Re: [Pen-l] How to Set Up a Right Wing Think Tank

[Max Sawicky <maxbsawicky@xxxxxxxxx>]

Mercatus was part of organized wingnut training of Hill staff.  I
participated in one session, a debate with Steve Moore on the estate
tax.  They were using it to sharpen up the ability of the staff to
defend their position (to repeal the tax, obviously).  Before the fact
all I knew was I was invited to debate Moore (which I've done many
times).  He's a nice guy too.  The event was open to all, but my
impression is it was mostly Repub attendees.  I would do it again,
since I can always try to plant some doubts, plus it sharpens up my
skillz too.

There was and is no counterpart to this that I know of on the left,
with implications that are all too plain.



On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 10:39 AM, Sean Andrews <cultstud76@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 22:57, Michael Perelman
> <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Yes, Sean, you are near the belly of the beast.
>>
>> What is wierd is that I personally like people the people I know
>> who are associated with Mercatus, but their work harms many people by
>> fighting against regulation.  Say hi to Wendy Gramm, whom I do not know.
>
> I don't think it is weird: you seem like a very loving guy.  Liking
> people probably comes pretty natural to you, hence your interest in
> keeping random asshats from destroying society and the ecology it
> inhabits.  Moreover, despite their rhetoric, I'm sure their state
> salaries and the Northern Virginia lifestyle they all enjoy makes them
> generally more cosmopolitan and even liberal-leaning in their
> consumption.  They are well fed, well dressed, and feel confident that
> every thought they have is the most irrefutable bit of genius created
> in the process of human development.  Aside from an unsightly bit of
> arrogance, this (along with the fact that many of them spend a lot of
> time schilling) makes them generally agreeable to be around until you
> find out what they do.  That is to say that there are many nice, smart
> people wrapped up in this operation--making them both easy to like and
> their mission all the more devastating.  Finally, the people here who
> are closest to human--people like David Levy or the late Don
> Lavoie--are decidedly more interested in a full range of ideas.  I
> think you've said he is a guy you like there--and he is a genuinely
> nice guy.  Though I'm sure he mostly believes in the full package, his
> interest in Adam Smith, Ricardo, and other 19th century thinkers is
> more academic, like someone who studies Walt Whitman or Melville: one
> can even have a conversation with him without feeling like he's doing
> you a favor.  The rest (especially at marcatus itself) are mostly
> interested in winning--a situation which, indeed, would continue to
> harm people, but since this will likely have no consequences for them,
> even in the long run, they can whistle and make themselves generally
> agreeable while they go about setting the depth charges on the remains
> of the welfare state.
>
> I spoke to a congressional staffer a few months before I left (I'm
> still at GMU but am living in Austin) and he said that every week
> Mercatus or someone from GMU was on the Hill giving some workshop or
> lecture for the aides and representatives--the content being exactly
> what you would anticipate.  I asked him if this was something a lot of
> universities did, wondering if there were a range of perspectives.  He
> said, "No, just GMU."  Obviously a vacuum being filled by these people
> and it baffles me that there aren't others up there, but maybe this
> guy wasn't all that well traveled.  Anyway, with this ideological
> atmosphere it is no wonder that the Stimulus package is looking more
> like a ramshackle MacGyver job--and it is almost certain that it will
> be designed to do nothing to help anything, a fact which the press
> afterwards will underplay, making it seem like something was actually
> done, thus making it inexplicable--and the problem of the minuscule
> left/keynes/prog influence rather than the poisoned ocean of rhetoric
> and tripe that swallows up the latter like light in a black hole.
>
> I don't know Dr. Gramm either, but if I ever bump into her, I'll pass
> along your greeting.
>
> s
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