The Think Tank Divide

[KonaKane]

I don't know about you, but I have grown so accustomed to hearing the term "conservative think tank" in the daily political tussle that I've grown to pay as much attention to it as I do to the sound of my coffee maker going off. One day last week I was discussing this place (DFP) with a friend who had never visited and she asked "So what is it, like a think tank?"

Note for the future: I would love to see DFP evolve into a think tank. But as for the here and now, she got me thinking: So are there liberal think tanks? I did a little digging and found out that there are indeed. However, what I found was a startling disparity. Let's call it the Great Think Tank Divide.

What I found at FindtheData was less than inspiring. Liberals have 15 listed think tanks. Conservatives have a whopping 34. Cons have 13 think tanks with revenues over a million dollars. Liberals have 5. The top five con think tanks have a combined (revenue after expenses) of 17.6 million dollars. The same for liberals: 12.5 million dollars.

(Odd, but funny, sidenote: 2 conservative think tanks actually ran deficits of 3 million dollars each.)

The oldest liberal think tank I could find was founded in 1975. The conservatives started one back in 1943. Indeed, the majority of liberal think tanks are not older than 1990. One of their arguably most noble ones, the Center for War/Peace Studies, is operating $4k in the red.

As you can see, we're straggling in the think tank game.

So why is this? Don't liberals find value in think tanks? I know we find value in ideas, so I don't know how that can resolve to an indifference to organizations that develop ideas. Are think tanks, in fact, nothing more than money making scams with a gilded veneer of intellectual legitimacy? Hard to say since so many of them aren't obscenely rich.

Or worse yet, is the liberal think tank lag the result of too many years of assuming we have the ideological/intellectual edge in all things? Judging from the last few elections, we have been annoyingly easy to outmaneuver, out-argue and out-huckster in the media. We have lost more important elections than we have won. Have we gotten too confident in our ideas that we abandoned keeping them in working shape?

Maybe it's time to put more work towards think tanks, before we tank anymore.

[pappy]

Mr. President, we cannot allow a mine shaft gap!

OK, Dr. Strangelove reference aside. I think we'd find that most of the so called think tanks on the right are simply front groups for corporate interests. The oil industry alone probably funds several.

[KonaKane]

Thanks for reminding me of the mine shaft line....one of my favorite lines from a favorite movie.

I have no doubt you are right about the front groups. But I guess that begs the question; why are we not doing more of this? Honestly, I mean. Not as a front group.

[pappy]

(04-16-2012 07:00 PM)KonaKane Wrote:  Thanks for reminding me of the mine shaft line....one of my favorite lines from a favorite movie.

I have no doubt you are right about the front groups. But I guess that begs the question; why are we not doing more of this? Honestly, I mean. Not as a front group.

$$$$$$$$

[jaxx]

Interesting. I find the conservative think tanks are willing to lie and spread the word to get their way. Look at the Ryan budget numbers game, for one. The pubs go to their think tanks to have the numbers skewed.

I don't know why there aren't more liberal think tanks. Maybe because they really think things through? Or are more unwilling to blatantly lie?

[jaxx]

Speaking of conservative think tanks.......

Posted at 11:48 AM ET, 04/17/2012
Heritage Foundation turns to Breitbart for broader appeal
By Allen McDuffee

The Heritage Foundation is partnering with the conservative Breitbart News Network to bring a popular weekly event at the Washington, D.C. think tank to Breitbart TV’s national conservative audience. The Heritage Foundation’s weekly Blogger’s Briefing will now air live on Breitbart TV, Heritage’s Rob Bluey announced in a post.

“Breitbart.com consistently shapes the narrative and drives the discussion around politics and culture,” Bluey said in an e-mail. “As we expand the reach of The Bloggers Briefing beyond Capitol Hill, this is exactly the type of engaged and active audience we want to reach.”

<..> The new partnership is an interesting move for Heritage which has been a leading conservative organization, in part, for its ability to gain a wide audience across the country, boasting a paying membership base of more than 700,000 individuals and a popular Web site and blog.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/thin..._blog.html

Breitbart....that is scraping the bottom of the barrel.

