Republicans Step Up Coordinated Attacks on Liberal Nonprofits
All toddlers are fascist. Born that way. We’re supposed to raise them right so they don’t become grown-up fascists.
Even in Europe, people are noticing what could accurately be described as a neo-fascist offensive against US civil society. From Carnegie Europe last week:
Amid rising attacks on democratic norms and institutions, civil society organizations in the United States confront a widening array of threats. New restrictions on protest and attacks on freedom of expression have proliferated in recent years, particularly at the state level. Civil society organizations and activists are encountering legal and political intimidation tactics that are eerily similar to those used to harass and silence activists in Hungary, India, Türkiye, and other backsliding democracies. Former U.S. president Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric, his track record in government, and the proposals put forward by his political allies suggest that a second Trump administration could further accelerate these trends. No matter the outcome of the election, however, challenges are likely to persist at the state level. They call for concerted action by philanthropic actors and civil society organizations seeking to protect the U.S. nonprofit sector and civic freedoms more broadly.
Instead of violently suppressing dissenting voices, antidemocratic leaders have become increasingly skilled at using legal and administrative tactics, harassment, and stigmatizing narratives to weaken their opposition. Yet activists and organizations, along with their international allies, have also learned valuable lessons on how to adapt, survive, and fight back. Their experiences offer guidance for U.S. civil society groups and foundations as they brace themselves for present and future attacks.
I have been reporting the last few days about the Republican letter writing campaign against “left leaning” charities. And last Friday, we saw two more bills aimed at Universities perceived as in cahoots with those same charities. Before that, we saw some pretty quick progress on the Terrorism Tax Exemption Revocation bill. Some people think the bill is advancing because of Republican disdain for student support of Palestinians in Gaza. Benjamin Soskis calls what’s going on “ideological policing.” So there is a pretty obviously coordinated campaign going on. The latest evidence consists of two more letters, this time from Senators. The first is a letter sent by Republican Senator Josh Hawley last week demanding that DOJ use the Service’s civil disobedience revenue ruling to shut down protestors. So strident are the demands that Hawley even condemns dark money donors, something Republican lawmakers have not done before:
In university after university, antisemitic radicals have taken over entire buildings and large tracts of outdoor space. They are vandalizing property, blocking students from moving around their own campuses, and terrorizing Jewish students. All the while, many administrators have failed to take action to promote safety on campus. Crucially, this is not just spontaneous student unrest. It is coordinated and funded by a powerful network of anti-Israel advocates.
That is why, in October of last year, I sent you a letter seeking information on how many pro-terrorist student organizations—the groups calling for the effective destruction of Israel and justifying the massacre of Jewish people— received significant funding from third-party groups. Now, we have answers—just not from your Department.
Earlier this week, Politico detailed the vast amounts of dark money subsidizing this mayhem. Their report found that key groups backing the campus protests—like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow— received financial support from George Soros’s Tides Foundation. David Rockefeller’s Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Democratic megadonors Susan and Nick Pritzker were also cited in the report. This pattern is disturbing. It is also almost certainly illegal. As IRS Revenue Ruling 75-384 established, no organization may retain its tax exemption if it backs protests at which members are urged to commit acts of civil disobedience.
The IRS explained at length that illegal acts are “inconsistent with charitable ends,” and stressed that “[i]llegal activities, which violate the minimum standards of acceptable conduct necessary to the preservation of an orderly society, are contrary to the common good and the general welfare of the people in a community and thus are not permissible means of promoting the social welfare[.]” In short, by supporting illegal acts while enjoying tax-exempt status, dark money groups and foundations are defrauding the American people and putting Jewish students and faculty at risk.
A day or two after that, 16 other Republican Senators sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, demanding an investigation into whether the National Students for Justice in Palestine supports terrorism:
We write to demand you open an investigation to determine if the supporters of the National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP), including the AJP Educational Foundation (AJP), the Tides Foundation, the Westchester Peace Action Committee Foundation (WESPAC Foundation), and other benefactors of NSJP have engaged in conduct warranting revocation of their taxexempt statuses on the basis of their financial support of NSJP . . . In light of this abhorrent support for an FTO, we call on you to initiate an investigation to determine whether financial supporters of NSJP, including but not limited to AJP, the WESPAC Foundation, and the Tides Foundation, have engaged in conduct warranting their tax-exempt status to be stripped.
It’s not just me or some tea-sippers in Europe telling you the sky might really be falling. Michelle Goldberg, an opinion writer in the NY Times, said this last Friday:
Even if Garland doesn’t act on Hawley’s request, the attorney general in a second Donald Trump administration probably would. That’s one reason I fear that the backlash to the pro-Palestinian campus movement — which includes lawsuits, hearings and legislation — could help Republicans wage war on progressive nonprofits more broadly.
If they do, the right would be following a well-worn authoritarian playbook. In addition to repressing critical voices in academia and the media, the autocratic leaders Trump admires have regularly tried to crush the congeries of advocacy groups, think tanks, humanitarian organizations and philanthropies often referred to as “civil society.” . . . Anti-Israel protests have given Republicans a pretext to strike at liberal donors and organizers the way they’ve already struck at university presidents. As Kleinfeld wrote, authoritarians typically persecute the most controversial activists first: “Illiberal actors choose issues involving unpopular groups and cases with the most morally murky facts to create a permission structure that allows them to shut down a much broader set of activities.”
There is a coordinated attack on civil society going on.
darryll k. jones