DANIEL MCCARTHY: Will The GOP Make Liberals Generous Again?

Before politics overwhelmed the word, the primary meaning of “liberal” was “generous.”

President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress have given political liberals a chance to take that meaning back — by opening their wallets to show just how much they value NPR, PBS and other programs defunded by the GOP.

There’s no shortage of cash on the left:

Laurene Powell Jobs, the mega-rich backer of The Atlantic, has a net worth that was estimated above $11 billion a year ago and is thought to be even higher today.

George Soros, at 94, has a fortune in the vicinity of $7 billion, with billions more in his Open Society Foundations.

Bill Gates has about $115 billion, and his ex-wife, Melinda, around $30 billion.

Any one of these left-leaning billionaires could single-handedly make up the $535 million that NPR, PBS and local stations were getting annually from taxpayers before Congress zeroed out their subsidies.

And if half a billion a year is too much for one zillionaire, a half-dozen of them (or more) could share the burden without feeling a pinch.

But are wealthy liberals willing to put their money where their mouths are?

Citing Michal Heiplik, president of the public-media analytics organization Contributor Development Partnership, The New York Times reports PBS and NPR have already reaped a windfall from smaller-dollar donors in recent months, with 120,000 new supporters stepping up to give some $20 million, and overall donations are running $70 million above last year.

What works for PBS and NPR can work for humanitarian programs formerly funded as part of USAID as well, though the cuts to be made up there are bigger: Congress has eliminated about $8 billion in funding for USAID and other foreign-aid efforts, according to the Cato Institute.