It continues to be the case that people around the world look to the United States — to our culture, to our innovations, to our educational institutions — with admiration. This is our soft power, the power we wield internationally that isn’t dependent upon our warships or air fleets.
Soft power is the influence we command with people in other countries through our accomplishments. It is the goodwill we engender with our aid and our investments, the expenditures of money and time that better allow us to encourage an embrace of freedom and democracy.
And, according to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), it is also the money that we let deep-pocketed autocrats invest here, which — through some as-yet-undetermined process — then impresses our values upon them.
Johnson made this case Tuesday during an interview on CNBC. The subject of the conversation was a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee hearing focused on the tentative merger between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour. LIV Golf is primarily funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), an entity chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). The announced merger marks a huge injection of influence — and, of course, money — into the most important institution in the game of golf. For Johnson and CNBC host Joe Kernen, that was … pretty okay.
Kernen noted some of the objections that had been raised about the PIF’s efforts to insert itself into the world of professional golf, particularly the role of Saudi nationals in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Mohammed’s role in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
There were “certain people,” Kernen said, “that think that the stigma of the Khashoggi incident and 9/11, whatever, should preclude” the PIF from engagement with the sport. He asked Johnson if he agreed with that sentiment.
“I don’t think there’s any — there’s not enough billions of dollars for the Saudis to wash away the stain of the brutal Khashoggi murder,” Johnson said. “But the reality is, you know, we all buy oil. We use you know, you know, we drive cars. You know, we are the ones that are filling up the coffers of the public investment fund. I would rather have … the Saudi’s invest their oil wealth in the U.S. as opposed to China or Russia. That’s just the reality of the world.”
This was the pattern: Yes, the Saudis were morally dubious but … so are other places! And it’s a lot of money!
“You can’t wash away the stain of the Khashoggi assassination,” Johnson said at another point. “That’s just not possible. You know, we all know that exists.” And then another “but”: “But at the same time, we use the Saudi oil. We can’t look to the PGA to be, you know, the only person to bear the burden of holding the Saudis accountable.”
Kernen had just made clear that he shared that putative concern.
“I’m glad they made the movie ‘The Godfather II’, because there’s a quote that says that, you know, we’re all part of the same hypocrisy,” Kernen said, “and it’s just hard to navigate the current world and always be wearing a white hat and be the good guy because you have to get your hands dirty in some places just from the reality of the situation.”
“It’s not good to be at odds with people and constantly at war around the world,” Johnson said a bit later, though his fundamental view was probably better demonstrated when he said, “They’ve got $600 or $700 billion dollars. Do we just want them to burn the money?”
Obviously, a guy who hosts a show on a business channel and a Republican senator are inclined to view the prospective investment of hundreds of billions of dollars with some charity. You’ll recall that President Donald Trump rationalized his relationship with Saudi Arabia in the wake of the Khashoggi murder in terms of how much money they were spending on American armaments — an investment he consistently overstated.
Then there was Johnson’s reverse-soft-power argument.
“I’ll point out if … the Saudi’s involvement, investment in sports, including golf, if that helps them modernize, if that helps them provide more rights to women, wouldn’t that be a good thing?” he said at one point.
A bit later, he expanded on the idea.
“Foreign investment in the U.S. is a good thing. It shows that we’ve got a vibrant economy, that we have freedom, that we have protection of private property. We want to encourage people to invest in the U.S. Again, those are basically our dollars. Isn’t it better to have those dollars invested here?”“And as we are accepting those investment dollars, work with Saudi Arabia to reform, to modernize, to recognize people’s rights, the rights of women. Again, they have a different culture than ours. We can’t impose our beliefs, our culture on everybody but we can still work with people, try to respect them, try and improve their behavior, that’s just the way the world works.”
This was pretty obviously Johnson trying to rationalize what was happening. That’s how the soft power of investment works: You want the money or resources, so you come up with an explanation that comports with your existing value system.
Before he talked himself into this inversion of America’s post-World War II approach to geopolitics, Johnson had acknowledged that Saudi Arabia was seeking something other than a strong return on investment.
“Let’s face it, the PIF, they’re not in it for financial gain,” Johnson said. “They’re in it for other reasons.”
Kernen didn’t ask what reasons, because he didn’t need to. The investment is being made to “wash away the stain of the Khashoggi assassination,” as Johnson put it. To build relationships if not dependency in the United States. To get elected officials and media hosts denouncing murder to then append a “but.”
It is true that the PIF is enormously rich and that some portion of that money came from Americans at the gas pump. The idea that, by accepting that money back, we will somehow get Saudi Arabia to move toward equality and liberalism — when for decades we understood that it was the giving of money that had such effects — is nonetheless obviously difficult to defend.
An analogy makes that obvious. It was not the case that, when organized crime boss Whitey Bulger handed out cash around his Boston neighborhood, the neighbors appreciated it as his simply returning their money to them. Nor were they under the misapprehension that, in doing so, he was gaining an awareness of the perils inherent to a life of crime.