by Parker Thayer
To an outside observer, Arabella Advisors is nothing more than an accounting and human resources firm that helps charities get things done, not a billion-dollar political influence operation that helps leftists stay in power.
But it’s actually the latter – although you’d never know it from website. The organization certainly doesn’t make it clear publicly that it’s running the largest political influence operation in America. Visitors to their website will encounter a elementary slogan: “We help changemakers create a better world.” And who would question such a noble goal?
A motivated researcher with a little persistence can find the scattered ones stories about the multi-million-dollar political operations that Arabella has been embroiled in for years across the country, but there has never been one place where you could find out the whole story.
That changed this year with the publication ofArabella: A shadowy money network of leftist billionaires secretly transforming America” scenario Scott WalterPresident Capital Research Center and my boss. Below are my thoughts on the effort. (Disclosure: Reviewing a book published by your boss is quite a challenge, but his biggest complaint has always been that he didn’t have enough critics. I intend to be one of them.)
As mentioned above, the average person before reading Arabella had no idea that the company was one of the most powerful political forces in America. Today, when confronted by reporters, Arabella still maintains simulation that it is nothing more than a back-office support team. This book builds on that appearance, destroys it, and throws the pieces to the wind.
The first chapter of the book introduces readers to Arabella Advisors the same way Walter (pictured above) and the Capital Research Center (CRC) first encountered it: a citizen’s insight straight from the Montana wilderness. Walter’s experience in leading an investigative team is immediately apparent, immersing the reader in the detail and emotion of good old-fashioned investigative journalism. It gives the numb topic of nonprofit political activism the feel of a compelling crime novel; so gripping that even knowing how it would end, I found myself pleasantly frustrated by the preachy flashbacks and foreshadowing that distracted me from the enticing main plot.
By the end of the first two chapters, the book fully explains the structure and origins of “The £1.6 Billion Gorilla”. This is no petite feat, considering the entire network was designed for this purpose obfuscate and confused.
The story then becomes more anecdotal, straying from the mainstream narrative and presenting Arabella’s greatest hits (or worst, depending on your point of view) in the form of several in-depth case studies. These flash reports show that the Arabella network was a leading advocate for keeping Obamacare in 2018; how he created pop-up groups that advocate for 2020 electoral policies; how he spent hundreds of millions promoting abortion; and how it is quietly impacting the Biden administration’s regulatory policy from 2021 onwards.
These case studies don’t have the same thrill as the opening chapters, but they are simple to understand and almost entirely self-contained, allowing for a buffet of reading of the chapters that most interest the reader. I would recommend reading them all though, as they capture the incredible scope of Arabella’s activities better than anything I have read before.
By the end, the sense of detective work returns as subsequent chapters delve into the fallout of Arabella’s reluctant exposure to sunlight; first at the hands of the Capital Research Center, and then at the hands of an increasing number of mainstream reporters. Later chapters are filled with Walter’s witty remarks and sarcasm, but end on a more somber note. “Can Arabella’s problem be solved?” reads the penultimate chapter title. In response, Walter runs through a list of well-researched policy fixes that would plug the loopholes the reader has just learned the Arabella network exploits, making a compelling and detailed argument in favor of each.
It’s not a satisfying end to a crime novel where the perpetrator is exposed and hauled away, but real-world investigations don’t usually work like that. The mystery told in “Arabella” is disturbing fact, not fiction, but the ending shows that real-world solutions exist and a fairy tale ending is possible.
Walter concludes with a compelling call to action: “The choice America faces is between two visions: Arabella’s style of Big Philanthropy, joining forces with Big Government to force the rest of us to live as they think we should live as they believe is our betters, or the original American vision, where government is decentralized and restricted so that citizens can govern themselves and facilitate each other through their families, neighborhoods and local groups.”
“Arabella” is truly Arabella’s worst nightmare.
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Parker Thayer is a research associate at the Capital Research Center. He is a graduate of Hillsdale College and writes about nonprofit involvement in elections, the Arabella Advisors Network, the Open Society Network, left-wing criminal justice reform, and many other topics.
Photo “Scott Walter” by Capital Research Center.
