Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - ACLU Hasn't A-C-L-U-E by Dennis Miller

seretogis · 11-02-2003, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by HarmlessRabbit
I agree with a lot of what the Cato Institute has to say, but they definitely have a political agenda. As you can see from this editiorial:

A quote from that very editorial:

Quote:

The left calls all think tanks "conservative" that do not endorse big government statist or socialist solutions to problems. Hence, they lump the libertarian Cato Institute in with the more traditionally conservative Heritage Foundation, and the more neo-conservative Hudson Institute, and so on, all under the label "conservative." Such an approach from the Democrats is self-defeating because it leaves all the honest intellectual debate to the non-statists.

[..]

There is also vigorous debate and difference of viewpoint among scholars within various "conservative" think tanks on many different issues. If you attend the Cato, Heritage, American Enterprise Institute and other "conservative" forums, you will find that virtually no opinion is off limits for discussion, so long as it is well thought out.

The problem with think tanks of the left, or closely affiliated with the Democratic Party, is that they are captives of the statist ideal or self-serving constituent groups, like unions. Hence, even though it is widely recognized public schools are failing in many places, a leftist think tank would likely be unable to set forth a voucher program or some other support for competing private schools because it would upset the teachers unions. The conservative think tanks are not so constrained, and hence they have provided proposals ranging from better management of public schools to support of only private schools.