[pappy]

(04-17-2012 10:51 AM)jaxx Wrote:  Speaking of conservative think tanks.......

Posted at 11:48 AM ET, 04/17/2012
Heritage Foundation turns to Breitbart for broader appeal
By Allen McDuffee

The Heritage Foundation is partnering with the conservative Breitbart News Network to bring a popular weekly event at the Washington, D.C. think tank to Breitbart TV’s national conservative audience. The Heritage Foundation’s weekly Blogger’s Briefing will now air live on Breitbart TV, Heritage’s Rob Bluey announced in a post.

“Breitbart.com consistently shapes the narrative and drives the discussion around politics and culture,” Bluey said in an e-mail. “As we expand the reach of The Bloggers Briefing beyond Capitol Hill, this is exactly the type of engaged and active audience we want to reach.”

<..> The new partnership is an interesting move for Heritage which has been a leading conservative organization, in part, for its ability to gain a wide audience across the country, boasting a paying membership base of more than 700,000 individuals and a popular Web site and blog.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/thin..._blog.html

Breitbart....that is scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Must NOT speak ill of the dead.
MUST NOT speak ill of the dead.

MUST NO.......oh hell.....

Make that scraping the bottom of the casket.

[KonaKane]

(04-17-2012 10:51 AM)jaxx Wrote:  Speaking of conservative think tanks.......

Posted at 11:48 AM ET, 04/17/2012
Heritage Foundation turns to Breitbart for broader appeal
By Allen McDuffee

The Heritage Foundation is partnering with the conservative Breitbart News Network to bring a popular weekly event at the Washington, D.C. think tank to Breitbart TV’s national conservative audience. The Heritage Foundation’s weekly Blogger’s Briefing will now air live on Breitbart TV, Heritage’s Rob Bluey announced in a post......

Maybe that's part of the mystery. The right is willing and ready to use think tanks in a more activist way. Does the left just like them as sequestered ivory towers of ideological purity?

Is there wisdom in trying to beat the right at it's own think tank game?

[jaxx]

(04-17-2012 11:12 AM)KonaKane Wrote:  

(04-17-2012 10:51 AM)jaxx Wrote:  Speaking of conservative think tanks.......

Posted at 11:48 AM ET, 04/17/2012
Heritage Foundation turns to Breitbart for broader appeal
By Allen McDuffee

The Heritage Foundation is partnering with the conservative Breitbart News Network to bring a popular weekly event at the Washington, D.C. think tank to Breitbart TV’s national conservative audience. The Heritage Foundation’s weekly Blogger’s Briefing will now air live on Breitbart TV, Heritage’s Rob Bluey announced in a post......

Maybe that's part of the mystery. The right is willing and ready to use think tanks in a more activist way. Does the left just like them as sequestered ivory towers of ideological purity?

Is there wisdom in trying to beat the right at it's own think tank game?

I think Democrats have shown they will stick together to get the lies rebutted. Look at what happened to Rush, ALEC and the war on women. We need to fight with everything we have....the wingers will, and we shouldn't cut them any slack.

[KonaKane]

(04-17-2012 07:33 PM)jaxx Wrote:  I think Democrats have shown they will stick together to get the lies rebutted. Look at what happened to Rush, ALEC and the war on women. We need to fight with everything we have....the wingers will, and we shouldn't cut them any slack.

I think for the most part, you're right. We do amazingly well with what we allow ourselves to fight with. But I see an ongoing problem with getting our message to stick. It seems that the right's whacko ideas stick a lot longer, and their LIES have an aggravatingly long shelf life that I can't figure out.

Why is that?

[SeattleGirl]

(04-17-2012 08:41 PM)KonaKane Wrote:  

(04-17-2012 07:33 PM)jaxx Wrote:  I think Democrats have shown they will stick together to get the lies rebutted. Look at what happened to Rush, ALEC and the war on women. We need to fight with everything we have....the wingers will, and we shouldn't cut them any slack.

