t want to be associated with violence, although whatever mayhem has occurred has so far been almost minuscule compared to your average soccer match by Manchester United.

Kasich says Trump has created a toxic environment.  I disagree.  Trump has revealed one that sooner or later, probably sooner, would have been made manifest anyway.  The huge divide in America had to be exposed in order ever to heal.

The causes of this divide are many, but the grand instigator, dwarfing Trump, is Barack Obama.  The bright shining lie of our time was when Obama told us at that now long ago Democratic Convention that America was not red and blue states but the United States of America.  Was that ever a bait-and-switch?! From the moment he was inaugurated, Obama has acted in word and deed to divide us.  Trump follows Obama as the night the day.

But can Trump finally be a president who brings us together?  And if not he, who? At this moment, as the dateline of this column indicates, I am on the way to Florida.  My mission is to do as much as I can to find out, talking to his people and his adversaries on the eve of the most epochal primary yet.  Although I will do my best, I’m not sure that will I come to any conclusion. The more I cover this campaign, the more mysterious it seems to me, the more mysterious the whole electoral process appears to me.  Who would actually be the best president may not be revealed by it all.  For all the sound and fury, we never really know until the man or woman is in place.  And even then, it may remain a mystery.

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But what I do know is that, until groups like MoveOn.Org, #BlackLivesMatter and the billionaires that support them learn to respect that founding fundamental pillar of our nation the First Amendment, I reject every word that comes out of their mouths and every act they perform. They are, to put it bluntly, enemies of the state.

Roger L. Simon is a prize-winnning novelist, Academy Award-nominated screenwriter and co-founder of PJ Media.  His next book – I Know Best: How Moral Narcissism Is Destroying Our Republic, If It Hasn’t Already – will be published by Encounter Books in June 2016.

(Artwork created using multiple Shutterstock.com and AP images.)

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