Tom Steyer’s recent announcement of a presidential run comes as little surprise. But his campaign platform is shockingly hypocritical, even by Steyer’s standards.
Steyer’s alleged goal is to be the “outsider” in the race, ready to “break the corrupt stranglehold that corporations have on our government” and “return power to the American people.” The enemy, Steyer claims, is “corrupt corporate power,” with a bit of climate change sprinkled in. The liberal mega-donor has long fancied himself as an environmental activist, donating more than $100 million to Democratic candidates who agree with him on the issue.
Yet, even a cursory glance at Steyer’s background exposes a Democrat more corporate than community organizer. In 1986, Steyer founded Farallon Capital Management, which has grown into one of America’s largest hedge funds. As of last year, Farallon managed over $25 billion worth of assets: roughly the equivalent of Iceland’s entire economic output. Steyer’s net worth is pegged at $1.6 billion.
I guess “corporate power” is only corrupting when it’s the other guy.
Dig deeper, and the stench of hypocrisy only grows. Beginning in the 1980s, Steyer made his name (and much of his money) investing in coal, natural gas, and oil. The New York Times, which described Steyer as “the most influential environmentalist in American politics,” simultaneously concurred “the coal-related projects his firm bankrolled will generate tens of millions of tons of carbon pollution for years, if not decades, to come.” Farallon has reportedly “pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into companies that operate coal mines and coal-fired power plants from Indonesia to China.”
This isn’t not stopping Steyer from ramping up his fundraising for the 2020 election. In addition to pledging $100 million of his own money (essentially, corporate money made from profiteering off pollution and on the backs of public-sector retirees), Steyer is now soliciting $250 contributions for his campaign.
Although he may be the Left’s leading hypocrite, Steyer is hardly the only one. In recent weeks, we’ve seen skeletons emerge from the closets of many a left-wing virtue-signaler. Jeffrey Epstein, a high-minded Democratic mega-donor and prominent Clinton ally, has been credibly accused of child sex trafficking, long protected by his wealthy and powerful friends. Ed Buck, a lesser-known but influential Democratic mega-donor from California, now faces charges of human trafficking and revenge pornography. Harvey Weinstein, who can’t help but keep losing defense attorneys, is another prize and longtime megadonor for the Left.
These and other scandals have been long-known and discussed — and ignored by influential Democrats who don’t want the gravy train to stop running. Only when public scrutiny is raised enough does the virtue signaling chorus reach a fever pitch.
This is not to say all liberals are quite so rotten. However, it’s clear that one of the Left’s calling cards is influence-peddling for the uber-wealthy, even for those utterly lacking in morals. “#MeToo,” but not for you, as long as the money flows to the right places.
It’s difficult to take the Democratic chorus seriously for claiming to champion everyday Americans, when billionaire-fossil-fuel-investor-turned-environmental-crusaders are singing the loudest, alongside those who covered for Epstein and Weinstein and their ilk for so long.
As we’ve seen in recent weeks, those who complain the most about corruption are often the most corrupt. Like the pigs in Animal Farm, the Left say they want us all to be equal, even as their pursuit of power serves to make them more equal than others.
While President Trump is making America great again, Democrats are only interested in making themselves great again — at your expense.
Dan Backer is a veteran campaign counsel, having served more than 100 candidates, PACs, and political organizations. He is the founding attorney of political.law, a campaign finance and political law firm in Alexandria, Virginia.
