PolicyGuy

Friday, September 15, 2006


I Love My Think Tank.
That's the title of an op-ed by John McWhorter, speaking of the Manhattan Institute.

McWhorter is responding to "Wal-Martgate," the "shocking" finding that some of the groups that defend Wal-Mart against its critics (who would prefer various forms of increased regulation, targeted against the company) have received donations from the retailer. The implication is that there is some whoring going on, a quid pro quo, a "we give you cash and tell you what to say."

McWhorter explains how he ended up working for the Institute, and rejects the insinuation.

There is a cartoon stereotype of black thinkers who stray from the left as "sellouts" allowing white plutocrats to ply them with vast riches to get their heartless, racist views into the political discourse disguised by a black face. Because the Manhattan Institute is a conservative organization, then, my working for them is thought of by some as a cynical, traitorous ploy: I "play a conservative on TV," so to speak.

[snip]


... the notion that the Manhattan Institute sits its writers down and instructs us to speak in favor of corporations that give us money is fiction.

I had no idea Wal-Mart was one of our funders and have never been apprised of a list of such — nor have any of my colleagues. .... There is nothing sleazy about the Manhattan Institute. Its employees like me are simply people who express what they believe. Again, once, my employer was UC Berkeley and race commentary was a hobby. Now, it's vice versa. There is no sinister drama in this.



Purely materialistic explanations of politics and personal motivation always miss the point. They do so again in this case.

"Justice Louis D. Brandeis'?s metaphor of the states as "laboratories" for policy experiments ... had almost nothing to do with federalism and everything to do with his commitment to scientific socialism. .... To this day, it continues to inhibit a truly experimental, federalist politics." -- Michael S. Greve

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