I think for the most part, you're right. We do amazingly well with what we allow ourselves to fight with. But I see an ongoing problem with getting our message to stick. It seems that the right's whacko ideas stick a lot longer, and their LIES have an aggravatingly long shelf life that I can't figure out.

Why is that?

They get a lot of help from that "librul" media.

[pappy]

(04-17-2012 10:11 PM)SeattleGirl Wrote:  

(04-17-2012 08:41 PM)KonaKane Wrote:  I think for the most part, you're right. We do amazingly well with what we allow ourselves to fight with. But I see an ongoing problem with getting our message to stick. It seems that the right's whacko ideas stick a lot longer, and their LIES have an aggravatingly long shelf life that I can't figure out.

Why is that?

They get a lot of help from that "librul" media.

I think it is more fundamental than that.

I think it boils down to fear. Most of the Republican meme is centered on fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of "the other". Most of the ideas and policies of the left are based on reason.

As long the right can exploit people's fears that fear will trump reason.

The "think tanks" on the right do not even try to appeal to reason, only fear. It started to have diminished effect as people got more educated and secure financially. Much of that changed after 911 and later the recession provided more insecurity.

It may now be shifting in a way the right didn't anticipate. The overreach after 2010 may have refocused a portion of the fear back on them. Well I can hope anyway.

[Velleity]

(04-16-2012 06:44 PM)KonaKane Wrote:  As you can see, we're straggling in the think tank game.

So why is this? Don't liberals find value in think tanks?

"Conservatives" are a priori. Real conservative thought, like monetarists, are not a priori, so you will find schools of conservative thought like the University of Chicago's school of economics.

Being a priori "conservatives" will disregard facts. They are incurious. They only care about bolstering their conclusions. Accuracy and integrity are of no use.

These things don't tend to fare well in a real academic environment. Given their failure in academic environments, guess what? "Conservatives" label academic environments as biased. Ironic, isn't it? If you can't be severely biased for "conservatism" then you're biased?

I don't make that up. It is what I have observed. Anyway since they have a lot of money and since they can't compete in an objective forum why not buy their own pseudo objective forum? Voila, you have Heritage and Cato. And too it serves another useful purpose for them--the think tank can be a charitable endeavor with tax deductible contributions and it can be an annuity for politicians they buy, rewarding them with nice cushy do nothing jobs with pseudo academic titles and a big salary--after the politician has toed their line.

Our think tanks aren't like that. The one I'm most familiar with is the Economic Policy Institute. Yes, it's set up with union money but it's not anywhere near as crass and venal.

We're better than they are. What can I say?

[KonaKane]

I can't disagree with any of that. I know that conservatives have long been devotees of making the facts fit the beliefs, and it's no stretch to see their dexterity in manifesting the flim-flammery of their bogus think tanks.

What gets me, though, is how this ruse is being used in a scheme to bolster their message in such a sticky, devistating way. At the risk of aping their worst behavior, is there a way we can make our own think tanks a more active, prominent part of message mechanics? I agree that we do it better. Problem is, the public, by and large, isn't registering that.

[Velleity]

(04-18-2012 12:04 PM)KonaKane Wrote:  I can't disagree with any of that. I know that conservatives have long been devotees of making the facts fit the beliefs, and it's no stretch to see their dexterity in manifesting the flim-flammery of their bogus think tanks.

What gets me, though, is how this ruse is being used in a scheme to bolster their message in such a sticky, devistating way. At the risk of aping their worst behavior, is there a way we can make our own think tanks a more active, prominent part of message mechanics? I agree that we do it better. Problem is, the public, by and large, isn't registering that.

I hear you.

I have to preface this with a big I don't know. I wrestle with this question too and it's disconcerting and frustrating. But I do take solace in the fact that "conservatives" do tend to be self destructive and they do tend to discredit themselves.

You can fool some of the people some of the time, and all of the people some of the time. You can't fool all of the people all of the time.