In The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party, Dave Horowitz and Richard Poe construct a well-documented and chilling description of a real-life Bond Villain, toppling governments, rigging markets and inflicting his will, not through democratic means but rather funding revolution by buying his results. (See Cosmo in the film "Sneakers" .) Many sources are documented and the few I checked on stood up to scrutiny.
My first response to the book was one of despair. While trying to understand that, I was reminded of the sovereignty of God and the importance of remembering that, believing that and most importantly, resting in that fact. I was also struck by how we don't always get the elected official that we want quite so much as we seem to get the one that we deserve.
I don't appreciate the meddling, posturing and influences that appears to be going on today in our politics. Two or three people (or more) should be able to declare that they are running for such-and-such office, take turns standing on some stump somewhere, let us hear what they have to say about the issues, interact with them by asking meaningful, relevant questions and hearing the responses. It used to be called civil discourse, even debate.
What seems to be lacking in today's politics is the ability to be a good loser or even a good winner.
The message I'm hearing today is that if "we" don't win it will mean the end of society as we know it (regardless of who "we" is). When "we" do win (and why wouldn't "we" since "we" are the only ones who are right), we beat our chests, talk about moral supremacy and "mandates" and destroy the losers by humiliating them with our hatred. When "we" do lose, we cry "Foul!", discredit the winners by any possible means (real or false) and destroy them with our hatred. Not a very enlightened way to run a system.
It's the need to win at any and all costs. To the point of destroying the opponents in any way possible. I am so not looking forward to our current election cycle.
