So while on a trip to Richmond, Virginia from my home in New Jersey (a several hour drive) I listened to Glenn Beck‘s radio show and it mimicked much of what he’d been talking about on his TV show with respect to an all-out war against liberal billionaire George Soros.
The pinnacle of his argument boiled down to a very telling—or so he claims—recording of Soros’ response to a question he was asked that goes as follows:
QUESTIONER: The question is whether we need and whether Mr. Soros and his foundations can help to bring more foreign influence into the United States instead of relying on what is essentially a balance between Democrats and conservative Republicans, which hasn’t worked and is not about to start working.
SOROS: I think you put your finger on a very important flaw in the current world order—and that is that only Americans have a vote in Congress. And yet it is the United States that basically determines policy for the world. That is a flaw in the current setup.
Beck plays this as clear proof of Soros’ plan to destroy America and a desire to allow foreign citizens to vote in our elections.
The problem I had with the clip was that it sounded….. off. Soros’ reply seemed cut-off and the original question also seemed compressed. When I got home I decided to do a little searching and found, to no surprise, that Beck has completely altered and edited this exchange to essentially portray it as the opposite of what Soros actually believes. Here’s the original exchange:
QUESTIONER: My name is Lee Retiener, and sir, it seems to me four options have arisen today, only one of which is new and hasn’t been spoken of yet. Your option of creating a new community of democracies, which in a sense is pronouncing the U.N. a little bit dead. The second is improving the United Nations. Its failures—I don’t mean in the Security Council but over the past 20 years and through the dominance of the Group of 77 and the new world economic order—gave Wolfowitz the right, the power, and the philosophical justification, and those like him, to do what he has now done. That’s part of the answer to the question that was asked earlier. So improving the United Nations, which is a long-sought-after goal, is one to which great effort would have to be given. But there’s another way, which would be entirely unconstitutional, but I advance it not for the sake of humor, but only to help thought—which is to create a third branch of Congress for foreign governments only. Proportionate representation in the United States Congress so that the Chinese can legitimately give money, so that Israel can give us money.
The question is whether we need and whether Mr. Soros and his foundations can help to bring more foreign influence into the United States instead of relying on what is essentially a balance between Democrats and conservative Republicans, which hasn’t worked and is not about to start working.SOROS: Look, I think…..I think you put your finger on a very important flaw in the current world order and that is that only Americans have a vote in Congress. And yet it is the United States that basically determines policy for the world. That is a flaw in the current setup. I don’t think you can correct it by giving the Chinese government a vote in Congress. But it is a flaw and I think this is where American leadership is needed, to take into account and respect the interests of others as well, in order to retain the dominant position we currently enjoy.
No wonder Beck hastily cut off the last little bit. It’s just a pity none of his choir will ever bother to question the messenger.
