Bob Herbert’s latest New York Times column celebrates “A Voice of Reason“:
[…}One of the reasons so many conservative Republican absurdities became actual U.S. policy was the intellectual veneer slapped upon them by right-wing think tanks and commentators. The grossest nonsense was made to seem plausible to a lot of people — people who wanted to believe in a free lunch. When Mr. Reagan told the country that “government is the problem,” the intellectual handmaidens of the corporate and financial elite were right there to explain in exhaustive detail why that was so…
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The liberal or progressive community was slow to counter the remarkable effectiveness of this intellectual offensive from the right. But during the 1990s and into the early-2000s, that began to change. And one of the progressive organizations that has done a really good job (but has never been particularly well known) is about to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
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Demos, headquartered in New York City, grew out of a series of meetings of scholars, activists, journalists and elected officials who were concerned about the ever-increasing influence of the right on public policy. “The thinking was that there should be more moderate, liberal and left-of-center voices,” said Miles Rapoport, the group’s president. The group was formed in 2000, a year that would later see the disputed election that gave the presidency to Mr. Bush.
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It didn’t take long for Demos to begin issuing loud warnings about the danger that ever-increasing debt was posing to American households, while pointedly disputing the argument that over-the-top credit card debt was primarily the result of excessive consumer spending.
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Working people from the middle class down were in serious trouble, and Demos, along with many other voices (the bankruptcy expert and middle-class advocate Elizabeth Warren comes quickly to mind) was sounding the alarm long before the Great Recession hit like a Category 5 hurricane…
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[…] Ronald Reagan and the right-wing zealots who revere him have preached a gospel that, when carried to its logical conclusion, would all but abolish government. It’s a failed philosophy.
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Demos has responded with admirable real-world scholarship, a highly respected fellows program to encourage new writers and thinkers and steadfast efforts to promote civic engagement. (It’s a big champion, among other things, of same-day voter registration.)
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It’s not just comforting but essential to have sane countervailing voices like Demos to remind us that government action is necessary to plan for the common good, to set proper rules for economic activity and to be a bulwark against predatory practices in the private sector.
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Demos is holding its 10th anniversary celebration on May 11, and Ms. Warren will be one of the honorees. If you think about it, raise a toast in the group’s honor.
For some reason, I had not previously been aware of Demos’ website, www.demos.org. Looks like much more than one weekend’s worth of good reading over there.
Estragon
I’m glad these guys are getting more attention. I went to a conference they put on in DC about the prospects of my generation as we leave college, and it was incredibly informative, if not more than a little depressing. They really do excellent work calling attention to the erosion of democracy and equality in our society when too few have been silent.
Linda Featheringill
I went to their website and looked around. There are several articles on very interesting topics. I made note of their address and will return.
Thanks for the referral. You have contributed to my education. :-)
Bob K
Just slap the label “think tank” on it – hire a bunch of snycophants to spout whatever talking points you want to point to by your Fairly Unbalanced network and away you go.
“When you repeat a lie … people actually start to believe it as fact” – Glenn Beck
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/04/10/heritage-romneycare/
Calming Influence
There’s rarely been a economic philosophy as thoroughly tried and tested in this country and around the world as laissez-faire capitalism + trickle-down economics. It has been an epic FAIL. The fact that anyone can still advocate for it without being stoned by an angry mob is mind-boggling, and yet ~1/2 our country still think it’s a good idea. WTF.
Little Dreamer
Thanks for the link. I will check them out. Sounds like a lot of interesting reading.
Great title for a thread, and perfect for something I want to add:
Something I did not know about –
The Star Spangled Banner used to be a Greek Drinking Song (with possibly sexual/erotic suggestions in the lyrics)… did anyone else know this?
I present to you the original lyrics for the tune that we now call The Star Spangled Banner – originally titled “The Anacreontic Song” (a/k/a “To Anacreon in Heaven”):
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Hmmm, no wonder this country is so screwy, even our anthem is full of lust and folly!
Moses2317
Thanks for highlighting this for the Balloon Juice community. Demos is a great organization that is producing well-researched and understandable policy papers on some of the critical issues facing our country today.
Demos has some great discussions of why Congress needs to pass financial reform including an independent Consumers Protection Financial Agency. The House has already passed such legislation and it is being considered by the Senate.
Such reform would be good policy as strong new financial regulation is needed to ensure that we avoid having another economic collapse in a few years. It would also be good politics, as it would help the Democrats show that they are on the side of the American people rather than the banksters, and would put Republicans in the difficult position of having to either side with the banksters or piss off their base.
Balloon Juice did a great job whipping votes for health care reform. Perhaps we should consider starting a similar effort on financial reform?
Little Dreamer
And if you want the youtube, there’s several versions of it.
Sui Generis
All good, even great, but the hard part is how to get them out front. In front, that is, of a TV audience.
We need a left wing Fox! Or someone wealthy enough, and interested enough, to start a sane Politico.
Would it be possible to make a start by pitching some good shows, including a Sunday morning News Makers, and a Meet the non–Villager Press on the new Oprah channel?
We could have 3 good newroom/pundits and one R style idiot.
Calling all Soros. <
Dave Paulson
Thanks for the heads-up on Demos. I will definitely check them out. I do agree with the article and the comments here, but I’m afraid that right-wing think tanks are the least of our problems. As Bob K. noted above, quoting Glen Beck, “When you repeat a lie … people actually start to believe it as fact” This is the new Republican party. They don’t need think tanks. They rely instead on instilling fear into the hearts of their loyal followers, guaranteeing that they will remain ignorant by painting all non-right media as liars. It’s despicable, but it works.
Liberty60
Back in the day, when I was a Reaganite, some of my friends would sit around pontificating about the glories of so-shul-ism, and if-we-only-had-it-here sort of stuff, when I would puncture their rapture with a question-
“So when and where in the world has this ever been tried, and found to work?”
of course, it was always acknowledged that it really has only been described in books, but ifn we did try it, well brother…
Funny thing, though- now that i am older and more conservative and circumspect about the world, I read people like the glibertarians and the mad fevered people at Pajamas Media who rapsodize on about the glories of the Free market (pause to genuflect) and I feel tempted to say the same thing-
“where in the world has there ever been a truly lassaize faire Free Market? Aside from Somalia?”