Is George Soros the money man behind Occupy Wall Steet?

Who's behind the Wall Steet protests?

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There has been much speculation over who is financing the disparate protest, which has spread to cities across America and lasted nearly four weeks. One name that keeps coming up is investor George Soros, who in September debuted in the top 10 list of wealthiest Americans. Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse for a secret Soros agenda.

Soros and the protesters deny any connection. But Reuters did find indirect financial links between Soros and Adbusters, an anti-capitalist group in Canada which started the protests with an inventive marketing campaign aimed at sparking an Arab Spring type uprising against Wall Street. Moreover, Soros and the protesters share some ideological ground.

Comment: Also worth a read:

George Will: Calling for a Mulligan

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OWS' defenders correctly say it represents progressivism's spirit and intellect. Because it embraces spontaneity and deplores elitism, it eschews deliberation and leadership. Hence its agenda, beyond eliminating one of the seven deadly sins (avarice), is opaque. Its meta-theory is, however, clear: Washington is grotesquely corrupt and insufficiently powerful.

Unfortunately for OWS, big government's scandal du jour, the Obama administration's Solyndra episode of crony capitalism, does not validate progressivism's indignation, it refutes progressivism's aspiration, which is for more minute government supervision of society. Solyndra got to the government trough with the help of a former bundler of Obama campaign contributions who was an Energy Department bureaucrat helping to dispense taxpayers' money to politically favored companies. His wife's law firm represented Solyndra. But, then, government of the sort progressives demand -- supposed "experts," wiser than the market, allocating wealth and opportunity by supposedly disinterested decisions -- is not just susceptible to corruption, it (BEG ITAL)is(END ITAL) corruption. It is political favoritism with a clean (even green) conscience.

Demands posted in OWS' name include a "guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment"; a $20-an-hour minimum wage (above the $16 entry wage the United Auto Workers just negotiated with GM); ending "the fossil fuel economy"; "open borders" so "anyone can travel anywhere to work and live"; $1 trillion for infrastructure; $1 trillion for "ecological restoration" (e.g., re-establishing "the natural flow of river systems"); "free college education."

And forgiveness of "all debt on the entire planet period." Progressivism's battle cry is: "Mulligan!" It demands the ultimate entitlement -- emancipation from the ruinous results of all prior claims of entitlement.

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Barack Obama feels their pain -- understands their "frustration." America's median income has declined even faster since the recovery began three Junes ago than it did during the recession, students are graduating into a jobless "recovery," African-Americans and Hispanics have unemployment rates of 16 and 11.3 percent, respectively, but Obama is on the case: He wants corporate jets to be taxed more. OWS must still, however, raise the consciousnesses of backsliding congressional Democrats who have decided that, unlike the president, they do not believe that "the rich" begin at household incomes of $250,000.

Tahrir Square Envy also motivates America's Progressive Autumn, the left's emulation of the Arab Spring. Of course, some lagoons of advanced thinking, such as Montgomery County, Md. -- it is a government workers' dormitory contiguous to Washington -- were progressive before OWS' drum(circle)beat became progressivism's pulse. The Montgomery County town of Takoma Park is a "nuclear-free zone," meaning it has no truck with nuclear weapons.

Responding to peace activists, some Montgomery County Council members sponsored a resolution to instruct Congress to slash defense spending. The idea died when Virginia began inviting the county's second-largest private-sector employer, Lockheed Martin, to move across the Potomac. To OWS, this proves the power of the plutocracy. To the tea party, it proves the virtue of federalism.

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