Some of America’s More Conservative “Think Tanks”

The clever meme here depicts a harsh reality of life in the U.S.  There are groups, heavily funded by billionaires, whose aims are to convince congress to dismantle all aspects of the federal government that serve the common American.

I’m reminded of Charles Koch, who, when asked what he regarded to be “fair” regarding taxation, replied, “I get to keep my money.”  Not much nuance there.  No recognition that this man, worth many billions of dollars, lives in a society that needs infrastructure, national defense, public education, etc.  When I heard these words come out of his mouth, I said, “All you’re saying is that you’re a swine.”

OK, so exactly how much real “thought” exists in these so-called “think tanks?”  For a chapter on the subject for my third book, “Renewable Energy–Following the Money,” I interviewed  a spokesperson from the right-wing Cato Institute, and focused the discussion on his organization’s approach to climate change.

Frankly, I found their position to be shockingly indefensible.  It included ideas like, “The most devastating effects of climate change lie decades in the future, so, we recommend delaying mitigation tactics until that time.”

I’m generally very noncombative when I conduct interviews, but I couldn’t help responding, “Oh, but that’s like having an oncologist tell a cigarette smoker that the patient has lung cancer, but since the disease is unlikely to kill him in the next ten years, it’s OK to continue to smoke until the cancer has ravaged his body.  I don’t think that doctor would be practicing medicine much longer.”

Efforts to invest in a future of things like quality education and environmental sustainability are met with pseudoscientific attacks from institutes with high-sounding names, all to protect the rich from paying taxes.

There is a limit to which this can be taken before the United States becomes a cesspool of ignorance and toxic chemicals, and fades into irrelevance on the global stage.