Here is a spokesman for George Soros
explaining his billionaire boss’s disgust with Citizens
United v. FEC, the 2010 case in which the Supreme Court
lifted restrictions on political speech by unions and
corporations:

George Soros believes the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens
United opened the floodgates to special interests’ paying for
political ads. There is no way those concerned with the public
interest can compete with them. Soros has always focused his
political giving on grass-roots organizing and holding
conservatives accountable for the flawed policies they promote. His
support of these groups [America Votes and American Bridge 21st
Century] is consistent with those views.

Got that? When George Soros participates in political debates,
he is advocating “the public interest.” But when people with views
different from his do so, they are simply pushing their own
“special interests.” Since Soros has always been free to spend as
much of his own money as he wants on political speech, it is not
surprising that he’s upset when the same freedom is extended to
fellow citizens who pool their resources as corporations (which
include all manner of advocacy groups, not just big businesses).
After all, some of those newly ungagged mouths may say things that
offend Soros’ sensibilities. But this is not the sort of thing you
are supposed to say out loud. It takes an astonishing lack of
self-awareness and empathy to assume that you have a monopoly on
sincerity and public-spiritedness, that people with different
opinions are not just wrong but disingenuous. We have a First
Amendment to protect us from people with that mentality.

For more on the reaction to Citizens United, see my
December 2010 Reason cover
story.